t's time for a series of tech upgrades.
My trusty Moto G6 is reaching the end of its life. It has started with flaky behavior increasing lag time that requires a reset now and then and goes downhill from there. I know because I've lived it before. Everyone in the world will tell me to get an iPhone, but I am still anti-Apple enough not to. Also, I just can't force myself to drop $1000 for a phone. It's a psychological hurdle I just can't leap. Part of it may be my tendency to lose and break things. I have a decent pair of Maui Jim sunglasses but I leave them untouched and wear cheap aviators from 5 Below because I know I am going to lose them. I'd feel better about having to replace a $300 phone instead of a $1000 phone. I'm doing better at this. I have a fairly decent pair of wireless earbuds as opposed to the $20 wired cheapies I used to use because I knew I would lose them. I also have an expensive watch that I wear daily because of its sentimental value, and I haven't lost that yet. But still, a phone goes from pocket to table to car console to backpack and so on. In the course of that I am sure I would do something stupid.
So no four-figure phone for me. In my price range, the latest flagship phones are out. The Google Pixel 5A looks awesome and lists for $450, call it half-a-grand all-in. Google's version of Android is the "purest" and they are really good about pushing updates. That said, I really don't like the idea of Google having that much more claim on my life. Of course, since it's going to be an Android phone, I don't know how effective this is at sticking it to the man.
Another option is the OnePlus Nord N10. This is the latest darling of reviewers and it does seem like an incredible deal at a $299 list price.
A third option is to get the latest Moto, the G Power, which is on 199.00 at Amazon. The camera is lame, but the battery does last forever and if I lose or break it, I can live.
A fourth option would be to find an older model of a flagship.
A fifth option would be to shut up, do what everyone else does and buy a damn iPhone, get the insurance if I'm worried, and don't pester us with 300 words of blather. Also shut up.
Next up, my laptop. My laptop is also struggling with occasional issues, mostly regarding power management. Also the trackpad is behaving badly. Time to replace. Here's the question: how much laptop do I really need anymore? Virtually everything I do, I do on the web. I have very little need for local computing power and storage. Back when I was active in photography, I used to need space to store photos and processor power to edit them. But I haven't done any serious photography in years, although I always tell myself I'm going to get back to it.
All that seems to imply that I could do well enough with a Chromebook. But then there's the Google thing again. Also, I like knowing that I can work offline if I ever need to, like maybe writing on a plane without wifi, or maybe actually getting back to photography. This amounts to buying aspirationally, not practically. Like buying a huge 4wd pickup for daily commute in town, just because I might run the Baja 1000 one day.
I'm pretty sure I want a larger screen and a 3:2 ratio since I don't do gaming or much video streaming. That's really all I need and, like the phone, I should just shut up and get a Surface Book and stop fretting the details. But then I get tempted by convertibles with detectable screens and I think maybe I could retire my one Apple product, my iPad, which I got for free a couple of years back so it doesn't count against my anti-Apple stand. But I have to admit the iPad is pretty sweet and most convertibles suck as tablets. So...yeah.
Sheesh, this has gotten borderline stream-of-consciousness, hasn't it? I'll be sure to let you know what I end up doing because I know how extremely important it is to you. For now, I think I'll take my own advice and shut up.
