The Phone Has Gotta Go

My Venerable Nokia 8260 has served me well. Its getting up to 3 years old now, its been dropped a few times but its still ticking. The screen cracked and I lovingly disassembled it and put on a new one, in fact i’v taken it apart a few (6) times to clean the dust out of it. But now it has to go, its old tech and its time for an upgrade.

I bought the 8620 because at the time it was the smallest phone out there with an internal antenna. Size is still important but now I have a whole host of other requirements for my next phone. Here are the must have requirements:

  • Must have a visible clock display. I’v stopped wearing a watch since I bought my phone. Flip phones without the external clock display are useless in this reguard.
  • Must fit in my pocket comfortably.
  • Must connect to my PC so that I can edit phone numbers, e-mail addresses etc on the PC. I hate typing on my cell phone and I don’t want to loose the information if my phone dies.
  • Must be a GSM phone. Cayman is switching to GSM, even though its old technology it’s still better than TDMA.
  • I don’t have more than $150 to spend on this.

Now that list isn’t very long but surprisingly it narrows
down the number of phones quite a bit. Here is the list of thinks that heavily
swayed my decision:

  • Java capable with the ability for me to load my own apps without the cell network being involved. (it’s my PDA after all)
  • Bluetooth connectivity to a PC and Headset
  • Web browser that renders HTML or at least XHTML. WAP is useless.
  • E-mail.
  • Instant messaging with support for AOL

Things that would be icing on the cake:

  • Should Play MP3′s. I don’t have a portable music device yet so this would be a bonus.
  • Removable memory of some kind to store MP3′s and photos on.
  • A built in camera and all that MMS stuff that goes with it. Camera attachments are useless because I would never carry them with me.
  • A color screen.
  • Polyphonic ring tones

All in all the Nokia 3650 best fits the bill. Of all the currently available phones it has the largest future set. Its Java enabled and a large developer community has sprung up around it, much like the early days of Palm. It doesn’t ship with an MP3 player but one has been written for it. The removable storage and Bluetooth support make it an attractive package. It’s just a lot bigger than my current phone, but I think ill have to give up 1 inch of pocket space to get the features that I need.

Not perfect but close. Nokia: shrink it down and you’ve got a winner. Ill post my review here after I get the thing.


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2 Responses to “The Phone Has Gotta Go”

  1. Gravatar of Bones Bones
    4. August 2003 at 21:13

    Just do some deductive reasoning here folks…
    The guy spends this much time researchiing the details on a phone.

    How much effort must he spend on something simple, like picking the place to eat for lunch…

    Just tagging in my two cents, since I’ve seen your website.
    Pretty cool with the weblog.
    Interested to here what turns up with the phone- my father’s considering replacing his, but won’t need any of the extra’s you’re considering.