The Meat Life presents: I Want a New Phone

Volume I – Intro

Every so often, I feel the need for a new phone. By every so often I mean once a year, and by need I really mean want. I don’t know how it started. Maybe it was back when the cell companies used to have 1-year contracts (man, I miss those). Or maybe I just love new toys…ahem…I mean new useful devices I need.

Cell phones have seemed to grow into more than just a calling device. The evolution into a multimedia multitasking machine in the palm of your hand is quite remarkable. I remember my first cell phone my freshman year of college. I forget what model it was, but it was that Nokia phone everyone had back in the day in ‘01. That tank of a phone, the damn thing would survive almost anything. Back then I only had a calling plan on a joint account with my parents. SMS texting was available back then, but not a lot of people really did it and wasn’t really practically financially (or so I’m told).

You guys know the progression from there. Texting became popular, hell they used to have two-way pagers (back when people used to have pagers). Once that caught on cell companies found ways to make the cell phone cooler…adding cameras (man I remember those early cameras sucked), then someone had a great idea to combine the PDA and the cell phone in one device, then add music and video capabilities, and then finally the internet. Nothing makes the cell more of a usefully tool and a wasteful distraction quite like the internet.

Now if a cell phone doesn’t have picture/video/organizational/internet capabilities, it is not a cell phone. Remember when phones were used to call people? Our short attention spans require more access to more media at a time. I’m as guilty as anyone. Why else would I have ESPN text alerts?

I started to look at phones and became overwhelmed. What do I want in a phone? What do I want it to look like? Since I’m on a family plan with the wifey, I need to think about getting her a new phone too (otherwise it wouldn’t be fair, now would it?).

So to conclude this introduction, I’m going to list specifically what I want out of my new phone. If you want, you can respond on suggestions or phones you have. Next time I update this thing, I’ll go through some of the phones I’ve been looking at and what I’m leaning toward. If you have been looking at my Facebook updates you will know a few of the phones I’ve been looking at.

What the Meat wants in his new phone:
The Basics – Every cell should already have
- Good call quality
- Clear speakerphone
- Easy texting ability
- Mp3 ringtone capability
The Extras – What I gotta have
- Above average camera with video
- Solid internet browser
- Easy to use email app
- Touchscreen preferably
The Specifics – The look and feel
- Compact size
- Sleek design
- Cool factor

So I guess that’s all I want in a phone. I’m not sure what would suffice. I’ve gotten a lot of recommendations so far from Blackberry to iPhones. We’ll see. Next volume will go over my shopping process and realizing what I really want out of a phone.


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