I have had a work cellphone — initially for research, with the same (six digit) phone number from a nameless phone company in NZ for at least sixteen years. During that time I have moved three times and changed my home phone number at least four times: in fact I don’t know the home phone number now and have to look it up — it comes with my broadband.
But the phone’s battery died. So I took it to the phone company and they said that yes, it was under contract and yes, there was a warranty and they would try to repair it. But… it is an HTC. Which can be repaired… at some cost, apparently. So the phone company called me and said that instead of repairing it, I had a new one.
But… I have a Moto G. Specifically for when I don’t want work to get hold of me: It was unbundled and when I am on holiday I get a prepaid card and tell those who need to know the phone number. Or else I spend the holiday dealing with work things. But… since the phone was away, I set this up as a work device: I do need to be available when I am not on leave.
Which leaves me with this problem. Do I keep the Motorola up and hold the now older phone as backup, or swap? I am not a gamer: for me the main issue is connectivity (which is really what I pay the cellphone company for) and which camera takes better photos. And it is a very close call.
| HTC M7 | Moto G v2 | |
| Released | Feb 13 | Mar 15 |
| Weight | 143g | 155 g |
| Screen size (inches) | 4.7 | 5.0 |
| Resolution | 1080 x 1920 | 720 x 1280 |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 600 | Snapdragon 400 |
| quad core 1.7 Ghz | quad core 1.2 Ghz | |
| Memory | 32 G internal, cannot add cards. | 8G internal, can add cards. |
| Primary Camera | 4 MP, 1/3 in. Sensor | 8 MP |
It’s worth noting that the release dates are the US ones and NZ is usually six months ahead of that: suffice to say that I got the HTC in Nov 13. And the Motorola is a low-midrange machine. However, the specs and functionality of this are about the same as a quite high end machine that came with a two year contract.
It is also worth noting that the M7 is now two generations old, and the newest version (M9) would blow either phone away. But the incremental difference is not such that I would upgrade until one or both of these phones dies outside of warranty. Phones, like computers, are now, generally, good enough.
For surfing. But not for writing content. That requires, for this aging geek, at least a good keyboard and mouse.
UPDATE
The M7 won. SIM swapped: updating occuring
