2024-01-14
Today is day 228 of our dumb phone experiment. Both my partner and I often say, that we don’t want to go back. For us, the advantages seem to outweigh the downsides.
Talking about weight reminds me of this post I meant to write months ago. Of course the smartphone is a one-for-many utility device. Some functions, like takeing photos, or using GPS I still want to use at times. I also talked about TAN generators already. That was one of the first devices I bought when I retired the smartphone, because online banking is something you really don’t want to miss.
Most of the devices I now use to substitute for the missing smartphone I already had. So I dusted them off, and put in new batteries and put them to use once more.
Yep, that is:
That’s a lot of clutter, which I honestly count as a downside. Also, if I were to take all these devices with me on a vacation, that would add 1057 g, roughly two pounds, to my luggage, whereas the smartphone only weighs 172 g — about a sixth of the weight.
Just now I realize, that I forgot to include chargers and cables in the above listing. But then again, how often do I need to recharge my alternative devices? My old Smartphone has a battery capacity of 2,440 mAh which hardly lasts a day of my usage.
The combined battery capacity of my alternative stuff however is much larger:
| Device | Capacity [mAh] |
|---|---|
| dumb phone | 1,500 |
| Camera | 8,400 |
| TAN Generator | 3,000 |
| GPS | 4,200 |
| ebook reader | 1,000 |
| Total | 18,100 |
That is about 7 times more!
In fact I haven’t changed or recharged the batteries in any of the devices but the dumb phone and the ebook reader. Still both of these last for about a week of average usage until they need a recharge.
So on short trips over a weekend I don’t need to pack any chargers or cables. Also, I found that I haven’t actually used the GPS since last summer, and the camera I usually only carry along on vacations.
Two things are missing from the list: I haven’t found (or searched rather) a solution for listening to podcasts while on the go. Maybe that’s a good thing. Less distraction anyway, and that’s the whole point, isn’t it?
Also I forgot the mobile access point I sometimes use at work. That one would add about another 100 g and maybe 1,500 mAh.
Please send any comments or questions to lkh@betola.de or @lkh@social.sdfeu.org
Copyright: ~lkh • So 14. Jan 17:51:33 CET 2024 • License: CC BY-NC 4.0 • Hosted by: SDF-EU Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf-eu.org