I Bought a Shitty Phone on Purpose

Good morning.

Holy moly, man. Today I decided to buy another phone after—I don't even fucking know—maybe four, five, almost six years of basically refusing to properly replace my broken phones.

And here I am trying to explain this in English again.

Forgot some English?

Okay. Fuck it. I'm trying.

So today, I bought an entry-level phone.

And let me tell you:

The screen is awful.

The audio is awful.

The camera is awful.

The microphone is awful.

The entire media experience is basically...

I don't really like this phone.

And somehow, that's exactly why I bought it.

Because it's cheap.

And it works.

That's it.

I need digital banking.

I need Messenger for communication.

I need a physical Android device where I can test the application I'm currently working on.

Other than those things, what the fuck do I actually need a powerful phone for?

And that question somehow made me look back at my entire history with smartphones.

Because apparently, phones have been fucking around with my life since childhood.

Everything started with a Cherry Mobile.

My mom bought it for me when I was probably Grade 5 or Grade 6.

It was the first phone that was actually mine.

Before that, I used keypad phones, but they weren't really mine. They belonged to my parents or whoever let me use them.

So technically, I should've been extremely happy.

And I was.

But I was also slightly disappointed.

Because during those days, I was fantasizing about Samsung phones and all those cool phones I saw other people using.

And my mom bought me...

Cherry Mobile.

Hahaha.

But looking back, that cheap little phone was actually one of the most influential devices I've ever owned.

Because that phone introduced me to Facebook.

And Facebook introduced me to:

Scroll.

Scroll.

Scroll.

Post some cringy shit.

Scroll.

Do some stupid shit.

Scroll.

Post again.

Boom.

Addiction.

That little Cherry Mobile basically opened the gates of social media into my childhood.

And holy shit, I did a lot of cringy things there.

But anyway, we were kids.

We were supposed to be cringy.

Eventually, Cherry Mobile wasn't enough anymore.

Cherry Mobile sucks, right?

At least that's what younger me thought.

So my mom bought me a Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime.

Boom.

Upgrade.

Better phone.

Better screen.

Better everything.

And therefore...

Better addiction.

Hahaha.

I spent even more time on my phone.

More social media.

More stupidity.

More random things that probably felt extremely important to me during those days but mean absolutely nothing now.

Eventually, that phone also got ruined.

And then came one of the moments I still remember because it taught me something about money much later in life.

After the Samsung, I wanted another phone.

This time, I wanted a Redmi Note 9 Pro.

And I basically forced my dad to buy it for me.

It cost around ₱13,000.

Today, ₱13,000 might not sound like some unbelievable amount of money for a smartphone.

But for our family during that time?

Man.

That was money.

I still remember looking at my dad's face when he bought it.

I could see the disappointment.

The panghinayang.

Because we weren't rich.

₱13,000 was a huge amount of money, and there I was demanding a phone.

And my dad still bought it for me.

At that age, I didn't completely understand what that meant.

Now that I earn my own money?

Fuck.

I understand.

When you finally experience how difficult it can be to earn ₱1,000, ₱5,000, ₱10,000, suddenly you understand the faces your parents made when you casually asked them to buy expensive shit.

And after my dad spent ₱13,000 on that phone, what did his brilliant son eventually do with it?

Something extremely intelligent.

Around two years later, I started boasting that my Redmi Note 9 Pro was waterproof.

So what did I do?

I fucking soaked it in seawater.

Yes.

Seawater.

Brilliant engineering test conducted by Elly.

Phone goes into sea.

Wait a little.

Ten minutes later:

Dead.

Congratulations.

A lot of footage was inside that phone too.

Gone.

The phone my dad reluctantly spent ₱13,000 on?

Killed by his son's unnecessary waterproof experiment.

Bitch.

What the fuck was I thinking?

Hahaha.

About a month later, I decided to buy another phone.

But this time, something was different.

I had saved allowances.

I had some money from side hustles.

And eventually, I bought the successor:

Man.

I loved that phone.

Beautiful screen.

Good camera.

Good speakers.

Everything felt good.

And because everything felt good...

I used it.

A lot.

Too much.

The phone was so enjoyable to use that I could spend hours doing absolutely fucking nothing.

Scroll.

Watch.

Scroll.

Watch.

Open another app.

Scroll.

Close it.

Open it again five minutes later without even realizing I had already checked it.

At some point, I realized:

The device was good.

Maybe too good.

And instead of fixing my behavior like a reasonable human being, I came up with another solution:

Hahaha.

So I bought a Unihertz Jelly 2E.

Tiny phone.

Tiny screen.

Not particularly enjoyable for consuming media.

Perfect.

My thinking was simple:

If the phone isn't enjoyable to use, maybe I'll stop using the fucking thing so much.

And honestly, there was some logic to that.

Then...

I lost it.

I don't even remember exactly where.

Amazing.

So eventually I went back to using my Redmi Note 10 Pro.

The same phone I had been trying to escape.

And I kept using it.

And using it.

And using it.

Even when it was already getting old and broken.

Because by that point, I didn't want to spend money on another phone anymore.

Recently, I mindlessly dropped my Redmi Note 10 Pro.

