In the last two months the phone began to give first warning signs of
the forthcoming end of its service. It crashed after being switched on and I
had to wait some ten minutes before the phone returned to life, from time to
time it also tended to lose network coverage and I had to shake it to help
aerial catch the signal again. Despite those flaws I admit to have been too
attached to the phone to think of replacing it with a less obsolete one. I am
not fond of gadgets and the Nokia offered me everything I expect from a phone…
Then the fateful day came. On Monday evening I hooked in the phone to
charge it up and after two hours I noticed it did not draw electricity from the
charger. I grabbed the phone, but it did not react when I pressed any button. I
called my number from the company phone, but it turned out my number was
unavailable. I took off and put in the battery and turned it on again, waited
until ten minutes when the phone is not responsive elapsed. The phone reacted
only to numerical keys and had its menu accessible via navigation keys. I took
the opportunity to recover all the notes I kept in it. Pressing menu and
dialling keys resulted in the phone crashing for good. I tried to work out
whether it was not the SIM card and sought many causes of the breakdown, but
eventually gave up. Life of the phone naturally came to an end. Unexpectedly
and swiftly, the Nokia let me down once, but properly.
My first choice on what to buy was Sony Xperia E Black. At first glance
it was not the newest model (it premiered in March 2013), but reasonably
priced, seemingly durable and with lots of functionalities. The other day in
the office it turned out my team-mate has that model and he complains about it.
He handed me the handset and allowed to play with it for a while. When I took
it into hand and saw how crappy devices it indeed was and then ran a thorough
search on its quality on forums, I cancelled my order placed in the Internet
shop I use to buy consumer electronics. I always choose cash payment when I
pick up ordered stuff in collection point, so the resignation did not involve
claiming back money, yet it has left me without a decent, normal phone (it
lacks keypad locking feature which means it can initiate a call while kept in a
pocket!) before a three-day business trip.
Actually reading Internet forums on handsets (one should make allowances
for their contents, since many of the grumbles are written by people with
exorbitant expectations) prompted me to revise my needs and expectations
towards the new phone. I use the corpo smartphone, but actually am not fond of
it, nor impressed by it. The corpo-phone has some limitations in scope of usage
(restrictions on multimedia messages, downloading applications, private e-mails
and social media), but apart from it I can have 1GB monthly data transfer to
use up when I need to check something or to read some news or article and has
built-in, though slow, GPS. I will gladly make do without a touchscreen and
prefer a traditional QWERTY keyboard. I will appreciate reliable and durable,
decently assembled phone with solid battery. It does not have to be fancy, I do
not need it to swank about, it has to serve me well and meet my modest needs.
Finally I have made up my mind for Nokia Asha 302. The model was
released in February 2012 and for this reason is not readily available in every
bigger shop with consumer electronics, but garners excellent opinions from its
users. Nokia Asha 302 was also the main company phone back at the Employer (I
did not have one on account of not being eligible for company phone) and my colleagues,
counting out those who expected too much, were satisfied with it. The only
problem with it is that it takes some trouble to purchase it. I learnt it was
available in Nokia shop in Żoliborz, but yesterday I could not afford to spend
two hours to drive there to pick it up in person. Tomorrow I will check out
whether any of the other two Nokia shops, in Śródmieście and in Ursynów, has
any Asha 302 in stock. I sincerely hope they have some and price does not
diverge from 248 PLN (superb price-quality trade-off) I was quoted by the
Żoliborz outpost.
The thoughts on the phone could be put into broader perspective of
critical assessment of unbridled consumerism and how most people relish on
fancy stuff. Hard to deny, pursuit of only newer and more swanky goods also
underlies economic growth and gives jobs to people, but when staring into the
screen of the posh smartphone, it is important not to lose sight of other
people…
No comments:
Post a Comment