I discovered this newfangled tech. mobile phones with built in computers.

[pcgeek11]

I paid 15 dollars for the flip phone I use now. I have several computers to use for computer things...

 

[BurnItDwn]

I was a "latecomer" to "smartphones" and I'm on my 3rd one ... sigh ...

a desktop PC is best for sure, but phone is handy for finding a place to eat or a place to crash on a road trip or for directions/gps or lots of other conveniences.

For day to day use, it's a nice way to read cracked on the crapper.

 

[Dude111]

I dont have ANY mobile phone and frankly dont want one

 

[Artdeco]

What drove you to Apple?

PSA: This is usually good for a vacation on most forums since i am convinced that Apple pays off people to prevent logic from being applied to the Apple pricing model.

Didn't you drink the BB Kool Aid for years?

 

[JimmiG]

Switched when the original HTC Desire came out. At first I didn't really get the point of smartphones, but then I discovered all the useful productive features ways to waste time, and I was hooked.

 

[Charmonium]

I got my first smart phone several years ago when you could start getting something with useful features for a price that wasn't crazy. For reference, I consider anything more than a couple hundred bucks, w/o a contract, crazy.

I don't really use the phone that much but it does come in handy. There are apps I use on it to make plans with friends and so we can contact one another w/o the intrusion of a phone call. It's great for placing orders in advance so you don't have to wait. But one of my favorite uses is when I'm waiting. I can pull up a movie or tv show from the 128gig sd card and be reasonably entertained w/o looking constantly at my watch. It helps me to be a lot more laid back since normally I'll get down right irritable if I have to wait more than a few minutes for something.

 

[Mike64]

I've been telling myself I really should get around to it Real Soon Now for several years now. Bottom line is that I just don't have any serious use for one and I'm not particularly anxious to start carrying around a much bigger phone that has to be recharged much more often. (My flip phone can go a few days on a charge if I remember to put it in standalone mode when I'm on the subway.)

Once a week or so I spend half an hour browsing Ebay for used smartphones, stick a couple on my "watch" list, then pretty much forget all about it until next time...

 

[Ichinisan]

I dont have ANY mobile phone and frankly dont want one

Congrats! You are very special.

 

[TheVrolok]

For day to day use, it's a nice way to post on Anandtech on the crapper.

Ftfy


I also don't get the earlier complaining about not wanting to spend on a fancy smartphone so you don't have a device to baby. Worried about cracking screens, etc. I've had various smartphones over the past 9 years and I have never had one that "broke" or had a "cracked screen." These phones survived college and grad school. Sure, I've dropped them here and there, but without any significant issues. What are people doing to their phones that is physically breaking them and shattering screens?

 

[Ichinisan]

Ftfy


I also don't get the earlier complaining about not wanting to spend on a fancy smartphone so you don't have a device to baby. Worried about cracking screens, etc. I've had various smartphones over the past 9 years and I have never had one that "broke" or had a "cracked screen." These phones survived college and grad school. Sure, I've dropped them here and there, but without any significant issues. What are people doing to their phones that is physically breaking them and shattering screens?

My iPhone 3G screen cracked when it fell from my pocket to the cement floor while I was sitting in a really low chair. Not even 2 feet.

I've been using TPU cases ever since.

 

[mnewsham]

What are people doing to their phones that is physically breaking them and shattering screens

I sat on a bar stool the other day and the angle was just right to push the note5 out of my pocket and face first onto poured concrete floor. The glass panel on the front actually didnt crack or get damaged at all.

The inner screen however shattered and caused dead sections and after about 60 minutes just died all together.

$180 later and I have my note5 back in working condition, but it has a case on it now.

 

[lxskllr]

I was at the thrift shop a couple weeks ago, and saw an OtterBox case that looked like it would fit my phone. I was pulling my phone out of the case I already had, and dropped it screen down on the floor D^: Luckily, no damage, but that would have been ironic.

My phone gets heavy use in rough environments, and aside from a couple superficial dings, it looks almost new. I have a cheap case, and nothing on the screen.

 

[boomerang]

Cheap case on mine that works well enough so far. I managed to drop it once on concrete in the nearly two years I've had this one and there was no damage to either the phone or case. I think I've dropped it twice on carpeting. Nothing on the screen for me either. Now my wife on the other hand absolutely requires a screen protector. The last one I put on was glass and she has not managed to scratch that yet.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Ftfy


I also don't get the earlier complaining about not wanting to spend on a fancy smartphone so you don't have a device to baby. Worried about cracking screens, etc. I've had various smartphones over the past 9 years and I have never had one that "broke" or had a "cracked screen." These phones survived college and grad school. Sure, I've dropped them here and there, but without any significant issues. What are people doing to their phones that is physically breaking them and shattering screens?

It's funny, I've had two friends who were absolutely convinced that everyone who had ever cracked their phones were irresponsible and that they would never crack their phone screens without a case.

Next time i say them 6 months later, both had cracked screens.

Turns out, shit happens.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Ftfy


I also don't get the earlier complaining about not wanting to spend on a fancy smartphone so you don't have a device to baby. Worried about cracking screens, etc. I've had various smartphones over the past 9 years and I have never had one that "broke" or had a "cracked screen." These phones survived college and grad school. Sure, I've dropped them here and there, but without any significant issues. What are people doing to their phones that is physically breaking them and shattering screens?

