I have started down a new path on the way to tech happiness by (almost) throwing away my smartphone and replacing it with dedicated tools: a dumb phone, a tablet computer, and a camera (when I need one). I am tired of carrying around a device that is a compromise in every area it was designed to cover – a smartphone is the Swiss Army knife of handheld devices, and while it can be used for many things, it does none of them as well as tools designed for those jobs. A smartphone, in general:
- Is too big, complicated, and laggy to be considered a good replacement for a simple mobile phone
- Has too small a screen to view many webpages, documents, etc., especially for an extended period
- Usually takes crappy photos compared to a dedicated camera
- In its latest and greatest form, costs more than a dedicated camera, tablet, and dumb phone combined
For these reasons, I have decided to go back to carrying more devices, perhaps until smartphones can be had with better features at a reasonable cost. This is an experiment.
I have cameras, so that is covered.
I went to buy a dumb phone, but the color I wanted (a small black Samsung flip phone) was out of stock at Tesco, where it was on sale. They had one in Ruby Red with sequins, but I’m not ready for that quite yet.
As for a tablet, I got a great deal on a Google (ASUS) Nexus 7 3G 32Gb at the Tesco Lotus five minutes from my house. This model can use wifi and a 3G sim card, so I signed up for an unlimited True H promotional deal for 499 baht/month (discounted iSmart 699 plan). I don’t plan on using the sim that often at home or work, but it will prove useful when my wife and I go on trips. The 400 voice minuted bundled with the plan will go to waste, since the tablet does not have phone functionality. Oh, well.
My next few posts will be dedicated to the rooting, modding, and set up for the Nexus 7.
I’ve almost pulled the trigger on the Nexus 7 a couple of times. It’s an impressive device, especially for the price. Unfortunately, I don’t know if I’d take it anywhere. I have a portable digital camcorder and a regular digital camera, but I often find myself just pulling the phone out because it’s “good enough” (though I sometimes regret it later). Likewise, I’ve been sitting next to my laptop and wind up just using the phone to cruise the Internet, etc. just because I don’t feel like grabbing the laptop and opening it up. Finally, there are a couple e-readers around the house that I could use, but I doubt if I would take them anywhere, so I just use the phone.
I’d love to have the best of all worlds, but I don’t know if I disciplined enough to keep a ‘man purse’ of electronic items. As for yourself, it seems like you have your real camera on you most of the time so it’s less of a stretch.
Actually, most of the photos I took for the past couple years were taken with my smartphone, so I’ll probably miss the camera functionality a lot… but hopefully, it will force me to have a real camera on hand.