Old Phone Woes

When I made my travel arrangements back to Kansas to see family later this year, the service sent me a website so I could download details onto my phone. I always like to be prepared and have several copies of the itinerary and boarding passes on me, so that was something I went for. Unfortunately the website balked because my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S5, is too old (probably the OS was too old and I was to the latest that my phone could handle).

I bought the S5 as a refurb from eb*y several years ago and it has been a good phone for me. On the other hand, I have lusted after the enhanced camera capabilities of the new phones, so started looking around at what I could get without paying an arm and a leg. I started looking at refurb S10's, the latest version, but even the refurbs were higher than the price I was wiling to pay. I started looking at S9's (so last years model :) ), but even those refurbs were beyond my price-point to value ratio.

I started looking again on eb*ay last weekend, to see if refub prices had dropped, when I stumbled upon a seller that had NEW S9 Plus** phones for less than the refurbs were going for. He even had some that were for my carrier (US Cellular), and I had my choice of purple, blue, and black. After some hemming and hawing, I ordered a blue one and it was guaranteed to be here by Friday.

It came in Thursday's mail and Friday afternoon I went to one of my carrier's store and had them swap the account over to the new phone. After a call into the service center that night from a minor snafu, all was good and I have the First Wrold Problem of adjusting on differences between my old phone and new phone.

Stock photo from the seller I got the phone from

** I hear the world asking what the difference between the S9 and S9+ is. The S9+ has a larger screen at 6.2" (versus 5.8"), the battery is more powerful at 3,500mAh (versus 3,000), it has 6GB of RAM (versus 4GB). And, best of all the S9+ has the duel lens camera versus a single lens. In the words of Samsung's website, "This special camera offers dual optical image stabilization and 2X optical zoom."

Comments

[Cop Car]

Sounds great, Bogie! That is one way you take after your dad: you are willing to do the research. With age, I've gotten into doing less-and-less research on my personal stuff (and I didn't start out doing the amount that you two do) so I appreciate your willingness.

Your dad has been bugging me for several years to let him buy me a new phone; but, I don't really need/want internet access, and I do want some of the other smart phone features. Like you, my phone is on the latest OS it will handle, but not high enough to get support or talk to any of my computers. Windows 10 assured that I would never again be able to sync. Since Verizon tells me they will no longer provide service to old phones like me, within a few months, I am getting pushed. Perhaps you've done the research for me. I'm just too cheap to subscribe to data service when I won't use it!