The value of looking up

About 18 months ago, my iPhone decided to quit life and leave me phoneless. Unfortunately, this was 2 days before Christmas so funds were tight but due to being away from the office for the next week, I needed to replace it with something cheap. With that I proceeded to ask Twitter what I should do and like a flash, @JonChoo gave me a solution. The Sony Ericsson Xperia 8. On his advice, I went out and bought one.

This phone (yes, I’m using it right now) is a piece of junk. Not only when compared to the iPhone but to every smartphone I’ve ever seen. Hardly any apps work on it and those that do, more often than not haven’t been optimised for such a small screen so some controls might fall out of view and/or out of reach. Not only do apps struggle to function, I only really have room for about 4 due to not being able to install to the SD card. Oh and don’t get me started on the battery life…

Does any of the above bother me? Not really. It did at first but these days I spend more time looking up, looking at the real world, rather than looking down at my phone.

If I go out for the day, or even just an evening, I turn it off altogether because the battery will die if I leave it on (yes I know how to switch off background data etc.)  and I might find I need it.

So as much as I complain about my phone, the reason I haven’t replaced it with something better is that I’ve learned to appreciate the value of looking up.

I’m sure you know exactly what I mean…