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Living with an Android

Warning: this article was written over 12 years ago, some information may be out of date.

After a few years of honourable service with the E71 and the first version iPod Touch, I finally bought a smartphone worthy of the name and archived both previous devices.
The mobile phone in question is the Samsung Galaxy S II, to which I almost immediately added a 32 GB microSD.
The choice of this mobile phone was dictated above all by questions of price: where I bought it (Amazon Italy) I paid about 150 euros less than in a shop, and I don’t have to keep it on loan forever (as would happen if I were to buy it with my mobile operator). The price is, of course, not low, but it’s not crazy either.

After about a month of use, I must say that I am delighted with the purchase.
I had no great difficulty understanding how to use it and almost immediately raided the Android Market.
For someone who has been using almost all of Google’s services for a lifetime (Gmail, which I have been using since August 2004, the Reader, Calendar, Documents and Picasa, to name but a few), having even just all of my contacts already available immediately after inserting the SIM card was an unparalleled convenience.
The fact that it is light and plastic gave me some concern before I bought it; I have to say, however, that I appreciate the low weight, and it doesn’t give me the impression that it breaks easily.
The screen is just the right size, the phone is fast, the mp3 player consumes very little power, and in general, the battery was only dangerously low one day when it couldn’t hook up to the operator (in an area of my town forgotten by the IT God).
Two programmes have made me fall in love with this phone: MAME, the bar game emulator that I have known and appreciated since it was born, and Winamp, which I have practically always used and greatly appreciated the Android version, so much so that the Pro version was my first purchase.
On the other hand, I feel orphaned by Cosmetifique and have not found any good alternatives on the Market. For someone like me who suffers from allergies, such a tool is quite useful, and not having it is a loss.
The only fundamental flaw I have found so far is that opening the phone to change the SIM card is inconvenient: the light plastic cover is difficult to remove, although it is straightforward to put it back.

More than ten years ago, amid a new economy hangover, when my company had equipped me with what was dubbed the poor man’s Palm, I was already wishing for a mobile phone with these features and wondering when we would get there. To finally have it in my hands is a wish come true.

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