Non smartphone users of the world unite!

WOW! I did not realise that.

How can you tell whether you are using 4G or 5G?

Last time I really tried phone based internet it was 3G, and not really worth having.

Might be worth revisiting the topic.

i have a samsung smart phone.... i used to always be behind on mobiles and had my 3310 for years lol

but i needed internet, i dont use text or calls much, i mainly got the phone for internet tethering and cheaper internet use. works just as good as any providers broadband and cheaper too, unlimited data so unlimited internet.... 4g was as fast as regular broadband, 5g is leagues faster than any regular house broadband.

I'd really like to live without a smartphone, or even without a phone itself - phonecalls are hell. But I've tried loads of times over the last decade or so without success to quit them, simply for the messaging ability of them more than anything else. If there was a reliable small option that just had a secure messaging system (that isn't from a surveillance capitalism company) and a music/podcast app, I'd "jump ship" immediately!

I think I'd be more organised with one. I'd have everything in one place such as reminders, alarms,  calendar etc. But there's all the other distractions that come with it. I like the tactile nature of actual buttons. In any case I prefer physical pen and paper. Sidestep but in the olden days I used to have a pen friend. This "slow" method of communication was great and the excitement of receiving a hand written envelope never went away.

As I said before, I refuse to have a smart phone. I dislike objects which think they are smart! On a practical level my arthritic hands don't do well with touch screens and my eyes are not what they were (no, they are still eyes! Wow, that would be weird... haha. I just mean they don't see close things so well any more) and I hate wearing glasses (though I have some on now because this text is stupidly small). But then also I don't want a lot of the carp that goes along with the thing.

I do have an old mobile phone for emergencies, which I struggle to even turn on because I use it so rarely I am unsure which is the on switch and then it has to be confirmed and I sometimes press the wrong button then and turn it off! It makes me feel icky and I even get nightmares about phones, like once I had to call the police and the phone had no 9 on it!

But I rarely go out without my husband and he has a smart phone, so maybe that's cheating? Sometimes I find it useful but also I didn't really want him to get one. I am hugely offended by the modern world trying to enforce use of the wretched things as it is discrimination against people who either don't want one or can't use one or can't afford one. And the ethics of manufacture is rarely mentioned! Not just the built in obsolescence angle which I am sure most of us despise, but yeah, don't get me started.

We did have a thread not that long ago on a similar topic. It seems many of us hate the things and some of us love them and wouldn't be without them. But i reckon a way higher proportion of us reject them than the general population, which i find interesting.

I have a smartphone but I've disabled incoming calls so it's a pocket sized internet enabled device. I would miss out on a lot of work without it and would probably struggle to make rent as a result.

I love my smartphone, a huawei mate 20X 5g, which actually is pretty close to being the size of a tablet, therefore computer.

I once read a science fiction novel in the 80's, whete a future society, actually meant to be Utopian rather than dystopian, where everyone owns a 'kenner,' a wrist-watch-sized computer which keeps everyone in touch, and is a vast repository of knowledge. That by the bye was called Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. She also describes a first cyberpunk dystopia..... 

I got a Sharp pocket computer in the 80's that I used to calculate the longitude of the planets, then in the 90's got a Psion, and after that a Mio Palm pocket. Then one of my students came to my lessons with the very first Apple smartphone, I think she knew I was green with envy......... 

So I got a Samsung Omnia, which really was the business. 8 gigabyte rám memory!!! Room for so many albums! And Word (though the touch screen keyboard stank). I use my phone for the Internet, banking, watching videos, taking pictures, reading books, correcting homework, writing documents, doing my Skype lessons, listening to music, keeping up with the news, playing recordings for my students, helping with translating things. I have a massive library of student books as well as my record collection, pictures of my artwork, and a movie collection. 

Yes, I know it's easy to vegetate occasionally just scrolling stuff on you tube, but then it was also easy to do that on the goggle box. Must say, I prefer to do as much computing as possible on my phone too, as it actually has more memory in terms of ram and rom than any of my computers, and is therefore faster. 

