2021-02-07 - Three Phones!

To the amusement of my wife, children, and others, I'm currently juggling 3 mobile phones. My iPhone 7 has gone the way of my wife's iPhone 8 before it... battery death where it shuts down by itself reasonably often. Unfortunately this makes it not so good as a way to be contactable. A bunch of iffy battery stuff was part of a special service program for these phones, and my wife's 8 was repaired under that. I've not bothered with my 7 though, as it is older, the symptoms are a bit different, plus that program has ended.

Since we are still in the midst of the pandemic, and we are very carefully avoiding going out and about (due to helping out a vulnerable relative), it seems a bit much to splash out $100s on a new phone right now. The clock would be ticking on the battery and security updates, so may as well hold on for 6 months! I ordered a $39 lightly used 4G flip phone to take care of the 'phone' functions I rarely need, and am now rocking...

An Alcatel Go Flip 3, for phone and text. It's also actually a pretty good 4G<->WiFi hotspot... faster than my iPhone was. It also has passable Google maps for emergencies.

A 2017 vintage Moto G-something running a Lineage ROM with no Google services. It still has awesome battery life, but the GPS and cell antenna are bust. However, it works great on WiFi and satisfies my craving for email, the web, mastodon etc. around the house using only apps from F-Droid.

An iPhone 7 that is okay for work related authenticator apps and a couple of things that are not F-Droid-able. I just have to keep it >80% charged.

The flip phone is only really so I have something to reliably receive or make calls the few times I am out and about. Am thinking I'll survive this state of affairs until vaccinations have happened and we can visit the outside world more regularly. Not sure what I'll do then, though. I could...

Attempt to fix my iPhone with a $29.99 iFixit battery kit. I'll probably manage to break it somehow :-)

Attempt to fix my Moto phone with a new $8 antenna signal cable.

Try to fix both of them, and end up being able to keep work and personal stuff completely separate.

Buy something new.

Give it all up and join the Amish.

Time will tell... I'm leaning toward giving into my free software tendencies, and having the Moto or a new phone running non-Googled Lineage as my main device. I'm fairly sure my roughly 5 year period of buying Apple products on and off has come to an end. I don't like the sheer hostility toward repair, which seems to be escalating periodically. Also, by now my phones and computers have become good enough not to want to pay for anything newer. I don't need anything faster than my iPhone 7, and it seems the cheapest new Apple option now is an SE at $399.

This has been far too much thought about phones. Clearly reflecting that I am not a normal person :-)

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