Should I get a smart phone?

rodgers73

My contract runs out later this year and I'm mulling over whether to upgrade from my Nokia C2-01 (which I'm very happy with) to a smart phone.

I spend my working day in front of a PC and usually have a laptop on my knee when watch TV in the evenings so I'm never that far from the internet. I have a Google Nexus tablet that I take with me when I'm staying over at parents house or elsewhere and a cheap old laptop for foreign holidays where I don't want to risk expensive gear getting nicked etc.

So, I'm not desperate for mobile internet and I can access 3G internet on the Nokia anyway in an emergency (as rubbish as that handset is for web browsing). I have been thinking about doing a very long distance tour (London to Rome?) at some time in the future where I'd like to either update a blog or a Twitter/Facebook feed letting people know my progress, bit otherwise I can't think of any hugely pressing reason why I'd need one.

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing out on?

Also, can anyone recommend what sort of handset would be best for when doing the touring? I'd be relying on wifi not 3/4G networks though - to avoid high roaming charges.

Cheers

Tom

rodgers73

NB - I will NEVER buy an iPhone so thanks for anyone who thinks they're what I need but I just can't bring myself to buy an Apple product. Just to save you wasting your time ;-)

meursault

I don't think you are missing much , there hasn't been any significant technology advances for a few years now. I guess most people just upgrade because they can, that's what I did. If you have the Nexus tablet, I would say go for the Nexus phone, I did, and it does the job.

Peddle Up!

rodgers73 wrote:

My contract runs out later this year and I'm mulling over whether to upgrade from my Nokia C2-01 (which I'm very happy with) to a smart phone.

Question answered?

alihisgreat

Yes yes yes yes. Get a smart phone.

The Google Nexus 5 is probably the best value at the moment (although the camera is a little disappointing) - its less than £300.. when competitors are more like £500. oh and you get pure unadulterated Android Kitkat which is a wonderful experience compared to iOS or the modified versions of Android that most handsets come with.

You don't realize what you're missing until you've got one.


(and to balance it a little.. the battery life on smartphones can be annoying but it doesn't sound like you are a power-user so probably don't have anything to worry about?)

mamba80

I got my daughter a nokia lumia 620, I think the 4g 525/625 is out soon, its cheap ish, takes amazing pictures, streams music, super fast for web stuff.
She loves it...down side is that there isn't the number of apps available being windows but some say its the future, I say stick to your C2, until you actually need one ie your trip.

rodgers73

I'd heard the Windows phones worked really well. Only issue I had with the Lumia was the size of them. The 525 looked about small enough but it's only a 3G so it looks a waste of time.

Battery life on smart phones seems like a problem too.

Silly Old Hector

Typing this on my new Nexus 5 - it's a joyus machine to use.

My kids forced me to go Android and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised

nigeldoyle

Are you running a GPS e.g. Garmin Edge? If not you could use a Smartphone with GPS capabilities to record your ride. You can then upload your rides to places like Strava or Ridewithgps.

If you have both you can have live updating so that people can follow you real time on the net and see your progress in real time.

sungod

i held out for years, eventually got one (samsung)

pro...
phone, music, camera, gps, wifi, email, web, calculator, flight tracking, tickets/boarding passes, etc. all on one device

con...
bigger/heavier than my lovely old motorola flip phone, which awakened my inner trekkie every time i opened it
not as good at simply being a phone
battery life not as good
stuffed if battery runs out or it ever fails (no phone, music, camera, gps, etc. etc.)

i'm a long term apple user, but never liked the iphone, so i got a galaxy s2, it was the lightest for the features/quality, stuck in an extra memory card for the music, whay hay

rodgers73

nigeldoyle wrote:

Are you running a GPS e.g. Garmin Edge? If not you could use a Smartphone with GPS capabilities to record your ride. You can then upload your rides to places like Strava or Ridewithgps.

If you have both you can have live updating so that people can follow you real time on the net and see your progress in real time.

Yes, I have a Garmin Edge 705. Could be fun to run real time tracking like that. Imagine it would need a lot of battery life for both devices though?

rodgers73

sungod wrote:

i held out for years, eventually got one (samsung)

pro...
phone, music, camera, gps, wifi, email, web, calculator, flight tracking, tickets/boarding passes, etc. all on one device

con...
bigger/heavier than my lovely old motorola flip phone, which awakened my inner trekkie every time i opened it
not as good at simply being a phone
battery life not as good
stuffed if battery runs out or it ever fails (no phone, music, camera, gps, etc. etc.)

i'm a long term apple user, but never liked the iphone, so i got a galaxy s2, it was the lightest for the features/quality, stuck in an extra memory card for the music, whay hay

Yes, one worry was the security risk if the phone gets stolen. Does that leave me at risk of having my bank a/c cleared out etc???

ugo.santalucia

Don't. they take away your freedom... people expect you to be in contact 24/7 when you have one of those. At least now you've got the excuse for not answering E-mails and social networks...
People can't even walk on the pavement without constantly check the damn thing. 30 seconds is the average time a normal individual can stay without checking the smart phone... see if it's worth it

Yellow Peril

I have a blackberry for work but I don't have a phone other than that. My blackberry makes me contactable at will which I detest.

