Two Decades of Mobile Phones
OnePlus 10T
Duration - April 2018 to March 2021
Price - Rs 55k
Samsung S21
Duration - April 2021 to October 2022
Price - Rs 56k
Latest phone, a very short ownership
Like the cameras slightly better than S9. Battery performance is just good, I don't know why Samsung has so poor battery even in their flagships. It heats a little bit, hope Shweta does not read this. She does not like Samsungs because of the heating issue and if I tell her this one too heats, probably I will never see a Samsung ad itself, leave the phone. :)
I will add more as per my experience with this phone.
As of now, I am pretty happy. The display is amazing, it has the latest Android with OneUI 3.0. Lots of customization options for example I can add my video or picture in the calling window. Terrific !!!
Update:
This is probably my last Samsung phone because of my latest experience. We went to WonderLa with one of our friends who had iPhone. Just to show the power of waterproofing, I kept this in my pocket while I was in the waterpark. Sadly it didn't hold its waterproffing and stopped working. The behavior is so weird, it powers up and it shows the booting screen but does not show the home screen. It charges fully, it vibrates and even rings while the phone is not locked. Ultimately I had to replace it with OnePlus after a very short ownership.
Samsung S9
Duration - April 2018 to March 2021
Price - Rs 58k
The best phone I ever used. Light is weight, Sleek, Top-notch hardware, beautiful design, Oximeter.
It is copied as it is by Oneplus 7 pro as it is. Imitation is the best form of flattery.
I captured so many beautiful memories with this phone. It was put to maximum usage for its oximeter in one year of the Corona pandemic.
Although it has the perennial issue of heating. I kept this phone for complete three years and I can vouch it is one of the best phones.
It has wireless charging. The only thing I don't like about Samsung phones is that they don't give the Snapdragon processor in India.
LG G5
Best highlight - Modular phone
Another beautiful gift from Shweta. As my frustrations with my S4 were growing, Shweta was also not happy with my continuous cribbing about the battery and heating. She finally decided to buy a new phone for me and on Dashahera when we were out for some shopping. We saw this phone in eZone in Jainagar. I immediately fell in love with the concept of a modular phone. It had a detachable battery which could be charged in a charging outside the phone. It also had an additional battery. They provided a Camera phone attachment that could convert this phone into a proper camera. It had a dual-camera setup with a wide-angle camera.
Customization of the display is on the top of the list for me. I rate the phones very highly if they let me change the wallpapers, theme, font and colors. on that front, I was very happy with this phone.
Unfortunately on 13 Feb 2018, I dropped this phone and its screen was broken. I got it replaced but it never worked the same. The charm was lost, typical human.
I will always love this phone for the modular concept. It's a shame that this concept didn't pick up.
Samsung S4
Duration - October 2013 to October 2017
Price - Rs 35k
First Android, First Flagship
This phone had everything you can imagine. It had a flag cover which had a small transparent window to display the name and phone no. Once again amazing work by Samsung, they always keep usability on top of their preferences.
It performed really well for a very long time but in its last days, the battery started giving many issues. it was heating. The Camera used to crash.
I bought a battery replacement.
Just before traveling to Srilanka I bought an additional battery which probably was spurious and my phone shut down in Srilanka. I could not take any pictures there. Most frustrating moments. It was 15th August 2017.
I came back and decided to replace the phone.
Overall I was very happy with this phone. It was an excellent phone.
HTC Desire V
Duration - June 2012 to October 2013
Price - Rs 25k
Rahul bhai had bought a HTC phone which was a Windows phone having a stylus. It could sync with the calendar and show the weather on its home screen. I was very fascinated with that phone. I had a very good impression of HTC phones. The weather and big clock of HTC is still iconic in my view.
I bought HTC phone due to that impression. This phone for the first time had a RAM of 512 mb. Samsung had introduced a huge range of phones by that time but I still chose this one.
This was the worst phone ever. I was highly unsatisfied with it and made a move to Samsung very soon.
https://www.gsmarena.com/htc_desire_v-4805.php
Samsung F480
Duration - May 2009 to June 2012
Price - Rs 15k
This was my last feature phone because by that time iOS and Android had started making big waves in the mobile market. Nokia's decline had started and many other phone companies had started choosing sides for Android and Windows.
