A new experience?
When hunting for my next phone in 2020, I wanted a new phone with a fresh experience. Well, even though I ended up with yet another Samsung phone, it certainly has been an experience…
Firstly, when I received the phone it came bundled with a free £150 gift card for the Play Store – which I duly used to purchase the Filmic Pro app, as well as other premium apps I was interested in but hasn’t yet bought.
Also bundled with my phone was a bunch of Samsung Members Boosts, which was mostly free trials to different services. I used almost all of them, so not only did I get a new phone but also a new experience with new-to-me apps as well.
With One UI 4.1, in March/April 2022, came the Smart Widgets. I discovered the feature by chance, and it looks like Samsung has taken a bite out of Apple’s iOS experience (pun intended), and created its own set of Smart Stack widgets.
An incredibly useful tool which means that even 1 year into owning this phone, mS21 is still providing a fresh new experience.
Bugs & annoyances
It’s hasn’t ways been plain sailing, however… as I’ve noted in my previous blogs in this “1 year milestone” mini series.
With all these issues, I’ve been left yearning for a better experience elsewhere. At the small & compact end of the smartphone market, there isn’t a great deal of choice, so if my experience doesn’t improve, I’m left pondering my poor choices.
The search for My Next Phone resulted in me choosing the Galaxy S21. It seemed like it was the best option out of all the phones I shortlisted. Was I wrong?
Let’s run through my other shortlisted phones from last year: the Pixel 4a seemed perfect, but didn’t come with any certified dust or water resistance so there was no way of knowing if it would survive my daily use.
UPDATE, AUGUST 2022: Recently, I thought I’d buy a preowned Pixel 4a just for the fun of owning one – but a recent search on eBay showed many listings of phones with water damage. Although I hated saying no to the Pixel 4a, maybe I was right after all…
The Pixel 5 was also not without its issues – the screen gap, incompatibility with various Qi chargers, and the phone burning itself during wireless charging – and the not-yet-released Pixel 6 seemed too big for my hands.
On the Samsung side, if I had gone with the Galaxy S20, maybe I would’ve been alright? Unfortunately, by the time I made my decision, the Galaxy S20 had stopped being made, and Samsung (and the phone market as whole) had moved onto its cheaper but much bigger replacement – the S20 Fan Edition.
If I wanted a new Samsung phone, I therefore had to choose between the S20 FE 4G or S20 FE 5G, or the Galaxy S21 family.
The S20 FE had issues all around, including the ghost touch screen bug, and as the S21 came with a smaller body & screen, I hoped Samsung had learnt its lesson with the new Galaxy S21 range.
Looking ahead to Year 2
I hoped the Galaxy S21, with its smaller form factor and improved specifications, would be my ticket.
In some ways, it has been.
In others, it hasn’t.
I hoped this would be my phone for the considerable future, especially with Samsung’s promise of 4 generations of OS updates.
But after the issues I’ve had, I’ve been left yearning for a better experience elsewhere.
If I absolutely wanted to stick with Samsung, I’d be stuck in the same boat I was in last year. In 2023, that means an upgrade to the outgoing Galaxy S22 or the [as of yet, non-existent] Galaxy S23.
If I could stretch my budget, the Galaxy Fold or Galaxy Flip might be the way forward. But I’d most likely have to compromise on build quality and durability.
Compact Android phones are now few and far between. In Spring 2022, it’s literally a choice between the Samsung Galaxy S22, Sony Xperia 5 III, Sony Xperia 10 IV, and the Asus ZenFone 9. That’s it.
If I was open to returning to larger screens – very much a last resort decision, as I want a compact phone – there’s a lot more choice, and at much cheaper prices.
Maybe a return to Nokia would be in order? The last Nokia I used daily was my Lumia 820 Windows Phone. I still rate that as the best smartphone I’ve ever owned.
Otherwise, there’s just one choice left – jump ship to iPhone. Just like the large screen thing, jumping to iOS is also a last resort measure.
But ever since the release of the iPhone 12 series, I’ve also yearned for an iPhone. The only things that stopped me last time was that I wanted to stick with Samsung and Android, and iOS’s lack of customisation is a stark contrast to the world of Android.
However, customisation has come to iOS in force, and with Apple I’d have a choice of smaller hardware too – iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro.
The latter two are both similar in size to my Galaxy S21, so I’d be comfortable with either phone. The 13 mini, however, might just be the phone I’m looking for.
Although my iPhone 6s is too small for my normal usage, if I were to adapt to using my Galaxy Tab more than I do now, I could get by with a smaller phone.
I recently visited a relative who had an iPhone 13 mini, and I couldn’t help but notice how perfect it was for me.
Back in 2020, the iPhone 12 mini was too small for me, but only because I was transferring from the Galaxy S9+. Maybe the Galaxy S21 was the gradual step down I needed to finally own a ‘mini’ iPhone…
I’d be perfectly happy with the Galaxy S22 or iPhone 13, but maybe the iPhone 13 mini – if it’s still available in 2023, and if Samsung hasn’t fixed my S21’s issues with firmware updates – will be my next phone.
It’s weird that I’ve come to that conclusion a whole year prior to needing to make that decision, but then again maybe it isn’t.
I’ve used Android phones as my primary devices since January 2015, when I bought my HTC Desire Eye. Although I prefer Android as a platform, maybe a switch to iOS for a couple of years wouldn’t be such a bad thing?
For one thing, I personally think Android has stagnated a bit in recent years. There was so much hype surrounding Android 12 and Material You design, yet to be honest I wasn’t all that impressed.
I didn’t like the new home screen, and certainly didn’t favour the new drop-down Quick Settings menu with its big tiles and buttons, some which created an extra step towards toggling certain things on or off.
Many ex-Windows Phone users and journalists noted Android 12’s similarities to Windows Phone OS, but still in possession of my Nokia Lumia 820 I felt that the Windows Phone experience looked much better – even back on WP8.1.
I’m glad that Samsung didn’t adopt the design language of Android 12 and went its own way with One UI 4, but in hindsight this has contributed (more than I realised) to my lack of excitement around new Android OS versions.
I also recently started using Gestures instead of the ol’ Navigation Bar – not because I wanted to, and not to become more modern. I simply did it to get myself accustomed to Gestures over physical/visual ‘buttons,’ so that I’d be ready for a switch to iOS. The lack of a physical Home button on newer iPhone’s means I’d have to get comfortable with Gestures if I wanted to switch.
That’s really where my mind is right now. I want to stay with Android, but I also want a small phone – and that means my only choice is Samsung, Sony or Asus. The latter two aren’t as easy to get on contract as Samsung, so in the near future I might very well me using an iPhone – not necessarily out of choice, but out of necessity.
– Chris JK.
KPH tech blog 
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