The other day, I dropped my iPhone XR. It landed face down on the concrete at the pool. When I picked it up, I saw the screen had several only hairline cracks.
Bummer.
I’d been through this before with a phone. The cracks always spread eventually necessitating a new phone. My plan had been to continue using this 5 year old phone for at last another year. It worked fine. The screen and speed were good. It supported the apps I used and was compatible with the current IOS. The battery kind of sucked – I had to charge the phone at last twice a day and use low power mode every afternoon – but I had adjusted to this.
Too bad for me.
When I replaced my 10 year old iPad earlier this year, I immediately realized that I had been limping along with old technology for too long. I could only apply IOS security updates through a kludgy process of deleting the 3 apps I used and then docking it to my laptop because it didn’t have enough storage space for downloading updates. The volume button had broken so I relied on the onscreen sliders to control the sound. It didn’t support the latest IOS.
Literally the day I got my new iPad a wave of relief hit me. I updated the IOS, downloaded my apps, the screen was better, all buttons worked etc.
I told myself right then, “When the time comes to that my iPhone and Macbook no longer function suitably, I am going to bite the bullet and replace them without hesitation.”
As much as I hate spending money and get satisfaction from having a 5 year old phone, a 7 year old laptop and a 10 year old iPad, Have learned that tech items are not buy-it-for-life, no matter how much my frugal nature wants them to be. They are consumables.
Two days later, I picked up my new iPhone 15 from the Apple store.
First impressions:
- The speaker volume is extraordinary. On my old phone the volume was so low that I often couldn’t understand what people were saying on podcasts.
- Setup was a breeze. I followed the onscreen instructions to transfers everything from old phone to the new one. Apps, settings, customizations and preferences all transferred over seamlessly.
- Transferring my phone service (via Visible) to the new phone was also straightforward. All it required was a few minutes on the Visible app, and a few clicks. The only additional work I had to do was create a voicemail message and test my service to ensure calls/texts/voicemail worked.
I’m not someone who needs or wants the “latest and greatest” technology. My technology needs, like my life, are fairly simple. I just need my tech to work, be secure and be functional.
I also despise the “free phone” or “monthly installment” plans that tie you to a provider or end up making you pay for a phone forever. So I always buy my phones up front and unlocked. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile can go f*** themselves.
This time, I also bought an Otterbox Defender case to protect my phone when I drop it. That way it should last me another 5 years until it’s time to upgrade once again.