This phone had a leather flap to save the screen from scratches. I really liked that. It also had maps but there was no GPS in the phone and it used to identify the location by tower triangulation only. Samsung had given its own OS to this phone which was similar to early Android. I was pretty satisfied even though people around me had much advanced phones
Weirdly again I didn't have FM in this phone too.
Remember it was no the days of Gaana, Saavn, Spotify so music was only available either by loading the songs or through FM. That's why I am mentioning FM again and again.
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_f480-2268.php
Samsung SGH D900
Duration - June 2008 to May 2009
Price - Rs 10k
Just before traveling to UK I bought my next phone and a second Samsung. I liked Samsung phones for their displays, smooth build and beautiful designs. Samsung had started on a very strong ground of its beautiful but functional phones. Other compatriates at that time like Nokia, Sony, benQ, LG, MIcromax were lagging in that area.
The best thing about this phone which I can never forget was when I was in India, it had a wallpaper of Tajmahal but when I landed in UK the wallpaper turned into BigBen. How cool was that!!! So many thoughts put in a small phone.
It was a slider-type phone with a nice keypad. It had a decent camera for those days. Overall a decent and different phone.
I didn't have FM on this phone.
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_d900-1587.php
Sony Ericsson K750
Duration - February 2007 to June 2008
Price - Rs 7500
This was a gift from Shweta on my birthday in 2007.
As I was using a very basic phone Shweta always wanted to gift me a very nice phone. She bought it from Big Bazar in Jainagar which is opposite to Central. In those days Central was not there.
It was a very nice phone. Sony Ericsson launched Sony Walkman phones during that time and it was not a Walkman series phone so I had some weird feeling about it. Tinki had SE K750i which was kind of the next version of it.
The display screen was pretty small and the phone was more focused on Music. The main difference in mine and Tinki's was that I didn't have FM in my phone.
It was little thick as well.
https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_k750-1090.php
Transition State
This is the time when I used multiple Mobiles for short durations. I used
LG Basic CDMA phone
Motorola V3i
Nokia 3600
Motorola E365
Duration May 2004 to July 2005
Price - Rs. 10000 (Borrowed Rs. 5000 from Santosh)
When I lost my Sony phone my TAFE area manager gave me one of his phones. It was a Sony Ericsson phone which I carried for the next 2-3 months. Once I was in Kolkatta I bought my best phone which was a color screen phone. It was such a beautiful display that I was switching it on and off that whole day. The loading screen had red green blue yellow colors and it was just amazing.
This was the first phone which had a camera, it had MMS support. It had connectivity with the laptop/PC.
MMS in those days was supported by very few phones and even it took some time for the networks(like BSNL) too to support it. It also had support for video call. In summary, it was the flagship phone in those times.
Fun fact the internal storage size in this phone was 2 MB
This phone too could not live its full life as it fell into Daal which Shweta was eating and then it could not boot again ever.
Sony J5
Duration - Nov 2002 to March 2004
Price - Rs. 10000 approx
This was my first phone. So many memories associated with it. My mom bought it for me in November 2002 when I was traveling to Chennai to join TAFE. We bought it from Halwasiya Market in Hazratganj Lucknow. Back in those days, it was so difficult to find a good shop for a mobile phone. Even in Ganj, which is the posh market in Lucknow, we had to struggle to find a good phone. It was a black and white display phone having a physical scrolling button. We selected it because Sony was a premium name in those days. Frankly, we didn't know much about mobile phones also. We took Essar SIM which was one of the mobile networks at that time.
There is one very good video on YouTube for this phone.
It had ringers that were very low in volume but they were very nice to the ears. It was the time when Nokia 3310 was super hit. It was a legendary Nokia phone. My friend Vikas was having that and we used to compare the phones so many times. He was very proud of his Nokia and so was I for my Sony.
But he had a sheer advantage with his Snakes game and typical Nokia Ringtones.
Unfortunately, I lost the phone when I was traveling from Cuttack to Niyali. The phone was in my shirt's pocket and on a speed breaker we jumped and I dropped it. I realized after some time and we went back to that spot but it was gone.
I was very sad when I lost and I didn't tell my mom for a very long time.