[BBPandy]

Over the last few years I've noticed reviewers (not associated with Crackberry) are spending less & less time reviewing the actual phone aspect of modern phones.

Yesterday I watched a 40 minute review of the "Samsung Galaxy S2"; you heard me 40 minutes! The review had multiple sections & talked about almost everything about the phone, EXCEPT what should have been the most important part....HOW IT WORKS AS A PHONE!!!

Thinking about it, I realized that this is not the first time I've seen that part missed, in fact it's quite common these days.

If you went to the local car dealership and the salesman talked about how amazing the paint was, how the seats recline, and how the stereo will do everything but make you coffee, (need to DL an app for that :P ) but didn't tell you anything about how the car drives, would you buy it? If all you care about is how the car looks, I bet you could get a great deal buying one with no engine.

I guess that�s why we are BlackBerry Users & Abusers, because we actually want to use our phones AS PHONES!

Anyway, that�s my rant for the day. What do you guys think?

[Economist101]

The "phone" part of these devices is becoming less and less relevant to mainstream users. BBM, texting, e-mail and other non-voice communication are all on the rise, each at the expense of traditional voice communications.

Welcome to 2011.

[howarmat]

the "phone" part of the phones are becoming less important imo. i dont even make 250 minutes a month in calls and some months under 100. i do sms, gtalk, email, etc all the time though

[kbz1960]

No one wants to talk anymore, they want to stay in their own little world and just message. Kind of funny cause talking is faster and all you see is how fast is it lol.

[BBPandy]

No one wants to talk anymore, they want to stay in their own little world and just message. Kind of funny cause talking is faster and all you see is how fast is it lol.

If Siri takes off it will mean that people like to talk to their phones more then to each other

[kbz1960]

If Siri takes off it will mean that people like to talk to their phones more then to each other

LOL too funny but true if you read the threads on it. I don't want to talk to people but I'll always talk to my phone.

[Jaguarr40]

The "phone" part of these devices is becoming less and less relevant to mainstream users. BBM, texting, e-mail and other non-voice communication are all on the rise, each at the expense of traditional voice communications.

Welcome to 2011.

WE the consumer asked for the more Social network aspect of smartphones and forgot the word PHONE and great voice when you are talking and clarity etc.

Naturally the phone makers finally listened and this is the kind of phone they made to cater to what we wanted. Can you blame them??

I have always put the phone first and everything else it does afterward. All I want is a damn good crisp phone and a great network, calendar for appts and an alarm so I don't forget my appts...lol.

After that it is all play to me so who are we do blame and as they say "Be careful for what you ask for"

[Jaguarr40]

the "phone" part of the phones are becoming less important imo. i dont even make 250 minutes a month in calls and some months under 100. i do sms, gtalk, email, etc all the time though

I do the same thing except for the social aspect of it as I am not that heavy as you howarmat.

I do alot of emails for work and personal and beyond that more phone conversation but I don't hit my 450 mins a month or even close to it.

[BBPandy]

hmmm yea my minutes are often in the thousands....

[Chrisy]

I use about 60 minutes a month. Sometimes, I do prefer to hear someone's voice rather than read text. Of course, I use video Skype now too and that uses data, not minutes.

As far as the phone feature of a smartphone, I've found every platform to be pretty much on par with each other. I mean, BlackBerry, Android and iPhone all have good voice quality, they all make and receive calls just fine. I don't think there's much more to say about it. They all sound fine to me.

[BlackStormRising]

2400 minutes last month. I can't remember the last time I had less than 1200 in a month, probably 3 years ago when I went to mobile full-time and ditched the landline.

[Tre Lawrence]

Yep... my phone voice usage has dropped significantly. It's a different world, and devices are rated by all-round functionality now.

Frankly, I am more concerned with how a phone handles MS Suite and social networking than voice quality.

[Economist101]

WE the consumer asked for the more Social network aspect of smartphones and forgot the word PHONE and great voice when you are talking and clarity etc.

Naturally the phone makers finally listened and this is the kind of phone they made to cater to what we wanted. Can you blame them??

I have always put the phone first and everything else it does afterward. All I want is a damn good crisp phone and a great network, calendar for appts and an alarm so I don't forget my appts...lol.

After that it is all play to me so who are we do blame and as they say "Be careful for what you ask for"

I wasn't blaming anyone, and I wasn't complaining. I was only offering a response to the question offered.

[SwitchBeach]

The "phone aspect" of the device is probably the function I use the least of all the functions.

[Jaguarr40]

I wasn't blaming anyone, and I wasn't complaining. I was only offering a response to the question offered.

I understood what you were saying and did not blame at all. No harm done at all!

[Chrisy]

I wish the carriers would come out with lower mins plans. Like, 120 minutes for $10. Considering all the.rate hikes in data, throttling etc it's the least they can do.

[reeneebob]

No one wants to talk anymore, they want to stay in their own little world and just message. Kind of funny cause talking is faster and all you see is how fast is it lol.

I worked in call centres for 10 years.

The last thing I ever, ever want to do is talk on the phone.

I just checked - I have used 62 minutes of talk time since January of this year. 62 MINUTES TOTAL.

