smartphone by Apple Inc.

I was always the type of person who upgraded my phone every year through my carrier, until I wasn’t. I was always the type of person who looked at phone specs and conjured in my own imagination what the experience could be like. I’d get so hyped over the new stuff that my own excitement would more or less drive my choice – only to see the phone falling just short of expectations over time as the performance degrades. Having had plenty of phones since my days in school, there never seemed to be one that just “did it”.. until the iPhone 14 Pro. This article talks about my anecdotes, and why I recommend this phone.

Picture this: It’s 2009, the iPhone was fresh on the market, you get your first iPod touch in your hands.. and suddenly you don’t want an iPod nano or your friend’s used Palm Treo anymore. Matter of fact, this picture to the right was taken on a Motorola Karma QA1 which was my phone at the time. This iPod touch.. is different.. easier.. feels full of life.. as though the skeuomorphic icons beckoned me to dive into an unknown yet exciting world . As someone who was just getting acclimated to Macs, obsessing over the specs of computers, it was only natural for me to want to know what’s in the phone and how it translated to an experiential level. Then you get a 3Gs, suddenly the 4 comes out, and yearly upgrade cycles begin.

Fast forward to summer 2012 when smartphones were still in their infancy: I became equally mesmerized by Motorola’s “D R O I D” Android smartphones. The Droid X/X2 featured a larger 4.3″ screen versus iPhones until the 5, specs were changing seemingly drastically year over year, and suddenly the Motorola Droid Razor Maxx came onto the market with a Dual Core CPU and an AMOLED screen! While this phone became a favorite for a while and I loved the way the screen’s colors popped.. unbeknownst to me the phone would slow down to the point of unsuitability after a few years. Even bought a used one in 2016 to relive the nostalgia, only to find API/web standards have quickly outpaced what this former flagship could offer. (Click to enlarge image on left)

Specs (via Low End Mac)

• Would: be my choice.
• Absolutely Not.: While smaller CPU fabrication processes allow for better power efficiency.. this + the 74 mAh extra in the battery wasn’t enough to justify the cost.
• Absolutely Nothing.: I charge this phone most of the time it’s ever even plugged into anything. The times I shot YouTube videos on it.. the USB 2.0 wasn’t slowing me down in a way where I felt dissatisfied.
• Sure, It Can.: But is it worth continuing monthly payments for incremental improvements whereas the battery could simply be replaced? Is it worth an uncomfortable experience holding/using a larger “Pro Max” for the sake of battery capacity?