Why The iPad Made Me Ditch My iPhone For A Nokia Dumbphone [Opinion]

John Brownlee (10:03 am PDT, Jun 15 2011)

Why The iPad Made Me Ditch My iPhone For A Nokia Dumbphone [Opinion]

Two weeks ago Sunday, my iPhone 3GS slid from my pocket and nuzzled itself amongst the fossilized bubble gum, mottled receipts and other sticky detritus that lays thick between the seats of the 7:20pm MBTA train to Forest Hill on the Orange Line. Doubtless someone is playing with it even now. I didn’t even notice it go, but unlike the last time I lost my iPhone, my initial reaction was not panic or thundering rage, but a serene sense of acceptance: I just don’t need an iPhone anymore. I barely even tried to recover it. This is my new phone, and god help me, I love it.

I admit it. Feature-wise, the Nokia C-300 is a pretty big step down from any iPhone. With an iPhone, I can check my Twitter, update Facebook, read web pages on the go through Mobile Safari, play games, read e-books and upload photos and video. My new Nokia just sucks at this stuff. It’s Twitter and Facebook functionality is utterly remedial. The web browser looks like the World Wide Web Consortium aborted HTML4 all over itself. The games are clunky Java affairs; photos and videos are stuck locally; reading an e-book on this thing would be a joke.

How can I be so happy about my Nokia phone then when it can’t do any of this stuff? Simple: since the iPad came along, I never do any of that stuff on my iPhone anyway.

It’s a weird thing, but once you get an iPad, using an iPhone just feels hopelessly cramped. All of a sudden, the profoundly rich experience of using iOS and its apps goes from the context of a frame through which you can do anything you want to do to a tiny terminal. Sure, you have access to all the same stuff, but short of two big exceptions — phone and SMS — it’s all done worse than on an iPad with 3G.

Ironically, what that means is that, for me, my iPhone might as well be a dumbphone for all the use I have gotten out of it since the iPad debuted. Unlike my Nokia, though, its a dumbphone that can be nerve racking to carry around. Even an older iPhone is a luxury device… one that can get easily lost, or stolen, or broken. Merely having it in my pocket, I’m constantly fretting about dropping it on the ground and shattering the glass, or accidentally placing my keys in the same pocket and scraping it up. I worry about being mugged for my iPhone, I worry about getting it wet when it rains. And, yes, I worry about it slipping out of my pocket on the 7:20pm Orange Line train to Forest Hills to get lost along the commuter detritus and reclaimed by some random stranger… a worry which does seem to be fairly well founded.

So I love my Nokia C-300. It barely qualifies as a smartphone, and I use it as a dumbphone, but I love its durable plastic construction that holds up to even the worst key gouges or spastic dances across the payment. The QWERTY keypad that makes texting an effortless dream. I love the built-in FM radio that works as a poor man’s Spotify. I totally dig the week-long battery life. There are trade-offs, of course, but I’m totally fine with the 2MP camera, which will do for just about anything in a pinch, and I’m okay with waiting until I get home to share what I capture. Even the lack of an iPod.app doesn’t bother me: I’m more than happy to just drag 8GB of frequently listened to albums to the SD card in case of emergencies.

Best of all, there’s just no psychological baggage. Not only does it cost as little as $90 to replace if I lose or break it, but it can be used on any GSM network nationally or abroad without signing up for an expensive two year contract.

When Steve Jobs took the stage in March of 2010 to announce the first generation iPad, he positioned it as a device that was meant to fill the gap between your laptop and your smartphone. Bizarrely, though, for me, the iPad just made the iPhone obsolete. It is my iPad that I bring out of my bag when I want to access the Internet, watch a movie, send an email, update my Facebook or read an ebook the road.

The iPad is the gadget iOS was made for, and since it arrived, it’s just emphasized the stress and extraordinary financial commitment that is the true cost of being an iPhone owner. And for what? There’s psychological baggage to carrying around an iPhone, and if all you really use is your iPhone’s telephone capabilities, it isn’t worth its own weight in worries. Gimme a cheap, contract free dumbphone any day… as long as you don’t take my iPad away.

Anyone else feel like they don’t really need an iPhone now that they have an iPad? Let us know in the comments.

DON'T MISS
Review: Pocket Is Cute For Twitter Addicts

Apps you might like

111 comments »

← Older Comments
  • Cunamara

    I didn’t need an iPhone *before* the iPad.  Ten minutes spent with my wife’s iPhone and one look at the monthly bill was enough to demonstrate that. My 10 year old Nokia does what I need:  it makes phone calls.  Isn’t that what a, umm, *phone* is for?

