phones

As The Economist noted, phones are replacing cars as a fashion statement. It's high time to update my fashion statement.

I am getting so tired of my Siemens A55. The paint is coming off, two of my friends have it, I don't like monochrome low-res screens, I am neurotic and like to save my text messages... I have been looking for a replacement. I would have been happy with the Sony Ericsson W800i or K750i. However the screen resolution on those is just passe now - 176 by 220. My sister and her husband have Motorola E398s with that resolution. I can't be seen with such a low-res screen, and besides, my boss has a K750i already. I need something better, with a better screen. I think it will be the Samsung D600.

What is standard on a phone in Japan is state-of-the-art here. Consider... "In the Japanese market, two megapixels is becoming the standard now" (July 2005) and "The most common resolutions for color LCDs are now QVGA (240 x 320) in Japan and QCIF+ (176 x 220) in the rest of the world." (October 2004). So if I cannot live in Japan at least I need a phone as good as people in Japan have. I just asked my Nokia-6600-owning flatmate what the most important feature on a new phone would be and he mentioned only the camera and the screen. The only disadvantage I can see for the D600 compared to the K750i is that there is no FM radio on the D600. But I never listen to FM radio anyway. My officemate picks up some new music on Triple J and I could improve my Persian listening to Persian Radio but I don't find myself doing either very often.

The disadvantage of the D600 is that it probably would not accept being dropped as often as my A55... I'll have to invest in a belt clip so I don't drop it.