Smartphones - An acquired necessity
I have used a Motorola E398 mobile phone for the last 6 years. For the last one month, I tried using a Samsung Galaxy S2 smartphone. I have concluded that Smartphones are an acquired necessity and is not needed for most of my workflows. I will not buy a smartphone in the near foreseeable future.
Smartphones gives an impeccable improvement for one workflow - Email. If your work involves time-sensitive emailing, a smartphone is a crucial tool. However, if it doesn't, then you are better off buying a good desktop/laptop and a normal mobile phone, imho. A shortlog of things observed in this one month are:
Observations:
- Vibration: Smartphones are too thin and don't have enough vibration, if you are used to thick phones (Not a big problem)
- Poor signal reception: A biiiig problem. In the quest to slim the phone, the signal reception abilities of the phone are heavily hampered. While we were travelling in a car (from Bangalore to Chennai), A cheap Samsung GURU E1081 consistently beat Galaxy S2 in terms of signal strength. Most of the times the Galaxy S2 was showing "Emergency calls only" only. May be a phone from a real phone-maker like Motorola/Nokia may not have this problem. We had to keep the phone upright near the car window too.
- Typing: Even with the on-screen-keyboard, swype etc. the phone is totally unsuitable for typing long text. We can do only twitter/facebook updates and not do any serious document editing or long blogpost(s). The requirement for Siri (Voice Control) is just a natural demand. I wonder how the folks at Google missed this big requirement. They should have introduced this with a big bang and not play catch-up to Siri. Probably they missed it as they were busy tomato-saucing Google+ to all their applications ;-)
- Screen Estate: The screen size is totally unsuitable for reading books, blogs. It is okay for occasional blog reading, but it is straining. There are people who read blogs using their phone primarily. But I am spoiled by my employer who gave me an iPad, a Samsung GalaxyTab and a Thinkpad to play with, for some mobile related coding. I did not prefer the smartphone even once when I had my good old Thinkpad. Tablets and laptops provide far better reading experience and are equally handy. The GalaxyTab can act as a phone too for all your needs.
- Fragile: Smartphones need extreme care. Not ideal for rough use, unless you are using a rugged phone like Motorola Defy+ (which has its own set of problems). A friend once dropped a Google phone from his hands while taking from pant pocket (~3 Feet) and the glass shattered into pieces. I have thrown my E398 numerous times (atleast few dozen times from ~5.6 feet) and nothing has happened except an automatic restart.
- A Patentable Idea: The unlock pattern (of Android) leaves fingerprints and so your phone is not really secure. If you look at the phone, by keeping the screen flat in front of your nose, you can easily detect the unlock pattern finger prints. This may be fixed soon with the advent of touchscreens that do not leave a finger print. I wonder why can't we just authenticate based on the fingerprint in a smartphone !? That may be cool. I should probably patent it, as it seems in mobile phones any stupid thing can be patented. Think: SYSTEM and METHOD for RECORDING and AUTHENTICATION of users to mobile phones via fingerprints, by letting them swipe on either the surface/camera/etc.
- Battery Life: Even after switching off the wireless, due to the rich display, the battery life of all the smartphones is very less. My phone battery did not last more than 3 days. With wireless on and just GMail app running, the battery lasted for just about 1 day. Some of the non-smart phones these days have close to 2 weeks battery life. If battery life is your criteria or travel a lot, you must order a extra battery if you are buying a smartphone.
- Muscle Memory: After laying in my bed for sleep, many times, I have taken my motorola phone, unlocked it, launch the alarm application, set alarm for a specific time, exited the application, locked the phone again. I do all this while keeping my eyes closed. The normal phones with keypad are easily operable in one hand. I can take a call in one hand, while the other hand is balancing my body in a bus moving through the high-traffic streets of India. Contrary to what you hear, smartphones require both hands to be used and is not so easily adaptive for muscle memory. For a basic operation like calling a recently called number, you will take more time in a smartphone than a phone with a dedicated CALL button.
- COST: The single biggest reason why I won't buy a smartphone is Cost. Smartphones from any decent hardware maker are very costly. Personally, with my Indian mentality that takes pride in being cheap, I find it stupid to spend 30,000 INR (600 USD) on a phone which will be valued at 1,000 INR (20 USD) after may be 3 years. This inference is based on the Motorola Razor handset pricing in India. Compare this to a new Samsung GURU phone with color-display, USB charging capacity etc. that costs a mere 1000 INR (20 USD) and has battery life of about 1 week with normal usage. However, there is a big demand for cheap smartphones in markets like India. If and when Nokia releases their cheap smartphones in India, they are sure to repeat their success story in India, just like they did with their Torchlight series phones.