    Ten minutes with my wife’s iPad also convinced me I don’t need one of those, either.  It’s too small for anything I would want to do on it.  If they’d made it 8 1/2 x 11 or A4 sized, I’d have snapped one up.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3M7U73TMW54LPZ5C25ZXU6BTTY Adam Chew

    Can’t believe the comments here, it looks like everyone is ditching their iPhones and buying dumb phones.

    Apple must be getting worry,wait if this is happening to the iPhones then what about the androids, I believe they are being ditched as well.

    Yea, now they are carrying the dumb phones to text and make calls and as for emails well they can handle them when they reach home.

    LOL what a bunch of c**p.

    • wind_stopper

      Wouldn’t that be ironic; first Apple sets out to destroy NOKIA with their iPhones, not the appearance of the iPad seems to reverse this crusade, as more users find that the iPad is a much more convenient iOS device and ditch their iPhones for a cheapy NOKIA … I do like that!

  • http://www.facebook.com/JeffreytheBarak Jeffrey-the Barak

    I too gave up on my second iPhone, but because I have poor eyesight and big thumbs. I re-activated an old Razr phone (that I once gave away and then asked for it back). I blocked incoming texts and would never attempt an outgoing text. I use it for phone cals, usually less than ten per week. There is no data plan or associated data bill. The voice bill is $30 and I have thousands of old rollover minutes.

    Okay I did buy an iPod Touch, but I hardly use it. But that’s better than my old iPhone was. I had an iPad for 4 months but found that uncomfortable too. So I usually just wait until I get to my 27″ iMac to do anything that requires vision and dexterity. I usually sit in front of that for 15 hours a day anyway.

    I couldn’t be happier. I’m enjoying my good old Razr, especially with it’s strong new $3 replacement battery.

  • Sean Capelle

    I have a myTouch 3G on T-Mobile. Clearly not an iPhone, and not much more than a dumbphone, but I’m more interest in its functionality. It takes pictures, I can text, I have an app or two I like, but I have no fears about it being dropped. It’s pretty rugged, and the iPad is where I go for all my app needs. Once I played Angry Birds on the iPad, playing it on the iPhone seemed like a joke.

  • karloffpropaganda

    Awful article, obviously just can’t afford to buy a new iPhone since the iPad 1 made too much of a dent in his food bill.
    I use my iPhone and my iPad 2 to their fullest every single day. There are different games and apps on each to make use of their screens and functionality. I use to my iPhone for social a lot more than my iPad (although not exclusively), definitely use the camera on my iPhone more (I’ll never go less than a 5mp now), and use my iPad for content consumption and work far more than my iPhone.
    The smaller screen on the iPhone is more constricting to browse the web or read on, so that’s an iPad thing, but it’s better for other things – wifi track pad, music, calculator, to-do’s, games games games! Although that’s an iPad thing too.
    The point of the iPhone and iPad and indeed the App Store is to make your device a truly personal device, so as long as you use them both right, they’ll both be absolutely perfect. And Nokia’s break down 6 months down the line, they’re reliable like that.

    I browse eBay more on iPad, buy and sell on eBay more on iPhone. Weird, that..

  • Plainer is better

    Never owned an iPhone and probably never will.  Over the life of the contract, and assuming you don’t lose it or break it; it costs about as much as a decent used car.

  • Y67H

    I have an iPod touch and an iPad 2. It’s the opposite for me, I love the iPod and use it so much that I had to buy a 4G because the battery could not charge anymore on my old one. I rarely use my iPad. I would hands down buy a new iPod touch, but I think that this is my first, and last iPad

  • Matt

    I’m rocking a Razr and iPad 3G and couldn’t be happier. The iPads screen size actually makes $25 a month for data worth it.

  • Matt

    I’m rocking a Razr and iPad 3G and couldn’t be happier. The iPads screen size actually makes $25 a month for data worth it.

  • Anonymous

    Take many pictures?

  • Anonymous

    I’m coming around to this. I ditched the iPhone for a month-to-month plan with Android. The iPad still has my love but I say why bother being tied down to a two year contract?

  • Support 18inc

    Wow, really well written article! I feel the same way, but…in reverse I guess you could say. I’ve got the iPad 2 and some cheap touchscreen samsung slider. I’m saving for a contract free iPhone 5 whenever it decides to appear because I find the iPad isnt too mobile. I see it as my media consuming device I can carry around the house, cook with, walk with, do chors with, because of its size. But the size deters me from going out with it. I would always need a backpack or bag to stash it in and I’m excited to get another iOS device. With a tethering plan, it’s also saved me some money I didn’t have to drop on the 3G version of iPad 2. It’s a great device, but Id much rather iPhones portability.

