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| Pictured: my "feature" phone. |
MY PHONE IS a piece of crap, by most measures. It’s three years old. It does not have a touch-screen. It has no maps or apps. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera that takes blurry, low-resolution photos. It can get on the internet, but only barely. It doesn't do anything but make and receive phone calls and text messages, and it does neither of those things exceptionally well.
I wouldn't give it up for anything else.
For starters, the thing is practically theft-proof. Who would steal a 2010 LG Octane? It wasn't even state-of-the-art when it was first released. (Heck, Verizon gave it to me for free!) But seriously, folks, mobile phone theft is a major problem. A HUGE problem. It even happens to public figures like CNN anchor Carol Costello.
Phone theft has gotten SO out-of-control, in fact, that today lawmakers are meeting with major phone providers to ask them what to do about it. But guess what? Mobile phone providers don’t care -- stolen phones are good for their business model.
I think a big reason behind my insistence upon keeping my bare-bones feature phone is that it’s my way of sticking it to Verizon and the phone manufacturers. My monthly bill is about 50 bucks. How many people do you know with an iPhone or Android who spend less than $1,200 a year on bills, accessories and apps?
No, I can’t navigate or look up information on it while I’m traveling, though I can do some of those sorts of things on my BlackBerry provided by my employer, which costs me nothing (though it is also pretty worthless as phones go). More importantly, in the event I do somehow lose my phone, I’m not risking my financial life; with the way folks use their phones nowadays for purchases, passwords, Facebook and everything else, losing your phone means losing a lot more than an expensive handset.
I will further brag that my clunky phone can and has survived a number of drops onto hard bare floors and even pavement without malfunction, has an IMPOSSIBLE to break screen (it’s not glass!), has tactile, physical buttons (which I prefer), and has a battery that goes about a week between charges. A WEEK! I’d like to see your fancy Galaxy or iPhone go a DAY before draining its precious battery of life.
Of course, the primary reason for the battery longevity in my case is that nobody ever calls or texts me.
