I have been thinking about smartphones quite a lot lately. I own an Iphone 3gs, which is starting to slow down- not too much, but just enough that I know in a few months time it will become quite frustrating, and when my contract runs out in November I will definitely be looking for a replacement.
I love my phone, I really do, but the one thing I would improve (beside a better, longer-lasting battery), is a bigger screen size. I sat next to someone at a meeting last week who had a Samsung Galaxy S2. There was some silly debating going around the table about iphone vs. S2, but even though I love my iphone, the one thing that struck me was the gigantic and beautiful screen size of the S2, 4.3 inches vs. the iphone's 3.5 inches. I read lots of good reviews about the S2- it sounds like a brilliant phone. I think I could even switch from iOS to Android!!
I was walking around town, with all of this floating around my head, when I saw a big poster advertising the Samsung Galaxy Note. It's, in a word, GIGANTIC!!! It's marketed as half tablet, half phone. It certainly is a bigger device than my iphone, at 5.3 inches!! I googled this too, and it also seems great. And the TV adverts make it seem fantastic- you can use the stylus to snip things off websites and email to people or save as notes- brilliant for my chaotic mind! It even looks like it has a good calendar!! I would like an ipad eventually, but I don't want to carry it around with me, and I know I couldn't just whip it out to check something like I could with my little phone. And I don't want to carry 2 expensive devices around with me. The half phone, half tablet seems like a perfect solution!
But I think my brain is just going googoo over the prospect of getting a new gadget (read: toy!). I know that at first I would be in love with it, and may even forsake my filofax for it for a few weeks!! But eventually the novelty would wear off, and in a year and a half I would be looking for something new...
So I'm starting to think 'What do I need from my phone?' I love my filofaxes, and there are things that I could use my phone for but I don't, because I love writing in my filofaxes. So I made a table to see what I really need my phone for, and what type of phone I need. Do I really need one with all the bells and whistles?
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What do I use my phone for that I don't use
my filofax for?
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What do I use my filofax for that I don't
use my phone for?
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Calling people
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Calendar
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Texting people
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To-dos
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Taking photos
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Lists
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Checking my emails
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Reference information
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Surfing the internet
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Notes
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Contacts- majority
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Uni work organisation inc. dodo
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Apps, calculator, weather etc
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Important contacts
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Vital (uni blackboard system) when out and about
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The blue things are things that all phones can do. The yellow things are things that I need a better-than-standard phone for- i.e. a smartphone.
But do I really NEED a really fancy smartphone? Pretty much any smartphone can have apps nowadays, but I really want one with an OK camera (5mp would be good), and speed for internet access (mostly wifi) is essential. So do I need the all-singing, all-dancing Samsung Galaxy Note? Probably not. I use my filofax for a lot of things I could actually do on my phone, and probably other people actually do use their phones to organise their uni work etc. But I need to do it on paper, it works for me. So I don't need my phone to be fantastic for that. But some of the things the Note can do are just... COOL!!! But my sensible head switches on, and I ask myself 'Do I need to be able to snip a picture from a website and send it as an email to myself to remember to tell mum about it?' NO!! Just write it in my to-dos in my filofax!! 'Tell mum about the pretty picture on cutewebsite.com (or whatever)!'
So if I'm struggling with my organisation system (which I think I am), the solution is not going to be found by buying a VERY expensive phone, but by improving the way I use my filofax! That's something I've got to sort out over the next few months, definitely! Although I still may drool over the big glossy screens of the Samsung S2 and Note!!
