a new phone!
since 2018 or so i've had a Samsung Galaxy S7. it's a modest little device that's carried me throughout the years without too much hassle. a couple years after having the phone the headphone jack broke and wouldn't plug in fully so that kinda sucked until i was able to finally open the back and start repairs. the glue loosened when i dropped the phone on blanketed concrete while the screen was miraculously untouched. the battery was swelling though so i had to replace that asap. fussing with the new battery was a bit frustrating since it had issues with charging but i was too stubborn to try and get a replacement. regardless, i used it for several months after this when i finally dropped the phone on its corner... the screen finally cracked. luckily it was pretty minor all things considered and the phone was still completely usable, although i was annoyed with myself.
around a month ago from writing is when i finally entertained buying a "new" phone. i was originally gonna buy a secondary S7 to use while i potentially tried replacing the screen and digitizer for my original device. however, i learned that the generation after, the S8, had swapped the micro USB with USB-C. i found a listing for $40 so i snagged it and upon typing this i've had the phone turned on with my sim card for a bit. i was really astonished that the phone i bought sold as untested seems to be working perfectly and even without any screen burn, which apparently is a common defect from this generation.
some things i want to mention that are different or perhaps even suck:
- the camera appears to be higher fidelity but the stabilization feels a bit unnatural to me
- dedicated bixby button just sucks. i don't wanna update and activate it or whatever. and i don't want to root the device. maybe one day but not today.
- not having a dedicated home button in exchange kinda sucks as well but not necessary i suppose
- i remember people (understandably) complaining about the fingerprint sensor being next to the camera but honestly you shouldn't be using fingerprint anyways. use a good old fashioned pin!
- the curved screen glass is so scary to me. kinda neat? but unnecessary and scary. i'm glad this phone came with a really nice case
- so far it runs way better than the S7 which yeah...
- larger
- yaaay
meanwhile, i'm still keeping my S7 as a backup and potential iPod. i'd need to buy another sd card and fill it with tunes. just in case anything happened i could also put my sim card back in but hopefully it's all okay!