Buy and Cell

There are few experiences more alarming than realizing that you’ve lost your cell phone. The first panic attack comes upon knowing that you’ve lost all your numbers, especially since it’s been ages since you’ve backed them up. And there’s always the number of that babe you met last week whom you’ll probably never bump into again. In the old days, I used to manually write down each number on my phone on a piece of paper. Of course I’d only take the time to do this right after I thought I had just lost my phone. Since then, I’ve figured out how to use the PC Suite application that comes with my Nokia, and I can now regularly download my phone’s address book onto my laptop in a matter of seconds. Years ago, I’d lose a phone every few months. A few times it was whisked away from right under my nose by some lothario at Stars. Other times it would drop out of my pocket while I was gyrating with some nymphet at the Republic of Malate. Once I remember eagerly slipping into a hot tub with some hotties and promptly realizing I had just fried the phone in my pocket. But now there are no more dance clubs to speak of and I haven’t dipped into a Jacuzzi in ages. Which means my current Nokia 6610 should last me at least another six months. That is, until another phone comes out that allows you to record smells or have some other useless feature that you absolutely must have.

Regrettably, I recently had another phone mishap. I was at a pool party and I carefully placed my phone on a table away from the pool. When I went back to retrieve it, I was traumatized to have found it drowned in a Dirty Martini. I immediately disassembled it and laid it out to dry, praying that it would come back to life. It refused to turn on so I took it the next day to one of those phone repair stalls at Greenbelt 1. The phone guy told me that he could probably get it to work again but I’d probably lose all the numbers if he tried to resuscitate it. Ack! What was that girl’s number again? Was it 5687? Or was it 4587? Damn the phone gods! I left my phone in intensive care for an hour while I wandered around the mall trying these different permutations in my head. When I returned I was overjoyed to find out that the phone guy was able to resurrect my phone with all my numbers intact. I was so happy that I didn’t mind paying his jacked up repair fee. There was one drawback though. The backlight on my phone would no longer turn off, so my phone would only last until about happy hour before needing a recharge. He told me he could try again tomorrow, but I was so elated to have my life back that only later did I realize that this was probably a ploy to milk more repair fees from me.

After two months of procrastinating I still haven’t gone back to the phone guy. But it seems like my phone is dying a slow death. I took it to the Nokia Care Center on Pasay Road (an impressive facility that is in many ways light years ahead of Makati Med’s ER), and they confirmed my phone’s terminal condition. Apparently, its motherboard had now corroded and replacing it would cost just as much as buying a new phone. After reminiscing about my trusty 6610 and everything we’ve been through, I sadly conceded to finding myself a new phone. So I decided to do some homework and find out what’s on the market.Siemens SL55

As much as I’m a staunch Nokia man, I’ve always been tempted to try a Siemens phone. In terms of industrial design, the Germans make phones that are just as cool as the Finnish and, in some cases, even better. But I’ve always heard that Siemens phones aren’t as easy to use as Nokias. I decided to do some research on their new SL55 phone, which they tout as David Beckham’s phone, among other things.

I checked out the phone on my-siemens.com and found an incredible site dedicated to the SL55. The phone is a bit similar to Nokia’s first camera phone, the seminal 7650 in the way that the phone slides open to reveal the keypad. But the Siemens phone is much smaller and lighter than Nokia’s groundbreaking design. The SL55 weighs in at 79 grams and is incredibly compact. It’s got that retro-futurismo look that induces technolust within your inner geek. Its combination of smooth curves and angular lines suggest the forms of a BMW Z4 roadster. The highly-polished, faceted keys appear like precious stones encased in a jewel box.

In terms of functionality, the SL55 has practically everything you would want in a phone. It’s got all the techno-acronyms you could think of: tri-band GSM, GPRS, WAP, SMS, MMS, EMS, PDA functions, email, etc.

Then there are all the cool accessories. There’s a QuickPic camera attachment that comes with a flash, so you can take photos you can actually make out later on. Slick car kits are available which you can install in your ride, preventing you from getting pulled over by the MMDA like I did one time.

What’s especially cool is how you can try out the phone using the website. I’m such a sucker for slick marketing that I can’t wait to go out and get one of these babies. The only thing that’s holding me back is my brand loyalty to Nokia and its fantastic user interface. It surprises me no end that no one has come close to building a user interface as easy to use as Nokia’s.

Siemens SX1

Siemens will soon be releasing their flagship phone, called the SX1. Larger than the SL55, the phone has a new keypad arrangement, with alpha numeric keys flanking the left and right sides of the instrument. Siemens says that this will increase text input with keys positioned close to a user’s two thumbs. Of course, that entails a learning curve for already touch-text savvy Filipinos.