  • Support 18inc

    Wow, really well written article! I feel the same way, but…in reverse I guess you could say. I’ve got the iPad 2 and some cheap touchscreen samsung slider. I’m saving for a contract free iPhone 5 whenever it decides to appear because I find the iPad isnt too mobile. I see it as my media consuming device I can carry around the house, cook with, walk with, do chors with, because of its size. But the size deters me from going out with it. I would always need a backpack or bag to stash it in and I’m excited to get another iOS device. With a tethering plan, it’s also saved me some money I didn’t have to drop on the 3G version of iPad 2. It’s a great device, but Id much rather iPhones portability.

  • Anonymous

    A 3Gs, sure, but I sold my first gen iPad about 6 weeks after I got my iPhone 4, because I stopped using the thing. Once you go Retina, you can’t go back. I seriously want an iPad, and I’m totally sold on the form factor, but I’m waiting on the pixel density to increase to give me that great iPhone 4 reading experience.

    (I also use my iPhone 4 as my main camera, which is worlds better than the sensor on the 3Gs)

  • FatFreeMC

    Finally! Somebody else who feels like I do! I don’t use my iphone much anymore, other than texting and talking on the phone. I was mad with apple for not having a dedicated texting app for the ipad. I was just about to buy a 3rd party app, until they annouced iMessage! I use skype for talking on the phone.

    Before I got my ipad (64gb white wifi, mifi), you wouldn’t have ever caught me without my iphone. I read all my books, magazines and comic books on it (Files Pro), watched all my video media on it (VLC, CiNex), all my music (20gb worth on a 32 gb iphone), all my games (don’t even touch my dsi anymore, even though I download all of my games for free, have to force myself to play ps3 and wii).

    Now my iphone hardly ever leaves my pocket, hell have the time it gets ‘accidentally’ left at home. (when it does I’m sad to say I don’t miss it.)

    Everything is sooooooo much better on the larger screen. So what if it is ‘just’ a giant ipod touch?
    The ipod touch is f&@king awesome!

  • FatFreeMC

    When I’m in situations where I can’t or shouldn’t have my ipad (church, movie theater, dinner table with family!), I can’t even enjoy myself. All I can think about is ‘Hurry up and get this over with so I can get back to my ipad!’

    I still want the newest iphone. But at this point, it’s more of a status symbol.

  • FatFreeMC

    If they ever come out with an ipad with decent cameras on it, I might have to let my iphone go.

  • Chinise_ninja

    Click here
    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=105582989535120&set=o.113052838770839&type=1&ref=nf
    & “Like” the pic
    to get a chance to… win a next generation Wii U* !!!!!!!!!!

    *you can only win if at least 1000 people “Like” it within Monday (20th june 2011)
    so PLEASE tell all Your Friends And Any one else

    oh and
    ☻/ This is Bob, copy-paste This comment
    /▌ everywhere so he can
    / take over Facebook

    Please
     ♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻
    ░█░░░█░█░▄▀░█▀▀░░░░▀█▀░█░█░█░▄▀▀░
    ░█░░░█░█▀░░░█▀░░▄▄░░█░░█▀█░█░░▀▄░
    ░█▄▄░█░█░▀▄░█▄▄░░░░░█░░█░█░█░▄▄▀░
     ♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻

  • Capixaba78

    Agree man… I have great wi-fi home and at work… Gps in the car,(cant use iphone drving anyway)
    Use ios 95% of time @home on Ipad … (5% @ macbookpro)
    Im just waiting to finish my 2 year comtract to ATT (1to go!!) and will get a “dumb-phone” and save at least $600, a year…!!! I will be saving to buy the new ipad every year!
    And i will also sell my “old ipone4″ and get 3 ipod touch, so my family can all facecall and now text w/ ios5!!!
    Now: wich phone is dumb and which is smart?!?!? ;)

  • Dadhwajd

    I bought Nokia N8 to go with ipad becouse superb camera.

  • Jades

    it makes perfect sense!

  • JJG

    I really recognize this. I wouldn’t give up my iPhone though, but I do have a similar feeling since I got my iPad. I used to do stuff on my iPhone all day, now I just use my iPad. The big advantage of an iPhone is the fact that I always have it with me of course, so I wouldn’t want to miss it. 

  • JJG

    I really recognize this. I wouldn’t give up my iPhone though, but I do have a similar feeling since I got my iPad. I used to do stuff on my iPhone all day, now I just use my iPad. The big advantage of an iPhone is the fact that I always have it with me of course, so I wouldn’t want to miss it. 

