How does shifting from dumbphones to smartphones feel like in 2021?
So, it has been a month since I shifted from my care-taking feature phone to a smartphone that has some serious qualities of a mini-computer in pocket. The impact of the ship-jumping is significant and here is how.
The first and obvious impact that I have noticed is the immersive reading experience that a smartphone provides. Previously, I could only read a fraction of texts by copying them from the computer and pasting them in my FB group only to retrieve it via Opera Mini. With a bigger screen and coupled with Moon+ Reader Pro, reading a book has never been easy and captivating. One can skim through different pages by just pressing the volume rockers and during reading, the screen does not turn off. Finding meanings of the difficult words is just a tap away, thanks to the amazing offline multilingual dictionary Dictbox that provides meanings instantly.
This thing is an absolute blessing when it comes to writing stuff. Although initially, words came out from this device in a seriously ridiculous manner, owing to the typing mistakes that occurred while typing on a virtual keyboard for I have been typing through a physical keyboard for almost a decade. But writing a little article like this is way easy as compared to my care-taking partner.
Another area this phone shines is in its camera department. Although it is two years old but it can still take stunning shots if the right mode is used in the right time. (As you may have already seen some samples of it in Facebook) Also, preserving memories is way easy as the backup and sync directly happens on the device itself.
Most people use smartphones as entertainment devices but in my opinion, they are mini-computers, capable of little productive tasks. An average smartphone-like mine can be an article writing machine just like a computer but with some minor tweaks and relevant apps. Or it can be a resources collector for any project of your likings or according to your needs.
The internet connectivity on this phone is fascinating and challenging simultaneously. 4G speeds eat the GBs away in seconds! That’s why I have downgraded to 3G as this brings reasonable speeds without threatening swiftness that is “expected” from a 4G connection.
Lastly, I would like to end this article by enlisting some of the handy apps that may assist you in your day-to-day routines:
1. Google Keep: seamless syncing of notes and drafts between computers and smartphones
2. Microsoft OneNote: An electronic notebook for your academic needs.
3. Moon+ Reader: A feature-packed book reader
4. Article Reader: An app that preserves articles offline for you to read later.
5. Internet Speed Meter Lite: Displays real-time network bandwidth usage in status bar in case if your phone does not support this feature natively.
6. Opera Mini: Just to save some MBs
7. Snapseed: For some minor photo editing
8. Smart App Lock: To lock apps individually by PIN or Pattern in case if your phone does not support this crucial feature natively.
9. Gboard: Because Samsung Keyboard sucks!
10. DictBox: an awesome offline multilingual dictionary
11. Infinity: A light-weight client for browsing Reddit
But in the midst of this amazing device, we shouldn’t forget about our old care-taking companions that served us beyond their limits. Hats off to my Nokia 225 and 1100 because if I am writing this lengthy but messy piece of text, now, that’s because it gradually developed through my Snapper (Nokia 225)!