Samsung-specific-observations:
- The default alarm application does not have snooze option. There is no excuse for this.
- Samsung Kies - Ahem :/
Also, it is not available on Linux. Good news is that with the recent versions, the software update can be done within the phone itself without Kies. - The indic support patch is not upstreamed yet. But kudos to Samsung as they are the only Android handset makers who support Indic fonts native as of today, afaik. A few of my Tamil friends bought Samsung phones just for this reason.
- OLED - Amazingly rich screen, especially while displaying black color.
- The front camera in S2 is just a joke. Totally useless for my needs.
Android:
- "Android" brand has a better image than "Linux" in the consumer market. It is not without reasons. There are a lot of positive things about Android. I have not mentioned any of them because you can find them easily.
- However, To be honest, the usability of Android phones is *not* jaw-droppingly-awesome, imho. They are just as normal (good ?) as say Meego UI or GNOME 3. But consumers love them. If enough money is spent on marketing, pigs really can fly. I wish some of the earlier projects like openmoko/maemo/meego had rich companies that were as committed as Google is to Android.
- I hope ChromeOS opens a door for Linux on Desktops, just as how Android made Linux the most dominant operating system on mobiles. That may help PC OEM vendors to think a little instead of their current act of blindly worshipping Microsoft.
- The biggest positive impact of Android imho is: Android made companies which usually don't bother about Linux users (like Evernote) to write applications for Linux.
Conclusion:
I will happily use my Motorola E398 until it lasts and then will buy a normal non-smart mobile phone when it no longer can run. Even though I may take up a job with a mobile phone company, I don't think I will buy a smartphone for my needs.
19 comments:
I agree with you in many points. A few years ago I bought a second hand Nokia 6300 and it's still my favourite phone, despite also owning a Nokia N900. Although I love it, I mostrly see the N900 as a portable computer and as a tool for my job. The Nokia 6300 is "my phone".
There are a couple of reasons I couldn't go back to a dumbphone.
Reason number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 is Google Maps, with transit integration. I absolutely would hate to go back to any other method of figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B. Google Maps is just too damn good at it. Yes, you can do this on a tablet, but then you need a tablet with its own data connection and you look like a damn idiot letting a 10" tablet pilot you around a city; a phone's much more convenient and less conspicuous.
Apart from that it's mostly just 'emergency' use. I find the tablet the avoidable form factor, not the phone. I don't always take a bag with me when I go out, in fact, usually I don't. So I usually can't really carry a tablet or a laptop with me, because they won't fit in a pocket. I *always* have my phone, though. So if I suddenly realize I really need to look something up, or check an email, or consult my todo list, or whatever, I can do it on my phone.
If I always had a bag and carried my laptop I wouldn't need a phone for that case, but I just don't. My phone's the only electronic-y thing I can rely on to always be with me.
As long as the current technology for verifying fingerprints doesn't change - it is by far to insecure to use it as an authentication mechanism.
It might not be that easy as simply following the fingerprints of an Android unlock scheme - but it's actually not much harder.
I'd never use fingerprints as a single authentication mechanism unless there isn't some improvement in its security.
Agree that smartphones are overrated in India. Your reasons for not buying a smartphone in India like cost, longevity, etc are very true. I wouldn't spend 30000INR on a 2.5" * 4.5" device.. just for the reason its too small a device and its not like its going to save my life (as against small life saving devices like pacemaker!) .. OTOH its good to carry certain applications in your pocket.. like maps, mp3 player, etc and making them as a part of your phone is a good idea but some people choose not to buy those phone..
Thanks for considering my Samsung Guru 940INR phone for your experiments and examples..
Russell Peters video on cheap Indians is a good touch!! ;)
Too many conclusions based on a single model. It doesnt even tell much about Samsung, many Samsung models in the market do not come with Indic fonts support even now. And Motorola Atrix has fingerprint reader.
There are many non-smart phones which are unusable, with poor battery life, reception etc...
I do not agree with anything other than price. Smart phones cost more.
Some things I like about my smartphone over my previous just phones.
