heavily considering swapping from my iphone 13 to my aquos flip phone, what do you think?

soo, i hate social media. more specifically i dont quite like doomscrolling. seeing that (cough cough the ceos cough cough) have engineered them to be as divisive and rage-baity as possible, its just wasting time, all of it. the only reason i have instagram is just to talk to my lover. thats really it, and if she would transition from insta to sms/discord/line, id be off that damned warzone in a heartbeat. tiktok also sucks time out of my day like mosquitoes, just with less insane content.

having an "all in one" device is great, dont get me wrong! but.. eh, i dont know. a week ago i recieved my package from a used phones store in japan, a sharp-aquos keitai 3, aka, the 805sh. its a fairly recent flip phone built for the japanese salarymen who need to have communications with the big boss. i am not a japanese salaryman (both a "thank god" and a "i wish" lol), im just some 17 year old whos obsessed with japan. big difference there haha

but there is something special to this model, its one of the few that can actually work under cellular data in the united states! 

why did i buy a japanese flip phone and not a samsung or alcatel or whatever else? story time! i was in japan this summer. one of my goals was to buy a red jdm nintendo dsi or 3ds. i went into a hard-off store (really big used hardware store) and there was something that caught my eye. they were selling a mint condition "junk" white kyocera kyf31 flip phone, with the box included, for 22$. i had been considering getting into the japanese flip phones rabbithole at the time, and it was 15 minutes to closing. so i ask my mom, and next thing you know im walking around fujikawaguchiko and arakawa city with a white kyf31, snapping pictures every now and then using it. (for those wondering, yes i did eventually find a red dsi xl in a bookoff in yokohama!)

the only issue with the kyf31 is that its of many phones that are incompatible with american cellular waves, which really stinks. so i did research. lots of it. after accidentally influencing one of my close friends to buying a jdm flip phone of his own (twice.. des if you see this im very sorry), i stumbled across the aquos keitai 3, minty fresh condition.

fast forward to today, and its on my desk. i actually bring it with me to work very often, its like my sidekick that i can just twiddle with when no cars are coming into the wash. its great! in my humble opinion, it has more personality than my iphone 13, even though that phone has so much advanced features, its still very draining. 

quite literally, all i have to do put the 13's sim card into my keitai, and it will work with the american bands, which i have good coverage for.

however, the phone is quite slow, which i see as both a benefit and a disadvantage. its bad because obviously, its super slow, it makes things inconvenient. however its also a good thing because it makes checking instagram inconvenient or even impossible at some points. its very good for digital detox in that regard, but the sluggishness isnt just instagram, its all of the phone, including the browser, which stinks. i have no problem with typing on the numberpad, though. i used to own a tracfone back when i was a kid because my samsung s5 broke.

while the keitai might have loads of personality, what it could lack is security. im not too sure, but i wouldnt be surprised if it werent so well equipped with security features due to how japan is a very  high-trust society, which that lead to the gc8 subaru wrx being a very easy-to-steal car. punching in region codes would be annoying though, but its fine. i think im okay with it, but what do you guys think? school's coming up and i think it would be a good idea, just incase my state starts enforcing laws against smartphones. i will miss spotify though (not really. stay tuned cuz ive also got another revelation there haha)