Cell Phone Rant

RyanFromVegas

Shared on Sun, 02/24/2008 - 21:46

I want a fully customizable cell phone!

I want the things I use to work exactly as I prefer them to work not as the company thinks I should want them.

I want to be able to delete every application on a phone that I dont want.

Although my phone apparently has a gps in it but I cant use it in any way.

Amazingly, most of my cell phone usage revolves around actually talking to someone. (Mostly the same 5-10 people)

I use my alarm clock several times a week.

I send a few texts a month.

I take maybe 5 pictures a year. (I could definitely do without a camera phone)

I would use wifi capability for a very few web services.  I dont need a laptop in my pocket...but I will give this up easily if it slows the boot up time too much.

Thats about it.

I never need to look at how long my last call was for 10 fucking seconds before being able to dial another number.

I will not ever buy a cellphone game/ringtone/wallpaper ever.

I will not pay extra for any type of web service or data plan.  I make the phone company disable this feature so my kids cant accidentaly run my bill up.

I will never subscribe to a joke of the day text service.

This new frequency band that got auctioned off supposedly came with the restriction that the winning company has to allow access to any phone.

Hopefully that will usher in an era of much more choice about what features a phone has and doesnt have.

I cant wait.

Every time I go in for a new phone, the sales guy is trying to show me all the cool ringtones and whatnot and Im grilling him on how the alarm works or how the call history is displayed.

I cant be the only one.

Comments

jquack's picture
Submitted by jquack on Sun, 02/24/2008 - 21:56
you're not. I learned after my 2nd ever cell phone that phone functionality should revolve the call you make unfortunately, this is no longer the case in american cell phones. They're all made for giggly teenagers unless you wanna fork out the cash for a upend smartphone. It is hard to find a good phone to balance your needs. Most of the ones with features you're asking for are out there, but they're butt ugly and not very popular. The ones you get shown are the ones that are "hot sellers" and ones that "you must buy because everyone else has and you suck unless you buy it" Case in Point: My company gave me a T2T radio from Alltel. it's an LG flip phone. butt ugly and not super functional. But, it makes calls (and good ones) has an AMAZING alarm clock (could wake a deaf guy from a coma) and handles the job. it's not a top seller, so you don't hear much about it, but everyone who uses it says it works great. You just kinda have to look past the fact that the salesman is trying to sell you crap you don't care for. Explain your needs and wants and they can usually show you the phone you're looking. They ARE out there, just not easily remembered by your local salesman. My advice: do your own research. I will swear by CNET's cell phone reviews. They have helped me buy two great phones.
SPEEDBYRD's picture
Submitted by SPEEDBYRD on Mon, 02/25/2008 - 05:05
I left Sprint after 15 years, and went with AT&T. They had the original Razr with very few extras. The standard now seems to be a TON of extra crap I don't use, like you said, and all that crap is really bad about eating up a battery. The new Razr has a batt life of "up to" 3 hours. My older version will last over 7 hours. I can use it for a week and not have to recharge. I also read that a battery has only so many charges, so if you have to charge it less....
Smithcraft's picture
Submitted by Smithcraft on Wed, 07/02/2008 - 12:47
My cell phone is pretty tame by most standards, but I do like to see how long I was on, since I have a pay as you go phone. That might be a better option if you don't want any frills, since I can't seem to do anything with it other than use it for calls and the very, very occasional message. SC

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