The evolution of the phone I owned

I'm tired of politics and economics. So I started looking for a new phone, and I decided to to try and understand the evolution of the mobile phone through the phone that I owned, and to figure out what I'm actually looking for in my next device. So here it goes:


Ericsson T388
Year of purchase: 1997.
Wireless technology: brain-frying TDMA
Battery life: standby time of 40 hours, easily replaceable.
Display type: 3-line, alpha-numeric, black and white LCD.
What I liked about it: It was my first mobile phone, it was fairly compact, it never restarted and it fit perfectly inside a military vest.
What I disliked about it: It was small but bulky, awful battery life (and it tended to detouch), the mouth piece broke easily and was mostly useless.
Conclusion: You never forget your first one. For good or worse.



Nokia 6120
Year of purchase: 1999
Wireless technology: TDMA
Battery life: About 2 weeks.
Display type: black and white LCD
What I liked: It was much slimmer, much lighter, incredible Li-Ion battery, easy to use.
What I didn't like: it was very generic, it didn't work abroad, the IR port was disabled by the operator.
Conclusion: A great device for the time



Nokia 3150
Year of purchase: 2002 or 2003
Wireless technology: GSM, GPRS
Other stuff: Ability to install apps
Battery life: About a week
Display type: color CSTN
What I liked: Slim, light, good battery life and for the first time I could install J2EE apps and access the Internet. Also, it had white-LED backlit keyboard!
What I didn't like: not very good build quality, the screen was not very sharp, the buttons were not comfortable and it was not elegant to say the least, could not work as a modem.
Conclusion: A good phone, but a bit infantile.


Sony Ericsson T630
Year of purchase: 2004
Wireless technologies: GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth, IR
Other stuff: VGA camera
Battery life: About 3 days
Display type: 1.8" TFT display
What I liked: It worked quite well as a Bluetooth modem (the reason I bought it), the screen was very good for the time and it looked great - like the Apple products of the time. Also, the build quality seemed good. It was also my first camera phone.
What I didn't like: bad battery life, the joystick was not easy to use, nor where the buttons. Also, it took just one crash on the floor to make it stop working properly.
Conclusion: Not a bad device, but I shouldn't have bought it.


Motorola Razr V3x
Year of purchase: 2006
Wireless technologies: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, Bluetooth, IR
Other stuff: 2MP camera, fron-facing camera, microSD, miniUSB port.
Battery life: about 2 days
Display: 2.2" LCD display, and an external display
What I liked: premium looks, solid build, big buttons, good camera with useful macro mode, well-designed clam-shell, the ability to use microSD cards.
What I didn't like: awful and sluggish UI, bad audio quality, bad battery life.
Conclusion: A perfect example of how a bad UI can ruin a possibly very good device.


Sony Ericsson K610i
Year of purchase: 2007
Wireless technologies: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, Bluetooth
Other stuff: 2MP camera, micro MS card, front-facing camera
Battery life: about a week
Display: 1.9" LCD display
What I liked: slim, compact, light, looked great, responsive UI and until an unfortunate accident, the software was rock-solid, useful as a music player too.
What I didn't like: small buttons, problematic joystick, cheap feeling, so-so camera.
Conclusion: Possibly the best non-touchscreen phone I've used.


HTC P3600
Year of purchase: 2007
Wireless technologies: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, Bluetooth, IR, WiFi (B)
Other technologies: GPS, 2MP camera, MiniSDHC, miniUSB port, front-facing camera, upgradable OS, Windows Mobile 5-6.1
Battery life: about 3 days
Display: resistive touch-display, 2.8", QVGA
What I liked: A real smartphone that had almost every possible hardware feature, ability to run apps, GPS navigation, upgradeable and hackable OS, supported large memory cards after upgrade, very stable, great battery life.
What I didn't like: Sub-par screen, sub-par camera, often not very responsive (Windows Mobile issue), the GPS took ages to load, not enough RAM.
Conclusion: It was an electronic Jack of All Trades and prefered it over the first iPhone. It didn't do everything very well, but it was very functional - actually, it still works perfectly.

HTC Touch Cruise (P3650)
Year of purchase: 2008
Wireless technologies: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, Bluetooth, WiFi (B,G)
Other technologies: GPS, 3MP camera, microSDHC, miniUSB port, front-facing camera, upgradable OS, Windows Mobile 6-6.1
Battery life: about 3 days
Display: resistive touch-display, 2.8", QVGA
What I liked: Cool looks, faster processor, more RAM, slimmer and significantly lighter than the P3600. The Opera browser let me surf the internet properly for the first time.
What I didn't like: not much of an upgrade from the P3600, even after hacking, it was not as responsive as the P3600, and it died after 8 months.
Conclusion: I shouldn't have bought it. I'll never buy a phone on a whim again.

HTC Touch Diamond 2
Year of purchase: 2009
Wireless technologies: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi (B,G)
Other stuff: GPS, 5MP camera, microSDHC, miniUSB, front-facing camera, upgradable OS, Windows Mobile 6.1-6.5, accelometer
Battery life: about 2 days
Display: resistive touch-display, 3.2", WVGA
What I liked: Compact, light, slim, elegant, sharp screen, relatively responsive UI for a WM phone, good camera, solid build, stable OS.
What I didn't like: the screen useless in daylight, bad battery life and despite the HTC skin, an aging OS.
Conclusion: my last and best Windows Mobile phone.


