Cellphone Journey, Faulty Power Buttons

WHY MUST THE PHYSICAL POWER BUTTON ALWAYS FAIL!

My very first cell phone was the LG PM-225, and don't get me wrong it did it's job just fine.  It sent text and received calls and even had Pacman on it.  At this point in my cellphone owning life I did not even care to much about texting because it was quite a hassle without a keyboard. The one thing I do miss about this old phone was the consistent battery life.

Skip ahead two years and I get my second phone the LG Rumor. Still a pretty solid gadget and the first phone that got me into texting because it had that slide out keyboard. Like the flip phone this one had internet, but it was now actually usable and I was actually able to Google things on the go. The battery life on this phone was pretty solid, but the flip phone still owned it in battery life. Eventually after many drops and lots of abuse I started to give up on this phone, plus the battery could barely hold a charge.

Fast-forward to 2010 Sprint is now about to drop their first smartphone, the EVO 4G.  I immediately got the pre-order and waited for this awesome gadgets release. On it's release day I went straight to the Sprint Store after class and got me my first smartphone.  It was a joyous event.  I couldn't wait to play with my new gadget and all its sweet features. This phone was amazing, it could hold all my music on it with it's external memory, the internet was actually fast (even though i was on the same plan).  I immediately Googled what mods i could do to the phone, and this is where I learned about "rooting a phone".

It was day three of owning the phone and it was already running a custom ROM with no delay. Rooting was essentially what iPhone users call "unlocking".  I really enjoyed how customizable you could make this gadget. At this phase of my phone owning life I guess I went a tad crazy for phone mods, and some were pointless, or impractical, but I had it and you didn't was my primary thought.

The EVO 4G did work and it was actually pretty durable, the screen seemed to be scratch resistant.  As i have slid it across the pavement while dropping it when I was on a skateboard with only scratches to the casing (eventually got a soft gel case for it).  As all smartphones batteries, the life of the battery started to fade, but not before the physical power button failed.

This means I must get a new phone. Now I was starting to care less because I had less free time to spend rooting my phone and browsing XDA-Developers, with school and work.  I just needed a phone that could work and that I didn't have to push the power button a billion times to get it to turn on.

I ended up landing on the Samsung SII the Sprint version. I did all the same things I did to the EVO 4G more or less, but in a quicker manner.  I didn't jump from ROM to ROM on this phone, but stuck with whatever was the currently best one.

I ended up owning two of these SII's the first one died not even a year later because of "water damage" (thank you Houston humidity). I really have no idea how that phone got water damage, but i guess that was fine because the Samsung power button was already not working properly.  So i called it in as lost and got me the replacement, did the mods and what not.  Then BAM!, still not even a full second year and the button failed.  TWO identical phones and their power buttons just fail.


Today I am still on the SII until the contract runs up, thank you Sprint and Samsung for standing by the products you sell (end sarcasm). I have some apps running on the phone now that make it essentially a Mcgyver'd power button, but you will have to wait for my next most to find out about my  smarpthone broken power button fix.



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