my dumb phone
A set of phone accidents and fails has resulted in a series of rapid steps backwards down the hierarchy of phones, from lovely Nexus 4 (cracked screen courtesy of vengeful cat) to crappy Samsung Galaxy Mini (it forgot how to actually make phone calls after less than a year) right back to my trusty Nokia (recently fully submerged in water but still working fine).
It’s not really that long since I was last using it. I stuck with it throughout most of my time at the Guardian. Now to be fair I also had and used one or more of those internet thingamys throughout but the Nokia remained my *phone* for quite some time. At one point I had  an iPad, HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy Mini (both Android) and HTC Mazaa (WP7). I think I only had them all on me at the same time once.
So why stick with the old thing when I had access to the new kit? Well the lovely shiny things fail to meet two key needs of this user.
- Battery life. My dumb Nokia lasts a week on one charge. My phone is part of Iain’s lone worker system so the battery being dead because I’ve been using apps all day is not acceptable when chainsaws are in use.
- Undesirability on the streets of N17. No-one with any self respect or commercial sense would steal this phone. I’ve got very little qualms about walking out of Turnpike Lane or Seven Sisters using it.
- It doesn’t stick to your ear when being used as a phone.
So whilst I’m missing the Nexus 4, I am also rediscovering the joy of a phone that just focuses on being a phone.