My mobile phone journey in life (part 2)

I moved away from feature phones as screens became larger and touch screen was the new norm. Thumb swiping was the thing that fixed boredom. And if my phone can’t take good pictures then it was obsolete. It’s embarrassing to take pictures with a tiny Samsung Intensity I phone.

In 2009, I read a magazine that 4G LTE would be introduced in Canada. I understood it as a form of wireless Internet. But I didn’t fully comprehend how it worked.

I still remember using WAP Internet or Wireless Area Protocol with my dad’s Nokia 6510 phone. It was an early form of Internet for anyone curious. It’s rough Internet where you move the cursor up and down, left and right to see blocks of texts, links, and images on a tiny screen.

However a full mobile Internet experience has arrived. A fascinating Internet which we take for granted all thanks to wide area network signals. But only possible with the new technology on smartphones.

Getting back to Nokia with Lumia 625

My first smartphone was not the Nokia Gem.

This is the time when iPhones reached the top over BlackBerry. It’s the age of touch screen. But I didn’t choose an iPhone. It was about my loyalty to Nokia (and Windows). Plus Nokia Lumia 625 was also a $0 phone with a plan. Realistically, iPhones and BlackBerry phones were expensive. And I didn’t care about premium phones.

The Lumia 625 is my first Nokia smartphone. And it is also my first Microsoft phone. While folks afforded iPhones, the Lumia 625 kept me grounded. The 5-megapixel camera was lackluster. Still it can take large resolution pictures which you can transfer easily to a Windows computer via USB. But I didn’t expand its 8 GB of internal storage. Because sadly, I saw no reason to expand after sensing the Lumia 625’s limitation.

I wanted to make most of this phone. However, Lumia 625’s biggest limitation was its hardware – specifically its RAM. The Windows app store didn’t work well. And the Windows mobile OS didn’t port a lot of apps. There were simply more apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

I wanted the Lumia 625 to work but it wasn’t meant to be

The Lumia 625 became obsolete fast because of its meager 512MB RAM. It can’t load Facebook and there was no Facebook lite yet. Forget about multi-tasking with its tiny RAM. The browser hangs up when visiting rich websites.

The phone freezes and crashes without a Windows task manager (lol). The tiled metro UI was equally innovative yet confusing. While the screen is black, it doesn’t unlock and I have to hold the power, volume, and camera buttons restart it. The apps demanded what my phone could not give.

I realized that the Lumia 625 was not reliable. The phone crashing could mean life and death. For example, the phone could hang when I need to make an urgent phone call. Then it’s as good as a brick.

It was time for another upgrade. My Windows phone gave off a bad first impression. So I was fixated on getting Android next. The last thing that I remembered is that my Lumia 625 slid out of my pocket one night while getting inside the car. The corner was dented after it fell to the pavement. Yes, after three years, that was the time I decided to get a case for it.

A nod to the Samsung Galaxy S5

It was 2015 and I’ve found a new job in the university. I also became super focused on completing my double degree. I was absolutely fired up knowing that graduation is two years away – especially after completing my most difficult programming course. It was time for a fresh start.

Frankly it was time for a better phone. The Samsung Galaxy S5 was my second smartphone after the Lumia 625. And it was a great leap toward improved performance. The Samsung Galaxy S5 was the phone that made me sway toward Samsung with its notably fast and reliable performance. My first Android experience was indeed a welcoming experience.

The S5 checked off the things I needed. It had a robust 2GB RAM (4x more than my Lumia 625), a 16MP main camera with a 2MP selfie camera, and a sizeable storage for apps. It was capable of recording 4K videos at 30fps and 1080p at 60fps plus panorama shots. Not only could I get fancy pictures, I can now video-record too.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 was a reliable work phone in the university. I saw progress in life and reached the mid-tier phone market. The top tier phones of 2015 were Apple iPhone 6s Plus, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+, and Galaxy Note 5. There were also other cool premium phones like the Sony Xperia Z5, LG G4, and the HTC One M9+.

Eventually I got used to the S5’s high level performance. Although there were a couple of times that the phone hung up that needed a manual restart. But the Samsung Galaxy S5 was overall a great phone. A quirky discovery is this was the first phone that felt warm when I used it long.

A shift to Google and the Pixel 2 XL

There was no reason to upgrade but I felt allured to try a Google phone. Their newest selling point was the Tensor chip and their camera. That’s why they called it Pixel. Although I didn’t jump ship when the first Pixel came out because everyone had doubts.

Now I’ve been saving some money but I wanted nothing extravagant. So I seized to upgrade in 2017 to get the Pixel 2 XL. The feedback was generally positive with Google’s second generation phone. I wanted to try the new Google brand. Plus it was a $0 down phone.

The mobile data and Pixel 2 XL’s large screen helped immensely with my commute. It kept my bus schedules, notes, and maps. It was a personal digital assistant and a small computer. The Pixel 2 XL was responsive and reliable that I don’t recall it hanging.

But its camera was among the best – it may still be today. Pixel’s main draw did not disappoint. I saw something different with its camera and the photos I took. I may not describe them technically, but they looked lush, vibrant, and detailed.

The Pixel 2 XL was also my mp3 player and streaming device. This was a huge check mark. I played games on it and I thought it had a larger screen than most phones; so I felt that I had something special.

The Pixel 2 XL was truly a blessing. I realized then it’s nice to have a nice phone. The Pixel 2 XL was the phone that brought me closer toward my life goals. I graduated, found my permanent job, and crossed over the pandemic days with this phone. Many Zoom meetings also took place with this phone.

Onward to the Premium market and to the future

Some time have passed after finishing our phone contracts. I spent four years with my Pixel 2 XL. So I was back on the market for deals after completing my contract plus extra two years. I got 4 years with the Pixel 2 XL.

I thought that it was time to work harder now that I’ve reached this stage in life. Not to mention the arrival of new tech in 2021. There was an immense relief and excitement after graduation, and now finally finding my permanent job. I started to dream again.

More importantly, I’ve made a more personal decision to help. So this was the time that I took over the phone bills of my mom, dad, and my younger sister while she was still in university. There were promos for new phones, and I wanted to reward myself. It was time to sunset my Google Pixel 2 XL and invest on a premium phone for work.