I am not one of those types who falls for conspiracy theories, but when it comes to this one topic of phone companies every few years loading updates that mess up your phone I think you could convince me. But more on that in a bit. Yesterday I put up a quick twitter poll for reader input on what your worst travel fear is. Clearly most of you voted wrong (I am kidding, a little, and you will see why soon).
To me, my worst fear, is my phone dying. In my phone I have everything and it does everything I need – well almost. I still, many times, print Delta paper boarding passes so I can hand them to the gate agents for better bump chances. But for boarding a plane I use my phone. Plus, being a full time blogger, my phone is my lifeline. Without my phone I am in full panic mode.
As far as an ID, I fly with my Global Entry “card” as my ID and my drivers license stays in my wallet. Now I know losing your domestic ID is very different than losing your passport and I have been told one horror story after another of those who have and the efforts to get one when not in the USA. I do keep a scanned copy of all my IDs in my phone just in case. And the real issue is NOT getting into the USA without your passport, it is getting onto the plane to get to the USA. Once you are here, if you are a US citizen, you will get in but it may take a lot more time. That is why losing my ID is not my worst fear. Plus, domestically, you can 100% fly without your ID as I blogged about here. So back to my phone:
On my latest trip to SXM, that was such a blast I can’t wait to go back one day, my phone started to die. I guess I am thankful it did not 100% just die but it started to die a slow and frustrating death. It would repeatedly lock up, reboot or not start up and freeze on the home screen or just show a strange android screen with errors. It did work enough to get things done but barely. I found myself having to pop the battery out again and again and again (and many more agains) to get it to work at all. After pulling out all the photos and backing things up I at last did a hard reset over and over and still nothing was better. Ugg… time for a new phone.
I decided, after reading online for a good Note 4/7 replacement option, and consulting with my good friend and fellow blog contributor @laptoptravel to go with the LG V20 dual camera phone. I have to say I am in love and THRILLED I made this switch. Let me first off show you the results from the camera from some quick shots around my home. The first being the standard camera and the next the fish eye one:
It is about time I upgraded the quality of the photos here on the blog and this should do just that. I also am in love with so many of the features of this V20. Like the fact that it has:
- Finger print scanner and on button on the back
- Dual cameras and FAST shutter speeds
- USB-C (just amassing)
- STD Audio jack at the bottom
- Is amazingly fast
- 64GB stock memory with open micro SD slot
- removable battery (a must for me)
- Amazing screen same size as my Note 4
- Android 7
- Allows wifi calling
And I could go on and on. So while I am truly convinced that the phone companies intentionally push out updates every now and then that make your old phone go wonky I am honestly happy to once again have upgraded. And before all you iOS folks jump in and tell me this or that I don’t speak your language – I like Android as you know.
So what do you think of the resolution of the photos of the LG V20? Do you mind the slight edge distortion on the fish eye lens as I cannot wait to take cabin shots with it. What about my conspiracy theory about phones? Do you also agree with the TwitterVerse that losing your ID is the worst nightmare you can face when traveling? You tell me! – René
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By far it would be losing my phone. So much of my travel stuff is dependent on it. Logically I suppose ID would be the worst, however!
Hi Rene,
Lots of been there done that and bought the t-shirt….but for me the real problem occurred on a recent trip to China. I successfully cleared Chinese Immigration and then proceeded to my connecting flight from PVG to CAN (Guangzhou) only to he stopped by Chinese Domestic Aviation officials denying me boarding because of a space error in my last name in my US Passport when compared to my Chinese Visa and my domestic boarding pass. Tow of the three marched and the third did not. The error was in the spelling of my last name, LE C Verses LEC, on the various travel documents. I was told that the error was mine because I didn’t check the Visa carefully when I received it from the Chinese Embassy and subsequent arrival in China. It took about two hours and a missed flight to sort out but I was allowed to continue, but was warned that I might have been deported for fraudulent travel documents. With a 21 day travel plan in China, and most of it prepaid, I learned a very valuable lesson of dotting the I’s and crossing my T’s. I hope this long winded horror story helps others avoid my rookie mistake.
P.S. I love the new photo capability you shared. I am sure we will see amazing photos in the near future. Like a beautiful sunrise above the clouds at 37K
My greatest travel fear- 3 or more hours flying in Delta (non) comfort -. AWFUL…
My phone is everything for me, thus if I lose it during a trip it will be a big deal. However, having an iPhone I have it doing auto backup to my iCloud account so in a case of having my phone stolen, lost, damaged, etc… I am basically losing the physical phone but all contents will be safe in the cloud. Even all pictures I take with it connect automatically to my Amazon account and be saved there. I also have a copy of all my documents and credit cards saved on my Dropbox. If I lose or have a credit card stolen it is a pain but not a big deal. One call and it is cancelled. Thus, I guess the biggest problem is losing my passport. That is not an easy one to get back mainly affecting flights, etc…
I have had the LG G4 bootloop hardware failure happen to me twice now while traveling. It is the equivalent of having your phone stolen or list because it is bricked. Once was in the middle of in international trip in the UK. The second times was in the middle of an international trip to South Africa. I can tell you from expert that you can make it without, but it is a HUGE pain and inconvenience.
nice pics congrats on the new phone!! i think missing my passport would be bad…. very bad then my phone !!
Phone is easily replaced (one of few things I can buy locally almost anywhere) and hard to believe seasoned travelers don’t have backup like iPad (use for free FaceTime calling on wifi) and:or laptop (Skype). Ditto for laptop (even less necessary). Most of use travel with several credit cards and if smart you separate them so again easy to handle if one goes missing.
The hardest item to replace is clearly the ID, I know someone who was stuck in Cabo for 3 days without a passport. No passport, no board plane. No consulate in Cabo. Photos won’t cut it though can expedite replacement.
@Boraxo – Getting a new Sprint phone in Sait Maarten is not as easy as you say. I did mention in the post the challenge to get on a plane w/out a passport.
Hmm…none of those really give me great cause for distress. If I had to pick one, it would be my phone just so I’ve got the ability to make phone calls. I’ve actually had my rental car broken into before and everything but my phone stolen (since it was on me).