If work took it off me I would not replace it with a phone of my own. I managed to get through most of my life without one and I despise being on an electronic leash.

joelsim

Spotify.

meursault

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Don't. they take away your freedom... people expect you to be in contact 24/7 when you have one of those. At least now you've got the excuse for not answering E-mails and social networks...
People can't even walk on the pavement without constantly check the damn thing. 30 seconds is the average time a normal individual can stay without checking the smart phone... see if it's worth it

Only if you let it. Make your device work for you, not the other way around. Tim Ferris (Enreprenuer/mentor/guru) has some excellent advice on how to deal with email in his book, highly recommended.

ugo.santalucia

meursault wrote:

Only if you let it. Make your device work for you, not the other way around. Tim Ferris (Enreprenuer/mentor/guru) has some excellent advice on how to deal with email in his book, highly recommended.

Of course, the device is never the culprit, but it is a fact that the vast majority of people who own smart phones are obsessive with them.

It is not different from saying that guns in USA are not a problem, all you have to do is not use them. :?

RDW

rodgers73 wrote:

I spend my working day in front of a PC and usually have a laptop on my knee when watch TV in the evenings so I'm never that far from the internet. I have a Google Nexus tablet that I take with me when I'm staying over at parents house or elsewhere and a cheap old laptop for foreign holidays

Sounds like you're already pretty much Assimilated. Might as well give in and join the Borg full time with the rest of us.

It's really a very handy gadget. Having a web browser, email client, calendar, ebook reader, mp3 player, video camera, internet TV/radio, public transport timetable, compass, map and GPS with you all the time is very easy to get used to...

Yes, I have a Garmin Edge 705. Could be fun to run real time tracking like that. Imagine it would need a lot of battery life for both devices though?

I don't think the 705 can talk to the phone (you'd need a 510 or 810 for that), but you can do real-time tracking with the phone's internal GPS and a suitable app. That would also be pretty battery hungry, though you could get one of those small external USB batteries to keep the juice flowing. As a map browser, a modern smartphone is also miles ahead of any dedicated bike computer - for a long trip, they complement each other pretty well (and you can pre-load maps on the phone so you don't need to use data abroad).

Yes, one worry was the security risk if the phone gets stolen. Does that leave me at risk of having my bank a/c cleared out etc???

I have avoided online banking on the phone up till now for exactly this reason, though I imagine a thief could still do a lot of damage with access to my email accounts. You can set a PIN on the phone, though I doubt that would stop a technically inclined thief.

meursault

ugo.santalucia wrote:

meursault wrote:

Only if you let it. Make your device work for you, not the other way around. Tim Ferris (Enreprenuer/mentor/guru) has some excellent advice on how to deal with email in his book, highly recommended.

Of course, the device is never the culprit, but it is a fact that the vast majority of people who own smart phones are obsessive with them.

It is not different from saying that guns in USA are not a problem, all you have to do is not use them. :?

I hear you, but it winds me up people becoming a slave to technology, we just need a little discipline and philosophy.

ugo.santalucia

meursault wrote:

I hear you, but it winds me up people becoming a slave to technology, we just need a little discipline and philosophy.

Set up a blog where you teach how to do it, it'll be very popular... technology detox is the next big thing, bit like Bike-fit... me thinks how to get involved...

meursault

You may have something there.

Here is Tim's. I honestly didn't know the lead article until posting this now.

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/

rhext

I think there's a reason that people become obsessed with them.....

....I have a smartphone and it's great - in the same way that alcohol is great: once you get in the habit, it's very difficult to stop. Only slight problem is that while the ones I've used have been very handy (and getting better) mobile devices for accessing the internet/email, calendar, diary, alarm clock etc etc, they're actually pretty bl**dy useless as actual phones.

Mine's supplied by work, and is fantastic at carrying out its real function, which is to make sure I'm never really off-duty. There are also certain work-related activities that become a lot easier (booking travel, hotels, dynamic updating of calendars, things like trip itineraries, finding offices etc) with one. If I were to retire tomorrow and had to give it back, would I replace it? Not sure that I would!

vs

Try going phone free for a while; everything will be OK.

Personally, I've never held a mobile phone, and I feel lucky to live in a valley with no mobile reception.

priory

I got my son's old sony xperia.
I use a laptop at home and really could not justify an internet mobile payment as well, so I set it up to use cyclestreets when there is a wifi signal and navfree gps satnav(uses openstreetmaps) when out and about. That just needed an sd card for memory to store the maps on, but no simcard. It seems to work fine when there is a gps signal ( which may not be everywhere all the time). Like every gadget it is not totally reliable and it seems to get bored and freeze sometimes, so I tend to use it as a back-up if I am a bit lost, which is not often. basically it is a free/cheap gps.

there is also and app called orux mapping on which I have been trying to download areas of opencyclemaps , but with little useful result so far. does anyone have a solution to this?

bigmat

meursault wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Don't. they take away your freedom... people expect you to be in contact 24/7 when you have one of those. At least now you've got the excuse for not answering E-mails and social networks...
People can't even walk on the pavement without constantly check the damn thing. 30 seconds is the average time a normal individual can stay without checking the smart phone... see if it's worth it

Only if you let it. Make your device work for you, not the other way around. Tim Ferris (Enreprenuer/mentor/guru) has some excellent advice on how to deal with email in his book, highly recommended.

Ha! I shared a spa with that guy in Costa Rica a few years ago -small world.

He was glued to his phone the whole time... (only joking!)