#smartphone journeys that lead me to this day:

2008 to 2009 Nokia E51 Nokia was the king then, at least in India. The phones were just called phones, and hadn’t gone smart yet

2009 to 2011 First Android phone (Samsung I5800 Galaxy 3) – I had moved to the US, and my Nokia stopped working after getting soaked in rain, an Android phone made its way to my pocket. This phone could change orientation, wow!

2011 to 2012 Apple iPhone 4 – I started working, the iPhones had been tagged as luxury; I wanted to see what the buzz was about.

2012 to 2013 Samsung Note 2 – I started getting my hands on extremely subsidized phones through my employer’s contracts with the carriers. After small size of the iPhone 4, I couldn’t resist Samsung’s huge Note lineup. I wanted a big phone. The Note series was huge, and came with a pen. Loved the Note 2, until one unfortunate day, it slipped out of my pocket and cracked the screen. I was heartbroken, realized that the cheap case I had on wasn’t enough to protect this mighty phone.

2013 to 2015 Samsung Note 3 – And so when another upgrade window opened, Note 3 became a natural successor, and Otterbox Defender was the case of choice, for its protection prowess. And it did not disappoint. I still have this phone with the same Otterbox case on, and the phone is 100% like-new and works great even to this day.

2015 to 2017 iPhone 6 Plus – The Samsung Note slowed down over time, made me jump ship, back to Apple ecosystem. The ‘slowing down’ effect was good enough reason for me to not look back at Andoid(Samsung) again for a while. With the 6 plus, there wasn’t a day this phone disappointed me. The screen size was amazing for consuming all kinds of content, the battery was more than sufficient. Until one day it fell again, and cracked the screen. I was still in love, paid to get it repaired, but it wasn’t the same anymore. The camera had some consistent issues, so I had to part ways.

2016 to 2016 iPhone 6 – briefly used an iPhone 6. Something never really clicked. the battery life just wasn’t good enough, the 4.7 inch screen size was for some reason awkward.

2017 to 2018 iPhone 8 Plus – Apple had unleashed the bokeh effect with iPhone 7, the world of everyday iPhone users were just witnessing the smartphone achieve the depth-of-field effect that had only been possible so far with a DSLR. iPhone X had launched – the first bezel-less, notched-up design, dual-camera setup that was simply awe-inspiring. The price tag had touched an unflinching grand. iPhone 8 Plus, was a relatively economical cousin of the X, had almost all the same prowess of the X, but still in the body of the iPhone 6 Plus which had rocked my world for last 3 years. The choice was simple, until, I put it inside a folio Otterbox case. An all glass, wireless charging back had to be handled with care, in a solid case, and the combined weight (literally) on my pocket just didn’t feel right anymore.

2018 to 2018 Google Pixel 2 – I hung onto the 8 Plus, but also got a Pixel 2, the second iteration of the Made by Google wasn’t as ugly as the first one, and touted a stunning camera powered with the just-right combo of great camera sensor and Google’s software (image-processing) magic. I had just became a parent and capturing any-and-all moments with our young one dominated our minds. Google’s offer of full-original-size backup on the cloud was enticing enough. I started clicking photos, was really impressed with the squeeze-to-invole google-assistant and the brilliant HDR+ photo sticking. This is when never imagined things started showing. The camera app would crash, not once, but consistently. This was almost 2017, the phone was Made by Google (not Samsung, not LG, not Motorola) and my mind just couldn’t accept that the camera could fail. I couldn’t find a decent not-expensive screen-protector for this phone.

Still the Pixel 2 was great in so many ways: It was light and did not need two hands to hold and navigate, forever-snappy, open(android-openness of the ecosystem). It felt just right in my rather small hands, always.

2018 iPhone SE – Lot of things colluded together to drive me into SE’s direction.

iPhones were more expensive than ever. X was a whopping grand already. The SE was 20% (at ~$200) of the iPhone X cost if bought in mint-used-condition. At this price-point I only have a screen-protector on GBoard app had made its way to IOS. I have never liked having to life fingers for typing on IOS keyboards and continued leaning on Google’s Swype magic ever since it was introduced on IOS. IOS 11 had championed the Safari-Reader-Mode that presented a clean and uncluttered experience on almost every article-sque site. The camera was good enough, the processor and RAM combo was not lacking. There are days when I wish that iPhone SE 2 had come to life – small body with all the latest and greatest of the X. But hey! The 4 inch size of the SE was (same as iPhone 5 and 5S) easy on hands for one-hand use. Apple had dug deep and instead of loading more features, opted to optimize the IOS 12 iteration so every Apple device all the way from iPhone 4S would run faster on IOS 12. Screen time for wellness was part of IOS 12, I wanted to reduce by screen time. The SE therefore was, it! I have been using it since August 2018, started with a 16Gigs version and have recently moved to a 32Gigs version, and now the whole smartphone hardware and software ecosystem-recipe feels just right. Everyday.

“The Apple iPhone SE is the most practical smartphone ever.”