Well done you for sticking it out for so long; I have a Nokia which will qualify for a place in a glass case in the Science Museum within the next five years. I love this bit of kit; the screen is cracked and burned, the phone has been dropped off scaffold, kicked into open manholes, but like a war photographer's much love much battered camera every dent, scratch and crack tells a story. I text, call, photograph and I shall continue to do so until the thing gives up the ghost; the thing is I can buy the self same model from a local shop and continue to cock a snoop at the latest smart arse all singing all dancing bit of mobile bling. My only claim to mobile respectability is that I am on a tariff; does that count in anyway?



Smart phone: a computer too small for computing, too clunky for phoning, that needs charging three times a day. Outdated phone: phone that does what it says on the tin and needs charging twice a week. Somewhere, something went wrong.....



As it happens, I too have a phone much like what you describe, a Nokia much like that in the main picture ( though I do not know which particular model ). Since you admit being a technophobe, I will only explain Moore's Law in 'technophobe format' : Anything you buy is ALREADY obsolete ( because there is something EVEN MORE ADVANCED in the pipeline ). This means any and all tech fetishists are ALREADY behind the curve ( and are chasing their own tail ). I presume you have heard of both Steve Jobs and tablet computers. He did not actually invent the tablet, but rather created the tablet MARKET, as long ago as 2010. That first tablet, ahead of its time at the time, is now downright primitive. In short, do not bother in the least about 'keeping up', because NOBODY can. before explaining that 3G was merely an internet speed which would be of no use if you didn't have network coverage, and which had in any case been outstripped by 4G. At least you did not think that 'broadband' is a reference to the Dixie Chicks. As for not reading emails, make no apology whatsoever. If you have the SLIGHTEST doubt about who the sender is, delete the email. The chances of an email from an address new to you being 'important' is vanishingly small and so deleting it cannot be a problem. ( If it somehow DOES turn out to be important it can easily be sent again. ) And deleting all these 'spam' emails is a virtuous circle for you. Your complete LACK of response means you get fewer and fewer such emails. I personally get fewer than half a dozen spam per week with this approach and I can safely say I have NEVER deleted an IMPORTANT email.



I deliberately do not spend much on a mobile phone, having lost my first one whilst drunk and my second having put it in the washing machine by mistake. I find it astonishing that my current ~?60 PAYG phone plays music (FLAC/VLC) better than the iPod touch I got two years earlier.



I too have an ancient mobile phone. It does the phone call thing, apparently handles texts (which I have used once) and can take (staggeringly bad) photos. It's a little flip-open Samsung or Nokia. It works fine. I keep it in the car essentially for emergencies, but it's usually switched off. Thing is I hate phones, even though I love gizmos. Our house has four computers, two tablets and two iPods among its electronic toys. My wife has a smartphone and loves it. I'm not sure where my dumbphone is.