A decade of cell phones
Sony Ericsson c902
So when this phone became the second one the was stolen from me[1], I was very sad. Luckily Hi invested in keeping loyal customers, so I was offered a new phone four months before my contract ended. I originally went for the w810i’s successor, the w890i, but the salesperson convinced me to take the Sony Ericsson c902, which had virtually none of the great things the w810i had, but all of its shortcomings, and added a few of its own.
Sony Ericsson c902
On paper, it is a decent phone, and a step-up from the w810i, as the salesperson had stated. The shortcomings I refer to I already listed in one of the first posts of this blog: Why I hate my Sony Ericsson C902, but in short: the pause/resume button was gone, the volume buttons were now right next to the camera shutter button, the memory card was to be placed internally, under the SIM card, and it was impossible to configure Opera as my default browser. Worse, installed applications appeared as a sub menu below the Agenda (your guess is as good as mine). All this meant that I had to take the phone out of my pocket to turn the volume up or down, I couldn’t conveniently transfer files by putting the memory card in my computer, and starting Opera Mini involved pressing the menu button, navigating to and selecting the Agenda and then scrolling through a list to select the browser.
Still, all was not lost. There was a USB cable (at least it was USB at one end, the other end only fitted into the phone’s special 12-pin Sony connector port at the bottom end of the phone) that let me hook it up to a computer and mount it as a USB drive. The same cable would also charge the phone’s battery and share its network connection which the computer. This was convenient enough. In fact, to get internet access on my laptop, I used it so much that I rarely had to use the charging device. But after a year or so, the wear and tear on the connector port started to take its toll. The connection became increasingly unreliable, which therefore impacted on three heavily used functions. Since the connector was also used to connect the head phones (in the same way as with the w810i), suddenly the phone’s usefulness as an FM radio/MP3 player, a photo camera and a modem drastically diminished.
Common sense
By the time Hi offered me to choose a new phone yet again, I only used the c902 for making phone calls and text messaging. It’s really a shame. Most of the phone was working perfectly. If they had decided to make an memory card slot at the side as with the w810i and use a standard 3.5 mm jack for the head phones, wearing out the connector port wouldn’t have been such a problem. Sony’s use of proprietary solutions instead of established standards is a whole different discussion, but I don’t think I will ever buy a Sony phone again.
Despite the fact that the c902 was virtually worn out, I did consider waiting a few extra months until the end of the Hi contract, to be able to have more options in choosing another phone. Since November 2010 I closely followed the news on Nokia’s N9, which was going to have the Meego operating system installed, which is more open than anything I’ve come across. It felt like a nice phone for me. Sadly, it was cancelled. I also got interested in the fair phone project, but they have yet to produce an actual phone, and I think that will take some time.
In the end I decided to get an Android phone for the relative openness of the OS, compared to other smart phone operation systems and the fact that at work we heavily use Google. I chose the LG Optimus 2x for its conveniently placed volume buttons, the micro USB port, the HDMI port, the 3.5 mm ear phone jack and its awesome double core CPU power.
Concluding
If there is a development to be seen in these phones, it is the constant growth of functionality. Each new phone had a bigger screen, better sound and more functions than the last one. Especially the w810i was different from what I had used before. Unlike the CMD-J5, it had a colour screen, web connectivity, a camera and could play music.
Finding the right phone in a store appears to be difficult. Even simpler phones take time to figure out completely and only then are drawbacks revealed. Complex devices with many functions always have good as well as bad points and neither are listed verbatim in phone specifications.
What I usually find most annoying in phones are simple things, which could have been avoided if the manufacturer had made a few choices just a little bit differently. A slightly different menu structure or buttons placed a few centimetres away from others. I am also a fan of the use of established standards. If I can only use head phones, memory cards and other accessories from the manufacturer who made the phone, replacing them will be overly expensive and in the end I will either end up with duplicate accessories for each phone, or be forced to keep buying phones from the same manufacturer.
The fair phone project is still in its infancy, as is the public’s awareness of conflict materials. I’m not sure if they will produce a phone soon, but they can inspire people and manufacturers to take responsibility in this matter.
Future phones
I wonder if I will be able to hold on to this phone past the end date of the contract it came with. An ideal phone would be so good that I would never need a new one any more, which would make contracts with service providers a lot less expensive. But cell phones are subjected to wear and tear, batteries lose capacity over time, connection ports corrode and software updates stop, so in a couple of years I will probably still have to get another one.
Perhaps it will be a phone without materials from conflict areas, perhaps it will fully adhere to open standards, perhaps it will even allow me to install whatever is my favorite OS then. And just maybe, someday, I will get a candybar style phone that, when I put it on a table in front of me, will holographically project a big monitor, a keyboard and a mouse, so that it will become really convenient.
- [1] This time, it really wasn’t my fault, but if I explain how it happened on this blog I run the risk of accusing people on-line, which is not a smart thing to do. ↩
Categorised as: cool stuff, gadgets, lifestyle