Tag: phones

Mid Summer Update 2026

I find it difficult to write which is why I don’t post often besides the monthly BAJOAT updates on this website. Sometimes I’ll have an idea for a post but by the time I get to write about it that idea isn’t as compelling or I forgot to document parts of a project so anything I write won’t do it justice so I don’t. My perfectionism is really procrastination in the end and has been my life long battle. It’s something I’m aware of and working on – hence this post apropos the bits and pieces of things that have been going on with me this summer that I’m forcing myself to write about.

Shoe Retirement

I’ve been wearing a pair of Brooks Glycerin 15 running shoes when I walk or run to do errands for the last 2 years. I got them for free from my mom who had in turn received them from an elderly person who was getting a new pair of shoes. That elderly man died about 6 months later by which time I had not yet even tried them on. So I always referred to them as my “Dead Man’s Shoes”. They were in used but good condition still and I had never had a pair of Brooks shoes before. They quickly became my favorite pair. They were extremely comfortable and kept cool especially on hot summer days which is important as my feet sweat a lot. They originally retailed at $150 ($175 after tax thereabouts) which explains my lack of experience in regards to Brooks. Overall they were a great pair of shoes that have survived multiple washes and hundreds of miles so if I ever find a similar pair for under $40 (or in the garbage ideally) I will definitely go for that brand again. Sadly they died about a week ago when I finally wore holes (cracks) in both shoes from use.

RIP Brooks Glycerin 15 20XX to mid 2026
Yes I did remove, wash and keep the laces.
Simultaneous cracks in the soles spelled the end for them.

New “Tablet”

My routine every night before I fall asleep is to watch videos on Youtube (or some similar streaming APP). When the tablet starts slipping out of my grip I know it’s time for bed. Since January of 2021 I’ve been using a Lenovo Smart Tab M10 that I paid $150.80 ($173.38) for that purpose.

I got my use out of it and we said our goodbyes on Ebay.

It fit my needs until about 8 months ago when it really began to show its age. It came with 2GB of ram which is just not enough to run even current mundane applications under Android 9 without substantial lag. It only had 32GB of storage which meant I couldn’t install many programs natively without triggering storage full warnings and had to force developer mode so I could transfer them to an external SD card (but even then problems persisted). The last straw was that the battery started showing inaccurate readings in regards to charging/capacity and would sometimes drop suddenly from 30-50% remaining to 3% then immediately shutdown thereafter. It’s a telltale sign that the battery is going bad so I knew I would have to find a replacement tablet soon.

I had been shopping around for a few months for a new tablet but there were just no deals that I could find. With the RAM and storage price surges due to A.I. driven demand even lowered spec consumer grade units (without what I consider significant performance upgrades over what I currently had) were outrageously priced.

What finally happened was that I impulsively purchased a Google Pixel 6 pro that was listed on Ebay as untested for $70 after shipping. It was a terrible idea in retrospect since so many things can go wrong with used cellphones besides hardware issues but I had convinced myself I could fix whatever problems the phone had. Plus I was just sick of shopping and it was clear tablets were nowhere to be had anyway.

The impulse purchase

New Kid On The Block

As it turns out the problem with the Google Pixel 6 pro I received was that it had a broken screen and digitizer. Luckily it wasn’t account locked too so I ordered a replacement screen from Amazon to get it functional again. I am now confident that it will the last cell phone screen that I will ever replace because it was a nightmare. The flatflex ribbon cable on the replacement screen was about 1CM shorter that the OEM one so it was almost impossible to install it properly to the motherboard without ripping the cable off the replacement screen. In addition to that you had to secure the cable to the motherboard with 2 micro screws and I managed to drop one on the ground while doing the installation. It took 15 minutes to find that damn screw and in the process I almost had a mental breakdown. When the screen was actually installed I had to secure it to the phone body with some black glue that would create a waterproof membrane while sticking it down. The glue oozed absolutely everywhere and whatever membrane that was supposed to form when it dried sadly did not occur. Luckily the case hides the botched job so you can’t notice it.

Cons & Pros of my new Google Pixel 6 Pro

Cons

  1. The replacement screen I installed did work however it had a greenish tint instead of the proper deep black that was supposed to be displayed on a dark screen. I was thoroughly pissed off but the Amazon seller ended up refunding me the money I paid for the replacement screen because of the error.
  2. I messed up the screen installation so the phone itself isn’t pretty but the case hides it.
  3. It took a few hours to get used to going from a 10″ screen to 6″7 plus the green tint was bothersome at first but now I hardly notice.

Pros

  1. It was inexpensive. The Google Pixel 6 Pro ended up costing me $83 ($70 for the phone and $13 for the case).
  2. Although OS updates/upgrades will end in October 2026 it’s been upgraded to Android 17 which is significantly newer than the Android 9 I had been using on my Lenovo Tablet.
  3. Performance is noticeably better than the Lenovo M10. It has snappy performance and 12GB of Ram which is more than all but the highest end tablets currently on the market. It runs everything I’ve thrown at it without any lag or stutter. It also has 128GB of storage which means I won’t have the bottleneck issues with the OS anymore.
  4. The battery it came with was used but it had a large original capacity (5003 mAh) and I can still get a full day with light use or 8+ hours of streaming on it.
  5. The camera is fantastic (although irrelevant as it’s just a media streaming device currently). This means however that it can serve as a backup for my Google Pixel 6a if something ever happens to it.

Overall I’m happy with the outcome but the lesson to be learned here is that I got lucky and things could have gone wrong any number of ways.

Miscellaneous

Here is where I’m going to do the piddling updates that don’t require longer explanations.

