I like to check in with my Wife as a barometer for where “general” consumers might be when it comes to new gadgets. She currently uses a work issued iPhone 8 (which she asked for specifically as she wanted a smaller phone with TouchID), and she still has not given back my LG G7 after breaking her previous phone.
Typically when she buys her own phones, she’s leaned towards the entry level. She was excited by her Alcatel Idol 3, where she got a small phone, with stereo speakers, for less than it cost to replace the screen on her cracked Galaxy S5.
After that she got a Moto G5, where she was stoked to have a metal backed phone for cheap. Both the Idol and the Moto succumbed to the destructive environment of her purse, so she’s “borrowing” my G7, in a rugged armor case.
It’s doing OK…
So, I was curious what she would think about the OnePlus 7 Pro. No prep. No coaching. Just put the phone in her hand, and see how she would react.
Unsurprisingly, she kept it pretty practical.
Mrs: “It’s big.”
Me: “Yeah, not a small phone.”
[Turns it over in her hands.]
Mrs: “I like the blue. I’d need to keep it in more than this bumper case though.”
[Looks at the corners.]
Mrs: “Hmmm… No headphone jack… Can I use this in my car.”
[Her car doesn’t have a Bluetooth enabled stereo.]
Me: “They don’t include a dongle in the box, but that’s easy to replace.”
Mrs: “Bummer”
[She swipes through some photos.]
Mrs: “The screen is really nice. I like that.”
Me: “Notice anything else about that screen?”
Mrs: “Noooo…”
Me: “Look closer…”
Looks at the top of the phone.
Mrs: “Oh… Is there no selfie camera? How do you video call?”
Me: “Open the camera app.”
Mrs: “Ok…”
[She does, but then just holds the phone looking at the main camera interface.]
Me: “Use the circle arrows to switch to the selfie mode.”
[She does, and the periscope pops up.]
Mrs: “Hey! Look at that! That’s cute.”
[She switches back and forth a couple times to watch the selfie camera slide up and down.]
Mrs: “So is that going to be super fragile then?”
The novelty was over after about thirty seconds.
And that was about the end of the interaction. She’s not much phased by new gadgets. We have too many glowing rectangles in our home. She switched topics to our daughter’s pre-school.
Off the cuff, she looked immediately for a headphone jack (which means I definitely married well), but I was a little surprised by how much prompting it took to really SEE the selfie camera situation. How little she cared about notches or hole punches. It just didn’t matter to her that the G7 has a chunk of the screen missing.
Now, I find notches to be fairly offensive. I have a philosophical aversion to disrupting a phone screen,so I find the periscope selfie camera a significant perk on a phone which aims to minimize bezels.
But maybe, JUST MAYBE, other folks don’t seem to care about them as much as I do? I mean, those people would be objectively incorrect, but that issue might just rank lower on other people’s lists of smartphone needs.
All joking aside, it was another data point I needed, confirming that phones aren’t one thing to all people. There are no winners and losers. My wife largely shrugged off this beast, “oh-ing” and “ah-ing” where she felt she needed to, but she had a much stronger reaction to the Pixel 3a after I let her play with that phone, and THEN told her how much that phone cost.
Maybe I’ll write that up someday as act two of this play…
I have an Idol 4 Pro with Windows and I’ve never had a phone with better sounding stereo speakers. The camera was not good at all, though.
Love the build on the idol 4 and 5. Shame more budget phones weren’t made like that.