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Dumbphone plus a GPS device, mp3 player could so the same. I still prefer my Sansa clip to my phone for music (I never even set the phone up for music). Small, battery lasts a while, and I basically don't need to worry about it. I even put one through the washing machine and it worked after a couple of weeks.

As a side note, I find my Android phone a serious step back in usability. I would say I hang up rather than answer close to 50% of the calls. Can't I just get a physical green answer button back, rather than stupid swipe gestures.




"Do the same" - if you're now using 3 devices to do something that 1 can do, you're not doing the same. This is important to some.

Also, the Sansa doesn't stream, so it's not really "doing the same". Some like their own curated music and for that an on-device music player is fine. Some others (me, for example), want a radio style stream where I don't know what's coming.

> I would say I hang up rather than answer close to 50% of the calls.

I get you might not like gestures, but HALF of the time you mess it up? Let's not resort to hyperbole.

There are other callers/dialers on the market too that might have controls that work better for you also.

So, yeah, you might be able to make do with your use case and tolerances, but your needs are not everyones.


How do you know how many times I have pulled the phone out of my pocket and fat fingered a hang up? Lets not resort to speculation because it doesn't happen to you.


Nor anyone I've ever seen use a smart phone.

I'm just playing the odds. Seriously, if you can't pick up a call much more than half the time, get a different dialer.

And I think you and I both know you're carrying this too far.


You are making a hell of a lot of assumptions about me based on a comment.


I count precisely 1, but ok.


That's terribly awkward to carry around. Also, a GPS device doesn't tell me when my next bus is due (there's about 45 minutes between my buses). I also now only require one charger for my GPS and MP3 player. I can also look at cat pictures on the bus.


The point in the article was to remove as many apps as possible, particularly the cat picture ones.


> I also now only require one charger for my GPS and MP3 player.

microUSB?


Well, my MP3 player is my phone. No, it's a 30piin (iPhone 4S)


The Sansa Clip is a great mp3 player. All it does is play music (which is a big plus in my book), it's really small so it's great for running or other similar things, and the physical buttons make it really easy to use one-handed without looking at the screen.

When I got my first good-quality smartphone, I had planned on moving all my music over to it, but stopped when I found that the Clip was really a better device for music.


> I would say I hang up rather than answer close to 50% of the calls.

Then you're an outlier. Through common sense, it should be obvious that the vast majority of people don't run into such problems, or it would be a much more widely talked about problem. Hell, people made a huge fuss about "antennagate" when it was really only encountered by a fraction of iPhone 4 users.


Guess I must be holding it wrong.


Interesting sidenote that while 2 sibling comments praised their Sansa music player, we had one from audible for audio books and it's been so frustrating that I think of it as the worst mp3 player I ever used.


The loss of physical buttons and keyboards has made basically every modern phone a frustrating step back in usability.




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