...a new mobile phone.
Okay, 90% of the time I want a new mobile phone but this time I really want one because things have changed a lot in the mobile phone world over the last year or so and my phone (SonyEricsson k700i) is looking a little old - part of the reason is them releasing a newer version just after I got the k700i as an upgrade, so it feels older than it perhaps should.
As regular readers will know, the main reason for the mobile phone is for text messages. However, some extra bits and pieces would be nice:
- Camera would be nice - I don’t take many photos, certainly not enough to warrant a digital camera (obviously I have one I don’t use already), but a nice 2mp camera would be nice.
- Music Player - an area which has seen huge improvements over the last year or so. I do have an mp3 player but phones have reached a point where one is good enough for me to dispense with the mp3 player and just carry around one device.
- Large Screen - the screen I have at the moment is large enough for 99% of the time but sometimes the phone is used to browse t’internet and a large screen is obviously better for that.
Other things which I may be looking for are 3G compatability (I’m not sure why but hey, why not) and design wise I’ve been wanting a flip phone. The reason I’ve been thinking of flip phones is that I’ve seen them used in far too many of the TV shows I’ve watched over the last few months and they have the cool “look I’m on the phone, you can tell because it’s open!” thing going on.
The problem I’m facing now - with phones offering more than before - is that I cannot find a phone to do everything I want it to. They all do some of what I want but not all and that’s really annoying 
. I’ve mainly been looking at SonyEricsson phones because they are the ones making the progress with music phones at the moment and I’ve used their phones before and like the interface. The phone of theirs which fits most of my needs is the SE w900i but the main ‘problem’ with it is that it uses SonyEricsson’s swivel design which I find annoying and seems ‘wrong’ to me. My natural handling of the phone would cause it to be upside down when it’s swivelled open. It is something I could get used to I guess but not sure I want to risk it.
The w900i was exclusive to Vodafone in the UK for a few months in the UK and since I’m not eligible for an upgrade for a few months anyway, I decided to wait. Then SonyEriccson released details of a new phone, one which sounded perfect, the w950i. Has a touch screen (now that’s sexy and cool!), 4GB of memory for music, 3G, large screen, not flip but looks sexy anyway. Oooh I want one! And and and ... oh no camera ... wtf? Gaah! So I’m still no closer in deciding…
wrote:
As you know, mobile-phones are not an area I’m especially into so I can’t help much there.
But one comment I must make is about phones with MP3 music-playing capability. Arrrrrgh! I hate them. Or rather I hate the idiots (usually groups of kids) who seem to think it’s fine to play them at maximum volume on public-transport, subjecting everyone else to the horribly distorted and barely recognisable music, or more accurately noise as all musical-quality is lost under the distortion. I’m sure those phones sound fine at moderate volumes, and better still with stereo earphones or headset.
Of course I’m sure the above wouldn’t apply to you as it’s only idiots who play them at full volume