Retro Phone Journey, Part 2: Background

I recently (December 2021) acquired a brand-new Alcatel Go Flip 4. How did I get here?

First cell phone

Despite the importance of technology in my life, I have rarely been an early adopter. I don't trust most new inventions, and I don't like getting burned by "market forces". (I bought my first music CDs in the mid-1990s, long after that format had become dominant.) I got my first cell phone in 2005. I honestly don't remember what convinced me to do so, but I do remember that it was a cheap candy bar phone (probably Nokia) with a Virgin Mobile prepaid account. I wasn't interested in being roped into a contract, and only later figured out that the "top-up" charges worked out to about the same price as a contract. (Bastards.) I hated texting and avoided it.

First smartphone

In 2006, I worked a job that sent me to various sites around North America. Communicating with the office--both by phone and email--was important, so I was issued a smartphone. It was a brick that had a slide-out physical keyboard. If I remember correctly, it was running some version of Windows Mobile (or whatever it was called at the time). While working that job, I wrote software for handheld Windows devices, which wasn't too unpleasant. When I left that job, I had to give the hefty phone back. As much as I liked the phone, it did not inspire me to cough up the money to get my own.

First flip phone

Several years later, I was living part-time hours away from home, where only Verizon was reliable. This meant getting a new phone. I got another prepaid account, but instead of a candy bar, I got a flip phone this time. I still did not like texting.

First Android smartphone

In 2013, I finally decided it made sense to get a personal smartphone and a contract. The first annoyance was learning that Verizon would not transfer my prepaid line to my new phone. (Verizon would anger me many times over the years.) The phone was a Motorola Droid 2 Global with a lovely slide-out keyboard. I have used Android continually since then. That phone gave me my first experience with planned obsolescence. As with multiple later phones, I would have kept it indefinitely if allowed.

First iPhone

In 2017, I briefly used an iPhone SE for work. I did not enjoy it. The experience did nothing to improve my opinion of the overhyped, overpriced crap "designed in Cupertino". I continue to avoid iOS, but it keeps coming up in some contexts, so I deal with it.

Phucking Phablets

By the late 2010s, most smartphones available through Verizon exceeded 6 inches. This became a problem for me for 2 reasons: 1) I prefer to use my phone one-handed. 2) I prefer to wear my phone in a belt holster. Above 6 inches, these two practices become nearly impossible and definitely unsafe.

I have uncommonly long fingers. If my thumb cannot sweep from bottom to top of a phone, the "phone" is too damn tall. These days, most phones are too damn tall. It's bad enough that you can't wear these beasts on your belt; they don't fit in most pockets, either. If I need to wear a fanny pack, purse, or other bag to carry my device, it might as well be a netbook with a physical keyboard (or a cyberdeck, but that's another topic for later). I kept considering smaller phones, but oddly enough, the few smaller phones out there usually cost more than phablets while offering fewer features. They also tended to be "off" brands like Palm.

Leaving Verizon

After around a decade of annoyances, I got fed up with Verizon and switched to T-Mobile. This was mostly due to customer service, which many people agree is better with T-Mobile. However, I immediately got bit by my penny-pinching ways.

Firstly, my Samsung Galaxy 10Ae was a Verizon phone. This meant I could neither port it to T-Mobile nor install another OS on it. (In fact, none of my old phones that still run can accept an alternative OS.) So, I had to get a new phone with T-Mobile.

All available options were huge. I settled on one of the cheapest options, the Moto g Play. Big mistake. I thought I'd be happy with it since I'd had good experiences with Morotola in the past. However, I hated this phone from day one. It's the biggest phone I've ever had. I dropped it more times in the first week I had it than I had dropped any other phone ever. I looked into ways to avoid using it directly, like maybe getting a smartwatch, but the cost/benefit analysis did not look good there. I figured I'd wait a couple of years and get a new phone, hoping they were smaller again.

Wake-up call

Before I even got the Moto g Play paid off, it fell off my desk, dropped a couple of feet, and landed face-down on the metal foot of my desk. When I picked it up, I saw that the screen was shattered. I wasn't even sad that my phone was ruined. I was bummed about being out some money, but I was actually relieved to be rid of that "phone".

I instantly looked up what was available through T-Mobile but was careful to avoid getting locked in again. I considered a Pixel 5a, since they're on the smaller end of phablets, but no, I wasn't going to spend that much for a phone I didn't really want. I want to be able to carry a phone easily and use it with one hand. It seems weird that I have to put effort into finding such a phone, but here we are.

To my surprise, I saw that there were some flip phones available. I decided against the rugget CAT phones since they're pricier and might not be worth it. At a mere $100, I settled on the Alcatel Go Flip 4. For that price, I was willing to take a chance on something that might not work out. And sure enough, there are drawbacks to this decision...

=> Part 3: Lowered Expectations | Back to Index