If I don't look especially happy, I'm not. Two weeks into the new year, and I was already spending money I could have used for something else.
After looking at the virtues of two Samsung phones, the S25 FE and the A15, I decided to go with the A15, last year's #1 selling Android phone nationwide. We had a '68 Impala when I was growing up, so if something is a #1 seller, there's a reason, and it isn't just cost.
The first AT&T store I went to, a relative hole-in-the-wall near State and Madison, was no help. "We don't carry that here. You have to go online and order it." The A15 wasn't good enough to carry in their store, but the young man who told me that had an AT&T-issued A15 for his work phone! Hmm!
The next day, I went to a much larger AT&T store at Madison and Wells, in the heart of the LaSalle financial district. This selfie was shot in front of that store. I was in luck -- they had one A15 left in back, clearing them out for the upcoming intro of this year's model, the 2025 A16, which, even though it has removable storage, has taken away the headphone jack. That's progress!? Hmm.
Even though the outgoing A15 has removable micro SD storage, the AT&T sales associate was unaware of it! Too bad. If he'd known, he could have sold me a micro SD card. Instead, Walmart will make that money, and I'll pay much less than I would have at the AT&T Store.
He did get me set up with using my thumbprint to turn on the phone, and a PIN number, which I never had in 15 years of using Blackberrys, to unlock it.
I also made sure I bought a case for it before I set foot out of the store. It makes the phone about twice as thick as it actually is, but I don't care. A hard-as-nails phone case helped the KeyOne last seven years.
I only had 4 pictures that I hadn't backed up before the KeyOne died, but I was able to pull the SD card and copy those off. All my tunes were on the SD card, too, but that wasn't a problem, because I keep the music backed up on a hard drive.
Contacts were another matter, though. Every contact phone number I've collected since 2017 is now locked up inside the KeyOne, and that's one mistake I'll never make again. Every phone number in the A15 is also going into a pen and paper WRITTEN phone book. I'm almost tempted to pull my Rolodex out of storage. All this living life totally digitally -- No. Just, no.
The funny part: the Blackberry Classic (2015-2017), the phone I had before the KeyOne, still works, and I was able to go in and get pre-October 2017 phone numbers I didn't have written down! At least something went right.
Thank you to all the YouTube "influencers" who have reviewed the A15 ad nauseum, and showed, among other things, where the SD card slot was. It and the SIM card share opposite sides of the same drawer, the SIM slot on the top, the SD slot underneath. They're both installed upside down so that their gold contacts face OUT. Once you find the SD slot, it's clearly labeled, I'll have to give Samsung that. The A15 owners manual didn't even show how to install the SD card! Really, Samsung.
Now to get going learning all the ins and outs, getting used to that *YECCH* touchscreen keyboard, and diving into the camera settings.
One more thought: Planned Obsolescence, the annual model year change, has migrated from cars to sneakers and smartphones.
Does the $200 Air Jordan XXXIX (the same price as the far-more-useful phone I just bought) help a young athlete play basketball any better than the XXXVIII? Or the XXVIII? Or the first one from 1984? Or is it just molding rubber soles and stitching strips of leather and vinyl differently every year to justify another $200 purchase?
When did we get to the point where sneakers are more expensive than hard shoes like Bass Weejuns or Cole Haan Pinch Pennys? When did we turn sneakers into the footwear equivalent of Chippendale Chairs, too precious to crease the toe leather? Where kids are walking around stiff-legged like penguins to keep the leather smooth?
And don't get me started on smartphones. Both Apple and Samsung have come out with new phones every - single - year since I bought that KeyOne in 2017. If I had bought a Samsung Galaxy A3 that year, could I have made it last all the way to now? Or would software issues have reared their ugly heads a few years in? "As of (choose the date), your phone will no longer be supported with updates and will be vulnerable. To provide the same level of service and security you have enjoyed, we would highly suggest purchasing a new phone."
To paraphrase that Volkswagen Beetle ad from 55 years ago: "I don't understand all the hoopla over the 'big changes' for next year's model. Weren't they just as proud of this year's?"
