Choosing a phone can be a daunting task, because you have so many options and you only have a small window to regret and change your decision if need be. However, sometimes you get lucky and you end up choosing a fantastic phone that you end up being happy with for the entire duration of its use - which ends up being about 2 years for a lot of people. Those are the phones that build up expectations for future devices, and are the ones that probably made us so interested in this industry in the first place. So let’s take a moment to think about those devices that made the best lasting impression on us.
I feel like every phone made a pretty big impact on me in some way, shape, or form. Even some of my worst phones managed to keep me interested in the sense that if it weren’t for them, I would have never had the desire to figure out how to make a phone operate more smoothly, quickly, or have longer battery life by way of rooting and flashing. Then again, in hindsight, those phones also caused a lot of unnecessary headaches between the fact that they didn’t run as ideally as I had hoped and messing up while learning the process of rooting.
When I think of my best smartphone experiences, I think of two different ones. The first one is my HTC EVO 4G. I think this was the first device that actually managed to replace every other electronic that I carried around with me on a daily basis. I was so impressed by the 8-megapixel camera, the ability to carry so much storage, and the fact that it was one of the first devices to use 4G speeds (the considerably slower WiMax, but it was still a pretty big deal) made it so I didn’t feel like I needed an extra camera, an mp3 player, or even my computer sometimes. Plus, the kickstand on the back of the device proved to be pretty handy given that it seemed like such a large device at the time (and a total joke now, but seriously - can we get those kickstands to come back? I feel like we could really use them now). My EVO was my sidekick for quite some time, and definitely made a lasting impression.
My second best experience would probably have to be my iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S completely changed my negative outlook on iPhones in general. The release of the iPhone 4S also marked the release of the iPhone being sold for Sprint customers. Up until that point, we grew so defensive of Android that we (that is, other employees that worked in my store with me at Sprint) that we were rather unwilling to part with those ideals. Even as a Sprint customer, you can imagine: you walk into a Sprint store to consider service, ask why you should choose Sprint over AT&T, who has the iPhone. The Sprint rep then tells you why Android is so much better than the iPhone, and why Sprint’s lineup of Androids are so great - not because it really was, because there’s no clear winner, but simply because we couldn’t offer the iPhone. A couple years later? Bam. iPhone. We lied. We like the iPhone. But we had sunk those ideals about Android in so much that we started to believe it.
I decided to take the leap and get the iPhone anyway, because we weren’t really that “trained” on iOS, and I ended up falling in love with the platform. So, that was kind of eye-opening.
As I said, though, I had a lot of phones that are worth remembering in my mind - I would say most of them. But when it comes to the two that I would for sure get again if I were able to go back in time, it would be the EVO 4G and the iPhone 4S.
Readers, what phones would you 100% get again if you had the chance to go back and change? Let us know yours in the comments below!
Images via Gotta Be Mobile, Tech Crunch
