2002 - The grad school student
Nokia 6510
- who needed a budget phone to stay in touch with his family and yet give him company in the long nights spent in the lab, with a killer application - an FM radio.
Nothing like listening to "A good night's music" of classical orchestra in Symphony 92.4 FM while working on design projects!
2005 - Young newly minted chip design engineer
Nokia 6230i
- who could not live without music but didn't want to overspend buying Ipods, so what could go wrong with a phone with polyphonic ringtones and MP3 player, 512MB storage and being able to set any song as a ringtone!!? (Margazhippoove...!)
This also set the thought to never buy an overpriced Apple product for the same functionality, and have stuck to that so far.
2007 - Young professional with many passions and interests
Nokia N51 - all that steel finish and Symbian OS, just barely able to browse the internet and check email.
2009 - Lead engineer and newly married, more professional
Nokia N63 - Completely missed the Android/IOs revolution and still stuck with Nokia symbian OS. There really something nice with those clicky qwerty keyboard, that I still miss.
Dear Nokia, why didn't you move to Android back then? (but took a circuitous route through Windows and finally come to Android via HMD global)
Motorola Atrix - a truly revolutionary gadget that was well ahead of it's times. My first android smartphone that could double up as a media device or even (under)power a laptop with a docking mechanism. A smartphone/TV/laptop rolled into one. Atleast that's what the marketing promised.
2013 - Need a classy powerful smartphone, no gimmicks
HTC One - easily one of the most good looking phone released that year, easy to use, easy to love. And that matt silver finish back..nice dual speakers.
Moto Z Play with Moto Mods that just stuck on to the back
I eventually bought the JBL speaker and pico projector mods which provided amazing swappable functionality. I really really hoped this trend would catch on and the mods would remain compatoble with newer Moto phones. But again Moto proved to be too ahead of their times. And this had a super efficient Snapdragon 625 which effortlessly lasted for 2 or 3 days of battery life! I was never a gamer, so this experience with midranger phone was a pleasant experience without burning the pocket.
2019 - Gotta have the flagship with the SoC I worked on
Pixel 4XL with the powerful Snapdragon 855 processor. We first saw a Neural Processing Unit thrown into it and could not wait for the AI goodies to come. And boy it impressed with its camera capability and the first time I conceded that smartphone cameras have indeed arrived. But this wonderful device on paper gave so many reliability issues, I got disillusioned with flagship phones. Battery issues, connector issues, display issues, no fingerprint sensor but just face unlock feature that became useless with Covid masks. I loved the camera and almost hated the phone!
Moto G84 - with a nearly 3 year old Snapdragon 695, but with 5G and stock Android. If we wait for 2 to 3 years, flagship tech gets trickled down to midranger phones and you can get very competent devices at 1/3 the price with great specs on paper. All was well, till I discovered that the camera didn't come close to the old Pixel and have started to miss it a lot for candid and travel photography. But again a battery life champion which needs charging once in 2 or 3 days, unimaginable in flagships. I don't have to panic if I forgot to charge it overnight, it just runs for one more day, uncomplainingly!
What more can we expect in the years to come?
What innovation is round the corner?
When will our love for this gadget be superceded by the next great innovation?
