Hellobee

I got my first phone when I was 14. It was basically a brick with buttons and T9 typing, on a pay-as-you-go service from Virgin Mobile. My parents got it for me since I was staying at school later due to theater rehearsals, and a phone helped better coordinate rides and assure my parents I was ok. I didn’t talk to anyone other than them on it. This was very early in the time of high schoolers having cell phones and most of my friends who had phones had similar ones.

But as the age of the smartphone began, I continued with simple phones. I went through a number of basic Virgin Mobile phones: all cheap, some free, while others my age were just starting to have smartphones. I didn’t get my first actual smartphone, which was basically the oldest, most basic smartphone you could buy until I was a sophomore in college.

Finally, less than two years ago when I was already twenty-six, Mr. Snowflake and I looked at the budget and the fact that all of Virgin Mobile’s Pay as You Go options had increased dramatically. I was working and needed my phone a lot, so we decided that it was time for me to go on Mr. Snowflake’s Verizon family plan and get an actually decent, not terribly outdated smartphone.

I didn’t really do any research on what type of phone to get. I knew I wanted an Android rather than an iPhone, as I had never really adjusted to Apple’s interface despite my campus in college preferring them in many of the labs. My mother-in-law had just gotten a new phone several months prior to that, a Samsung Galaxy S7. The S8 had just come out, so the S7 wasn’t the newest in the line, but it was still a very modern, high-tech smartphone. I knew my mother-in-law really liked hers, so I decided to go for it.

Now, I’m sure I would have really liked the S7; my mother-in-law still really likes hers. But less than a month into owning it, I dropped a coffee mug from the edge of the bath onto it. It completely shattered not just the front screen of my phone, but the entire back, and the screen protector. I, of course, had not purchased insurance; I had been using cheap phones for years and had never managed to break one.

We were still paying off the phone, and getting the screen fixed ended up being more expensive than the phone itself. My phone was extremely cracked, but useable. None of the cracks were the kind that I would actually cut myself on or anything. So, I kept using a cracked phone for a year and a half. When it was finally financially feasible for us to pay off my phone and get a new one, I knew two things: one, I wanted something cheaper, and it didn’t have to be fancy at all; and two, I wanted a warranty on it.

Compared to the little time I spent researching my Galaxy S7, I spent a LOT more time researching for my next phone. I quickly learned that in order to save money on a smartphone, look outside the main lines: so no Samsungs, iPhones, or Google phones. This brought me to the Moto line I was familiar with as Mr. Snowflake had bought a Moto (with a warranty!) just a few months prior after using an old phone for years and years. Specifically, to the Moto G6.

Image credit: Tom’s Guide. Click there for a very good technical review of the phone (I’m definitely not the one to turn to for the technical specs)!

Compared to the big name competitors, the Moto line is much lower priced, which for me was essential. But the Moto G6 also is a really solid phone for the price. It got very positive reviews as a good budget phone. The camera isn’t as good as what you’re getting on the more top of the line phones, but it’s better than the cracked phone camera I’d been using a year and a half! And for $249 (less on sale; I got it for about $200), it’s definitely way less than most phones out there.

I love my Moto G6. I never would have imagined me writing a blog post singing the praises of a budget smartphone, but here I am. To me, the Moto G6 is the “mom jeans” of phones. It’s not particularly stylish. In fact, when I was working in an educational non-profit, the kids I worked with made fun of me for having it  as they all mostly had iPhones. But it’s comfortable and does the job while I’m chasing after Snowy all day.

I do everything on my phone. I don’t have a laptop. All of my blog posts are written from my phone. I read my Bible and do meditation from my phone. I’ve had my Moto G6 for almost six months now, and I love it. It helps me do everyday tasks and I finally don’t have to do them from a cracked screen. And I know that if it does break, I have the warranty on it, and am still paying less than I was for my Galaxy S7.

What phone do you use, and why?