Choosing a New Mobile Phone
My mobile phone contract comes up on 19th December, meaning I get to upgrade my phone handset. I have no idea which way I'm going to go at the moment. I guess it might be worth looking back at the phones I've had over the last few years to gather my thoughts on them.iPhoneI had two iPhones, and they both broke. They both fried their WiFi chips. We have two iPads around the house, so I'm still familiar with iOS in it's most recent form, but I can't say I particularly like it. Given Apple's track record with their walled-garden services (.mac, MobileMe, and now iCloud), I would rather not go near them with a barge pole. The one redeeming feature of all iPhones has always been the cameraalthough that story has started to change in the last year or so.
BlackberryWhen I ditched the iPhones (about 5 years ago), I went for a Blackberry Curve. My other half had one, and raved about it. I have to admitfor messaging, it was brilliant. For anything else, it was absolute pants. I'm discounting Blackberry because although I would love to like their new operating system, it seems like too little, far too late.
AndroidI have had several Android phones in recent years, and loved them. Sure, they had abysmal battery life, but they were also incredibly flexible. The built-in Google services (mail, calendar, etc) are far and away better than anybody else's, but most of the handsets are filled with carrier or handset manufacturer crapware. Only the stock Google handsets are really worth consideringand for that reason I kind of fear returning to Android.
Windows PhoneI dismissed Windows Phone for a long time, and then about six months ago I finally got fed up with the Samsung Galaxy S3 I had been carrying around and switched, based on the experience of setting up my daughter's phonea Nokia Lumia 520. It cost less than a quarter the price of the Samsung Galaxy, was faster, and had spectacular battery life. Windows Phone 8.1 turned out to be pretty damn good, but the apps lag far behind Android and iOS. It's worth nothing that Microsoft's cloud services are catching up with Google fast.
So what am I going to do? I have absolutely no idea. I have a sneaking suspicion that I might walk out of the store with a Nokia Lumia 735 Windows Phone (if it's available as an upgrade option). One thing's for sureI will not be getting another Samsung handsetor Sony. The Motorolla M8 is persuasive, but I need to have a readsee how much crapware it has on it. There's also the HTC One againhow much crapware? Windows Phones have almost no crapware, and the little they do have, you can uninstall.
What phone do you have? What do you like about it? What do you dislike about it?