Work While Drunk

The time is rapidly approaching for me to get a new phone. Not because I simply want one, but because I will actually need one. My current Sony Ericsson W800i is becoming a pain to use. A common problem on Sony Ericssons is the joystick becoming unresponsive – and for a menu driven phone that renders it useless. The same thing happened with the K700i I had before it.

Before I go any further I should probably point out that I, unlike most UK phone owners, have to actually buy my own phones. I’m on a sim-only contract with Virgin, which is very good value for money, but with the limitation of not being packaged with a phone. So I have to buy my own, either fully unlocked or Virgin locked from Virgin themselves. It sounds like a bit of a mixed deal – its not. The amount of money I save equates to about 200+ a year, and at the end of it I can get any phone I can lay my hands on, without having to go through all the hassle of threatening to leave my mobile provider to get a half decent phone out of them.

I originally got the Sony Ericsson W800i to use as a music player and phone. I liked the idea of my music being interrupted by an incoming call, something that goes frequently unanswered when I’m walking and listening to my music on a separate MP3 player. Not only that but being able to take the call wearing the same earphones and only having one device to charge sounded great. And it would have been, if the W800i (Sony Ericsson’s first walkman phone admittedly) was as good as it should perhaps have been. The music playback functionality was basic, the audio quality was poor and the cabling was a nightmare. That last one could have been solved by the use of a Bluetooth stereo headset – but thats more expense, and another thing to charge.

So I soon moved back to having a separate music device. This was originally a Cowon iAudio X5L (best I’ve ever owned, but a little large and dated) which served me very well until it was stolen, and is now a Samsung YP-Z5 (fantastic but with one flaw – there’s no ‘off’ button).

So, what to get next?

Well, the Apple iPhone is out straight away, as I intend to stay with Virgin as a mobile provider, its a rather large device (which I don’t like), its technologically a bit behind the times for such a premium priced phone (no 3G, GPS, poor camera – I’m sure those will be fixed in future revisions) and of course its really very expensive.

I don’t want another Sony Ericsson. They havent fixed the issue with the joystick. A few of their latest models have a new design of joystick – but I’m hearing of people having problems with the new joystick design too, and I’ve seen other alarming build quality issues. So I think I’ll give Sony Ericsson a miss.

The Nokia N series are nice, but bulky and the better phones seem to suffer from battery issues. I like the N95, N81 and N82 for features, but theyre all so very chunky, and everyone I know who owns one of those loves it except for the constant need to charge the phone when you use any of their extended features such as GPS, gaming, camera’s, video playback, etc. Also, they arent at all cheap.

I thought I’d decided on the Nokia E51. Its a tad shy on features, and its business orientated (not really an issue for me), but its slim, has most of the features I want and most reviews are very favourable. Its often called a ‘workhorse’ of a phone – which appeals. The flaws from my perspective are the slightly small screen, lack of GPS (which is a frivolous need on my part) and a poor camera (but I have 2 great digital cameras after all). But hey, I can buy one off the shelf for under 200, which is a reasonable price in my book.

Here’s the thing. I was all set to buy the E51, just waiting for the price to drop as the availability ramped up, and I came across the Nokia E66 – codename ‘Dora’. Although there’s no official information, there are some pre-release details. This is the successor to the E65 (in the same way to the E51 being the successor to the E50). The focus of the E65/66 series over the E50/51 series is that they have a larger screen, are sliders and have slightly better features – i.e they are the premium phone of the two. So the E66 reportedly has GPS, a better camera (although auto-focus is ultimately the issue with the E51) and allows for 3G video calls. Now, I don’t need any of these features now, but frankly I’d like them. The phone will probably cost in the region of 250, so for about 50 more it looks to me to be a better investment. Of course its not out yet and thus not reviewed either.

So, thats what I’m now aiming to get – assuming I can hold out long enough with the W800i. If I cant Ill get the E51, which will do the job for me, but Ill always be wishing Id have held out for the E66. I always seem to make thins so hard for myself.