Now you may be thinking what the hell is this about, it’s not as if there are not millions of websites devoted to this subject but the reason I am having a wee rant is that I can never find one that I like, and have been accused of having more than everyone by a certain SFA ref, he knows who he is.
I have owned 3 smartphones, yeah just 3 but I am still not happy. I use my phone for obviously calls and texts but also email, surfing the net and twitter. It’s also a toy. The 3 phones I have owned are as follows:
Blackberry Curve 8520 – My first smart phone and actually a pretty good one. Keyboard was decent and handy, reception pretty good, didn’t really need the blackberry messaging thing but I liked that I got my emails in real-time. No good for surfing the net due to screen size but overall a decent enough phone and I will give it a 4/10. ( Is no longer with me ).
Iphone 4 – Apple are smart cookies in many ways. This is a phone that you tend to play with a lot, fiddle with the apps, look at. It’s a bit of a symbol. It has the reader option which I love, lots of apps which while never really downloading was still impressive, you can put your albums on it and the operating system in the main is very good. What is annoying about it though is the cost, way over priced. It can be laggy esp when surfing the net, not a great reception where I live when receiving calls. It has a lot of glass so you are always paranoid about dropping the bloody thing and while being addictive is annoying at the same time. First thing that went on it was the battery and recently the lock button has stopped working which means the battery runs out faster than normal and you barely got a 12 hours out of it anyway. However for music I get a better sound from my Ipod nano. I’ll give it a 6/10. ( I still have it ).
Nokia Lumia 800 – One of the first Lumia windows phones I think and the one I have went back to using. Slightly bigger than the Iphone but not massively bigger. Lack of apps on it across the board is a bit annoying and while the sound quality for music is definitely better than the Iphone in my opinion, the volume level for music is shockingly bad if you are half deaf like myself. It surfs the internet with ease and is very smooth with little or no lags and has better reception where I live. The operating system with the tiles is good but you can only have dark or light themes, neither of which are great. Video playback is a little slow but not the end of the world. Battery life is roughly the same as the Iphone and it has the same quality feel about it. I give it a 6/10 ( using it now ).
So my point is, smart phones are good, they can be fun if somewhat frustrating, they are a toy. The Iphone is overpriced but the Lumia is a serious rival in my opinion but I am still not satisfied. I would like a smart phone with a bigger memory, that is not the size of a tablet, that has a good volume limit, smooth interface, decent battery life and one that someone with fat fingers can use. My contract is not up for 9 months so have plenty of time to think about it. I am considering a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini 32 gig but have no idea about volume , sound quality etc but if any one stumbles across this blog and have any ideas about a smart phone that might work for a fussy git like me let me know.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
I have a Sony xperia Go. Its supposed to be the one that’s water & shock proof although I haven’t tested it fully.
It started out great but recently has been showing signs of smartphone senility – switching off, crashing, heating up (alarmingly) for no apparent reason and generally behaving in a way not conducive to normal function.
Sound quality is good with music (a new thing for me) and its survived sweaty gym sessions pretty well, I’ve seen off four or five MP3 players and one phone (bloody expensive Sony Ericsson 995i thingy) to sweat and vibration, although not recently because I do a lot less these days. I use those in ear rubber bud things, much better than those that sit over you ears or just inside – although they do tend to compact – there’s no easy way to say this really – earwax and after a while affect your hearing.
Apps are good as are games. The screen is smaller than an iPhone’s, its as wide but not as tall so typing texts is a bit tedious, you can turn it on its side but you lose screen space to the enlarged (ahem) keyboard. I tweet frequently on it and only check emails, cannae be hooped replying with the tiny keyboard and my sausage fingers.
I like the shortcuts on it, you can switch off data and wifi with two pokes only, navigation is really good. Its just become slightly unreliable recently and you know how it is when you lose confidence in a thing.
But its like most technology, they always seem to operate just beyond what is a comfortable envelope. Its like expectation always slightly outstripping capability.
My favourite thing to rant about is mobile broadband. Two words there, mobile and broadband. One is true and the other is not, its definitely mobile and while it is broadband (which very loosely only means the ability for data to travel both ways at the same time,) it rarely (in my experience) reaches speeds which would trouble dial up. Its the expectation though, you expect ‘broadband’, you get fuck all.
Its a huge con which annoys me, ummm, hugely.
iPhones are a no-no. They may be decent phones but they are pure affectation. I’d rather answer calls and text on a turd than koi toi to that beret & scarf-wearing metrosexual bandwagon. Other than ‘mobile broadband’ seeing some horse-faced twat braying into an iPhone – white headphone cables swinging like trendy proxy testicles – while crossing the road… Well, I wish for an app that could vaporise them instantly.
I’m joking of course…
(I’m not…)
😉
Pa
I’ve heard the xperias van be a bit buggy. My son has the s and while a good phone it is far too big for myself. My iPhone is just dying now and while its a great phone in many ways other than reception I am loath to give apple any more money. I am back to using my old Nokia lumia which while a good phone lacks volume for music and some apps like twitter are not good on it . I know in too fussy and have to wait until my contract runs out anyway but.might try Samsung mini next.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
You could try one of the Nexus phones. My wife has one and loves it. And Android is suspiciously missing from your list. You might want to spend a few days finding all the right bits, but Android is pretty customisable once you look into it. (Advantage of being a Linux – people make all the wierd replacements for stock components that you can just swap in)
If you’re worried about Google intergration then cyanogenmod is easy enough to install and use.
Thanks for the info will check it out.
I think that certain SFA Referee is a lovely guy who you should vote for
I have a Samsung S3 Mini which I use for texts, calls, surfing and games. Works well for these. I’m particularly impressed by the ease you can open multiple web sites simultaneously. My wife has a Lumia 800 which she got because she, too, is a bit mutt and jeff (for God’s sake, don’t tell her I said so). She finds the sound pretty good, but she uses it in much the same way as I do, no music. I like the S3 because it does what I want and it’s rea.sonably compact