I Finally Bought A New Phone! #blogpost

I’ve done it. Finally. After months of saving every Euro I could. I’ve bought a new phone.
I want to tell you the full story behind it, but it’s a pretty long one. If you don’t want to read all this, just skip to the end, because this is where it gets important.

Anyways, let’s start with a quick recap. And in fact, we need to start a long time ago: on August 27th, 2013. Because this was the day I got my first smartphone. All my classmates already hade them, and I was the only one to still carry around a Nokia. As you can guess, I was extremely proud, especially as my parents had bought me a pretty nice one: An LG Optimus L7. Okay, all my classmates had either Samsungs or iPhones, but I loved my LG. At least… for one year. Because then, it started getting slower and slower. It escalated in my first visit to the USA, in April 2015. My phone was 1.5 years old, not much, but still it had become barley usable. I tried everything I could to restore it, but it didn’t work. The real disaster happened at the end of the holiday. I turned my phone off at the airport in Fort Myers, and then we flew to Atlanta. In Atlanta, I tried to power it up, but the battery was empty - so I charged it back up. Before I could try to power it on again though, we had to board the plane back to Munich. Back home, I charged it again, and then tried to power it on. All I got to see was the android figurine, laying on it’s back, with a red triangle on it’s stomach. And this, ultimately, was the end of my beloved LG.

I really needed a new phone, but my parents told me I had to wait for my birthday. Luckily, my Dad managed to arrange a replacement phone, so I wouldn’t have to go back to the Nokia again. It was an HTC One XL from his colleague, who had bought a new phone and didn’t need it anymore. And at first, I was really impressed: It was bigger than my LG (4.7”), faster, had a way better camera, and a lot more storage. There was one little downside though. During the time my Dad’s colleague had used it, it must have overheated. This was a common problem on those HTC back then, but the one I got had really suffered from it: part of the display had become so hot, that it just didn’t react anymore. The lower centimeter or the display as well as the home buttons were non-functional. Which made using this phone… let’s say… interesting. In theory, it was a good phone, but in practice, it was a piece of junk. It took me 20 minutes to unlock my SIM card (as both the 0 and the OK button were exactly in that non-reacting part of the display), I had to click all the way through the menus just to get back to the home screen, and it crashed at least every second day. Oh, and whenever it had over 25°C outside, it went mad and became so hot that it hurt just to hold it in the hand.

I desperately wanted a new phone, and so I spent a lot of time looking for a new one. And well, I f*cked it up.

I decided I wanted a Sony Xperia Z Ultra. A 6.4” phablet. And I convinced my parents to buy it for my birthday. What a fool I was. Anyways, that’s the phone I’ve been using for the last two years. And I tell you, if you feel like buying a phone over 6”: DON’T DO IT. Sure, the large display is amazing for gaming and watching YouTube, and for typing as well (the keyboard is HUGE!) - but that’s pretty much where the fun ends. Carrying it around is a pain in the a$$. Or in the leg, depending on where you put it. ;)

Anyways, I soon discovered a few things that really annoyed me with this phone.
1: The size. As mentioned above, 6.4” is just way too big. Especially with these super fat bezels that Sony still thinks look stylish. I could have guessed that before I bought it, but… yeah.
2: The android. Thanks to Sony’s fantastic support, this phone which came out in 2013 got stuck on Android 5.1, while my Dad’s Samsung S5 (which also came out in 2013) always had the latest and greatest Android version on it.
3: The camera. Holy f*ck, the camera. IT WAS CRAP. It didn’t even have a flashlight, for christ sake. Ever wondered why all my pictures looked so bad? Now you know.

But anyways, this is all over. Last christmas, I started saving for a new phone, and didn’t spend any money on anything. I’m serious. And so, one month after my birthday, I finally was able to buy a new phone. And this is it: An LG G6. If you know anything about smartphones, you should know that it’s basically a Galaxy S8 - just for 100 to 200 bucks less. It arrived today, and after having set it up for a few hours, I am seriously in love. It’s got the perfect size, at 5.7” it’s still a big phone, but it fits more or less comfortably into pockets (it will take me some time getting used to that “tiny” keyboard though…). And holy $$$$$hit!!! that camera is AWESOME!!! Or, these cameras, as I should say. Because, like many current high-end phones, it’s got two of them. Oh, and it even has got a flash…
So all in all, I would say this was 420€ well spent. I am so happy I don’t have to carry around that brick anymore, and that I finally can take high quality pictures. Oh, and my girlfriend is also happy that I’ve got a normal-sized phone now…

This is where it gets interesting for you guys, as the difference in photo quality should be really noticeable for you. I will soon give you a few examples of what I mean…

So, I hope you guys liked this little peak into my experiences with smartphones. They are weird, I know. But at least now, four years after I got my first one, I’ve got a proper smartphone.
Thanks for your attention. I really hope you spent the time to read all this, if you did I would be glad if you could show some love - it took me over an hour to write all this stuff.
Tobi aka The Stig’s German Cousin