I accidentally bumped my phone off the desk I'm sitting at now. I guess it's close to a 3 foot drop. It was in a pretty decent case, but it landed exactly face down and somehow shattered the screen. I don't know how that happened. There is a slight lip around the edge of the case that should have prevented contact with the floor, and there was nothing on the floor protruding upward to strike the screen. I guess the sheer shock of landing the way it did was enough.

Previous phones have been dropped regularly inside cases without breaking, but I always knew a case wasn't absolute protection. One thing that I have noticed is that the overwhelming majority of people walking around with broken phone screens don't have their phones in cases.

 

[Zodiark1593]

My first smartphone was an Optimus 2X I got as a hand-me-down in 2014. I basically rung that thing for every last drop, particularly running Cyanogenmod with the Trinity Kernel and overclocked the Tegra 2 by 50%. However, without Neon, even dual 1.5 GHz Cortex A9s couldn't decode some of the videos I wanted to throw on there.

Moved to an LG G2 (bought used last year, came with an Otterbox case), and that thing has been trucking along.

 

[Fritzo]

My first smart phone was a Nokia 3650. It was the first cell phone with a camera sold in the US too:

Still have it

 

[WelshBloke]

Pretty amazing you decided to join the modern era of technology just as we transition from mobile to VR. You are part of the late majority for sure:

I was in the yellow, I owned an iPhone 1.

OK there early majority boy.

 

[Rakehellion]

Wait until you drop a smartphone and crack a screen. It is part of the experience for sure, but a shitty part.

Get a screen protector.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I've been telling myself I really should get around to it Real Soon Now for several years now. Bottom line is that I just don't have any serious use for one and I'm not particularly anxious to start carrying around a much bigger phone that has to be recharged much more often. (My flip phone can go a few days on a charge if I remember to put it in standalone mode when I'm on the subway.)

Once a week or so I spend half an hour browsing Ebay for used smartphones, stick a couple on my "watch" list, then pretty much forget all about it until next time...

It's doable for under $100. I agree completely about size, but there are smaller phones available without the screen real estate that's often needed for web browsing.

But in the end, if you have no use for the apps or texting, you're likely to end up with a phone that is larger, more easily damaged, more difficult to use, and most likely won't have as good reception for that (seemingly) secondary purpose of actually making phone calls.

 

[Mike64]

It's doable for under $100. I agree completely about size, but there are smaller phones available without the screen real estate that's often needed for web browsing.

But in the end, if you have no use for the apps or texting, you're likely to end up with a phone that is larger, more easily damaged, more difficult to use, and most likely won't have as good reception for that (seemingly) secondary purpose of actually making phone calls.

That's pretty much it. It's not the money (anymore), since as you point out, "decent" phones are really pretty cheap at this point and adding the necessary data allowance to my existing cell plan won't cost enough to worry about. But there's really only one app I'm growing to actually want enough to seriously consider switching, and I've always hated non-emergency social texting anyway (and don't have kids who would have more or less forced it on me.) But since the city transit system does seem to be going through one of its periodic "awful" periods, I would kinda like to have the app(s) that let me keep tabs on that, including when the next bus is due (so at least I can run an extra errand or 5, depending on just how late it is.) But OTOH, if I'm going to get one at all, it can't be too small. Once I start carting around anything bigger than my (small even for its type) flip phone, I will want to use it for some sorts of more-than-very-minimal Web browsing (looking stuff up from random trivia to info like office/store hours, in-store price comparisons and coupon-hunting, probably online banking/credit card balance checking, etc)...

 

[poofyhairguy]

Get a screen protector.

I have had them on all my mobile devices ever since I broke the screen in my iPhone 1.

Well except for the Lumia 640 because if it breaks I will just get a whole new phone.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ftfy


I also don't get the earlier complaining about not wanting to spend on a fancy smartphone so you don't have a device to baby. Worried about cracking screens, etc. I've had various smartphones over the past 9 years and I have never had one that "broke" or had a "cracked screen." These phones survived college and grad school. Sure, I've dropped them here and there, but without any significant issues. What are people doing to their phones that is physically breaking them and shattering screens?

My Galaxy s4 (which was in an otterbox defender) broke when it got knocked off the console between the recliners in the home theater. It got wedged and crushed in the internals of the leg rest mechanism.

A friend who repairs phones on the side was able to fix it with a $90 ebay touchscreen/lcd replacement. Phone works great again.

Now, if friends or family are visiting, I'm careful to keep the phones a bit more secured, and I don't put them on top of the console.

 

[videogames101]

My father works in construction, he has a Razr MAXX HD in an otterbox defender. Apart from the large number of drops and dings its received, he literally ran over it with a 3/4 ton truck and you wouldn't know it, no screen cracks, no visible or internal damage.

Hell of a phone/case combo.

 

[NAC4EV]

It's a phone,,,, I use it for calling people.
I bought it in 2006.
When young people see it they say WoW! it so small.

You can't kill it.

The wife has the smartphone.


Motorola Razr