Ordered a new phone. Given how I am with stuff, and how modern smartphones are so fragile, I have to go with rugged. They don't bend "when you sit on it". And that killed a 2DS and a tablet. My NEC Terrain was a decent phone, but even when I got it, (I cheaped out, and went wtih one of AT&T's "refurbished" options; when I should have got the original DuraForce Pro) it used an (even then) outdated version of Android, and thus wouldn't support the latest version of Chrome for about the past two years, and as a result, MTO would NOT load. Battery life sucked, if I used the web browser, it would nearly completely drain a full battery in less than a half-hour. Standby was lucky to be a day.
My Grandfather's Kyocera DuraXE is 4G LTE, modern, , and is having no issues. Thus, it shouldn't need replacement anytime soon, and it's older than my NEC. It's why I went with the DuraForce, as even with my use, the DuraXE is a great phone. My Grandmother's Sonim Bolt was soon to be deprecated and unusable due to it being a 3G phone and AT&Ts discontinuation of the 3G network by 2022. And my phone is badly outdated and I'd been putting up with it for 3 years despite my dislike of a lot of it. We chose to not even bother with refurbished phones, only new, modern ones due to the fact that buying refurbished is the reason for our troubles.
https://www.kyoceramobile.com/duraforce-pro-2/att/AT&T overnighted the phone for some reason. It will be here tomorrow. Can't wait!
I'll get the photos up then, also. I'll be taking a lot more photos of my stuff, and the outdoors as well, since this phone has a good camera, instead of the kid's toy on my old phone.
ATT's photos did not want to work with uploading to IMGUR. The GSM Arena photos did, but show the Verizon version.
This what I chose. Kyocera DuraForce PRO 2.
These are the pages from which I will be delving into for my comparisons.
!!WARNING--TECHNICAL CONTENT AND RAMBLING AHEAD!!
Old phone:
https://www.gsmarena.com/nec_terrain-5553.phpNew:
https://www.gsmarena.com/kyocera_duraforce_pro_2-9407.phpBody: Roughly 6x3 is just a slight bit bigger than the 5x2 of my NEC. Due to this phone not having a physical keyboard, the display is close to twice as large.
Display. My old phone used a TFT display, which sucked battery life out of the phone quite quickly. This one uses an IPS (In-Place Switching), which is much higher resolution (1080x1920 vs. 640x480) and twice the size with only a one-inch increase in frame size. The old NEC display was honestly TOO small for extended reading, made web browsing hard, gave me eyestrain and headaches.
Android OS: The old phone used Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich; which was already dated when the phone came out in 2013 (which meant it was primitive in 2017 when I bought the phone) The DuraForce 2 ships with Android Oreo but will update to 9 Pie automatically. This is the most up-to-date. The way storage was divided up with 4 made downloading apps hard. Despite 8GB of storage, I could download no apps. Which in the long run, saved a lot of data.
Processor/RAM. The NEC Terrain only has 1GB of RAM and a 1.5 GHz CPU. Got hot, froze, and in general was a PITA. The DuraForce: 4GB (pretty decent in my mind, but apparently on the lower end of modern smartphones) and a 2.2 GHz processor. Yeah, my old laptop with 8GB of RAM and a dated version of the i7 performs better, but decent for a mobile device.
Battery: The NEC had a 1900MAh battery that it would burn through quite quickly. The Kyocera a decent 3240 (meaning I'm gonna have to buy a pretty decent power bank, my current one which was a promotional freebie, is only enough to charge the NEC) The Kyocera has wireless charging. I bought a new PC that has a wireless charging mat on top (which I didn't even pay attention, or care that it had), and I plan to now find a use for, and take advantage of. That will come in handy when I lose the USB Type C cable, currently my only one. Despite this, their battery life is said to be roughly equal, but the Kyocera has more standby time.
Camera: NEC had a 5MP camera, and it was very sensitive to lighting and it was hard to focus. It was harder than heck to keep my photos from looking like crap. While the 13MP camera of the DuraForce isn't a whole lot by modern standards, it seems to be a better camera than the one on my NEC. I seem to recall my old Fujifilm point-and-shoot camera only being something like 12MP.
Storage: My old phone only had 8GB of internal storage, meaning for my music, I had to use a MicroSD card. The DuraForce has a decent 64GB internal storage, which will be 72 when I add my MicroSD card from the old phone.
Bluetooth Wireless. I don't understand any of these well. The Bluetooth 4 of my old phone had little range away from my wireless speaker. It also acted really finicky on the current (next-to-the-newest-model) Xfinity modem when connected to WiFi. The NEC only had " b/g/n" Wifi bands, while the Kyocera, " a/b/g/n/ac/i/r/k dual band" which should cover the newer modem.
Features (most of which I never used on the old phone). The NEC had an accelorometer (which I thought almost all smartphones typically had?), proximity sensor, and compass. The Kyocera; fingerprint (which I plan to use to lock/unlock the phone), accelorometer, gyroscope, proximity, compass (I have a Cammenga 3H, one of the best compasses on the market, why bother with a phone?), and barometer (this looks handy!).
Sound: I'm sure no change. I use Monk headphones, which have good sound, and don't really cost a lot. They sound pretty good; much better than the majority of $10 and under earbuds.
Cons:
I liked the physical keyboard of my NEC. But, I gain a decent screen in its place. I think the teeny screen on the NEC caused damage to my eyesight.
And no FM radio on the Kyocera. Not that I used it a whole lot, but it was something handy to have. Oh well, I think it's time I got one of those Eton radios as a "Just in Case" thing anyway.
We may have to get an unlimited plan due to my grandmother and I now both using state-of-the art phones, and my grandmother with her first smartphone. Since I couldn't use apps due to the poor storage setup of Android 4, I never used data-sucking streaming services, like Amazon Music, Pandora, or Netflix that I use at home on the old phone, but now I can. We had a 2 gig plan with rollover data for years; but downgraded that to a 1GB plan that does not roll over during a period of cost-cutting last summer. In my opinion, that's far less than adequate. Oh well, as long as I try to use those services only when on WiFi, it shouldn't be an issue.
One inch longer and wider. Thus, it may be a bit bulkier for pocket carry. Time I got a Skinth anyway, but I have a CLC holster I bought when I got the NEC that should fit just fine as it was too big for the old NEC. Also has extra slots for my MT, pens, and flashlight.
USB Type C. Both good and bad. USB Type C can't be put in upside down and is the same plug on both ends, I think. But, I will have to buy a bunch of Type C cables, as my huge stockpile of Micro USB cables are not of as much use. But, my Olight i1R and Amazon Kindle Fire HD8 with Google Play sideloaded (which is soon to also be deprecated, and partially replaced with the new phone; as I won't need it to run the apps I use) still use Micro USB.
And my grandmother finally has started wanting a smartphone due to her 3G Sonim Bolt becoming soon-to-be unusable due to AT&T's discontinuation of 3G services. I picked out, for her, the LG Stylo 5+. The camera on her phone is 16MP, better than on the one I chose. Now I'm jealous! It, despite being ordered at the same time, won't be here until Sat or Mon. at the earliest.
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