Most people would now be familiar with the term smartphone, and have at least some idea as to what a smartphone is. Yesterday, my friend R. taught me a new term (for an old thing): feature phone.
Unlike most people I know, I don't own an iPhone or an Android phone (something that surprises my friends I appear to always be on Facebook and Twitter). When I'm in Melbourne, I still use a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic from back in 2009. I don't think it's the best example of a smartphone - but it has pretty advanced computing ability and allows me to connect to internet (via a wifi connection) and use Bluetooth.
However, on my last trip to Nepal and India, I was hesitant to take the phone with me for a number of reasons. One, the battery life is poor - I'd have to recharge it at least once every two days and given that electricity isn't always guaranteed, I'd find myself without a usable phone for longer than I'd like. Two, it's not particularly durable and I'd worry about dropping it and breaking it in a remote area with no hope of getting it fixed. Three, it was locked to a particular network in Australia, and while I could have got it unlocked, it didn't seem the effort given the first two reasons.
So, instead I brought my old Nokia 3100 (really really classic old school Nokia), which my friend told me was a feature phone: basically, any mobile phone that isn't a smartphone. People in the industry might have more sophisticated ways of distinguishing the two, although the Wikipedia article suggests that there isn't an official definition for either smartphone or feature phone. In any case, I don't think there'd be any case to suggest my Nokia 3100 was a smartphone.
Unlike most people I know, I don't own an iPhone or an Android phone (something that surprises my friends I appear to always be on Facebook and Twitter). When I'm in Melbourne, I still use a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic from back in 2009. I don't think it's the best example of a smartphone - but it has pretty advanced computing ability and allows me to connect to internet (via a wifi connection) and use Bluetooth.
However, on my last trip to Nepal and India, I was hesitant to take the phone with me for a number of reasons. One, the battery life is poor - I'd have to recharge it at least once every two days and given that electricity isn't always guaranteed, I'd find myself without a usable phone for longer than I'd like. Two, it's not particularly durable and I'd worry about dropping it and breaking it in a remote area with no hope of getting it fixed. Three, it was locked to a particular network in Australia, and while I could have got it unlocked, it didn't seem the effort given the first two reasons.
So, instead I brought my old Nokia 3100 (really really classic old school Nokia), which my friend told me was a feature phone: basically, any mobile phone that isn't a smartphone. People in the industry might have more sophisticated ways of distinguishing the two, although the Wikipedia article suggests that there isn't an official definition for either smartphone or feature phone. In any case, I don't think there'd be any case to suggest my Nokia 3100 was a smartphone.
I got this phone back in 2004 and since then, it's followed me around the world twice. I took it with me when I went on exchange to Russia and France and then when I was teaching English in Xinjiang. It was great last year in Nepal and India because it was everything my other phone wasn't: The battery lasts a few days before I have to charge it. I've dropped it a few times, but it still kept going. And I can put it just about any SIM card I like. Basically, everything I want in a phone when I'm out in a remote area doing fieldwork. I don't know how long more it'll last, but I intend to use till it finally goes the way of all phones.
Ironically, the last time I was in Nagaland, I noticed quite a few people actually did have the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. A friend of mine even used his to play music - something I had never considered doing on the phone, despite the name of the model - while we driving from Zunheboto to Kohima. Sadly, before we even got halfway there, the battery had died.
I quite like the term 'burner' for an old phone - it comes from US drug-dealer slang and refers to the fact that it's a phone so disposable that you can dump when you're on the run. I like using this terminology for my phone entirely because I haven't got around to disposing of it for 6 years and is still working well.
ReplyDeleteAlthough perhaps I will start referring to it as a feature phone!