This topic is sad. Partially because some time in the long past I used to actually think that Smart Phones weren't worth it. Then I realized I was being an utter retard. They are very, very worth it. What I'm seeing right now is a bunch of people that apparently don't understand the time they're living in.
That'd be incorrect... I dislike it because it's slower and inefficient. I happily own plenty of things I don't 'want or need' and don't complain about them.
The difference in time is massive, I can speed dial on a typical house phone in well under a second, probably a 1/2s or less if I've used the phone before. On the right non-touch cell phone probably even faster, the blackberry I had ages ago required simply holding a # key down for a fraction of a second. Say '4' was set up as 'bob', simply pick the phone up and hold '4' down for 1/4s and release, it's dialing. Now, without lock screen I can prolly do the same in 1s. That's at least a 100% more time to do the same thing. If you do that 100s of times throughout the day... these are extremes but I'm sure some jobs require making a lot of phone calls. Such people would want a phone that didn't suck at making phone calls.
On your next point I think it's ridiculous to compare an iPhone to a proper calculator or dictionary. It's certainly slower in either case and much slower to get a decent definition than a real dictionary.
This last point is silly... You sound like the type that says 'why worry about how fast a PC is, so what if it takes an extra second to decompress that' or 'it only takes an extra second to load'. It's the sum of doing these things hundreds and thousands of times that make it matter.
Someone has obviously never been in traffic before; I'm in it 45 minutes a day, and I can tell you that the extra fractions of a second I spend dialing on my smartphone don't mean jack shit.. not to mention that: HEY DIALING THE PHONE FASTER DOESN'T MEAN YOU ACTUALLY CONNECT TO THE PERSON FASTER! How fast you actually get to talking to them depends utterly upon entropy. Also, why are you posting here if you care about wasting time so badly that dialing on the phone is such a big deal? What exactly is your definition of a meaningful activity? Furthermore, what exactly do you consider as the value of your time?
Furthermore, good god no a smart phone is not slower than a dictionary or calculator. God no. Even if you carry a dictionary around with you, the flipping to the right page would take longer than a lookup in a simple mobile app. Also, the calculator is in your hands and working as soon as you open up that app. Smart phones have an app for roughly any information-based action. There is absolutely no point at which you can say that a phone is slower than another counterpart unless it is typing a long post up for a forum or something.. and that can be circumvented by bringing a bluetooth keyboard with you. Smart phones are immensely useful in the information era.
This in no way contradicts my statement that a normal cell-phone is at the apex of simplicity when doing it's core function: calling.
No shit. How would you contradict that? Of course it's at the apex of simplicity. And are you such a simpleton that it's the only thing you can possibly see using it for? You're being a rather closed-minded person when you literally can't for one second even admit that
being able to use it for other things has its merits.
To put this into perspective, this is what I use Galaxy S3 for now:
1. Browsing internet when I need to. This is useful for (actual things I have used it for):
a. Online price matching WHILE at the store. Also looking up reviews of said product!
b. Posting here whenever I want, even from work.
c. Checking movie theater showings in the area when me and my friend are driving around and run out of things to do.
d. Looking at new fansub releases on the go, and then even downloading the torrent file and starting the download on my phone (wifi)
e. Paying my bills through a mobile browser.
f. Using nextbus.com in college.
g. Fuck you know, looking up literally anything from anywhere, whenever I'm interested. Includes completely getting past the intranet defenses at work.
2. Watching anime wherever I please, in 720p.
3. Reading and downloading manga wherever I please.
4. Browsing a shit ton of my anime/whatever pictures wherever I want (immensely useful, especially with MMS).
5. Sending said pictures wherever I want.
6. Uploading videos that I just recorded right there directly to youtube. I actually used this for one of my projects during a class where I was recording my microcontroller mini robot project working. I recorded a video of it working and then had it on youtube in split seconds. The time savings was immense. Group partner was impressed.
7. Keeping a notepad with me at all times that has all important notes.
8. Calendar functionality for keeping me updated.
9. Reliable alarm.
10.
OH GOD THE GPS I FUCKING LOVE HAVING GPS ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE, without having to lug a GPS around. And it works amazingly well too.
11. Playing games (that are getting more and more advanced), without having to lug around a Vita or some shit. For instance, the Bard game is especially excellent.
Now, pop quiz: take a wild guess at how much time I'm saving and how convenient it is to not have to go dig up the other device for any of that. To literally be able to use this device to do all of that at the same time. Go ahead, start.
I could go on and on, but of course it's a given that a smart phone is more than just a phone these days. It's much more than one. Instead of making fun of that point you can buck up and get used to it and turn it into an advantage for you instead of something you make snarky comments at for no good reason. I can tell you right now that if someone tried to take my GS3 away from me... well I've started fistfights for worse purposes than that.
tl;dr Just because you don't seem to understand how to turn smartphones into an advantage does not mean they have none or are pointless. Far from it. I mean you can sit there and whine about how "no tactile feedback boohoo" this or "I can't dial with one click, I have to do two more boohoo" that... which is really sad to me. Lol.
Part of me regrets posting this because I know there's gonna be some bullshit "hurdur I don't need no stinkin' gps on mah phone" responses flying at me. Lol. It'll be entertaining, though.