THE LIFE OF MY PHONE, A DROID X2

The Motorola Droid X2, a wonderful phone launched May 26th 2011 as a successor to the Droid X. I got this phone the week it came out and here we are almost 4 years later. Yes, 4 years later. I've had the same phone for 4 years and as we know in the life of a smartphone, 4 years is well....ancient.

The Droid X2 was my first smartphone and it was the top of the line when it was released. I wanted the newest possible phone on the market so it could last the longest. Although my Droid X2 still works, it is on life support and does not function well.

I lovingly named the voice on my phone, "Gertrude," and I will say the GPS on Gertrude has saved me many times and was rarely ever wrong. Even in areas with new roads she always came through and got me to where I needed to go.

Gertrude came from Verizon with 8 GB SD card and 8 GB Flash memory for storage. 4 years later and I still have plenty of room although the speed has decreased by a lot. The Droid X2 weighs in at 155 g, or 5.5 oz, which always felt heavy to me and is a brick compared to the newest phones on the market of today. It's very thin or at least, WAS very thin by today's standards. I always thought it was rather large, especially when in my pocket. Most phones today are at least this size if not larger.

Sadly the Droid X2 didn't live up to the upgrades of the original Droid X, which hadn't lived up to the expectations of Android users anyway. Fans of the original Droid were not happy with the Droid X2 being the successor and just 6 short months later the Droid RAZR took over as the new flagship for the Motorola lineup. Slowly but surely new and better phones came out and my high-powered, fancy, top of the line phone, soon became obsolete. Sure it still works to this day but it is showing its age and it has for the last few years.

Where did this leave the Droid X2? I know that a few months after I bought mine, Verizon went to the 4G network. The Droid X2 didn't have that capability and I have spent the last 4 years living with 3G only. That has been annoying.

I dropped my phone many times, and I had a soft rubber cover that protected it good enough. Once I was getting out of an SUV and it was on my lap, it was flung outside and landed on pavement and was fine. I say the durability was pretty good. I used one screen protector this whole time and its screen never broke.

As time went on it became more and more difficult to download and have apps on Gertrude. Many times they would stop working or mess up my phone if I tried to use them. Some never worked at all, such as Candy Crush. Like a person growing old, Gertrude slowed down and stopped doing the things she had been doing for so long. Often the touch screen will not respond. Calls will be dropped, or the GPS will act up or won't connect. More recently Gertrude will just shut herself off for no reason or when I'm trying to do something. Every day she shows signs of her age.

And so as all good things must come to an end, so too will Gertrude be shut off forever. My new phone will have to take over for Gertrude and, as they often do, become my personal aid, companion, entertainment, and source of all information.

What lies in store for me? A new phone, the Droid Turbo, named Geraldine. A lot has changed in 4 years and believe it or not, Geraldine knows her own name and responds to it.