Maps, Games and Internet, when I need them most like checking for running status of a train,
Using Google docs from a train on vacation, which gave me peace of mind during the rest of the journey,
Checking mail even when there was not enough signal for a call but good enough intermittent EDGE,
GPS when we were lost on a trip,
Decent camera in unexpected moments,
Ability to fake doing something serious to avoid conversations,
Check appointments,
Google chat,
Sending pics immediately via G+,
Games when I need them most,
Watch movies during lonely train journeys,
Token for 2-factor authentication,
Ability to not loose contacts as they are stored in the cloud,
Twitter,...
---
Commented from my smartphone
IOW if a smart-phone and just-phone is priced equally, what would you buy?
I agree, the features may not be worth the extra cost.. but not all smart phones cost 30000 INR. Mine is 14000INR. There are many models under 10000INR. It is perfectly fine to say that, even then it is not worth the extra cost.
@psankar i agree with all the points mentioned by @Nikanth.
I mostly use it for Maps, internet these days. For some reason , I like to read the twitter updates on my phone than on laptop.
Its very useful when you travel. I was able to transfer money sitting on a train with just EDGE on it.
In a way i agree to your title "Acquired Necessity". But once you start using the features of a smartphone i think its difficult to go back to a regular phone.
@anon: Thanks for visiting by :)
@Adam: I can understand :)
@eliap: True.
@sangi: Aren't we Cheap ;-) !
@nikanth @arula: There is absolutely no argument against E-Mail. Snartphones are the best tool for timely email communications. However, other aspects like maps are not really too applicable for me. I prefer a book to give me company during my travel. I don't have much time-critical requirements to see docs or transfer money while on the move. I will let those things wait. I am lazy and I usually have Autopay for most things. But yes, I understand your view point. But sadly these requirements do not change my perception. However, I do understand that it is critical for you. I can live without them, in the same way how I lived without buying a bike/car so far.
@nikanth: I will buy a non-smart phone if they are priced equally. But I will want to buy a tablet over a smartphone.
@Arula: In the same way as you said, Once you are used to a tablet, it is very difficult to go to a smart phone (screensize)
Give me a high-five!!
The biggest problem for me is the battery life. You are very lucky to get more than one day out of any modern smartphone on any platform.
The reasons why I still use smartphones are as follows: cloud contacts (I have contacts from my GMail account and also from a couple Exchange accounts), Twitter updates (with location and photos), audiobook player (saves my position in the audio book unlike all MP3 players on dumbphones), secure and open source password storage app, geocaching application with support for external gps source too, Skype for easier calling abroad when near a WiFi spot, map when I get lost.
Most of the views here are perception i should say :) People's views differ and may be since you had the tablet exposure from your employer, you feel smartphone screen sizes are too small for reading. These days, people are in kind of two extremes, smartphone haters (you) and smartphone lovers (me). By haters, i mean those who don't feel it is necessary to have one. It is just a matter of perception and the way you want to adapt technology in your daily life.
Btw, i really liked the way you have drafted this post. Tomato sauce and that patent thing were really nice touches :D
On your "Samsung-specific-observations":
I have a Wave525 (Bada 1.1).
1) It has snooze.
2) True, but the last part is only true if you have a Samsung account.
3) Not supported in my region (Europe)
4) TFT in my case.
4) No idea, but I guess so.
@sangeeth: Hi5
@Aigars: :-)
@Vignesh: Very true. It is merely perceptions. Thanks for your nice words.
@Anon: Thanks for your comment
You complain about typing, but my HTC Evo 3G has had voice recognition since Froyo (2.2): press and hold on the search key brings up voice search and many voice actions, and nearly every on-screen keyboard has a microphone button for voice input. It works pretty well.
Siri sounds like a great system service, but it's sad when everyone assumes Apple invents stuff like voice recognition and video chat that's been in other software for years
muscle memory is so true - Touch screen phones are hassle. I used to press a key for a long time to call my wife or knew what key to press to answer an incoming call or reject it - all when driving. With touch screen phones, especially iphone, to get to my wife's number takes 4 clicks and I have to be looking into the screen. Answering is even difficult. I have to catch this sliding shit and slide it to the very end. If I let it go in the middle, it goes back to the start. Not good when the screen is oily from the biriyani you had for lunch. Sometimes I have to lick the phone and then slide. Kashtam.
I have had nothing but good luck with my Samsung Nexus S. I don't have any issues with it not vibrating enough. Honestly. I have had better service on on my smartphone than I ever go on my little flip phone. I love my smartphone and won't trade it for the world:)
@skierpage: It is more about popularizing the service such that everyone can use it. Apple does it really well. Thanks for your comment.
@alansmithee: true. I can unlock a keypad phone without opening my eyes.
@KT: Lucky you :)
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