Never been tempted to get a smartwatch, though. 

My own answer machine greeting is rather boring, mainly because I've never bothered to record my own, or at least not with my current phone. However, I've been fortunate enough to hear some rather amusing answer machine greetings over the years. 

I once knew a couple that seemed to spend the majority of their time communicating with each other via Facebook on their smartphones, which I found rather sad considering they lived together. I often used to wonder why they didn't just put down their phones and actually talk to each other, especially as the majority of their exchanges seemed to consist of declaring their feelings of love for each other. I just found it weird and a bit cringey.

I've got a smartphone but rarely use it for phone purposes like calling people and texting, both I rarely do if I can help it as they cause me a great deal of stress.

I use my phone for its camera, banking, ebay, YouTube, Netflix, audible, the torch and it wirelessly connects to my house alarm and doorbell. And it allows me to be social here which is way better than being social in RL with actual people.

I find all of the above a convenience and couldn't live without them now.

I thought it was just a few of us who refuse to join the stare at a screen society? I do not own one as I would struggle to use one due to my dyspraxia. Also, why would I want to when it would involve me ignoring the world around me? I am bemused by watching couples sit opposite each other and simply stare at their phones. I love the peace and quiet and not being on call all the time. I cannot help but feel we were so much better off before smartphones when we spoke to people direct.  

I had one where I set the message as if I'd answered, but could not hear the caller...

It used to wind my dad up a treat...

I used to have a lot of schadenfreud listing to the inevitable very confused messages people who did not know me would leave..

I love answer machines. My Grampy had one and when he recorded his leave a message he sneezed midway through the message so if phone him and he wasn't in I got to hear that lol. It was always funny and made me smile to myself.

I have never owned a smartphone, but I do have a basic 3G PAYG mobile phone, which I purchased back in 2018, originally intended for emergency use only when my dad became seriously unwell.

For the most part, I see no need to own a smartphone, although I am increasingly starting to feel that I'm being forced to go down that route.

I have a landline phone with a built-in answer machine. As I found out in the past, one gets charged for listening to voicemail messages on a mobile phone, which is something I object to. Also, one of the benefits of using a landline phone is that my son can use it too, without the need for things like facial recognition.

I own a desktop PC, with a decent-sized monitor screen. Why would I want to swap that for a smartphone with a considerably smaller-sized screen? In addition, I don't need to worry about things like mobile phone data packages. 

I own a digital camera, which is another reason why I feel I have no need for a smartphone.

I've got one for in case I need a mobile internet hotspot and originally so I could run drone control software on it, but I have as much of the "smartness" turned off as is possible and in practice cannot receive anything more complicated than a text (or government warning) I do all my computing ON A COMPUTER and my telephony on a TELEPHONE and the majority of my photography with a CAMERA (although I don't mind my phone having a built in camera at all).

I’ll just leave this here https://hackaday.com/2022/09/10/the-open-source-rotary-cell-phone-two-years-later/

https://youtu.be/uV1C-41tq64

I love Minder! Arthur Daly is such a character and I like Terry too. Yeh I agree, I never watch TV apart from quiz shows. There's just nothing worth watchin on it. I only watch DVD's, Disney plus, Youtube music and sport 

I love my smartphone and can't do without it.  Here are a few reasons why.

1. Banking app.  The nearest physical bank branch is several miles away.  I use he app to pay my rent, transfer money between different accounts, pay bills such as gas, water, electricity, TV licence.
2. Bus and rail tickets, again I pay online and use the smartphone 3D  bar codes to get on and off vehicles.
3. Access to this website.
4. Access universal credit website.
5. GPS in my phone is vital while using online maps in unfamiliar places.  I can see instantly where I am on a map, on my phone.
6. I use my phone as a wi fi hotspot so I get internet access in my tablets and computers.
7. I stream videos from BBC iPlayer, itvx, uktvplay.

Good reasons

I might get a smart phone again at some point, if I do I will not use it much at all. I always think it might be handy if I get lost somewhere or have to send a quick email to someone.