I love smartphones. Who won't love something that has both brains and beauty and is slim to boot. Like all beautiful things, smartphones too have high maintenance requirements. And. like all slim things, smartphones have high metabolism. They consume lots of expensive data just to keep themselves updated. And their zero tolerance for any bulge means either frequent access to the mains or providing a power bank to keep them company. The bulky powerbank accentuates their slim looks by juxtaposition.
Further like all beautiful things, smartphones are quite fragile. You drop your smartphone and, more likely than not, a load drops off your pocket for restoration of its beauty, if it is still possible. They also cause envy and hence are very prone to loss. Then some smartphones are so classy that they refuse to take more than one SIM. And for most of us in India, one SIM is just not enough.
This is the familiar backdrop against which I decided to buy a dumb phone which can perform the basic functions without frequent charging and can also provide peace of mind because of lower chances of loss and low cost of replacement.
So I got myself a Nokia 130 DS. DS is just double SIM. It is an absolutely basic phone with usual frills - FM radio, MP3 player, torch, clock, calculator, calendar et al. It can also take a 32GB SD card. Accessing this card through your PC is pretty straightforward and that turns it into a storage device too. It weighs very little, is small enough to be hidden in an adult sized palm and the battery lasts about a week with normal use! The only wireless connectivity option it provides is Bluetooth for connecting to headphones / speakers. No mobile data or Wifi and, hence, no Internet. The price is sub 2K.
With this new addition to my gadstock (on the lines of livestock and deadstock,) I now use my smartphone for data based applications and the dumb one for conventional uses within its capabilities. This, unfortunately, also means having two numbers and discouraging your contacts from using the data number for voice calls. But, then, these days clever apps make voice too ride on data. Of course, you can always tote both the phones. Then there is the question of your tablet and your laptop, not to speak of non-portable devices. But let us not complicate issues by taking that up now.
PS: My smartphone has a Power Saving Mode and an Ultra Power Saving mode. The first makes it a little less intelligent and diligent and the other takes it pretty close to a dumb phone!
Further like all beautiful things, smartphones are quite fragile. You drop your smartphone and, more likely than not, a load drops off your pocket for restoration of its beauty, if it is still possible. They also cause envy and hence are very prone to loss. Then some smartphones are so classy that they refuse to take more than one SIM. And for most of us in India, one SIM is just not enough.
This is the familiar backdrop against which I decided to buy a dumb phone which can perform the basic functions without frequent charging and can also provide peace of mind because of lower chances of loss and low cost of replacement.
So I got myself a Nokia 130 DS. DS is just double SIM. It is an absolutely basic phone with usual frills - FM radio, MP3 player, torch, clock, calculator, calendar et al. It can also take a 32GB SD card. Accessing this card through your PC is pretty straightforward and that turns it into a storage device too. It weighs very little, is small enough to be hidden in an adult sized palm and the battery lasts about a week with normal use! The only wireless connectivity option it provides is Bluetooth for connecting to headphones / speakers. No mobile data or Wifi and, hence, no Internet. The price is sub 2K.
With this new addition to my gadstock (on the lines of livestock and deadstock,) I now use my smartphone for data based applications and the dumb one for conventional uses within its capabilities. This, unfortunately, also means having two numbers and discouraging your contacts from using the data number for voice calls. But, then, these days clever apps make voice too ride on data. Of course, you can always tote both the phones. Then there is the question of your tablet and your laptop, not to speak of non-portable devices. But let us not complicate issues by taking that up now.
PS: My smartphone has a Power Saving Mode and an Ultra Power Saving mode. The first makes it a little less intelligent and diligent and the other takes it pretty close to a dumb phone!
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