My Blackberry Bold 5 gave up the ghost somewhere between Friday night and Saturday morning. My Blackberry Bold 5 usually laid with us (my wife and I) in the bed like family. Her blackberry also shared and still shares our bed, although all the devices are relegated to one side of the bed where they go undisturbed by our sleeping movements.
I was deeply worried when my BB wouldn’t turn on. I rushed it like an injured child to the doctors at Computer Village as soon as the environmental sanitation exercise was over. The diagnoses provided by the smartphone engineer was dreadful, it was a motherboard.
“This problem dey common with Bold 5. Even Z10 sef. The thing go just off, no on again. And once e spoil, e get only 50% chance whether e go fit work again”.
A total of 3 separate experienced engineers all laid hands on the device and yet they were unable to resolve it.
I remembered my religious values and began to pray as the second engineer progressed on his work with the device. I prayed that I’d emerge one of the lucky 50%. By the third engineer, I knew I was sending up a Hail Mary. Sadly my prayers went unanswered and there went all my pictures, memos, files and other data I had amassed and hadn’t backed up. I was in mourning… Google had earlier confirmed my worst fears that my phone had mysteriously just given up the ghost on its own accord. This same hardware malfunction had happened to tens of thousands of Blackberry users across the world, it was just a matter of time before the odds went against my favour.
I couldn’t stay in morning long. I run a mini media empire, and other enterprises that demand that I have access to information realtime. I was already offline for about 7 hours and that is donkey years in the information age where data is king and knowing what to do with data is godly. Now seeing that we Nigerians particularly are constrained in a limited society, one doesn’t need an orange seller in Otigba to tell you ‘wake up’. I stopped mourning and went shopping.
No phone aficionado will tell you that HTC One and Sony XPeria Z are not phone series you shouldn’t lust after. But sensual tech seductions require hard cash. I had $300 dollars equivalent in hand and being an Ijebu hearted man, I couldn’t see myself part with all of it. I wanted to buy a phone and go home with change. No sense breaking the bank over a digital device that has an affordable alternative.
Enter TECNO. I’ve always viewed TECNO as an inferior phone, I’d never thought quite highly of the brand. But doing the maths internally, I discovered that if I bought one, I could spend two thirds of the cash I had on me and still walk away with enough to go grocery shopping, go to the movies and go home with change. Any sharp economist would choose.
The team at Spectrum Integrated Technologies (the guys that sold me my TECNO phone) were a delight. They talked me into buying the right TECNO phone. It’s called the Phantom A+. I laughed barely a month ago when someone recommended the phone to me. the guy didn’t even suggest that I buy it. HE said he was looking into it based on a video he saw that said it is as good as the SAMSUNG S4. I didn’t wait to scorn the thought. I guess TECNO gets to laugh last. Blackberry made me TECNO’s accidental customer, however I’m pretty sure I would recommend a TECNO phone to everyone now. I’ve barely owned this phone for 10 hours. Yet here I am, at 12.30 am writing about it. It is in one word…exhilarating.
How can I describe this Chinese technology? Marvelous is another one word that comes to mind. This phone has given me a new lease on life. The future is Android. The TECNO phone is splendidly put together. I believe it will last longer than my Blackberry and the 1 year warranty is reassuring. I’m sure innovations in information and communication technology will ensure I have to get a new smartphone after a year, however it would be nice if I had to make that decision myself and not because my phone suddenly gives up the ghost.
For a review on the TECNO Phantom A+, check this video here: