for two years, i had an iphone 4. and i was totally satisfied. even the last six months when it had a cracked screen (it wasn't bad at all) and kept running out of memory (eventually i figured out itunes and was able to backup and delete old text messages). i only had a few things i didn't like and they weren't huge. things like that there was no option to turn off the camera noise without putting the whole phone on silent... and that the camera pics were grainy (it's a cell phone... it's kind of to be expected). so a few months before i was up for my upgrade, i started looking into phone options. i didn't want to pay a bunch of money so i was pretty much only considering the smart phones that i could get for nothing or next to nothing. it came down to the iphone 5s and the samsung galaxy s5. i looked at a number of websites comparing the phones (i found this one to be easy and helpful) on certain things like screen size, durability, battery life, storage capacity, camera megapixels, etc. and the galaxy s5 was the clear winner in every category. i also loved that it was water resistant for up to 30 minutes should it accidentally get dropped in the toilet/kitchen sink/swimming pool/bathtub.
but that's a pretty huge jump to go from iphone to android. every single time i brought it up, christopher told me i shouldn't do it and that i should just stick with an iphone. he begged me to just please get an iphone because an android would be a huge mistake. i know he's always right, but i researched this phone thing a lot and it just made sense. i couldn't go against all that logic. my birthday came and went and i didn't get the upgrade. even though i'd pretty much decided, i still wasn't completely sold. i even talked to sales reps at places like best buy and costco trying to get the momentum to take the plunge.
so still going along those lines, went i was in atlanta for thanksgiving break, i found myself at costco talking to a verizon guy at the phone kiosk. the galaxy and iphone were both $50 normally, but would be free just that weekend (black friday) so i should probably go ahead and upgrade now instead of waiting for the sale to end. against my better judgement, i decided to do it (the logic won out... even though switching phones is always a pain and probably not what i wanted to spend my time on since i was in atlanta). the final thing for me was when i was debating still and christopher said something like "just go ahead and do it." i thought i had his support. i didn't really.
the next few hours ended up being spent with phone stuff. switching activation to my new phone, shopping for a case, getting pictures and info transferred over. it was a pain. but whatever... that's fine as long as it's worth it in the end.
but then i spent so much time the next several days googling and figuring out how to work my phone and customize it to be the way i wanted it to be. it was a mix of fun and frustrating. i was also trying to figure out simple stuff like text message notifications (since you can download whatever texting app you want, but the notifications were different than what i was used to) and voicemail (i didn't want to have to dial in for voicemail). also mixed in here was that i wasn't receiving text messages from any iphone users (because of an imessage glitch going on with apple.) none. and i had no way of knowing what i wasn't receiving. so add in there that i was also spending hours online and on the phone with apple trying to figure that out. also, my contact list that came into my phone was an old one from at least four or five years ago so it had tons of people i don't even remember and none of the people in my ward or contacts from colorado. that was hugely inconvenient but i didn't want to spend more time taking my phone into verizon... especially because i was trying to salvage what was left of my thanksgiving break in atlanta in between all the sickness and whatever.
so on the 8th day of having my galaxy, i got back home to colorado and thought maybe in my normal life, i would get a better hang of the phone situation. i got my contacts in my phone and spent more time practicing stuff (like taking pictures with the camera... it has 16 megapixels but it wasn't as intuitive so my pictures frequently came out blurry or with really off lighting). through all of this, i had an unsettling feeling and a horrible knot in my stomach like i'd made the wrong choice. but anytime i thought about returning my big beautiful galaxy for a small little iphone (that looked nearly identical to my previous iphone that actually came out sometime in 2010), i couldn't handle it because it seemed unbearable and too against the logic. i kept telling myself to press on and i'd get used to it if i just took the time to learn the features and details of android.
but i also tried to look more specifically at why i was feeling the way i was. i loved my actual galaxy phone. it was pretty and i loved the hot pink case i'd gotten to go with it. it was basic but cheerful and it had a great grip on it. the problem was that no matter how hard i tried, old habits die hard, and after using an iphone all day, every day for two years, i couldn't handle a phone that didn't have ios. i was so homesick for the apple operating system and how first nature it was to my fingers and my eyes. i think if i had started with an android, i would prefer android (i have a number of friends out here that i've talked to recently that have android and prefer it far above iphone... especially my friend sarah who broke her android phone in september and had to use a craigslist iphone for three months until she was eligible for an upgrade and could get another android. i asked her about it and i think her exact words were "i hated every second of it."), but i began my smartphone experience with an iphone and so, essentially, that's how i was raised. i began considering the "what if i just returned this and got an iphone..." thought process. totally ignoring comparisons of the two phones, just putting on my blinders and asking myself, "would i be happy with the 5s?" and i found that when i didn't compare it to the galaxy, i was okay with the iphone 5s. i guess a similar thing would be thinking about my car. my car is fine and there's nothing i hate about it (other than how dirty i've let it get since i got pregnant... holy crap i'm so lazy these days)... but if i were to compare it to a nicer, bigger car with leather seats, i would start to feel dissatisfied with my little rav4. nothing has really changed... just that i've upped my expectations and gotten a little greedy. put my blinders back on and only look at this car in my garage, and suddenly i'm satisfied and grateful again.
