Yea, browser was pretty bad on BB9 and bellow, but seems ok on BB10. And i guess you can also replace the browser. I'm wondering about their new models. If they would release an similar "Classic" version for 2015, would be nice.

@wizisi2k, well, the price it was implied, as i would not cry for breaking an $10 phone. I honestly think that manufacturers should work more in providing sturdier products, or, if they don't want to do that, they should have a big sticker on every phone that screams "YOU DROP IT, IT MIGHT BREAK!".

At least in my country, phones have big problems as far as warranties goes. If you have a problem on your phone, but you were unfortunately to scratch it a little bit in a corner or something like it, the store might refuse to repair the phone, as it will assume that you drop the phone, as it is entitled in doing so. And that's a problem that was not present on older models, as they were more sturdy. An minor scratch can make the store refuse the reparation of your device as it was "mechanically shocked".

they're dumb

Don't know about smartphones, I'm using an older Nokia model that cleanly falls apart on impact with the ground. Then you just pick up the pieces (cover + body + battery), put them together and everything is fine.

They're FAR too expensive for what they are/do. I don't understand people paying what they'd spend on a gaming PC on a stupid little "smartphone"! (Same idjets, often, who say PC gaming is so expensive...)

And you don't really own them despite all that money. All the bullshit lock-in. "Rooting/Jailbreaking" shouldn't have to be a thing. And the horrific "walled garden" / "app store" mentality. Etc. Etc.

And then there's the trend of the damned things getting bigger and bigger. They don't even fit in pockets anymore!

...you're completing tasks AT work...while waiting for your ride to get TO work...
Look, I know you guys are the all-powerful meta beings of GOG and all that, but it's not exactly like you can be in two places at once, y'know. Y'all haven't ascended to some form of-
*feels tap on shoulder*
...
Now, you stop that.

Easy there, traitor boy. We don't need you being in 4 places at once. You need to be nerfed as it is already.

I skipped over buying an laptop for my job. I simply use my phone for tasks that i would have used an laptop. I rely a lot on checking documentation, doing google searches and receiving and replying e-mails. Also, my camera, yea, forgot where i put it, as i don't need it anymore. I rarely take photos, but i need to sometimes, no need in doing the whole "oh, my camera batteries are draining after 2 photos" dance. And yea, it can also save your life. Two years ago got stuck in the snow on an empty road, didn't knew too well where i was, everything was snow around me. I was able to check my exact position using my phone. Luckily for me, i managed to get out faster than the people from emergency came, but i'm bet that some other people were in a similar situation.

Long story short, i don't agree with you. I find them very useful for everyday tasks. Now, i agree that some of them are damn expensive. I would never pay the full price for devices that go at $800 or something like that, i find them too expensive. But with an $20 plan that i would have payed anyway, i got the phone at $200 instead of $500, so i'm fine with that.

On the other hand, i'm not into entertainment on phone. I hate playing games, watching videos or listening music. That's why i was saying that Blackberry did the job well. And i'm really surprised that there are no more phones like those, as i can't believe that there is not a market for them. Production value would be lower, as you would not need a huge screen, and also, the hardware would not have to be able to run all the flashy games. Just simple, do-your-tasks, sturdy phones, where you are not annoyed by having to type on a screen or you are not afraid that you droped your phone down and it's ruined now.

I own a 4" smartphone that slips from my hand 2-3 times/ day and still looks pristine and works great. One day the vibration stopped working and when I was ready to order a new vibration motor from eBay to change it myself (warrantly expired), slipped again and the vibration worked again. I tell you this thing heals by itself!

As far as protection goes, I use just a silicone case that's very slim but seems to protect the phone at least from falls.

I didn't know they are fragile. The smartphones I've seen have been thrown around and dropped to ground etc. lots of times, and they still work fine. The only one which took some damage was one cheapo Samsung phone where there is a tiny, almost invisible, crack on the edge of the screen as it dropped to concrete ground just at the right angle. It seems to be just a cosmetic thing though, the phone and its screen still work fine.

I still think it is a good idea to buy one of those flip-wallets for the phone if it is a pricier model, that would have saved that (cheapo) Samsung too from any harm.

What I dislike about (at least Android) phones is that they always seem to run out of space. Whenever I check someone's phone, it usually can't install updates because there is too little free room on the device.

I check the storage from options, and usually the external microSD card is almost empty, but the internal memory is full. Most apps can't be transferred to the external memory and those which can seem to yield quite little extra space. Then when I inspect them further, it seems all those stupid social media apps that people have installed consume gigabytes of memory for cache and such.

I wish Android phones would use that external memory more efficiently, by default. Why do they try to cram everything in the tiny internal memory?

This reminds me of a comedy clip I once saw ages ago.

---
A man walks into a camera shop and tells the clerk in a slightly high pitched voice "I am looking for a camera a moron could use!"

The clerk hand the man a simple looking camera "This is a very fine model, easy to use and ver..." at that point the clerk is interrupted because the man smashed the camera to the ground and breaks it.

Clerk: "Why did you do that?!"

Man: "I just told you I'm a moron!"
---

Smartphones, Tablets. While very common these days are still complicated high-tech gadgets with a gazillion of functions. They are not meant to be dropped and we can be thankful that they are durable enough to survive something like that sometimes. I dropped mine too once (the last time I trusted the belt clip) and lucked out. If it had been broken by that I would be the only one to blame.

I've seen a phone where the storage space was so small, it couldn't install the detected updates even with just the default system, and when I had uninstalled everything that could be. Can't remember which model it was though. Thankfully, that extreme low-end of internal memory is disappearing (in my experience), as manufacturers are increasingly removing the SD card slot and thus relying solely on built-in storage (mostly fairly high-end models, but even lower-end seem to get increased storage).

That's what i'm trying to say, i don't think that you should be so much to blame if your MOBILE device breaks at a simple shock like that. That's the point with all these devices. You carry them around all the time. That's their point. You will drop them, you will wet them, they shouldn't crack if you drop them in the wrong angle.

It's all about confidence. I'm confident in my Kindle as much as i was in my Blackberry phone. I can drop this things, they are perfectly for using them outside your house. But with my smartphone, i need to be a little bit careful.

As a story, a while back, i was in a bar, had an Nokia 1100. one guy that i barely knew comes up to me, ask me if he can borrow my phone to give a phone call, i gave it to him, just to go search for him after a while as he didn't came back. It was gone, figured out he stole my phone, so i go to police, mostly because i wanted the contacts, as the phone was cheap.
Managed to identify him, as he was known as phone thief in their database, so we go at his apartment.
Now, when he saw the police, he thought to get rid of the "evidence", so he throw my phone on the window. He stayed at second floor and down it was concrete. Whatever, he said what he did, we found the phone in parts, battery, and back cover separated from the phone, i put them together, the phone was perfectly fine.

Now, of course, i'm not expecting a modern piece of technology to survive from an 2nd floor drop, but i think that expecting it to survive from a pocket-level drop it's not so crazy.

I hate the way all smart phones have all kinds of buttons around the edges. You can never pick the damn thing up without it doing things because you cannot help pressing those buttons!