Boom.

The screen died.

The phone itself still worked.

I could touch it.

I could feel vibrations.

I could even blindly unlock the fucking thing through muscle memory.

But I couldn't see anything.

Black screen.

And suddenly I had a problem.

Because as much as I complain about smartphones, not having one in 2026 is extremely inconvenient.

Banking?

Phone.

Communication?

Phone.

Authentication?

Phone.

Testing my application?

Phone.

Everything wants a fucking phone.

And that's when I realized smartphones are such weird double-edged swords.

What the fuck?

And that's how I ended up here.

I bought an entry-level phone.

Not because I love it.

I bought it because I don't need to love it.

I just need it to work.

Banking works?

Good.

Messenger works?

Good.

Duruha runs on it?

Good.

Calls work?

Good.

Done.

I don't need some incredible OLED screen encouraging me to watch videos for three hours.

I don't need amazing speakers encouraging me to consume more content.

I don't need a flagship processor capable of running every fucking thing imaginable.

I already have a computer for serious work.

The phone can remain a tool.

And honestly, the shitty media experience might actually be a feature for me.

Because who wants to spend three hours watching videos on a terrible screen with terrible speakers?

Not me.

Hopefully.

Hahaha.

I considered buying something better.

Maybe an older or second-hand iPhone.

Maybe around ₱30,000.

But then I thought:

What improvement would that ₱30,000 actually create in my life?

Would I become significantly happier?

Would I become more productive?

Would my relationships improve?

Would my work become dramatically better?

Would I suddenly wake up every morning thinking:

Probably not.

If spending ₱30,000 genuinely improves your life and you can afford it, go ahead.

Buy the phone.

Enjoy it.

I'm not against expensive things.

But for me, right now?

It doesn't make sense.

That ₱30,000 can go somewhere else.

Into my work.

Into experiences.

Into something I'm building.

Into travel.

Into people.

Into something that creates a more meaningful difference in my life.

Because eventually, even the ₱80,000 flagship phone becomes an old phone.

Battery degrades.

Screen gets scratched.

New model comes out.

Software support eventually ends.

And one day you die.

The phone stays.

Hahaha.

We usually think progress means upgrading.

Better camera.

Faster processor.

Higher refresh rate.

Better display.

Better speakers.

More storage.

More everything.

But maybe sometimes progress means deliberately choosing less.

Less stimulation.

Less temptation.

Less unnecessary spending.

Less reason to stare at a screen.

Maybe downgrading the device can actually upgrade the way I use my time.

I'm not saying everyone should buy shitty phones.

Please don't use this blog as your smartphone buying guide.

Hahaha.

I'm talking specifically about myself.

I know my tendencies.

Give me a beautiful screen and unlimited content and eventually I'll find myself scrolling through things I didn't even intentionally search for.

So perhaps adding friction is useful.

Make entertainment slightly annoying.

Make scrolling slightly unpleasant.

Let the phone return to what I actually need it for:

Looking back, it's interesting.

As a kid, I desperately wanted better phones.

Cherry Mobile wasn't enough.

I wanted Samsung.

Then I wanted something better.

Then something better again.

Phones felt like status.

Entertainment.

Excitement.

Something to show.

Now?

I bought an entry-level phone despite knowing the experience is objectively worse.

And I'm fine with it.

Maybe that's another tiny sign that my relationship with material things is changing.

I don't need the best thing simply because the best thing exists.

I need something appropriate for what I'm trying to do.

That's different.

And perhaps younger me wouldn't understand that.

Younger me forced his dad to spend ₱13,000 on a Redmi.

Current me looks at a ₱30,000 phone and thinks:

That's growth, I guess.

Or maybe I'm just becoming cheap.

Probably both.

So that's the plan.

I'm going to use this cheap phone for banking.

Communication.

Testing my application.

Necessary digital shit.

And that's basically it.

I'll do serious work on my computer.

I'll try to spend more time actually living outside these screens.

And hopefully this phone lasts.

Knowing my history with phones...

That's a dangerous expectation.

I've drowned one.

Lost one.

Dropped one.

Destroyed screens.

So we'll see how long this poor entry-level bastard survives.

Maybe five years.

Maybe five months.

Maybe tomorrow I'll accidentally throw it into a river.

Who fucking knows?

But for now, it works.

And that's enough.

The funny thing is that this entire reflection started because I was trying to speak English in front of a camera again.

I kept talking.

And talking.

And somehow I reached almost nine minutes talking about my stupid history with smartphones.

And honestly?

I'm happy I did it.

My English isn't perfect.

I forget words.

I say weird shit.

I repeat myself.

The video is probably cringy.

But who cares?

Thirty days from now, maybe nobody remembers it.

Thirty years from now, maybe I'll watch it and laugh at this version of myself.

Or maybe nobody will ever watch it.

That's fine too.

At the end of the day, we're all going to die anyway.

Having a cringy video somewhere on the internet isn't going to matter.

Having the best smartphone isn't going to matter either.

What probably matters more is whether these things helped us live the life we actually wanted.

So yeah.

I bought a shitty phone.

And strangely enough...

I think that's exactly the phone I need right now.