Initial Thoughts on the Crosscall Core-S4

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Not for FB or Twitter

Today I started to play with the Crosscall Core-S4 and my impressions of it so far is that the Facebook and Twitter apps are not optimal for this device. They do not consider that with a small screen you should prioritise text over images. For those reasons I think that FB and Twitter are a reason to avoid this phone. This might actually encourage you to buy this phone.

Good for E-mail, FM radio, Whatsapp etc.

The purpose of a phone is not necessarily to provide you with social media. Sometimes the aim of a phone is to check your e-mails, look for quick information, and communicate via whatsapp and other platforms. In this case the phone is fine. It also has an FM radio, which is nice, for when you want to listen to local, rather than international content.

Environmentally Friendly Packaging.

I like the packaging. It is brown cardboard with a simple diagram of phone phone, black print on brown cardboard. It is functional and environmentally sound. It emphasises that the box can and should be recycled. For some reason I can’t fix one box back into the other.

Dual Sim or Microsd and Sim

You can have either one sim and a microSD card (max 64Go) or you can have two sims running in parallel.

Repairable, by Screwing and Unscrewing

One of the unique selling points of this phone is the image that shows the component parts of this phone. It is adertised as repairable, with screws to loosen and tighten again, rather than glue and suction cups, like with iphones and other devices. It is meant to be durable and this is good for climbing, extreme conditions and more. You could fall in a river with this phone, or use it in the rain, without a decrease in usability.

When I read the manual it says that we cannot change the battery ourselves.

Long Standby

In theory the standby time on this phone is 240 hours, ten days. With many other phones the standby time is hours, especially with a user like me. This one is different. 240hrs of standby, 13-14hrs of talk time, and it has the old familiar keyboard that some of us spent our teens using. Typing on the keyboard is fast and easy. I found that the keys actually felt soft, rather than hard. It feels like phones used to feel.

Why This Phone Rather Than Others

In my experience you can buy expensive flagship phones and be dissapointed by a number of things. Either apps don’t run as well as they should, or they crash. Sometimes the phone is so slippery that you drop it once, get it fixed, drop it again, and get it fixed again, and eventually give up. New iphones and new Android phones are big and fragile, which means that they’re fragile. Fragile phones break and you need to replace front and back covers. If you don’t they may feel much farmer.

With cheap Android phones you may have problems with 3G or other antenna issues, you may get constant app crashes and you may get older versions of Android.

I was tempted by feature phones but they don’t have access to whatsapp and other essential communication tools of this day and age, so unless you call actual phones they are of no value. With KaiOS that problem is resolved. With devices starting at 80 CHF it is worth taking the risk.

Two Steps For It To Be A Viable Primary Phone

For this to be a viable primary phone it would need two things. The first of these is access to Signal. This is an app I use regularly, and if it had it then I could think about dropping the iphone. The second would be a better podcast app, and audible. With these three apps the phone would reduce my need for a second phone.

And Finally

If you want to develop for KaiOS you need knowledge of html, CSS and JavaScript. If you don’t find an app you want then you can write it yourself with a little bit of effort. This is great for those who feel like experimenting with a phone without developing for Android or iOS.