Device Choice and Preference

I used to prefer a device on the cutting edge of tech that made me only one of the first few with the latest OS, freshly baked. That lasted a good while. Until the "Almighty" holders of power "changed it for me". Of what use was a latest software-running-device, when it was dead from 100% battery to shut-down in 3 hours of heavy use, or less?

I became a wall-hugger, always to be seen with a device plugged to charge while being used. Cos there was no telling how much juice will be left when the electricity supply was cut. And, it was always a case of scampering for chargers and plugs to slot the phone into as soon as power was restored.

Plans to charge the device to capacity were made ahead of any extended period away from a wall socket. Extra chargers had to be bought to accompany the phone outside the normal residences and points-of-regular-charging. When those still didn't make the phone live longer between charges, power packs gained notoriety. Vendors seized the initiative and today, it's only sometime now before you'd see a power-pack sold beside the regular "gala" sausage. It was so lucrative, our countrymen ventured into it and sowed weeds of fakes in the midst of the original fruits of power packs. As usual.

I didn't need further preachments to change preferences. Again, the issue was about how much good was a tech-blazing device when for half the time it was either keeping you tethered to a wall socket or it was dead, the other half? Options for a device on the bleeding edge of technology but with a bigger battery juice than my aging Nexus 4 came at a premium. A premium I was as unwilling to pay as could be imagined.

As I was in the market for a phone, I tied it to a fresh preference - a huge battery power. I'd have said humongous but tech products today aim more for a slimmer profile with the ongoing internecine war to churn out the record-setting slimmest-smartphone-ever still raging. As with the attractions to slim down body-parts, some goodness is lost in the process. Battery always suffered.

Then, just as I was salivating over the battery juice in the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 - saying nothing of the eye-watering gorgeousness of its hardware and the steep edge of its over a 100,000 asking price - a Chinese vendor caught my eye. And even if I'd not have believed a crystal-ball reader telling me some months back that I'd ever use one of such devices much less own one, I was sold.

In less than a week, I know it was as right a decision as I've ever made. For now. With a bigger battery than even the latest offerings from Samsung and Apple and a splendid screen tech to boot, I've begun living life away from the charger. And it's super duper. It takes the heft of the iPhone 6+ and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to the cleaners coming with that phablet screen real estate but with a chunkier battery and at a ridiculous price of N25,000.

Yea, I may be your common, regular, cheapskate but when personal preferences are involved, none of that matters. A full battery on this beast with 4000mAh outlasts my heavy usage easily without breaking a sweat (the Ascend Mate 7 had a 4100mAh battery). I don't care much about DISCOs and their consanguineous links to the GENCOs no more as I'm enjoying my Infinix Hot Note. Say what you will. Na you geh yur mouth.

Android Device Preference Today

I'd say the OnePlus One because of its price and specs. However, it's not available now except on an invite-only basis in Europe and America.

For available phones, the Samsung Galaxy S5 will be hard to beat but I'm not very fond of Samsung's devices, and that is just a personal thing not that it has anything to do with the awesome devices they manufacture. A close second (except for it's bad back camera) is the HTC One (2014 model) which is a unibody metal device and is easily the best designed device for this year so far. Not even the current crop of iPhones can beat it.

The upcoming LG G3 promises to astound everyone and blow the competition out of the water. Leaked pictures so far prove that it'll indeed be a device worth owning. It's left to LG's unveiling for us to know what else they've cooked into the sequel of their highly successful and popular G2.

However, personally? I've never stopped admiring the Motorola flagship device of last year, moto X. Since I bought a unit for my aunt last month, I've not only come to utterly appreciate the sleek design language of the device but have only words of praise for Motorola's decision to stick to Android's default software User Interface (UI) rather than add to it as others have done to distinguish the way their phones look on the screen from the others (Samsung has TouchWiz, HTC has Sense, and so on). What this means is that the phone doesn't lag anywhere. Things zip through from the micro-second your finger touches the screen to doing the action you intended. It's blazing fast. In addition to that, because there's no added UI, updates of the OS get to the device faster than others. Motorola's KitKat (Android 4.4.2) update arrived at the moto X way ahead of its arrival at the devices of other manufacturers. It was a thing of pride to be among the very first peeps across the Android ecosystem to enjoy the freshly minted version of Android long before other even more expensive device owners got it.

Also in the X's favour is moto maker, an online platform where a buyer can pick from a coterie of options - colours for the back, a different colour for accents (accents refer to the power and volume buttons and the ring around the camera lens), thereby personalising your phone even externally, making it a phone that's truly yours. My aunt picked a Spearmint back, Black front with Red accents.

This says nothing of the added series of Touchless Controls Motorola baked into the device such that a user will neither have to touch the screen nor unlock it to make it useful as merely speaking to the locked and blank screen of the phone, beginning with the words, "Ok, Google Now" unlocks the phone and opens the phone's microphone app ready to listen to what further instructions you want to give it. You can then proceed to perform a Google search, call a contact, ask a question, play a stored song already on your phone, open one of your phone's apps, all without even touching the phone and get results.

It's not outrageously big but designed with a beautiful curve that fits your palm comfortably and has a great battery management process that ensures a full battery doesn't run out before the day is over. Notifications and time gently appear on the locked screen when you pull it out of your bag or pocket so that you may have no need to unlock your screen every time just to check notifications or time or missed calls or whatever, keeping the time your screen will stay on to the minimum. I could go on and on, but I think the point of my admiration is obvious. To even know that a sequel to this device (rumoured to be known as X+1 is planned soon since the initial X is now about 7 months) is exhilarating. I can't wait to see what that'll bring to the game. Maybe a better camera, which will be a big bonus. Their lower spec'ed cousins, the moto G, and the lowest, the moto E carry some of the X's features but reduced for a bargain cost. The X is flagship level, the G is mid-range and the E is entry level.

There's also the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 devices as well but their atrocious battery makes me refrain from adding them to my small list here.

However, device choices are the most personal decisions people should make and these decisions should not be based on another person's preferences. What each person desires from a device do not always tally with the desires of another. These cover the entire gamut of what makes a device tick, from screen size to operating system, from phone design to camera sharpness, from touchless controls to user interfaces, from range/level to price of a unit, from ease of use to showboating, all these come to play when choice is concerned for individuals who are indeed unique. So, my preferences here aren't binding on anyone, they simply reflect my view of what a device means for me.