HTC Magic
Year of purchase: 2010 (actually I never bought it, it was my work phone)
Wireless technologies: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi (B,G)
Other stuff: GPS, 3MP camera, microSDHC, miniUSB, upgradable OS, Android 1.5-1.6, accelometer, digital compass
Battery life: about 3 days
Display: capacitive multi-touch, screen, 3.2", transflective TFT, HVGA
What I liked: Slim, elegant, light, Android OS with Sense UI (after rooting), the transflective screen was very good for outdoors and saved battery, great browser and Google integration. Also, it was quite rare in Israel at that time.
What I didn't like: the screen wasn't as sharp as the Diamond 2, Android was not really ready for Hebrew speakers, the back scratched easily.
Conclusion: A very good introduction to Android.


HTC Hero
Year of purchase: 2009 (again, not purchased - borrowed in 2010)
Wireless technologies: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1
Other stuff: GPS, 5MP camera, microSDHC, miniUSB, upgradable OS, Android 1.5-2.1, accelometer, digital compass
Battery life: about 3 days
Display: capacitive multi-touch display, 3.2" TFT, HVGA
What I liked: Solid build, responsive, Teflon-covered back, Gorilla Glass screen, nice battery life, completely hackable.
What I didn't like: odd placement of some of the buttons, so-so screen, the looks.
Conclusion: quite disappointing. I'm glad I didn't actually buy it.


HTC Desire
Year of purchase: 2010
Wireless technologies: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi (B,G,N)
Other technologies: GPS, 5MP camera, microSDHC, miniUSB, upgradable OS, Android 2.1-2.3.3, accelometer, light sensor, proximity sensor, digital compass.
Battery life: about 2 days. At best.
Display: capacitive multi-touch display, 3.7" SLCD, WVGA
What I liked: Slim, good-looking, very responsive, good camera. hackable, upgradable, fun to use, the back is covered with teflon and the screen is made of Gorilla glass, can handle multi-tasking easily.
What I didn't like: bad battery life, back panel quite weird and the lens is easily scratched and minuscule amount of ROM (just 512MB), no front-facing camera, the screen is not bright enough for the Israeli sun.
Conclusion: a pleasure to use, and the benchmark to which I test any other phone.


Comments

  1. Boris LibermanSeptember 24, 2011 at 10:39 AM

    It turns out that I don't change my cell phones as often as you appear to have done. My (lowly by today's standard) Samsung Galaxy Spica (or Galaxy Light or I5700) with ancient (by today's standard) Android 1.5 (Cupcake?) serves me really well. Except a bit flaky touch screen (of which I knew when I chose it), it is perfectly fine smart phone. It may be two or even three generations behind the current plethora of devices and I may be blown out of the water if I upgrade to, say Samsung Galaxy S II or whatever, but this device does all I want it to do, so I think I will keep using it for a bit longer, say a year and a half longer.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Invisible Hands

I don't believe in invisible, unproven things. They may exist, and people surely religiously believe in them (literally) but when they fail, they do it so spectacularly and inexplicably. When an airplane crashes, it also does it spectacularly, but at least you can gather hard evidence and explain what happened, how it happened, and whether we can prevent it in the future. When one of the "invisible hands" - the of god and the one of the market fails, we can usually explain what happened, but we can rarely explain how it happened and we can never prevent things of happening in the future. When an airplane crashes, the solutions that are being given may include re-engineering the failed parts, changes to the maintenance procedures or sometimes, simply decide to stop using the aircraft altogether, like the Concorde in 2003. But the believers in those invisible hands, will still religiously protect their beliefs, saying things like "we lost our faith, that's why we
Read more

Another Short Review: Shure SE215 IEM

Image
After a few years of using solely Sennehiser IEMs (In Ear Monitors, a fancy name for in-ear headphone or earbuds), I was convinced to buy the Shure SE215. These earphones are the lowest in Shure's range of IEMs that includes the SE315, SE425 and SE535. I always perceived Shure as a firm that makes very good high-end models, but neglects the middle range. Apparently, the SE215 is a break from this tradition, which they made in order to cash in the ever growing number of portable media players and smartphone. The SE215 received excellent reviews, like "the best under $100 you can buy" and another review "$100 earphones should not sound that good". My own opinion is not different: the build quality is great: the design is utilitarian and sturdy but pleasant, with detachable cables and memory-foam or silicone tips. The SE215 feel like a quality product and they make me believe that they won't start disintegrating like the Sennheiser IE6 did. They are also
Read more

So why do I like the iPhone 4

The geeks of this world are divided into two groups: those who adore Apple and those who hate it. You may claim that this is not the case, and that there are some people who combine the use of Apple products with the use of products from other brands, but they are certainly not "Apple Fanboys". Those people are not really geeks then. People who choose their technology according to their usability and not according to their brands simply can't cut it as "real" geeks... I belong to the Apple haters, and I have the usual geeky reasons: their products are beautifully designed but always flawed and their attitude towards their customers and developers reminds me of either a feudalistic or a totalitarian regime. In fact, the way Apple fanboys (and fangirls) talk about Apple reminds me very much of a religion. Those who know me might remember my hypothesis that every religion has: God or a prophet (Steven Jobs), An unmistakable symbol (the bitten apple logo) Shrines or
Read more