Most cannot live without one, while very few see them as a curse of modern life. But whatever your opinion of smartphones, without one in your pocket, you’d be lugging around the equivalent of 26 separate items. Smartphone technology replaces the need to carry a map, camera, and many other essentials. While a smartphone fits easily in the palm of your hand and weighs little, we estimate that you’d need at least a backpack to carry all the extra items, and it’s also apparently cheaper.

It costs much less to buy, use and maintain a smartphone than it does to buy all the extra items separately. The prices of the items on the list range from affordable (buy a newspaper) to expensive (buy a high-quality camera). Other expensive gadgets include a handheld game console and an MP3 player for listening to music. So let’s take a look at the various items we’d need if smartphones suddenly went extinct:

Newspapers:
This is a common means of disseminating information (reliable or not) within a country. Without a smartphone, you would be restricted to the newspapers that are sold in your area and, even worse, you would have to go out and buy it.

High quality cameras:
We are in the generation ‘the selfie’ and it would definitely not be like that with the smartphone. So without having a smartphone, you would have to invest in a high quality camera which could cost you thousands of dollars in cash.

video camera:
These are primarily used to record memorable events and should be high on your shopping list if you don’t have a smartphone.

English Dictionary:
For native and foreign English speakers, a dictionary is a must-have item without a smartphone

Handheld game console:
Don’t have a smartphone as a player? Then you’re going to have to invest in a game console.

Directory:
I know. We all use our smartphones as our default address book. So imagine having to buy and use a physical address book? Disheartening, right?

Calculator:
Oh! Who needs a calculator? Every person interested in money and mathematics needs a calculator. This is an item that most people would carry with them in the event of a smartphone apocalypse.

Checkbook:
Sure, most people have one, but imagine not being able to pay bills or transfer funds by swiping your phone screen from the comfort of your home and at your leisure. Welcome, bank queues.

Pencil:
No smartphone, no texting. Therefore, carrying a pen to write messages wherever you go would be essential and perhaps a bit boring.

Alarm clock:
For heavy sleepers, this is a must buy and would be a very smart investment.

Clock:
Yes, we all have all kinds of watches on our left hands, but if you don’t have one and you don’t have a smartphone, then you could be left stranded, or worse, living with no sense of tomorrow.

Telephone:
Without smartphones, phones would be the only means of communication from far and near. And so imagine being unreachable until you’re home or worse, walking around with a phone.

CDs and DVDs:
No smartphones, no digital downloads. We are left with packs and packs of CDs to buy, play and throw away when we have heard or seen enough.

Photo album:
This becomes really essential for everyone, singles, couples, and married people, immediately after purchasing a quality camera. What a bummer!

Mp3 player:
Buying a quality MP3 player would cost you thousands of dollars and would be essential because, in the end, we all need some kind of music to spice up our boring lives.

Chronometer:
This is an item we wouldn’t need with a smartphone close at hand, but without one, a stopwatch might come in handy.

Clock:
Not having a smartphone means having to buy a watch (which we all have in our homes anyway) so as not to be seen as living in the past.

Torch light:
This would come in handy in the dark without a smartphone in hand.

Journals:
Without a smartphone through which to check the latest trends in all aspects of our lifestyle, we would literally have to buy magazines to feed our eyes and our endless thirst for relevant and irrelevant information.

Portable speakers:
Buying DVD, CD and MP3 players would definitely lead to buying portable speakers because for (me and) most people, what is music if not loud music?

Road map:
Investing in road maps would be a certainty while driving if there were no smartphones, Google maps, GPS, satellites or…

Cook Book:
We love food. Not just any food, but good food, so going out of your way to get a good cookbook would be on our agenda.

Debit cards:
As important as the air we breathe.

World Atlas:
This would be really cumbersome to load, but on the plus side, it’s always fun to get to know all the countries and their locations.

Foreign Phrasebook:
Learning a foreign language can be daunting, but with Google Translate on our smartphones, life becomes easier. Therefore, buying a foreign phrasebook becomes a necessity in the absence of smartphones (or Google translate).

Encyclopedia:
Hmm…

It’s been really interesting to think about everything a smartphone can do and have it in front of us. It definitely helps you appreciate how smart they are and how much they are capable of doing for us. We realized how much we take for granted the sheer number of inventions that fit in our pocket, easily accessible in a moment. With new apps and features being released every day, smartphones now allow users to accomplish much more with one device without the need to purchase additional items. We wish we could see into the future to know what’s next for the ever-evolving world of mobile phones.