A First, for Me…

Being a late-comer to the mobile phone world, I started with a well used Side Kick II, which was a hand-me-down from My brother. After a year or three, I migrated to the T-Mobile Dash, which ran a version of windows intentionally designed to slowly delete the available memory, so You would be forced to buy something new, or pay to have it serviced. Both of those devices were garbage! Then, five or so years ago, My sister-in-law gave Me her old G1. The first phone with an Android OS.

The Google Phone is now about a decade old, it still works! I’ve been using it with a pre-paid sim card for quite some time now. The only thing holding it back for basic phone, text  and not so snappy(but acceptable) web browsing use, is the lack of batteries available. Sure I could have kept buying batteries, but they aren’t being produced anymore, they’ve been sitting on a warehouse shelf for who knows how long. Thus losing their ability to hold a charge. Two hours, just isn’t enough. So I bought a tablet!

Specifically, the T-Mobile Springboard. Which is a rebranded product of China, the Huawei MediaPad. Certainly not the greatest thing out there, but at the time, pickings were slim and at $100 after the mail-in rebate, I’m happy that I did run with this tablet. It runs most apps with out issue, it’s screen is of great quality, it plays every file type I’ve thrown at it and the high point of this device, the battery lasts 12-15 hours streaming music and occasionally texting, surfing, or wandering Vimeo and Instagram. The lack lustre 5mp camera has consistantly disappiointed though. Having used this smaller sized tablet as My primary device for the last year, I wasn’t able to take calls with it, so the old G1 has still been in use. Until now!! I was able to grab an upgrade with lucky timing. Since the new Samsung Galaxy S III and Note 2 were on sale for $100 and $200 respectively, after a $100 mail-in rebate of course.

One week earlier and I would have gotten the S III phone, because it was $50.. But the Note 2 has a quad-core cpu, larger screen and larger battery. Otherwise they are pretty much the same. So, for $200, I have bought an up to date mobile device. I’ve always had some one else’s old crap, or something cheap and slow. It’s very nice to have a camera worth using, without having to whip out a dslr! The Note 2 has a good screen size/phone size, bigger than most phones, not any thicker though. Fits in any of My pockets, instead of only the back pockets, like the tablet. Haven’t encountered an app it won’t run and this thing powers through all that I have done with it so far, without a glitch. Internet browsing is pretty fast, I’ve always done My web surfing at home, but this is slowly changing.. If it lasts even half as long as the G1, this may be a worth while investment! These new phones are quite versatile, it’s a good time to finally be on the leading edge of the band wagon. Technology can be such a wonderful thing.

An obvious note: These phones are loaded with WAY TOO MUCH BLOATWARE! What a sham having to attempt to disable them, without voiding one’s warranty. You business jokers need to step up Your game and clean it up a bit! Why do You hate Your customers so much? At least give an option to remove the stuff, since most of Your customers don’t want it!