Now that it’s all about smartphones, if I just want a “basic” phone I have pretty limited choices. Right now I’m looking at this, which isn’t ideal but would do.

My question: Is there a significant risk in purchasing a model that isn’t current? It’s a lot newer than the phone I have now.

Aside: This seems weird to me: the wide variety of styles and colors of a few years ago seems to have gone away already.

I remember when our phones all looked like this (installed by the phone company, which owned the handset and fixed it in place—no unplugging and moving around except by the phone service guys, for a fee). Color was a big deal when it came along in the sixties—very exciting!—and how about those pushbuttons? Wow!

Now, all of a sudden, in 2013, here I am back to a choice of black or black (or gray or silver, which are essentially the same thing). Unless I want to carry an Internet connection in my pocket day and night, I’m out of date and my options are drastically limited. Does this make sense to me? No, it doesn’t.

Topics: Verizon, cellphones, telephones, electronic devices, basic phones