October 12, 2005 Mobile Phone Search
I’m not having much luck with mobile phones these days.
I’m beginning to hate Sony Ericsson more and more, simply because Sony design things to last for a year. It’s no wonder that the warranty only lasts for one year and that you can only extend it for only three months after that. My Sony T630 gave up the ghost a few weeks back.
So I’ve had to go retro with my Nokia 8850. Perhaps the last of the phones that Nokia or anyone else made that actually still retained some sense of durability. After five years or so, it’s beginning to wear though with the screen failing on me intermittently. But it’s still a design classic and I’m loathe to use it for fear of breaking it. It reminds me how Nokia used to make these great mobile phones. It seems lately they’ve lost their way.
I took a look at flip phones having never owned one in my life. I always loved the original V-series Motorola’s but one wonders why their competitive advantage remains focused on providing crap user interfaces. So I’ve never owned a Motorola.
Samsung provides a viable alternative but the non-girly flip phones are all priced way above my budget. (Note, current budget for phone = HK$0). Sharp and LG both have cool flip phones but again, priced way above budget.
And so we’re back to Sony Ericsson who has a decently priced, well designed (aesthetically as always) flip phone in the form of the Z520i.
Damn you Sony Ericsson!
Oh, and when did Samsung get the balls to charge so highly for their phones?
Tags: Marketing Rants
- 8 comments
- Posted under Blog
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Eyal
said
Motorola’s interface has come a long way in the past year or so. I’ve owned several Nokias, Ericsson, Samsung and now a low end Motorola. Ericsson would, without a doubt, be at the bottom of my list for mobile phones. I never had reliability issues but the interface is so freaking slow and unintuitive I couldn’t stand it for more than 5 minutes. The other three are more or less equivalent in terms of usability.
Btw, I got my Motorola C650 for S$60 a year and half ago (with telecom contract). Still works very well.
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fumier
said
I have the same problem – the keyboard on my P900 is playing up. Some keys don’t respond and the “1″ key often displays a “6″ instead when pressed. Bar stewards.
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Eshin
said
My Sony favourite is the storing up of commands because the UI is so slow… leading to a burst of activity as the system tries to catch up to you.
UI sluggishness aside, the Sony I owned suffered from one major failing – the mic quality. It picked up the background noise better than the voice. So people would often here the taxi driver better than they would hear me when I called them.
Not quite sure how you feel that Motorola’s interface was ever intuitive… it’s interface will have had to evolve into an entirely new species for it to be considered…
And if their Hong Kong website is any sign of the thought they put into creating a pleasant user interface, then I dread to see what they do on a small device like a mobile phone.
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Eyal
said
Have you tried the new generation Motorola? They totally revamped the OS and and UI. I wouldn’t read too much into the hk version of morotola’s site..
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kipper
said
The screen failing on the 8850 can be fixed – I’ve done it on mine several times already (although it’s a temporary fix at best; once you’ve taken the 8850 apart it starts to fall to pieces). The problem isn’t normally with the LCD itself, but can be fixed by replacing the little piece of rubber behind it that holds it in place.
As for phones generally, you’re completely correct – they haven’t made a decent phone, in either design or fuction, since the 8850. The new 8800/8801 (the “spiritual successor” to the 8850) is, by all accounts, a pile of crap with a feature set a year behind the competition. Oh well…
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David
said
Hey Nads, don’t moan – I am coming to Hong Kong!! Only 8 days left old buddy. I hope you have got some cool shit organised.
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Giles
said
What about a Sagem Phone? http://www.sagem-phones.com
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Robert
said
I always liked motorola phones man. I used to have the V600 and i liked it. i had it for a while till i gave it to a friend as i had an upgrade. now i am using the Orange SPV C550. it’s a great phone, however I havent been able to fully maximise its usage. must be quiet stupid right.
I am getting the brand new hot Nokia 8800 in a few weeks. I wanted that phones since i heard about it 2 or 3 months ago. It will be the phone of the year i promise. get it if you can Nadim.