The phone I'm currently using, I bought it exactly in November 2023, and before that particular day, I had done a lot of research on different kinds of phones before I settled for the one I'm currently using. When I got to the phone shop, I just went directly to ask for the particular phone with the exact specs that I wanted. When they brought it out, I just checked, via the written contents on the pack, if it was the same as what I wanted and also turned on the phone to see if what was written tallied with the features inside the phone, such as the ROM and RAM sizes, megapixel quality, and others.
That's all. I charged it and began to use it. There was nothing like settling down to read the manual of the phone before usage. It will also interest you to know that there was nothing like a manual that came with it, except for the phone specs written on the pack. Or do you want to say that that's the manual? No, I will disagree with you on this one because the phones I bought back in the day came with booklets containing instructions on how to operate the phone, such as how to position SD cards and SIM cards when inserting them, among many other things.
I won't lie, I'm not fond of reading manuals unless I'm finding it difficult to operate or fix a gadget. For phones, we don't need manuals to know how to operate them. Or are there phones like that?(except phones that need coupling). Even the most costly phones currently, if given to me, I would not need a manual to operate them as long as I know the basic things such as the power button, call center, data connection, and others.
A few months ago, my brother ordered a solar fan from Jumia, and I was the one that went to get it because he wasn't around. That day, I tried to assemble it, but hey, it proved difficult. That was when I remembered the manual. I checked and checked all the steps to assemble it, and I found where I was getting it wrong. So the manual saved me, and I think that's one of the only reasons (if not the only reason) a manual is useful.
But then, if a manual isn't available and assembling a gadget is proving difficult, with the advanced life we have, just a walk to YouTube will solve the problem. In fact, a video explanation comes out more useful than the diagrams in the manual booklet.
I'm not totally discarding the need for manuals because just last month, a relative brought an iPad, a Huawei product, which was sent to him by his brother from the UK. He couldn't locate where to insert the SIM card, so he brought it to me to proffer a solution. Well, I looked and looked and couldn't figure it out either. I had concluded that something was wrong with the iPad until he called his brother to ask him how he used the iPad with a SIM card in the UK, and he told him that the iPad doesn't allow SIM cards—it's only for Wi-Fi connection. That's crazy!
If there had been a manual, he (or we) wouldn't have gone through the stress of trying to force a SIM card into a slot where it doesn't belong. Lol.
Thanks for reading.
This is my entry to Digi-prompts of the week.
Photos used are mine