anyways, i decided to just make up my mind and take the galaxy back. it wasn't worth losing sleep over at night (yes, that was literally happening) and honestly, if i felt even worse about that decision, i still had two more days (you get 14 days at costco to return/exchange your phone) to switch back to a galaxy. once i made up my mind, i was so anxious to just get it done (hoping that the switch would bring me peace). i woke up and called costco as soon as i thought they were open (turns out they didn't open for another 30 or 60 minutes) and then again when they actually opened. i talked to the phone kiosk manager at the parker costco (he was the guy that happened to be working at the time) and he was rude and condescending and rushed and overall not at all helpful. he was even guilting me about returning the phone because i bought it at a different costco and his store would have to take the loss (really?! i'm just switching it out for a different phone... costco is costco and they're more polite to their customers than this!) and blah blah blah. i have a hard time believing than an actual costco employee would ever act this way, but i know the kiosk people are independent of costco so i can't expect them to be up to the same standards. anyways, he was horrible and ended the phone call by cutting me off and saying something like "i'm really behind and i have to go, but just come in at your earliest convenience and we'll figure it out." uhhh no, i don't ever want to meet your face.
so that stressed me out because i was so anxious to just get this done and over with, but now i had this guy at costco that made me not want to go into the store. i considered looking up a different costco location but decided instead to wait until later in the day when i thought he would be off work and another person would be working. i waited until 3:45 or so before i loaded the kids up. but first, i knelt down by the side of my bed and said a prayer. stupid and silly and crazy to kneel in prayer about exchanging a phone? not at all if you knew how much turmoil it was causing me. i felt so much better when i got up from that prayer. not necessarily confident, but definitely more taken care of and less alone. like i had some backup support along with me. i got to costco and there was no one at the phone kiosk. but there was another customer that said he'd been waiting for ten minutes already and three costco employees that were trying to location a phone rep person. i asked a costco employee if the guy they were looking for had been working all day and he said "yeah, he's been working all day... he's the manager." and i got a little worried but not too much because i still felt peace. well, turns out he'd already left to go home, but the employee coming on duty was just late from being stuck in traffic. she finally arrived around 4:30 and she was wonderful. the guy on the phone had been so opposed to returning my galaxy for such a lesser phone because iphones are terrible but the girl was all "i prefer my android but i know everyone has their own personal preference and it doesn't make a difference to me whether you have an android or iphone." sigh of relief. the whole process was really long (like multiple hours i think) but never at all unpleasant. costco refunded the price for the phone and the glass cover (that goes on the front...$25) and i bought the 5s for the regular non sale price of $50 (so we were out $50 i had saved but i wasn't planning on getting the black friday discount before that so it was only semi a loss) and walked out of there feeling better about life. it look maybe until the following afternoon before i felt fully settled in my phone (i downloaded my regular apps, icloud restocked my phone with the previous notes, contacts, etc. and i got a case for it) and i literally never looked back. i would occasionally miss certain features of my galaxy, but never once did i consider switching back before the saturday deadline (the costco exchange happened on wednesday night). i felt peace and happiness and total confirmation that it was the right decision for me.
so yes, there are certain things i definitely miss about my galaxy... being able to zoom into a picture and have it still be crisp and clear because of the 16 megapixel camera. the pink (well, at least i set mine to pink) led light that would flash if i had a missed call or text message. i didn't even need to see the screen or hear an alert, i could just walk into the room and instantly know if i needed to check my phone. how big it was! i really liked having a huge phone. i thought it might be too big, but it still fit great into my purse and pants pockets and hand and wasn't difficult to use. because of the BACK BUTTON! i really loved that back button. that was so intuative and i loved having it right near my thumb since most back buttons (like for text messaging and facebook) are on the top left of the phone. this made the big screen super easy to navigate even without huge hands. i miss that it was water resistant and more durable in general so i didn't stress about something bad happening to it. i liked the screen to phone ratio and that there was less "wasted space" on the front of the phone.
there are other things i liked about the galaxy (and android) but those are the things that gave me the most pause in exchanging my phone. it took me a day or two to get used to having a small screen again and no back button. i'm okay not having my pink led light because i realize that's more of a fun luxury instead of a necessity. i'm trying to get myself used to the mentality of my high school years when cell phone mentality was "the smaller, the better" and the fact that my phone looks just like my old one but without a crack in it. ; ) i'm also just focusing on the little positives i find about my iphone (like how i like that the speakers are on the bottom of the phone instead of the back) and relishing in the comfort and familiarity of how first nature it is for me to text, etc. here's one thing i'm absolutely loving about my little 5s though.. the fingerprint recognition. i think this may be the only way that the iphone beats the galaxy because with the galaxy, you have to swipe your finger for it to recognize it, but with the iphone, you just hold it over the home button. so when i click the home button to light up the screen, i literally just hold it there. i put in my thumbs and my first finger of my right hand so it's easy to unlock it even without picking it up or holding it. i've never password protected my phone before, but since brady loves swiping my phone and getting into apps (ever caught your kid seconds before they delete your kindle app and all of it's contents?! or realize that now you're involved in several new words with friends games?) i'm excited to be able to lock him out of it. not that i ever let him hold it (i am more careful with this phone than a newborn baby... mostly because i feel like it's probably more fragile than an actual newborn baby), but still. if he ever gets his hands on it, it'll be nice for him to realize there is nothing fun for him there, so he might as well leave it alone. and i can use my fingerprint in the app store instead of typing in my apple id password every time.
anyways, it totally wasn't the logical choice, but it was obviously the right choice for me. it was a colossal pain and took more hours of my life than what i would ever like to count or be aware of, but i'm sure i learned something super great from this experience that will offer me invaluable knowledge in the future. ; )
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