Annoyingly my Nexus 5 (see Mobile gadgets) has developed a habit of rebooting without being asked. Repeatedly. It’s taken a few knocks over the two and a half years or so I’ve had it but it’s still a touch disappointing. I suppose it’s an excuse for a new gadget … but I’d rather they last a bit longer!

More choices, choices…

So what do I want from a phone?

Let’s start with size. The Nexus 5 is slightly bigger than I wanted in the first place. ALL of the obvious replacement candidates are bigger. Some significantly so, others only fractionally. Am I just getting to be an old fart or are phones just too frickin’ big these days? Bigger isn’t always better!

One of the surprisingly wonderful features of the Nexus 5 is its wireless charging. I love it. I don’t care that it takes longer to charge (wireless isn’t ever as efficient as wired), I do care that it’s convenient. I guess that’s not very eco … I wonder just how much less efficient it is (turns out my USB-powered Qi charger is probably 45% efficient compared to 50-65% efficient for direct wired according to this honestly-completely-unbiased writeup).

But convenience. Love it. Chuck it on the pad in approximately the right place when I come in at night, hear it beep and we’re done. So I really want wireless charging.

I’m a touch typist so love the swipe style keyboard Android allows. IIRC iOS used to have a third party app that did the same: Swype. But it seems it hasn’t been well supported since iOS 8, indeed its last release was almost a year ago. A swipe style keyboard is a must-have feature IMHO.

I’m honestly not fussed whether I have iOS or Android as I’m used to both. I probably have a slight preference for Android as I prefer its integration with the google ecosystem. But I’m not fussed either way.

They all take good photos. They’re all horrifically expensive. And lots of them are waterproof to some degree or other. These differences aren’t big enough to sway me. At least not over the above features.

Get on with it - which phone?

I’ve been considering a few…

I nearly pulled the trigger on an iPhone 8. But couldn’t get it in the right colour (black it the only choice for me). Then I remembered the lack of a swipe-style keyboard. Size: tick. Wireless charging: tick. Keyboard: bleurgh. £700. And then there’s this

Face unlocking? Nah, I don’t want any of that. And a grand for a phone? Are you kidding?

The S8 is another obvious choice. Wireless charging: tick. Keyboard: tick. But it’s ~9mm longer than the Nexus 5. That won’t necessarily put me off but Samsung’s slowness to deliver Android updates does put me off somewhat. And the bloatware. Oh the bloatware. Same downsides apply to the S7.

I’ve yet to see a Pixel2 in the flesh - unsurprising as it doesn’t launch for another couple of weeks. From the specs though it’s not quite as large as the S8 (~1mm smaller) but the screen is way smaller (5” vs 5.8”) - not necessarily a deal-breaker but I like maximising the real estate OS updates will be swift (good for security) and there’ll be no bloatware. But… no wireless charging. #wtf

And the winner is … well, not me. Or, me. It depends on your point of view.

I’m very likely to stick with my Nexus 5, so my wallet wins. But if the reboot loop comes back with a vengeance I’ll need to make a choice sharpish. No-one wants to live without a phone after all.