roastpuff

Ah, a fact I did not know - and one that makes me a bit more annoyed at Apple.

pinniped

I'm in the same boat as the OP. We had a few choices and I went with a small traditional Blackberry on Verizon.

My current personal phone is a Galaxy S3 on Sprint, contract ending in 5 weeks. From there I may stay Sprint or go T-Mobile, likely staying with a Galaxy.

I picked the BB for three reasons: (1) indestructible little gadget, (2) battery lasts for several days without recharging, and (3) I literally do nothing with it besides email, calendar, text, and the occasional conference call. No need for apps or anything outside of BB's wheelhouse.

Biz travel footprint is U.S./Canada for now. International coverage isn't a huge issue. When I travel abroad, I still carry a cheap (dumb) Nokia and buy prepaid SIMs. I also have a 3G data dongle that works in a few countries with prepaid data SIMs, although Wifi covers me well enough that I don't buy those SIMs as much anymore.

dimramon

I currently have a 5s. It's my first Apple, and to me it's just a tool... so I am not a fanboy or have a particular loyalty. I have also had an Android and Blackberry in the past. I guess the only platform I never tried was Windows.

I also use At&T at the moment, since I need GSM for when I go overseas.

Company is strict about separation.. so this device would be purely for business purposes/apps. Therefore, I can't do what I did in the past and just install MobilIron and Good or something similar.

Jimmie76

I've got a BlackBerry for exactly those reasons, it does email brilliantly and that's all I use it for plus the battery can last 5 days with my 2G usage. I have an indestructible Samsung feature phone for calls with again a long battery life and a Galaxy S3 for Web browsing that can be dead in less than a day on heavy usage/full brightness. I've brought all three to the US with me and have called a few people on Skype via wifi on the S3, I can receive incoming calls for free on the feature phone (thank you Three) and BlackBerry emails over the wifi. All of this is on PAYG/Prepaid.

GadgetFreak

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I prefer different phones. I have a work iPhone 5 and my person phone is a Moto X. It allows me to get more or less any app. Also, well, as my name might imply, I like phones.

GadgetFreak

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I have all three and that isn't my experience. I use compact retractable cables from Amazon all the time.

lunardream

an iphone or a samsung galaxy is good always for countries who still use 3G networks or 4G. I tend to carry either one, with a regular non-smart phone (a battery saver!) like a cheap nokia or an old blackberry with no data enabled.

alphaod

I usually carry three phones when I travel. One iPhone 5s with my Chinese number, another iPhone 5s with my US number, and finally an HTC One with whatever local number I'm using.

Now I think I've found an excellent phone with dual SIM capabilities, so I only need two phones. I still carry an iPhone, but my other phones is now an Asus Zenfone 6.

dtsm

I don't know...it works fine for my wife's 5 and iPad3 but when I try on my 5s and Air, will not charge.

Need

Probably because the 5s and iPad Air are on certain version of iOS 7.x. I remember that there was an iOS update that killed some of the 3rd party cables.

IsleOfMan

I think it was 7.1.1 because my wife's 5 worked well with several adapters before that update, but got finicky with them after (mostly defaulting to a slower charge time, but not working at all with some). I've given up on cheap cables (which I love, especially retractables) for her and gone with Amazon Basics cable for her iOS devices with Lightning connectors.

Sierra Kilo

Umm, I use this device with my iPhone 5 (not that different from a 5s) and an iPad Air. I'm curious as to why you say that. There is a Lightning adapter in the mix, if you missed that...

The whole reason I bought the referenced device is that at one time I had an Android phone needing the little USB and multiple Apple devices requiring both the old 30-pin and new Lightning connectors. You can't use them all at once, but it's still better than carrying multiple cables...

IsleOfMan

As I'd mentioned before, the 5s/5c, iPad Air, and iPad Mini Retina are quite picky about Apple authorized cables while the 5, iPad 3/4, and original iPad Mini will take pretty much anything with the right pin-outs. I have a lot of generic/cheap cables and adapters that work fine with my wife's iPhone 5 but either aren't recognized or reported as incompatible by her best friends' 5s and 5c devices.

dtsm

You are absolutely on the mark. I had a chat on-line with customer service at Monoprice.com re the same subject when 5s first came out. Initially monoprice confirmed none of their existing lightning usb cables would be guaranteed to work on the 5c/5s and iPad Air -- a few months I went back on-line and noted they had product certified to work properly.

Don't know the technical reasons but definitely sure the older multiple plugs no not work, unfortunately. We keep one of each in our cars for the Mrs. 5 and our androids. But for my 5s, require the newer cables.

BRAISKI

I both have BlackBerry for work and personal. White Q10 and a Black Q10 just so I don't mix it up or if I end up having the same colour then I would put a different cover/skin on the phone.