The New Smartphone Upgrade

I’ve been feeling quite amorous about the camera features on my Samsung Galaxy 6 Edge phone, but noticed that it wasn’t taking as automatically impressive pictures as usual and sometimes, I even had to focus, (the horror!) I turned the camera over and could see a hairline crack inside the camera lens.  It was a really odd place to have damage, as the exterior cover to the lens was fine.  The camera is incredibly good, as even can be seen here in a picture that had the quality sucked out of it on Facebook from our trip to Mexico a month ago-

Lovathon T-Mobile

Due to the odd crack, I brought it into T-Mobile and as wonderful as they are to their customers, (I’ve been with them for about ten years now….)  they found that the best approach was just to switch my phone out on my jump program, which also allowed me to upgrade….which also resulted in my monthly payment to go down, (nicest run-on sentence ever…:)) I had admitted to myself that I was missing my larger screen of my two previous Note phones and decided to go to the Galaxy 6 Edge +, which combined the best of both worlds in the Edge and the Note.

Why did I want the bigger screen?  I am just going to admit this-  I’m getting old.  I refuse to squint at a screen and try to read tiny text and the screen was just too small for the text size I preferred for comfortable reading of email, texts and such.  The 5.7″ screen on the Edge +, (1/2 inch larger than the Edge) allowed me to set the font size up to a much larger version and use the “Gothic Bold” font in a way that doesn’t overlap or wrap in a way that is not aesthetically pleasing.

The screen on the Edge series is just gorgeous.  There’s something about the Super AMOLED screen and the curved edge.  The camera just can’t seem to take a bad picture and it’s incredibly responsive to touch.

Cover It Up

Funniest thing I had to get used to was how slim it is.  I just couldn’t adjust to the first Edge’s thin profile and had to buy a robust phone case that gave the phone more weight and “substance”.  I really appreciate the cases that protect the corners and sides, but add enough to the thickness that I don’t feel like I’m about to slip between my fingers at any minute.  I’ve had great luck with Caseology and Verus combination ones that have thick rubber interiors with hard plastic shells that can be seen on mine here:

And the back of the case has a nice grip to it, so you don’t have to worry about dropping it or having it slide off of a smooth surface:

The Charge Pad

The last addition is the most important to my smartphone setup.  I use my phone a lot and one of the benefits of going to the Edge + was the extended battery life.  I got about 1 1/2 days on my standard Galaxy Edge.  That’s considerable vs. what most people receive in battery life, but the larger battery is a key enhancement in the Edge +.

Most people are aware that very few new phones have replaceable batteries.  We are switching out our phones more often and the new “sealed” designs protect from water damage and other issues more than the previous with a separate battery.

Even though LiOn batteries are getting more efficient with charging and have less issues than the previous ones, they can be impacted by over and continual charging.  The way to work around this is to get a charge pad for your phone and I did invest in a Black Sapphire charge pad for mine.

The charge pad only charges to 100% and then the QI Inductive technology goes into a sleep mode, saving from over-charge.  I don’t have to take the case off or anything, just place the phone down on it and I see a circular print across the screen and the charge signal at the upper right comes on.  The pad glows blue to tell me it’s charging and it glows green when it’s complete.

I’ve used Samsung products for quite some time now.  Everything from the Samsung Galaxy 3 Mini, (which I had to purchase out of Canada) to my Tab S2 tablet and most recent purchases discussed here.  I really love their products and nothing against Mac iphones or iPads, I just am happier with the Android OS overall and Samsung makes some seriously beautiful hardware to boot.

Now if they keep going in the direction they are with the Samsung Gear, we might be able to talk me out of my Moto360 smartwatch…. 🙂