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I'm just back from a holiday which included dropping my phone and cracking the screen. The phone is a UMI Super which has served me very well, with the exception of a spotty GPS. However I found myself with a very real problem. The crack was across the top right corner of the screen about 1/2 an inch in from the top. It had the unfortunate side effect rendering the whole right hand side of the screen 1/2 an inch in unresponsive. This prevented me from unlocking the phone with the PIN (the fingerprint scanner on the back worked fine, however I forgot that I had set the phone to shut down during the night and it requires the PIN when the phone wakes up).
This effectively left me without a phone for the remainder of the trip and while I will get the screen replaced and continue to use the phone, I'm also considering getting a backup feature phone, or another smartphone, or when I change phone in the future move to a feature phone entirely.
In examining what I was missing out with the loss of the phone, I realise I only use it to message (the very odd call), Internet, Navigation and Netflix. However, with Netflix now allowing downloading of many shows, I can use a tablet better for this, and I can consider using a phone with hotspot for streaming and messaging.
What feature or smartphones do you suggest as a move away from large flagship devices? I have unlimited 4G data and am living in Ireland. My understanding is that most feature phones are aimed at the older generation (large buttons, loud speakers etc) and not for "I just don't want something that breaks easily" people. Budget is in the 100-150€ range, though I will entertain more expensive devices if the recommendation comes with good reasons.
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Thursday August 10 2017, @02:36PM (2 children)
Most of what you describe sounds fantastic but
To be clear, you still have to ask their permission to unlock it?
(I don't understand the phrase "book unlocked".)
(Score: 2) by Techwolf on Sunday August 13 2017, @08:15AM (1 child)
Cell phone slang. "Unlock" mean it is not locked to any carrier, very common for contract phones to be locked to the carrier where the monthly price is use to pay for the phone, often at inflated prices.
"Boot Unlock" This is where the phone manufacture will either unlock or comes not boot locked in the first place. This allows one to re-flash the boot image, call "recovery" images. In the PC world, this is considered the BIOS. When the phone is boot locked, trying to replace the recovery software will fail in several different ways, including actually bricking the phone.
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Sunday August 13 2017, @02:04PM
OK I follow you now. I wasn't quite able to resolve the typo book -> boot.
So you still need their permission to root it. What is your guarantee that they won't change their mind later? Or have other tentacles of control left behind?
Either the hardware is 100% obedient to me or I don't want it. I don't let machines tell me what I can and can't do.
Yes I know that is getting extremely hard to find.