So in an effort to be savvy and save as much money as possible, I decided to sell my Galaxy S3 a couple of weeks before the S4 is released. In the meantime I have to put up with a low end Android phone, the Orange San Francisco 2 (OSF2) aka ZTE Crescent. I'd like to say right now, I have a lot more respect for people who can get by on using these types of phones because they are not for me, at the same time I wouldn't wish this phone on my enemies (slight exaggeration...). I've also come to the realisation that I used my S3 across many aspects of my life. Quite scary that someone can have so much dependence on a single device.
What's so bad?
Let's start with the speed. the OSF2 has a measly single core 800 MHz processor, compare to the S3 which was a quad core 1.4 GHz processor. For normal day-to-day processes, the phone struggle. SwiftKey has gone out of the window and Kii keyboard is being used as a replacement. SwiftKey just locks up the phone and predictions would often be behind my typing and the frustration was too much. Then there's the matter of games, the phone is rooted and it's on Android 4.2.2 and I still haven't been able to come across a single game that I've had on the S3 that works on this. That might be partly to do with the fact that I can't access the Play Store for some reason, but even using my Titanium Backup games, none are working! Boring lectures are now going to be just that for me...boring and without distractions.
The amount of screen time I've racked up on this phone is pretty much the same as my S3, which might be down to the fact that any task on the phone takes about 5 times as long to complete than on my S3, even a simply text or call. Another very important point is the lack of internal storage, it's nearly non-existent. After you account for the ROM partition and cache you are left with 160mb to use for apps. You do have a microSD slot but unless you move apps to the SD card (only some will let you do this), you'll be able to install a couple of apps and you're full up!
What's so good?
It's a cheap phone. That's really it.
Uses for a smartphone?
Compared to the average smartphone user, I think I use my phone a lot more and so my predicament is made even worse. On an average day these are some of the different uses I found for my smartphone:
11 days until the Galaxy S4 is released, I imagine I'll have to take it one day at a time. Yes, I know some people might think I might be exaggerating but believe me, I wish I was.
Mo
What's so bad?
Let's start with the speed. the OSF2 has a measly single core 800 MHz processor, compare to the S3 which was a quad core 1.4 GHz processor. For normal day-to-day processes, the phone struggle. SwiftKey has gone out of the window and Kii keyboard is being used as a replacement. SwiftKey just locks up the phone and predictions would often be behind my typing and the frustration was too much. Then there's the matter of games, the phone is rooted and it's on Android 4.2.2 and I still haven't been able to come across a single game that I've had on the S3 that works on this. That might be partly to do with the fact that I can't access the Play Store for some reason, but even using my Titanium Backup games, none are working! Boring lectures are now going to be just that for me...boring and without distractions.
The amount of screen time I've racked up on this phone is pretty much the same as my S3, which might be down to the fact that any task on the phone takes about 5 times as long to complete than on my S3, even a simply text or call. Another very important point is the lack of internal storage, it's nearly non-existent. After you account for the ROM partition and cache you are left with 160mb to use for apps. You do have a microSD slot but unless you move apps to the SD card (only some will let you do this), you'll be able to install a couple of apps and you're full up!
What's so good?
It's a cheap phone. That's really it.
Uses for a smartphone?
Compared to the average smartphone user, I think I use my phone a lot more and so my predicament is made even worse. On an average day these are some of the different uses I found for my smartphone:
- Alarm clock
- Phone calls
- Instant messaging
- Games
- Online Banking
- Exercise (Endomondo and Jefit)
- Voice recording
- Pictures
- Videos
- Music
- Organiser
- Calendar
- Getting directions
- Browsing the web
- Social networkings (Twitter and Facebook)
- Viewing documents/presentations
- Emails
- And some more which I can't remember off the top of my head
Basically, my phone is a pretty big part of my life, which I'm not saying is something to be proud of, but it does make it much harder. I envisage walking to lectures without being able to listen to music and have to admire and take in the sights and smells that I've experienced near enough everyday for the past 4 years as opposed to having my head firmly in my phone and music blaring in my ears. The phone can't play a song without interruptions when the screen is off let alone when I need to use it for something else.
Improvising is hard, there isn't a good substitute or way round for some of the things listed above but my Nexus 7 has stepped up to help. It's also made me realise just how useful cloud storage is for some apps. Let's take Jefit as an example, for those of you who don't know what it does, the app tracks your workouts and keeps a log of how much you lift so you can monitor your progress. It syncs your workouts at the end of each session and so you can get the app on a different device, log in and it will download all your logs and routines ready to go. This is one thing ticked off that list, plenty more obstacles to come across yet!
11 days until the Galaxy S4 is released, I imagine I'll have to take it one day at a time. Yes, I know some people might think I might be exaggerating but believe me, I wish I was.
Mo
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