“In a world where the average preteen has had more mobile phones than birthdays, one man stood apart, refusing to part with aging technology. Relegated to a primitive past where one could only make and receive calls and texts, he resisted the tide of popular features – such as cameras, video calls, email, web, GPS and apps – until one event changed his mind… forever.“
I just noticed that this day, four years ago, I blogged about my new mobile phone, the Sagem My-V76. Back in 2006 I considered it to be quite advanced, with what I felt was a superfluous feature (a camera? why would I need to take photos with my phone?) – but I wanted a new phone since my previous phone was starting to age a bit – I’d bought that back in 2000.
It probably goes to show how much a dinosaur I am to say that prior to 2000 I never owned any phone at all. I still am a dinosaur, I think – I am principally a mid-to-late adopter, when it comes to spending my own money.
So now that I’ve had this phone for four years, I feel it’s time to move on. I have never been entirely happy with its interface – it’s slow and cumbersome, and has some annoying quirks (e.g. if I hit it one too many times, the “Back” button turns into a “Connect to internet” button, which renders the phone unusable for about 30 seconds until it times out). I’d like a new phone, and yes, I am interested in some of the new-fangled features like email, web browsing and 3rd-party apps. While the UI looks great, I don’t like how tightly the apps market is controlled by Apple. I like the idea of the Android, but have no idea which model to get.
My decision will be based on the following factors which are important to me:
- price (outright $200-$500, or 12 month contract $20-$40 pm)
- reception in regional WA (probably Next-G is the only option)
- battery life (i.e. I’d like to be able to use it without recharging for more than an hour)
- phone calls, texting (low volume)
- email, web browsing (wifi?) (occasional)
- Google calendar sync
- builtin MP3 player
- expandable memory
- standard plugs (prefer no proprietary accessories)
I haven’t really got fully started yet in my research. My shortlist has the following entries:
- HTC Desire [review] [compared with Blackberry] – has all the features + standard headphone jack; [Telstra] capped $79/mon x 24 months, incl 500MB data
- Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 – almost identical features to HTC Desire; same $79 plan
EDIT 5 Jul 2010: added Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 to my list.
UPDATE 8 Dec 2010: Well, my wife gave me an early Christmas present: a HTC Desire, on a $49 plan with Telstra which includes 1GB data per month. So far I’m very impressed!
