Big phones and smartwatches ...

I got myself a new phone this weekend to replace my 3 year old Galaxy S2 – an S5.

My old S2 was basically running out of puff – it would occasionally crash or flatten its battery and even with an extra SD card to boost the space for data and applications it was always a little tight for updates, making it time to upgrade, especially as my mobile provider had a special deal on the S5.

Obviously it had been a popular offer – for when my phone arrived, instead of being Virgin branded it was Optus branded with the Optus extras. Virgin resells Optus bandwidth in Australia, and I'm guessing that Virgin had run out and Optus still had stock, and someone failed to reflash my phone.

Anyway, I have a new phone. Battery life is definitely better but it's also inconveniently large – too big to fit in a jacket or jeans pocket, meaning it'll have to live in my bag with my notebook and other gubbins. For the first time in a long time I've ordered a case for a phone, living in a bag it has more chance of getting scratched and banged. If a tablet or laptop needs protection in that sort of environment I'm going to guess a phone does as well.

The other thing is the realisation that the bluetooth based smartwatch concept makes some kind of sense. If your phone is stored somewhere difficult to get to – like your work bag, being able to do the Dick Tracy thing and answer your phone from your wrist brings back the convenience of a mobile phone, rather than desperately hunting for it when it rings. The same goes for email and text alerts, and of course you may simply not hear it because it's buried among a pile of other stuff.

However I'm not yet convinced that's $200 worth of convenience ...