Changing Phones: A downgrade

I got my first mobile phone when I started university. My course had some evening classes so I needed it to call for transport after class.

It was a Nokia 3310 model. That phone was quite popular at that time.

I really love that phone. It could live through falls and other maltreatment. Many times, I dropped it from a height and it survived. The covers would come off when dropped from really high places but then snap them back on and it's good as new.

I had it with me for about 6 years and that's like 60 in gadget years.

In that time, I had very little to complain about.

The battery life became shorter lasting about 3 calls per charge in the later years. I don't really care because my mobile's main function is to tell the time not making calls.

About 6 months ago, the keypad started giving me some trouble. I had to press harder for it to respond really slowing down my input.
Last week added yet another wrinkle to its face. The phone's screen went off. I guess it was aging gracefully because even with all its problems and the dead screen, I could still make and receive calls.

I would have kept using it just to see when it would finally give up but my sister walked into the Digicel shop the next day. She checked on the phone prices and the different models for me. She knew I wasn't interested in a fancy phone so she found me a simple one that I would like.

This is my new phone. It's a Samsung SGH-B130S. I've used it for a couple of days now and I think I like it.

Looking at them both, I like the look of the Nokia phone better.

The Nokia keypad gave good solid feedback and was easy to type on. The Samsung's keypad is all crammed together making it hard to type one handed.

The new phone is shorter, thinner, narrower and a great deal lighter.

My new phone has a smaller, lighter battery.

It lasted 5 calls and 2 days on the out of the box charge. No dropped calls. I'm not sure if that's an improvement. I sort of like having my calls dropped. If you read my 25 things post, you'll know why.

My Nokia phone which was a lot more expensive than the new phone had more features.

• It had voice dialling. It was cool to try out that feature but I didn't get in the habit of using it.
• The new phone doesn't have any games. I'm not going to miss those.
• The old phone had a lot of ring tones on it. The new phone pre-loads just one.
• The Nokia phone would make lots of noise if it's battery is low. The new phone just dies quietly. The screen stays off as a battery saving feature and there are no blinking lights so I have to make conscious effort to keep it charged.

All in all, my new phone does what it is supposed to. That is display the time.... Oh and making calls too.

Post Scriptum: One thing I'm really going to miss with my old phone is having so many chargers around. We have three at home and there are a couple more at the office. New phone is not as popular. Oh well....