[Mashiro]

"Dumb phones" sounds like a dumb term for this, IMHO. I guess only few remember that these days, but this kind of phones are simple and normal cell phones while the toys we have nowadays are smartphones.

I had a few normal 15 € - 25 € Samsung cell phones. They were very good in general. Battery lasted very long. Even had a color screen. Normal keypads and no touchscreen. It just did all the basics I needed. Calls, text messages and alarm.

Let me show you a picture real quick:



I said "I had..". For the price the phones are totally ok but there was usually one problem. After a year or so it seemed like the battery got tad bit smaller in terms of physical size. Or something else in the battery tray happened. So the phone just went off randomly. Battery tested and it was totally ok. Later I noticed that it lost contact because it was flexing away from the contacts. This got quite annoying... I had a trick that worked to keep it in place properly though. It involved the end of a toothpick being jammed between the battery and case on the other side. So it would press the battery against the contacts properly without damaging anything.

After a while though I was tired of always having two phones with me. That's where I ended my journey with these phones. I don't use my smartphone much anyway. Usually only at work while at home its idling on the desk.