Luddite denied!

[elarbee]

I fucking loved my phone! I even posted about it on LJ, but it's not worth linking to it since the source took down all its info and now you can't tell what it was. It was and LG Decoy and perfect for me - a small slider with a built-in Bluetooth earbud. And it appears that they no longer make the built-in Bluetooth on any phone except one obscure one that Andy found in India.

And, of course, it has been dying for the past year. First, I dropped it on the ground during a particularly hard day at work and the screen got scratched. Then the battery started being total crap. And now it's gotten to the point where in half the calls, the microphone works inconsistently at best.

I am at a total loss on how to replace it. For certain reasons, I need to stick with Verizon for now, and although I'm eligible for an upgrade, there isn't a single phone on their site that is a good fit for me. All I want is a small slider without a QWERTY keyboard (and hopefully without a touchscreen) that has a decent camera. I know I'm not going to get my Bluetooth dream, but fuck, I'll take call quality! I'm even willing to go for a QWERTY, as long as it doesn't make the phone massive. I don't text, I don't internet on my phone and I don't want any "features" from Verizon. I was kind of interested in the Kin ONEm - it is tiny and has WiFi, but it's got crap reviews, and come on, no calculator or calendar? Really?

I did look on eBay, but the only Decoys sold are not new, they're "new other (see detail)" and lack manuals. Suspicious, no?

I'll take your suggestions, as long as they don't involve me having to have a data plan.

Comments

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

You are the only one who feels my pain! What did you end up getting? What was the Verizon one that was the closest?

I don't like candybars (I think that's what you call sticks) as much because I forget to lock them and purse-dial. And sliders are usually smaller. I think the only basic phones left out there (marketed to old people, FWIW) are flippers, but I've never had one where the joints didn't break.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I ended up hanging on to my (cross fingers, spit, knock and perform other superstitious gestures) thus-far-alive old phone. I've no idea what I'll do when it dies.

With flips, I somehow inevitably manage to pinch the skin of my palm when closing them.

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

Argh! The thing is, my phone is the third one of its kind, the first two were gone by warranty, both for the same reason - microphone death. And I feel it coming with this one, too. Scratched screen, even inappropriately-timed turn-off I can sort of handle, but mike death is death.

What kind of a phone do you have now?

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

A Samsung (with AT&T).

They still make something vaguely like it, but they have managed to remove every UI element I liked and replaced it with something stupid.

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

Verizon overlays UI on all their phones, so it's a lost cause. All I can hope for is acceptable hardware.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I can't help it. I know too much about usability to put up with egregiously lousy examples thereof. Which rarely helps, because usability of most things out there sucks.

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally agree with you, but what saves me is that I want so little from my phone, as long as I can get that without too many obstacles, I can live with that.

But get this: I saw a phone available on Verizon that actually looked potentially acceptable, but it got terrible reviews and it lacks such things as a calculator and a calendar. Apparently, it was marketed as a tween phone - are our children so dumb that they don't need those things?

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

No idea. I've not used calendar or calculator on my phone pretty much ever. I have no idea that anyone did! :)

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

The only thing I use calendar for is to check what number Thursday this is for street cleaning purposes. My calculator I need for its tip calculator function.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Makes perfect sense.

I've been not looking for these - the only features I want are a comfy form factor, a sensible position of buttons, and a reasonably good ability to manage multiple phone numbers per contact. My last 2 phones came with camera and calculator and who knows what else just because I couldn't find any phones without.

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

I actually really use my phone camera.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I use my ipod touch camera constantly. At this point, half the time instead of jotting down a note I take a picture of the information.

The camera on my phone sucks sufficiently that I've only ever used it in dire need.

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

As much as I love Apple products, I'm really against iPods, mostly because I hate iTunes - its organization is illogical to me. I have a Sansa MP3 player that I love that's smaller than a matchbox. I also have an actual Palm T|X PDA that's still quite useful.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Whereas I can't stand Apple products, but I've made an exception for the Touch. iTunes is annoying, but it's flexible enough that I can organize and search any way I like. The Pod is rather less flexible, but I've not been able to determine that anything else does better. I'd love to hear about else-products organizing things sufficiently differently.

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

I think the bottom line is a personal set of things that you need to organize in a way that works for you. People constantly tell me that I could replace all of my devices with a smartphone, but the entire point is that I like having separate devices that I can use separately. If the Pod works for you, awesome! Just not the thing for me.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I'm there with you - there's a reason my pod is a Pod and not a Phone. I want my phone to make phone calls, and my GPS to tell directions and my bookreader for books and my laptop for computing. I did go over to the dark side with an ipod that does more than just play music, but at least that enabled me to stick with an app-less phone.

[elarbee.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to combine functions under some circumstances, but current gadgets are just bloated! Which reminds me about something I should write...