Well, Rogers Mobile has some special sales on now to introduce their Ignite Unlimited wireless. Although we have been a customer for decades, up till now we have had only one wireless phone.
We started out with a bag phone which only worked in the car if you plugged it into the cigarette lighter. In the late 90s, we got a portable and (for the time) compact candy bar phone.
When we first moved to Almonte, Bell Canada technicians were on strike so we couldn’t get Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS.) The candy bar phone – which up until then had been for emergencies only – became our only telephone. Eventually, we got back to a wired phone and kept the wireless phone for the car, mostly.
Then Rogers switched to a new wireless protocol and we were forced to upgrade to a compact flip phone. Maria carried this in her purse until a couple of years ago. At that time many family members were communicating by text and she wanted to join in. The flip phone could send a text – but not if you valued your sanity. So we switched to a Samsung A5 smartphone and she has been happy with it.
We had a very restricted data program but that has changed recently with the new Rogers Ignite offers. It seemed a good time to add a second phone line to our account. After all, if one person has the smartphone it isn’t possible for the other one to text anybody – now is it?
With all the computer power around here I had been reluctant to add another one, but I finally weakened and got another Samsung smartphone – this time an A50. It was cheaper than the A5 but given the progress of technology, it is just as capable.
A lot of folks use a smartphone to replace their PC and camera but I don’t think I’ll be doing that. The smartphone can surf the web but who wants to play games or watch YouTube on a 6-inch display when you have a 24-inch one? As far as the camera goes, it is quite capable of shooting selfies or snapshots. It even has a pretty good wide-angle capability. The above shot where Oates is hogging my computer chair was made with the smartphone.
However, the camera has zero telephoto possibilities without using digital cropping. There is no viewfinder which I use all the time in bright light. And I don’t see how the smartphone would have the storage or battery capacity to take a couple of hundred holiday pics. So my camera will be coming along whenever I go on a trip or want to do some serious photography.
That said, I have been pleasantly surprised with the performance of this A50 Android phone. I think I’ll mostly use it for text and talk but it’ll be OK to check something on the Net when I’m on the go. Many places have Wifi available so I won’t need to burn a lot of my mobile data either. I’m happy.
