Thinking Differently About Phones (Premium)

I have made dramatic changes to the personal technology products and services I use in recent years. But not in one crucial area: Since the death of Windows phone, I've ping-ponged almost exclusively between the iPhone and Pixel, in part because both are made by the platform maker, respectively, and offer clean experiences I consider to be superior.

But maybe it's time for a change. Maybe I could apply the thinking I use when choosing other tech products--be them apps, services, or other kinds of hardware--to phones. To be clear, I get it. This isn't life or death. And that's especially true for me, since I use PCs a lot more than I use phones in any given week. Which is unusual, apparently, but that's my life and my job.

In the PC space, I often think about and discuss efficiency, meaning how well suited a tool is to me based on familiarity, design, performance, and whatever else. But what does that mean with phones?

As on PCs, it depends. And in this case, it depends on how one uses a phone. And perhaps how much one uses a phone. And that's something I have been thinking about. Since writing The Perfect Phone (Premium) a few weeks back, I enabled and started paying attention to the digital wellbeing functionality on whatever phones I've been using. The data is useful, but there's still nuance. I use a phone differently when I'm out in the world, seeing and doing things, than when I'm working. I use other devices, like my iPad, too, where my wife and others might perform many of those activities--mostly reading, in my case--on their phone.

It's too easy to overthink this. So I will try and rein it in for a change.

In recent weeks, especially, I've been thinking about phones a lot. I could go in all kinds of different directions. Here are some of the more compelling options.
?Affordable
Looking for now just at the two platform makers--Apple and Google--this has been a great season for affordable smartphones. Apple announced the iPhone 16e in February as a replacement for the venerable but too-small iPhone SE, and if you haven't, be sure to read Laurent's review. I never seriously considered switching to an iPhone 16e, as $599 is too close to a base iPhone 16, I find the single camera to be a bit too restrictive, and I really like the Dynamic Island it's missing. But it does throw off those Good Enough vibes I respect and almost yearn for.

And then there's Google. The Pixel 3a XL is still memorable as the ultimate Good Enough phone in my personal experience, but that was several years ago. And more recent affordable Pixels were either unmemorable or had too many issues to recommend. But the $499 Pixel 9a is very interesting to me. It stacks up nicely against the iPhone 16e, which is important, and I love its minimalist look and feel. I considered buying one, in fact, though I'd have to wait until I got home from Mexico. The introductory sales are over, but with a $125 Pixel 7a trade-in, I could get one for about $374. If I...