I despise talking on the phone now.

[pantlesspenguin]

Like the majorty of responders here, I rarely use my phone to talk. I text, email, IM, tweet, update my Facebook status, etc so much more than talk. That being said, when I DO talk on the phone it's important. I talk to my family, coworkers, bosses, etc. The best phone quality I've experienced on a cell phone was on my bb 9700. I'm a conference call facilitator and I've done several calls where the moderator ran it from a blackberry and it sounded great. I love Android a ton, but the call quality on the 3 Android devices I've had have left a bit to be desired.

[iN8ter]

No one wants to talk anymore, they want to stay in their own little world and just message. Kind of funny cause talking is faster and all you see is how fast is it lol.

You can't ignore someone on a phone call. You can ignore them when they text or email you.

That's why.

Faster != better, and it's not hard to use Voice Recognition to compose your texts. That's as fast as talking...

[iN8ter]

The "phone aspect" of the device is probably the function I use the least of all the functions.

Same here. I expect decent reception/signal strength and call quality for those rare times that I do have to make a phone call. But I typically use < 100 minutes a month. I think my average monthy minute use for my two lines over the past year is < 75 minutes a month combined. Maybe close to 50 minutes or less.

[Laura Knotek]

the "phone" part of the phones are becoming less important imo. i dont even make 250 minutes a month in calls and some months under 100. i do sms, gtalk, email, etc all the time though

I never liked talking on a phone, even back when landlines were all that were available. I only like talking face-to-face. Otherwise, I prefer SMS, BBM, email, IM.

Video chat is of no interest to me either. I just don't care for phone calls at all.

[Laura Knotek]

The "phone aspect" of the device is probably the function I use the least of all the functions.

It is the same with me.

[_StephenBB81]

I wish the carriers would come out with lower mins plans. Like, 120 minutes for $10. Considering all the.rate hikes in data, throttling etc it's the least they can do.

Carriers in Canada are finding their voice Plan revenue dropping off and are looking for ways to recapture it, rather then offering lower cost plans they are just offering MORE features on the mid cost and high cost plans trying to get people to upgrade, and I'll admit to being one of them,
My Bold 9900 has unlimited North American minutes, I use maybe 400 a month
my Curve 9300 has unlimited North American minutes I use maybe 1200-1800 a month
my Style 9670 has 500 LD minutes, I use maybe 30 minutes a month in summers.

I probably could move my phones to lower voice plans, but don't because of the feature losses to save $5/month or so.


I suspect in the US with the Carriers really getting raked over the coals by Apple in terms of Hardware costs, they are looking to squeeze every penny extra they can to recoup those costs faster, wait for Sprint... I am keeping my eye on them over the next 24 months.

[_StephenBB81]

I never liked talking on a phone, even back when landlines were all that were available. I only like talking face-to-face. Otherwise, I prefer SMS, BBM, email, IM.

Video chat is of no interest to me either. I just don't care for phone calls at all.

I personally hate talking on the phone, I do text, or face to face, because via text you type responsibly as there is no way to convey expression professionally, and face to face you can read a person.

the phone is just to easy to mess up a deal on.

[omniusovermind]

Over the last few years I've noticed reviewers (not associated with Crackberry) are spending less & less time reviewing the actual phone aspect of modern phones.

Yesterday I watched a 40 minute review of the "Samsung Galaxy S2"; you heard me 40 minutes! The review had multiple sections & talked about almost everything about the phone, EXCEPT what should have been the most important part....HOW IT WORKS AS A PHONE!!!

Thinking about it, I realized that this is not the first time I've seen that part missed, in fact it's quite common these days.

If you went to the local car dealership and the salesman talked about how amazing the paint was, how the seats recline, and how the stereo will do everything but make you coffee, (need to DL an app for that :P ) but didn't tell you anything about how the car drives, would you buy it? If all you care about is how the car looks, I bet you could get a great deal buying one with no engine.

I guess that�s why we are BlackBerry Users & Abusers, because we actually want to use our phones AS PHONES!

Anyway, that�s my rant for the day. What do you guys think?

I have a couple of theories on why so many phone reviews suck

1. The average personal income of people in the first world has either dropped or too many kiddies who aren't making a full time paycheck are posting feedback:

Why do I say this? The ever increasing attention being paid to the camera. Phone cameras are - or at least should be, to normal people - for taking casual snapshots for causal viewing on things like social media etc. If you're THAT obsessed with a mega-camera on your PHONE because you want it for family memories, professional use etc... then you should be using a camera. Seriously, what kind of knob entrusts pictures of that magnitude to a phone camera? Unless he or she has no choice. So which of the above is it? Are you making minimum wage or unemployed? Because you don't need to keep asking for DSLR quality on a phone just so you can take instagram photos of yourself in the bathroom mirror unless you're simply incapable of owning a DSLR.

2. There's no hope for humanity:

During a debate over at AC between which new android phone to get this year, someone actually posted - and I swear I'm not making this up - that one of the biggest reasons he chooses the S4 is because the airview feature allows him to eat chicken wings and use his phone.

...


And you can't understand why phone reviews are getting worse? Perhaps start with the feedback of the majority of people reading them.