The beauty of easily finding manuals (whether online, or in my VERY voluminous and well-indexed PDF folder: I save every manual I’ve taken the trouble to search out over the years) far out-weighs the difficulty of using them when you need them.

I restore that balance between printed and online (tipping it in favor of the PDF), by printing out the pages that I actually need, as-and-when I need ’em.

Case in point. My Cherokee came with a kind of complicated radio; it’s not obvious at all how to change the time on the built-in clock. I easily found the 100 plus page manual for it online, and printed out the 2 pages that had step-by-step instructions for changing the time. (Ditto for the Cherokee’s warning codes, which consists of flashing dashes in the LCD panel: you positively need a printed cheat sheet for that lol.)

Win!

Better yet, I have a relatively inexpensive (under $100) Samsung printer that allows me to easily resize a printed document (of any sort), and print on both sides of the paper. Printing is cheap, and the resultant “micro-manual” is far more convenient than a “normal” manual would be (and far, far more specific to my need-of-the-moment).

PDF manuals used in this fashion are a “best of both worlds” convenience as they are easily found, and you can print needed instructions as necessary.

And hence, superior.

I suspect your only real problem with appreciation of ’em has been a lack of technique (if you will).

Try it.

Hmm. Almost forgot. PDF manuals can be searched to find what you’re looking for. In the case of multi-hundred page manuals, that in itself tilts the balance of their superior convenience.

Of course, I still am a mediocre seamstress, but that’s not the online manual’s fault!

What that means is that the user interface (which is the only one that matters to me) is not cluttered with a lot of crap stuff, from either the manufacturer, or the cellular company.

In effect, that means the entire interface is “pure Google”, and any customization done, is “pure me” lol.

…and with 140 and rising apps, I’ve done a lot of customization.

Unless Google themselves just totally screw up with the ‘droid OS, my next phone will undoubtedly be another Nexus.

Oh. And my entirely non-techie wife loves her Nexus.

…hmm. She also has the Kindle Fire 2 (she had a Fire 1 for about 25 days, and ended up sending it back), which has become after a very short period like an additional appendage. She hardly ever uses her laptop anymore.

(The user interface on the KF2 is still not my cup of tea, but it’s a vast improvement over the first model.)

Analog gal in a digital world. (I feel the same way… give me something I can hold in my hands.)

I got it because Verizon recommends it for first-time smartphone users: it has a Starter home page, which you can change to a Standard home page when you get used to it.

I know I just need to drill the new procedures a few times to get them ingrained. Got it for a road trip I’m taking next month, and I want the GPS navigator that comes with it.

Very few of the older ‘Droid tablets have the latest Jelly Bean [JB] version. Few of them have the only slightly older Ice Cream Sandwich [ICS] version.

Those versions accommodate tablets MUCH better than previous versions of Android.

The JB interface has additional integrated power-saving features (my Nexus went from maybe 4 hours, to well over 8 hours: note that I use my phone a lot, and not just as a phone).

I went from an iPhone IIIGS (I used the 4 for a couple of days: gave it back) to a Nexus 2. The increase in screen size (and resolution), was huge. My old eyes much prefer the 4.8 inches of display real estate: makes the phone actually useful IMHO.

I also very much prefer the ‘Droid OS to iOS (don’t want to get into an argument about it: “different strokes for different folks” …both have their strengths). That’s just me.

There’s things I can do on my phone (and easier on my phone), than I can’t even do on a PC, lol. The ‘Droid OS was easier for me to “explore” those things than my old iPhone was.

…just my two bits.