Steve Litchfield

If there’s one search that I hear about once a month from various people, it’s how to get flagship performance and features at a price that’s not extortionate and a size that's not extravagant. In 2024 we now have flagship phones that are £1000, £1200, £1400, and more, for the folding variety and, if I may suggest, it’s all getting a little silly. Not least because after paying all that money, you’re also stuck with a phone that’s over-large and heavy, cumbersome in day to day life. Why can’t we have most of those flagship internals in a phone body that’s a regular size and a price to match? Well… there are options. The 'correct' size for a smartphone, I contend. No monstrosities, please. Oh, and aim for £800 max! Certainly on the iPhone side, you can’t argue with the performance and imaging in the regular ‘base’ iPhone, the 15 at £800 . It’s not cheap, but it’s terrific quality hardware and software and it’s significantly the right side of a grand. But it you're leanin

...So we're listening to a podcast and an advert comes on - each show will have its own cadence, and you'll know roughly how long the ad spot is. If you're looking at your smart device then you'll tap the '+30s' button the right number of times, if you're out walking or similar then you'll ask your voice assistant to 'Fast forward 3 minutes', as appropriate. ...So you're watching YouTube and the pre-roll ads start up, you watch that 'skip' or 'next' button eagerly, either once or twice, and then you're into your video. ...So you're browsing the web and come across a page with content you want to read. If you're smart then you've got an ad-blocker installed, if you're not then you're still only concentrating on the content you wanted. ...So you're watching Netflix or Amazon Prime or (heaven forbid) Now TV and a batch of ads come on before your show: 'Programme resume in 1 min 18s' or whatever