  • It’s been a little over a year that I’ve been using my Google Pixel 6a and it’s a fantastic phone. I should have gotten a smart phone long ago because it’s proved to be an invaluable tool but my stubbornness not to have a phone got the best of me again.
  • The MAXWISDOM Model RS320 electric shaver purchased for $16 in October is still working fine. I cleaned the rotary heads this week because they had begun to clog up and it shaves like new again. It’s been 10 months so the cost per month is down to $1.60
  • I’m still using the Lenovo R500 and it’s had no issues besides being bulky. Linux Mint runs great on it and I’ve not run into any performance issues with the things I’ve done on it. I was hoping to upgrade at some point but things are a mess right now in the used computer market.

Anyway that’s it. Until next time.

Feature Phone Review – Nokia 3310 3G (2017)

Nokia 3310 3G (2017)
Nokia 3310 3G (2017) Back

Specifications: https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_3310_(2017)-8597.php

The Nokia 3310 3G is a feature phone that was released by HTC in 2017. It’s a re-imagining of the famous Nokia 3310 from the early 2000’s that was iconic for it’s durability and staying power. I’ve been using it full time since June but before that my mom had been using it for years so I have second hand experience with it that way as well. Consider this a long term review because of that.

Pros:

  • It’s a basic mobile phone that does basic mobile phone things like calls and SMS messaging competently. I’ve had no dropped calls while using it over the last months in various areas of my city.
  • Battery life is good. It has a 1200 mAh battery that is removable. The original battery had swollen but I replaced it with a aftermarket battery that is nearly identical in performance. You can charge it from empty to full in about 2 hours and from low to full in about 1 hour. My experience was having to charge it every 4-5 days for an hour with light use. The battery is easily replaceable and can be accessed by just popping off the back of the phone.
  • It makes a good digital music player (MP3 player) with its 3.5 MM jack, expandable storage (it takes up to 32 GB SDHC cards) and battery life. Transferring music files is as easy as plugging it into a computer and moving them with drag/drop into a folder (when plugged into a computer the Nokia 3310 will show up as a USB device under windows 10/11). It will not support advanced codecs like .FLAC, .ACC or Vorbis for example though.
  • One of the most underrated aspects of using a feature phone like the Nokia 3310 3G is the peace of mind you have owning one. It’s a functional tool. Nobody is going to mug you for this phone. You don’t have to treat it like you’re handling a piece of jewelry or a newborn babe. You throw it in your pocket and it’s there if you need it.
  • It’s small. It’s a little less than 5 inches long x 2 inches wide and half an inch thick and It will not bulge out of your pants pockets.

Cons:

  • It’s a basic phone so it can’t do any of the things you would expect from a modern smartphone like going on the internet and having common APPs because no software developer supports it.
  • It has bluetooth but it is terrible suffering from re-pairing/dropping almost every time you use it.
  • The build quality is plastic. Not cheap plastic mind you but still plastic. It doesn’t have the same brick like durability of its namesake either. As you can see from the photos above it picks up scuffs and scratches but I’ve never used a phone protector or screen protector on it either so it stands up reasonably well.
  • It is 2/3G only device. No LTE or 5G possible. This is a big problem for the phone functionality at least here in Canada since the last 3G carrier (Rogers) is sunsetting their service by March 31, 2025.
  • Video is not worth mentioning. 240p @ 8 FPS yuck.
  • The 2 MP camera sucks. Even under ideal lighting conditions photos were blurry and overexposed.

Conclusion

If i had to grade the phone on a 10 point scale I would give it a 5/10. If you know what you’re getting into with a feature phone it’s fine. You get used to it and there’s perks of not caring about a mobile device in your pocket. There are some definite limitations however but as long as you can get it cheap it’s a suitable product that will meet basic phone needs.

I need a new mobile phone

New mobile phones are awesome little machines. It has been surreal seeing them transform from portable landline to handheld computers that have shaped our world. The problem is that I’m poor so I’ve resisted buying one since they are so expensive to obtain but more importantly maintain.

My poverty has not changed for the better over the years but I did break down in July of this year (2024) and got one. The breaking point came for me when everything required having 2 factor authentication and that requires receiving a SMS text message (something a traditional landline is unable to do). I found myself unable to function normally and realized it was hurting me not having a mobile phone.

These concerns were voiced with my mom and she graciously gave me her disused and dust covered Nokia 3310 (2017). The battery was bloated and dead but an aftermarket one for $17 on Amazon gave it life anew. I coupled that with the cheapest prepaid/pay as you go plan I could find and thought I was finally done catching up to the modern world.

And as it turns out the Nokia 3310 (2017) is what is now referred to as a “Feature Phone”. My mom and I had been jokingly referring to it as a dumb phone for years but feature phone sounds much better to my pride. Feature phones for those that are unaware are phones considered basic or bare necessities. They can’t do any of the things that modern devices can but are simply there to receive phone calls and text messages. It turns out that all the features available to us today with modern smart phones can make people addicted or feel overwhelmed. As such a market has developed for simple devices that these people can use to help them conquer these problems. I think the Nokia 3310 (2017) is a fine phone in this regard and I plan on giving it a more thorough review later on.

The problem is that a Nokia 3310 (2017) is a 3G only device. Of course I had absolutely no idea what that meant at the time but there are apparently wireless bands that telecommunication companies use to provide service to their customers. 3G is considered the old standard whereas 5G is the one being used in Canada now (a newer and better standard apparently). Unbeknownst and unfortunately for me my carrier is sunsetting their 3G service in March of 2025 and will no longer be supporting devices in the 3G band by the end of that month. Nor will any other Canadian carriers be supporting it either.

That means in essence that in a few months time my new phone will basically be a brick. Wonderful.