I’ve been a late adopter of cellphones. I got my first in 1997 and since then I’ve had three. My latest has been dying a slow painful death over the last few months so last week I got a new phone, an LG Versa, pictured at left.
In the past I’ve found changing phones a rather traumatic experience. Each phone seems to have its very own idiosyncratic personality. I can’t help but think that pride of authorship tends to overwhelm commonsense in cellphone user interfaces.
So far I’ve found the transition fairly pain-free. I’ve reprogrammed my contacts into the new phone (the old one didn’t support any sort of automatic exchange). The touchscreen is fabulous—a great look and feel. Indeed, the keyboard feel of the touchscreen is better than the actual keyboard feel was on my old phone.
I haven’t tried any of the multi-media capabilities of the Versa yet. One step at a time.
“I got my first in 1997 and since then I’ve had three.”
And that makes you a _late_ adopter? Good grief, man – I got my first one two years ago, and while I don’t work in IT or anything, I’m not exactly a Luddite. 1997 was still pretty early in the cell phone era.
Early adopters started using cellphones from 1978 on. I know people who had cellphones (they looked not unlike WWII walkie-talkies) in 1980.
OK, but there’s still a lot of room between “early adopter” and “late adopter.” In my view, if you’ve ever used a cell phone that could double as a paperweight, you’re not a late adopter.
G4 gave that phone a decent review, although the question did come up, as far as the detachable keyboard, “Where the hell do you put it when you aren’t using it?!” The other concern was the fact that the part of the keyboard piece that attaches to the phone is actually the back plate of the phone, and leaving it off exposes the back of the phone to the elements.
Personally, I prefer my LG Voyager, because it has a permanently attached keyboard that flips out, and the phone has an outside touchscreen, and an inside regular screen, both about the same size.