The SX1 will be one of the first phones to have a camcorder and built-in video player, apart from the standard camera, music player and FM radio. It will also come with a full set of business applications normally found on a PDA, including wireless synchronization.

There’s a dedicated website as well, which shows off the phone’s interesting design. But there doesn’t seem to be all that information yet as it is still categorized as a next generation product. The SX1 will probably be in the same category as Nokia’s upcoming 6600 model.

Xelibri

When I was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, the whole city was plastered with billboards for a new mobile phone brand called Xelibri. They were the most surreal ads wherein one really ugly person posed as every character in the ad campaign. Now I’m not sure which is more effective, using Beckham or using someone who looks like the Sea Hag to pitch your product. But I haven’t seen anyone using a Xelibri yet, so perhaps they should reconsider their image model.

Xelibri is no small player, it’s a subsidiary of telecom giant Siemens, who has set up a company to produce these fashion phones. Their innovation lies not in the functionality of the devices, but mostly in its design and style. The company plans to release four new phones in every collection, which will happen twice a year. Taking their cue from the fashion world, the collections will be released in Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. The collections are released only in the trendiest of cities, with Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai the only places in Asia where you can purchase them.

There are four phones in the first collection, simply named Xelibri 1, 2, 3 and 4. The most interesting one is the Xelibri 3, which is currently the world’s smallest mobile phone at 48 cubic centimeters. It’s designed to hang from your neck like a necklace and uses voice recognition software, doing away with the need for a keypad. There’s also a navi-key on the device which allows you to dial one digit at a time if you need to. But since most everyone we call is on our phone memory anyway, manual dialing will probably be kept to a minimum. But the problem with this phone is that you can’t do a lot of texting. With the Philippines still ranking as the highest texting nation in the world, I doubt it’ll sell very well here. They probably designed it for Americans who have yet to discover the joys of texting.

The Xelibri 1 is the most conventional and probably the most practical of the collection. Its fully symmetrical shape and rounded ends make for a highly futuristic look, which coincides with the brand’s tagline, "That’s so tomorrow!" It’s got your basic functionality such as dual band GSM, SMS, EMS, voice dialing, alarm and vibrate. The other two phones have much more radical designs, looking like they came straight out of a Star Trek episode and definitely upping the impress-your-friends factor. But radical designs mean unconventional keypad layouts and this is tough for Pinoys who’ve mastered the art of driving on/crossing EDSA and texting at the same time. Using one of these phones entails relearning how to touch-text and I’m not sure many people will want to do that.

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson’s latest high-end phone is the T610. From a design point of view, it looks very different from everything else on the market. While many other companies are trying every possible way of rearranging keypads and incorporating exaggerated curves on their phones, Sony Ericsson went the other way to make an understatedly elegant mobile phone.

The T610 features QuickShare, which enables one to turn on the camera function in one click and take a photo with just one more. With other phones you have to go through a series of menus before you’re able to take a photo. By that time, the bright young thing you spotted may have already turned the corner.

All the features you would expect the phone to have are there. It’s tri-band and Bluetooth ready. The screen is large and bright which makes it the best camera phone in the market so far. Sony Ericsson even has an online magazine called t-six-ten.com that hosts regular thematic photo competitions for anyone who’s got a camera phone.

Nokia 6600

Never a company to rest on its laurels, Nokia is introducing 35 new phones this year and the 6600 is the one I’m eagerly anticipating. It’s marketed as an imaging and business phone and features an integrated VGA camera for video recording and still image capture with a digital 2x zoom. It uses a large 65k color display with a graphical user-interface similar to the 7650. With RealVideo streaming connections, you can watch movie trailers before buying tickets or catch the latest news headlines without a TV. For data connections, the 6600 uses HSCSD and GPRS in addition to Bluetooth and IRdA. All of which means you’ve got plenty of options to communicate with networks and other devices.

As for looks, the 6600 is a very smart-looking phone. Not over-designed like some of their recent releases, its unique barrel shape makes it different enough from the rest of the pack. The 6600 has all everything you could ask for and more. With their impressive design, easy to use software and state of the art features, it’s no wonder that 4 out of 10 phones in the world are made by Nokia.

So, it’s probably going to be the Nokia yet again for me, but I’ll have to resist the temptation of buying the equally impressive Sony Ericsson T610. And it’ll be tough since the 6600 won’t be released until the fourth quarter of this year. Of course, I could always just get Sony Ericsson now and look for those hot tubs again.