Last week, I needed to buy a new mobile phone. For a while, I’ve persisted with a slightly futile attempt to separate work and family communications by using two phones. And the aging HTC I relied on for personal calls finally gave up the ghost after several years of good service.

The fact that most apps were no longer working didn’t really bother me. Aside from Twitter and Facebook, I occasionally remembered to check in to places with Swarm, used Google Maps, and occasionally got frustrated with the fact Instagram had stopped working ages ago.

But I still liked the idea of having one phone for my personal uploads, and one I could use either for my own media projects or client work – as well as having a separate number for work which could be turned off at a certain point each evening.

The Weird World of Modern Mobiles:

So although I was under a bit of pressure to have a replacement up and running, I did my research. I looked at a range of reviews, and checked what was available in a reasonable price range. I couldn’t justify a new iPhone or an exploding Samsung, even if I wanted one. Ditto the cost and wait for a new Google Pixel phone.

The camera was hugely important to me. I’m no great photographer, but I want to make sure that if I snap something on my phone it’s good enough to keep or share. The Huawei P9 was intriguing, but I couldn’t quite stretch to the outlay – particularly as I already had a SIM only GiffGaff plan I intended to keep.

A decent amount of memory, a recent edition of Android, space for an expandable memory card – all of these were good things to have.

So then having assembled a shortlist of handsets with no contracts in the sub £200-£250 range, I went and tried some out, eventually settling on the Motorola Moto G4.

(I know Amazon have the exclusive on the Motorola Moto G4 Plus with dual sims, but I felt having two sims on one phone wouldn’t prevent the type of cross-posting disaster having different devices might avoid.)

So far it’s been great. It works well, takes decent pictures despite my artistic limitations, and the battery life has been really good.

But it was only after a few days, I realised something strange.

At no point had I ever questioned what it was like to make phone calls on it.

When I tried it out in the shop, I happily checked surfing the web and texting – but never thought to put it to my ear.

And the week since buying it, I haven’t made or received a single phonecall on it.

That’s not to say it hasn’t been used regularly. I’ve sent messages, used Whatsapp, tweeted from it, uploaded to Facebook, started actually sharing on Instagram again, enjoyed the fact that Swarm works again, and finally got around to signing up for Untappd to log my beer choices so I can finally remember which ones I like.

But it wasn’t until the second day of ownership that I realised how large the handset actually is, and that I might have to try and use it without resting it on a desk or sitting down with two hands free. Or what it might look like when I actually have it pressed to my ear.

It’s hard to believe it’s 13 years since the original Taco Phone (The Nokia N-Gage). And I’ve probably held out longer than a lot of people. But aside from the type of emergency calls I hope I never have to receive, the telephone part of my mobile device is the least used, and least important part of the whole thing…