It would probably be a bit extreme to say I hate my new phone. Would deep loathing be appropriate?

It is state of the art; I shouldn’t feel this way. But I do. It probably isn’t the phone’s fault. I’m blaming it anyway.

When all is said and done, it really isn’t much of an upgrade over my previous phone. Newer operating system, better camera, bigger screen, but I need it to do essentially the same things. The new features are nice, but it fails in the most crucial area.

It isn’t a BlackBerry.

For the first time in more than 15 years I don’t have a phone with a proper keyboard. Let me assure you, it makes a real difference. I can’t count the number of inadvertant mistakes I have made to get to this point in the post. Touch screen is not my friend.

My five-year-old BlackBerry was dying. The case was cracked, I’d had to glue a couple of keys back on, and then the operating software started to have issues. It was only a matter of time before it died. So I resolved to get a new phone. Another BlackBerry.

They haven’t made any new BlackBerry phones for four years, but you can still find one for sale online, both new and refurbished. I wanted the keyboard and was prepared to pay the price. In theory anyway.

Practice turned out to be different. My Scottish ancestry kicked in.

New BlackBerrys range from $800 to $3,000. That is a lot of money for older technology. I couldn’t see spending even the lower amount when I could get a Google or Samsung phone for the same price, or even cheaper. The BlackBerry is 4G technology. New phones are 5G. So when a mobile provider offered me a couple of hundred dollars off the price, I reluctantly made the switch.

Everyone tells me I will adjust and in time come to love touch-sceeen typing. Just because everyone tells you something doesn’t make it true. There are times the majority is wrong. I will always miss the tactile feel of the BlackBerry keyboard.

We’ve come to an end of ,this first post with the new phone. There are lots of typos made by my fat fingers on the touch screen. Hopefully I’ll catch them all before this gets posted.

I keep hoping some smart entrepreneur sees an opportunity and intruduces a phone with a physical keyboard. There’s a market for it, if you can think outside the proverbial box. I can’t be the only one who dislikes touch-screen phones.

And speaking of the proverbial box, I was not impressed that apparently phones don’t come with a charging cable anymore. Not very impressive.

And that ends my rant for today.