Flight Mode

Flight mode is the best mode. I learned this once the battery of my six year old phone started becoming weaker about a year ago. The cellular connection was draining most of the energy, resulting in a standby time of about half a day. This was not very practical. Switching to flight mode would extend it to about a full day, which was just enough to get back to a charger. It was not until I used flight mode every day that I realized how calm everything got. No more interruptions. No more blinking LED craving for attention. No more longing for the phone to check for new messages since there just could not be any new message at all.

The Qualcomm MDM9215M 2G/3G/4G Modem in my Galaxy S3 is best when off ;-)

Switching from silent mode to flight mode is a big difference. In silent mode, you subconsciously know that there may be some content waiting for you. And your mind urges you to take a look. Just a very brief one. Just a moment. But like any other drug, it never is just a moment. When in flight mode, the hurdle is higher. The phone takes a while to log again into the network. The apps take a couple of seconds to retrieve the latest update. It does not feel anymore as if checking for updates would just be a tiny bit of time. It is like putting the cookie jar in the highest shelf of the kitchen. You can still reach it, but you will do it less often if you need to climb on a chair every time to get it.

The camara of my Galaxy S3: better than many of my earlier compact digital camaras

However, I have to admit that a standby time of barely a day is not much. And six years is a very reasonable lifetime for a smartphone. It was running Android 4.4.3 and we are now at version 9.0.0. Most apps were hopelessly outdated. The GMail app crashed when replying to long e-mail conversations. Google Maps had a delay of up to tens of seconds when navigating. I could not join the local bike sharing program because my version of the app was too old to pay. After a long dispute with myself to find out whether I really needed a new phone, I decided that it was about time. Still, I decided not to go for a high end model.

An unplugged RF connector for one of the antennas of the Galaxy S3

I bought my beloved Samsung Galaxy S3 exactly six years ago, in January 2013. I paid 497.98 € for it, which translates into less than 7 € per month over its lifetime. The screen never broke. All buttons still work. It has a few scratches but that is it. The mainboard died after about three years in February 2016 but I fixed it with a new one from AliExpress for 36.06 € that still works like the first day. I am very happy with the overall cost of the old phone. The new phone is a BQ Aquaris X2 Pro with Dual Sim. The battery lasts what seems an eternity to me, but I still plan to turn it into flight mode regularly. For the peace and quiet.

I took all of the above pictures when I changed the mainboard of my old phone in 2016

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