[Alghazanth]

Quote:

My old phone finally died this weekend. It was nothing special and an inch thick (ugh). I hope to find something better this time around. I went to the local store just to see what kind of dismal options I had for a new phone.

First of all there were only 3 phones that weren't "smart phones". (I include anything with a big touch screen in this designation.)

Of those 3 options, 2 had music player buttons up the front. This excludes them on principle, since I already have a real music player & amp in my other pocket I don't need a crappy music player on my phone.

The last option was huge and had monster buttons for blind people or something. I'm not blind and I don't want a ginormous cell phone but it was the best choice there! It was the only thing not bloated with tons of crap I don't need or want.

I really hate all these popular cell phones, which should actually be called "all-in-one" devices since 95% of their features nowadays have nothing to do with phoning. To my mind a cell phone should be small, durable, able to send/receive phone calls, and I guess probably text messages as well since they have become so engrained in society now.

But these "smart" devices reek of amateurism. A cell phone camera won't appease anyone who knows anything about photography and has a real camera any more than a cell phone music player will appease any Head-Fi member. Similarly a 3" mobile browser won't appease many people who use the internet productively (I guess there could be some exceptions, but they're not well implemented). Taking pics of your dipshit friends, listening to Justin Bieber and updating Facebook/Twitter is about the extent of the usefulness of these devices and the mentality of the audience they are created for.

To anyone intelligent who appreciates the paradigm of separating tasks and hates bloated software or hardware, these "smart" "phones" are about the representation of everything we hate. Rather than performing one task well, they perform every task poorly. They are the final commercialization of technology for amateurish audiences of brainless teenagers and adults with about the same mentality. They are not only bloated in size, unnecessary features, short battery lives, low durability, but they also tie you in with complex plans, locks all over the phone, and they cost a lot!

The final nail in the coffin is all the headaches surrounding locked phones, crappy proprietary cables & software required to interface with the phone, and all these ridiculous "data plans". I wouldn't use one of these things if I got it for free. It is alternatively funny and sad that there are tens of millions of fad-following brainless dolts out there who are constantly chasing after the newest and greatest and most stylish phones.

So, Head-Fi, I dearly hope there is a Cellphone-Fi somewhere or at least some products designed for the higher intelligence or more tasteful members of society, as there usually is in every market. Please enlighten me.

I felt mostly the same as you, and I've always hated Apple. Yet I caved in and bought myself an iPhone 3GS about 1 1/2 years ago, and I honestly don't know how I lived without it. I'd say get over your misconceptions and give a smart phone a try. I'm no "brainless teenager or adult" and they certainly are not as bloated as you believe. The data plans and less-than-stellar call quality are the only two negatives I can think of.
 
 

 

[ozz]

For those of us that use them for our work besides personal it keeps us from walking around with the Batman Utility Belt Syndrome . I could just see me on a job site with a DSLR around my neck a cell phone in one holster and a PDA in the other while having a radio playing to kill the boredom while punching
down a role of 110 blocks. Note to mention having to have a laptop with me to check the wireless after routers are installed no thank you. Also my iPhone 4 takes good enough pictures to see enough detail to email to the boss for problem issues not to mention the 720p video ain't bad either. As for the music 
my selection is all my favorites done in lossless with different playlists sounds great through my sfi5pro's.

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

Ugh... God the data plans. I wouldn't mind the price if tethering was included. Or only $5 extra instead of $20. Does that $20 come with extra data? No. It comes with the ability to use your phone's built-in features.
 
Man, the US has no idea how screwed we are with cell phones... At least when I was living in London I didn't pay for incoming calls or text messages.

 

[DaBomb77766]

Quote:

Ugh... God the data plans. I wouldn't mind the price if tethering was included. Or only $5 extra instead of $20. Does that $20 come with extra data? No. It comes with the ability to use your phone's built-in features.
 
Man, the US has no idea how screwed we are with cell phones... At least when I was living in London I didn't pay for incoming calls or text messages.

Canada is about 20x worse than the united states when it comes to cellphone plans.  You have to pay the same amount to get 500MB/month as americans pay for 5GB/month...but at least most of the carriers seem to be offering tethering for free, which is nice.

 

[Uncle Erik]

You can strip down an iPhone to the bare essentials if you want. The bloat is only there if you load a ton of apps. You can get by with just a handful if you want, though. The phone program is dead simple and I really like how easy it is to scroll through contacts and make calls. A $49 3G might be a good fit.

 

[sunwolf]

You can strip down an iPhone to the bare essentials if you want. The bloat is only there if you load a ton of apps. You can get by with just a handful if you want, though. The phone program is dead simple and I really like how easy it is to scroll through contacts and make calls. A $49 3G might be a good fit.

I can't strip it down physically, it's still too big and expensive.

 

[MCC]

How about the Motorola F3? It's dirt cheap, simple, and I've heard it's durable as well. They're all unlocked as far as I know so it should work if you have a GSM carrier (that is, if your current phone has a SIM card).
 
As far as smartphones go, I absolutely LOVE my Google Nexus One. It's the most solidly built phone I've ever held. It's also better at the whole "phone" thing than a standard cell phone. It has a dynamic noise cancellation chip by Audience that works with a rear-mounted second microphone to improve voice quality. I can talk normally in a loud cafeteria and the person on the other end can hear me perfectly.
 
Smart phones aren't for everyone, but the people who have them tend to be power users who LOVE their versatility. I'd rather take my phone with me than my laptop.
 
Edit: It's also better at being a GPS than a standalone GPS. I can tell it (with my voice- speech recognition) where I'd like to navigate to and it'll take me there. "Navigate to a bowling alley" will pull up a list of the nearest locations sorted by distance. It'll take me to my choice of destination with synthesized speech giving street and exit names instead of the typical "turn left! exit here!". 
 
There are plenty of things that smartphones can do that make them worthwhile.

 

[fhuang]

Quote:

But if you own a good camera, music player, etc. and don't want to pay $30 a month for a data plan, a smartphone is pretty worthless. Some people just want a phone so that they can make phone calls (gee, what a concept). I didn't know it was so "shockingly narrow minded" to want a greater selection of non-smartphones.
 

you know, something is wrong with you.  yeah you read me right.  i am serious.....
 
 
 
because i'm exactly like you.  i have a perfect DAP(actually an ipod with an amp).  i have good cameras.  why do i need some all in one device?  i even have a psp.  i don't need a smartphone.  i just want a phone just to make phone calls and a phone that i don't need to charge the battery everyday.  what is it so hard for people to understand and respect that?