A couple of friends have been eager for news on what I think of my new phone. I'm thinking many others might be too.
A new phone is an important event, on par with buying a new car. In the 5G world to come, these hand-sized gadgets will be even more important, and my new phone is 5G enabled. Meanwhile she has to deftly take the baton from my old phone and run with it even faster. So, how has it gone?
Only seventeen hours after I placed my online order with John Lewis, DPD came to my door with a parcel. I carefully opened it, and the Samsung box within, taking pictures at every stage. Prudence was revealed. My 2020 Galaxy S20+. The official name adds '5G' to that.
As you can see, a neutral shade of grey. Just like my previous phone, Tigerlily. In fact, apart from the larger and repositioned camera housing on my new phone, both old and new phones look very similar. That's a good thing. Samsung had refined the design first seen on Tigerlily, the S8+ from 2017, very successfully. This was its sleekest expression. I'm not nearly so keen on the two-tone look for 2021, with that curvy and very dominant camera housing.
By the way, I stayed with the name I'd thought of. There were others I liked, but I needed to hold one or two good ones back for my next laptop in 2022 or 2023 (who will probably be called Martha), and - of course - my next car in 2025 or 2026 (probably to be called Sophie, with the registration I bought last year, SC10 SHE). I've kept the list of names for future use. Who knows, I may live to work my way through most of them!
Unlike the position in 2021, my phone from last year came with a fair selection of useful accessories. First, a standard fast charger and USB-C cable:
It was USB-C at both ends, so an adapter was needed to plug it into Verity, my Microsoft Surface Book laptop from 2016. But of course I still had the USB-C cable and adapter I'd been using with Tigerlily, so no problemo.
Samsung had also thrown in these AKG earbuds. With spare earpieces of different sizes. There was no 3.5mm socket for a traditional set of wired earbuds on Prudence; these AKG earbuds plugged into the USB-C socket instead.
One other little thing - a small pin to push the card tray out with. This was tucked into the side of the flat box containing the quick-start guide and warranty.
This then was the entire ensemble:
In 2017, when I acquired Tigerlily, there had also been a couple of USB adapters, which I could now re-use. On the basis that most people would have a collection of cables and adapters from previous phones, Samsung had stopped including them for 2021. I get it, but it's always nice to have spare parts, just in case.
I was now ready to pop Prudence into her Tech21 Pure Clear case, which had arrived the day before. Here it is.
And here are the Tech21 cases for Prudence (left, with lanyard attached) and Tigerlily (right) compared for size. As you can see, Prudence is a slightly larger device.
That lanyard came originally from my Sony tablet Papagena in 2012. It has lasted extremely well, and is almost as good as new.
Two other things to do next, before encasing Prudence. First, I used the pin to pop out the card tray. It was positioned in one of the corners.
You put the pin into the hole and gave a firm push, to overcome the rubber seal that waterproofs the phone at this point. The empty tray came out, and I pressed the BT Mobile nanoSIM and Sandisk 256GB microSD cards into the spaces. It was easy to seat them properly.
Then I reinserted the tray, and pushed it fully home. I wouldn't need to pop it out again until I bought a larger-capacity microSD card. I could go up to 1TB if I wanted to. However, there was unlikely to be any pressing need to upgrade the existing card until I bought the next laptop sometime in the following two years. And by then, if the current trend for high-end phones to abandon microSD cards had become permanent, it would make no sense to spend money in that direction. I'd just make do, and eventually replace Prudence with a phone that had a massive built-in memory.
The other thing was to peel off the clear plastic sheeting covering part of the top and bottom edges, and all of the back.
Samsung had put a nice screen protector of their own on the screen. I peeled that off too. I much preferred to have my fingers gliding directly over the glass, with no plastic in the way. That was the very smoothest experience, with the very best feel. To keep the screen safe and sound, I had the black leather sleeve I'd made in 2017 for Tigerlily. It was still very serviceable, and still a good fit. I must be the only woman in the world who slides her phone into a leather sleeve, but believe me, they offer great protection when the phone is in one's bag, and you can use the sleeve as a soft pad for the phone to rest on when laid flat on any surface. I've been doing this since 2012. The sleeve protects the Tech21 case too: after four years, Tigerlily's case shows very few signs of wear.
I now put Prudence into her Tech21case (a good snug fit) and went on to the next stages: charging her up (she had only a 19% charge out of the box), and installing the firmware and User Interface updates. She'd arrived running Android 10 and OneUI 2. Before transferring apps and settings from Tigerlily, I'd better uprate her to Android 11 and OneUI 3.
Time to switch her on!
I didn't care for that home screen. But once Tigerlily's settings were copied over, I'd get my traditional and well-loved lock and home screens, with the app icons spread out how I wanted them on a dozen different screens, each for a single purpose. So that (for instance) all the health apps, all the entertainment apps, and all the financial apps were on their own screens. And the same for other kinds of app. Obsessively organised, that's me!
Once I got up to 75% charge, I went ahead with the firmware and UI updates, and then ran Samsung's Smart Switch, where the old and new phones were connected together (I used a cable) and (hopefully) the apps and finely-tuned settings on Tigerlily would be copied over to Prudence.
The Smart Switch went smoothly, but I think the jump from Tigerlily's Android 9 to Prudence's Android 11 was a bit too much, and although all but two of my many apps jumped across, most of my app settings didn't. The Google apps and settings were fine, but my third-party apps all had to be opened and set up afresh. Hey ho. I was however prepared for many hours work. And although it took me sixteen hours on and off, I went to bed with Prudence mostly up and running as I wanted her to be. The setting-up was fully completed next day.
Yesterday I used Prudence to meet up with my local girlfriends on the Houseparty app - it was Jo's birthday, albeit one in lockdown. How I wish we could meet up for real, at a favourite restaurant, with prosecco and pizza on hand!
Never mind about that, I hear my readers say. What about the camera performance? Well, that's for the next post. Later today.
Teaser: the camera is clear and sharp, and the zoom, at least up to 4x, is impressive.
The pictures in this post are all courtesy of my little Leica D-Lux 4 camera. Would Prudence have done better? Wait and see!
