It’s been an exciting few months in the world of smartphones. There’s the iPhone 4S, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the first Nokia Windows Phone, the Lumia 800. What do all these launches have in common? Bugs.
All three of these handsets – which are supposed to be the brightest and best of their kind – have all lumbered their owners with frustrating problems.
Both the iPhone 4S and Lumia 800 have had complaints from some users about batteries running down faster than they should.
And the Galaxy Nexus is affected by a strange bug where it turns the volume down (stopping you from hearing a call) if it uses the 2G 900MHz mobile network.
Is enough time spent testing smartphones?
Now, I know manufacturers want to get their phones out to market as soon as possible, but are they really spending enough time testing them?
Of course, as smartphones become more sophisticated there’s more that can go wrong, but these errors stem from the battery and volume control and these aren’t exactly new mobile phone features.
OK, managing battery life in a smartphone is a complicated process but, if these flaws only affect a few customers, it sounds more like there’s been a failure in quality testing.
The downside of being an early adopter
It’s nice to see the manufacturers stand up and admit there’s a problem – especially for Apple, which normally seems to opt for sticking its fingers in its ears and saying ‘nah nah nah, I can’t hear you’. This time Apple has promised software updates to fix the iPhone 4S’ battery problem. Nevertheless, one software update later, this is still frustrating some iPhone owners.
We do want these shiny new phones and we want them now, but we’d also rather they finished making them before they’re released.
It’s getting to the point where anyone who buys a smartphone as soon as it comes out is almost guaranteed to come across some kind of flaw. And, frankly, that isn’t good enough.
Do these bugs put you off buying a new smartphone soon after launch, or is this simply the price you pay for being an early adopter?
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