  • thelee

    i have to echo the sentiments in the article. i started with an iphone, and now i have a bajillion times cheaper virgin mobile prepaid phone with an ipad. the ipad pretty much obviates the need for a smart phone.

    the only thing i miss is ichat (soon to be imessages)

  • http://twitter.com/James_Beer James Beer

    Im the opposite I cannot find a place for the iPad in my life between my iPhone and my MacBook. I often wonder about getting a Nokia as a phone to make calls on as my iPhone doesn’t even work in my house.

  • Anonymous

    I agree you don’t have to worry about loosing your iPhone, because you already lost it.

    J.

  • CFLOREZ

    THIS GUY IS A MORON. IPHONE IS THE BEST THING TO HAPPEN TO HUMANITY

    • Grbeiz

      You are the Moron.. I would say antibiotics are the best thing that happened then the IPAD..

  • http://www.facebook.com/fender7083 Kelvin Smith

    Or you could only use an iphone to begin with. 

  • Jjrog16

    January 27, 2010, not “March 2010″.

  • Topypunk

    A virgin mobile or boist android phone has UNLIMITED data and text and can be turned into a hot spt for extra charge for as little as $25 a month and at most $55 a month. Screw ATT when this contract is up. And I can still use this iphone4 and my iPad!

  • Jonny
  • http://twitter.com/jodyfanning Jody Fanning

    Er, you mean C3-00 and it _IS_ a dumbphone. It uses S40 OS from Nokia which is only a feature phone OS.

  • Dizzle

    I completely agree.  iPad is the best device ever made and I too ditched my iPhone and handle most stuff on my iPad2.  My current phone is Nokia E-72 and has a qwerty.  I send dozens of text messages everyday and I guess I save a couple hours a week in typing time send switching to this phone.  Typing is SOOOOO much easier.  Other cool thing is long battery life on the Nokia which allows me to keep the mobile hotspot open and connect to the internet for days with my non-3G iPad.

  • wind_stopper

    Apple wants you to buy all of their gadgets. All of them are nicely and so intelligently designed. All of these devices fill a special niche, but can’t really replace another. I like the way Asus is going with the new phone+pad hybrid. Slot the smartphone into a larger screen and you have a tablet at home, take the smartphone out when you’re on the move. That is nice and solves the iPhone vs iPad issue. Sure, it might be a big thicker tablet than the iPad2, but latter one is not a highly mobile device anyway.

  • wind_stopper

    Apple wants you to buy all of their gadgets. All of them are nicely and so intelligently designed. All of these devices fill a special niche, but can’t really replace another. I like the way Asus is going with the new phone+pad hybrid. Slot the smartphone into a larger screen and you have a tablet at home, take the smartphone out when you’re on the move. That is nice and solves the iPhone vs iPad issue. Sure, it might be a big thicker tablet than the iPad2, but latter one is not a highly mobile device anyway.

  • http://profiles.google.com/alexandre.mcc.oliveira Alexandre Miguel César de Carv

    I 
    totally
     agree. I myself use a Nokia E72 (will switch it for an e6 next month) for my regular phone use (emails, pedestrian gps navigation, sms, calls, etc) and use a 1st generation ipad (given to me by my company) for almost everything else (although flash would be a big plus here..). Both are wonderful and user-friendly, and the proof that mobile phones are supposed to be small, durable and of fast use, not bulky surfboards. At the same time, I think tablets are still expensive regarding price functionality, but we’ll see what the future brings.

  • Vertti

    How much did they pay you to ditch the iPhone?

  • Vertti

    No sane person ever let their iPhone go without huge pile of cash and not even then.

  • Randy McCausleyvaughn

    Let’s face it. It doesn’t make sense having two iOS devices at the same time. Would you get an iPod touch when you have an iPhone? Of course, not. The same goes with the iPad: Once you get an iPad, you no longer need an iPhone – all you need is something like a dumbphone, where you can access the Internet, call and text. And of course, snap pics.

  • http://twitter.com/baby_Twitty baby Twitty

    Just wait till you lose your ipad and get stuck with your dummy phone.

  • Anonymous

    Ya man, i whole heatedly agree. I’m not a IOS man. but i pre-ordered a touch pad. Sold my N8 and N900 bought a At&t F160 refurbished for 15 bucks. And i’m soooooo happy. No phone is worth the contract. I have 5 lines on At&t all of them qualify for a upgrade. but it’s just not happening. Not now not ever. 

    I’ll do all my computing on my touchpad. All of it. I even sold my desktop set up piece by piece.

← Older Comments

About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in News, Top stories | Tagged: , , , , , |