My Smart phone is no longer as Smart as it used to be :(

So we’re all into the fancy new smart phones out in the market these days… I am one of them- blinded by the shine of that perfect chrome finish. Before you continue to read further or move on to another blog or Google + or Facebook, this is not another article reviewing the newest flagship phone from another bigshot company. This is an article about the pains that I’ve been suffering after using an Ex-Flagship phone for just about a year.

I am presently the pissed off owner of a Samsung Galaxy Note. Until January I was a proud owner of the same device, now it seems to not understand me.

I bought my fancy new Samsung’s flagship Note sometime in Feb last year, loved it! I spend so much time exploring the phone, I became the official Phone Guru at work (this was after I got a lecture from my lead to stop using my phone so much at work). After seeing its incomparable performance I started recommending Samsung devices to everyone! “get the Samsung Note”, “get the S2”, “get a Samsung phone” and people listened to me!

Sometime in July or August I got the OS upgrade. “whoopee! ICS on my Note!! Woohooo!!” in hindsight, I was so naïve… thinking that Samsung would have rolled out a stable ICS for the Note. I upgrade and BHAAMM went my battery life. The phone that lived with a strong beat for 2 days straight couldn’t last for 8 hours now. L  But I soldiered on, I did the best I could with my phone – stopped G+ ing too much, stopped whatsapping too much, no more videos, no music on those long metro rides, etc etc. It was a difficult time.

Then Samsung decided to make my life worse. They figured it was time to roll out a completely unacceptable version of JB for my beloved Note! And man, was I naïve or what. I credously thought, “Oh this has got to be an improvement. They wouldn’t want to loose out existing customers. Let me upgrade.” And so it happened, I upgraded my phone from ICS to JB. Oh why oh why did I do that! My phone needs to be rebooted at least 12 times in a single day (yes I’ve counted). On any good day, my phone doesn’t last for more than 4 hours; I have to leave it plugged in for charging all day at work. Starting up the phone uses upto 19% battery. Is that for real? Hell yeah! Making a call is a pain. Slide your finger across the contact and hold cross your fingers in hopes that the call will be made in the first go (it does not). Try opening an app and hold your breath, not literally coz you are likely to die to that scenario since the apps take that long to open. Try, just try taking a sceenshot, I dare you.

Ever since I’ve upgraded my phone last month I’ve had the worse experience with it. I am disheartened that Samsung did not bother testing the OS enough before releasing it. Thy conveniently give a disclaimer “we aren’t responsible for your phone’s performance after the upgrade”. Reality check Samsung- Yes you are responsible. If I am shelling out 35 grand for a stupid phone, it might as well last longer than a year, else you can rest assured I am not buying another device which has Samsung printed on it. Samsung’s blunder has ruined my experience as a customer, the buttery Jelly Bean feels like a crass stone in the Note.

My recommendation, Do Not buy Sumsung’s flagship phones, if you already own one, do not upgrade it, if you’ve already upgraded, well… restore Factory Settings mate.

If Samsung keeps ruining customer experience like this, I am sure Nokia has nothing to worry about.

Note to Nokia – don’t worry. Let Samsung bask in its temporary glory, because if it continues like this, Samsung will surely loose its existing customer base. It sure as hell has lost one.