My cell phone has become an extension of myself, as is doubtless the case with many of you. The Sony-Ericsson K750i I bought some months ago has become my music player, photography tool, and an e-mail device to handle the stream of mails I get every day from the lot of you.
After splurging on a new set of headphones, I still had enough dough to spend it on a new cell phone. And thus the stage was set-a new phone for me!
Audio playback was my number one priority. A digital camera is indispensable, and it became priority number two. In an age of GPRS and with 3G on the horizon, the phone should be an ideal mailing device, and hence needs good e-mail support-which also means a good keypad is needed (QWERTY is preferred).
Finally, it has to look classy-something Agent 007 would use.
My first step was around the Chembur-Ghatkopar area in Mumbai-lots of small shops have spawned here. At my first stop, I was presented with a Nokia N70 and a Sony Ericsson W810i. Both have features I was looking for, sans the keyboard. While the N70 at Rs 16,500 and SE W810i at Rs 15,500 are good deals for the features on offer, both these phones are relatively old now.
On to the next shop, and I was shown a Nokia E61, E50, and a SE M600i. While the E61 is a good business phone, especially if e-mails are your life, and business on the go is integral to your lifestyle.
The lack of a camera meant it didn’t fit my bill, but at Rs 18,500 I was tempted-especially because of the inbuilt Wi-Fi. The E50-the latest in the E series-reminded me of my second phone, the ultra-executive 6310i. At Rs 12,750, it’s a good buy if you want a sleek, executive-looking phone. The SE M600i is sleek and a decent PDA-phone, but the lack of a camera meant I had to skip it.
My next stop was the Heera-Panna shopping centre-cell phone heaven! The Nokia N73 grabbed my attention-does it look cool! By its side was a SE K790i, which doesn’t have the killer looks of the N73. Nevertheless, the 3.2MP cameras on both these phones are equally capable. Again, the Achilles heel seems to be the keypad. The SE K790i uses the same joystick for navigation as the K750i and, from my experience, that joystick becomes dodgy if you yank at it while gaming. At Rs 22,500 the deal sounded great, but I wasn’t convinced.
I was able to get my hands on Samsung’s slim-and-trim SGH-X820-this phone is as flat as a biscuit; the keypad, though nice and tactile, isn’t quite suitable for extended typing-something I will be doing a lot. But atRs 15,800, the X820 is surely the thinnest phone I have come across.
Too many options! The SE W950i music phone caught my eye, and after handling it for a while, I gave it back; didn’t give me that reassuring feel-you know what I mean!
Even after searching through the entire collection from every vendor, I wasn’t able to find one phone that fit my needs. Finally, I came across the Nokia N80-a slider. This stocky phone crams in Wi-Fi, a relatively high-resolution screen, a 3.0MP camera, FM radio, an MP3 player with a MiniSD card, plus all the usual features, bar none. Priced at Rs 25,500, the Nokia N80 was the phone I was looking for-I instantly whipped out my credit card!