Quest for Phone
No one has ever accused me of being an early adopter - especially when it comes to consumer electronics. Oh, there was this one friend who used to call me "gadget girl" but that was just her way of being nice. This was back when I had a Blackberry, a long time ago - back when they looked like pagers. I had a number of PDAs too. But they all sucked. So now I have nothing. A laptop and a phone. A dumb phone at that. A Razr.
Part of why I am such a laggard is because I'm jaded. I spent several years in the consumer electronics industry as a VP for a GPS company and if there is one thing I've learned, it's the following:
- Never buy anything first. It doesn't matter what it is, it will always be buggy right off the line - ironically at the point when it is also the most expensive. Wait until the price drops if you want a stable product.
- By the time it stabilizes you won't want it anymore because the next great thing will have been announced and you must have it.
- There is always a next big thing.
I think it is this Pavlovian system that sets some people up for never being able to settle down with the "right person" but that is an entirely different post.
Back to my point. Until a little over a year ago I still carried a Motorola Startac (I know, I know - and of course everyone made fun of me). Then I had lunch with my friend Robert and saw his new Razr. I was immediately smitten. Finally a phone worth the hassle (no SIM card in the StarTac, a new phone means all those numbers have to be entered again).
At the same time, I started blogging. Having entered the technology age I soon realized that half the fun of blogging was taking pictures and sending them to my blog. I liked this too, because it meant that I actually had pictures of my kids (I never carry a camera). Two birds, one stone. I love that.
But when I got my Razr, Barak made fun of me, saying "the camera sucks." I chalked it up to jealousy of course, my phone was so much cuter than his, how could the camera suck? In fact, how could the phone not be perfect?
Let me count the ways.
One second thought, let's not, there are too many and this post is already too long. (Don't leave yet, there is an audience participation part at the end where I beg for help.)
The net of my life is that the only time I take pictures of anything is when I do it with my phone. Therefore I need a good camera on my phone.
I am also a busy marketing person. I need access to my email all the time which should mean my phone but doesn't because (repeat after me) my Razr sucks.
Cute as it is, it has to go.
I need a phone that:
- Makes calls - no really, I have to be able to put it up to my ear without the assistance of a third party
- Has email
- Access to the internet
- Some kind of keyboard
Wifi - Bluetooth (I think so, don't I? Maybe not. Yes, yes, for the headset I will almost never wear)
- A really good camera (I said that already)
- And it has to weigh less than a brick
- And it has to be cute. (Yes, I'm shallow that way.)
- On Cingular.
I started off lusting after the Nokia N73. It was getting raves in the US for it's 3.2 megapixel camera (size matters, right?) with Zeiss optics. But it's not so smart. And the European customers (I would have to buy this unlocked online), are not happy. It is slow they say. Slow is bad. Add that to my list: cannot be slow.
The Nokia N93 was supposed to be a great camera, but too big and clunky to be a phone. And it's not smart either. And while the N93i is even cuter and smaller (hello gorgeous), I think it is still not smart enough. Boo hoo.
Treo. No. I don't have a math degree. Say what you like, I have never met a person in real life who actually liked their Treo and I always ask as soon as I see one.
James Bond phone (limited edition silver, seems sold out now). Cute but not smart enough and questionable camera.
Samsung Blackjack. No 3G (I'm told I need 3G so that I can flit around the world - add that to the list). Worse, the camera is run of the mill. And it's not cute. If it's not cute it needs to be smart and a good camera. Next.
Blackberry Pearl. Sweet. Stable. Smart. Highly recommended by my boss. Crappy camera.
Moving on.
Cingular 8525. Operating system from the Devil. I am told that it is terribly unstable. And I may require special equipment to hold it up to my ear for more than a minute.
iPhone. Very, very sexy. I would probably break it standing inside the store. But as Schomer says, who knows what kind of camera is in there? And according to the rules above I couldn't buy it until Christmas at which point Apple will have had time to fix all the bugs that are certainly there (Yes, yes. Jaded. I said that.)
Nokia N95. Sexy and smart. 5 megapixel camera. It all appears to be in here. And it will be shipping in the US in a little under 2 weeks. Very, very expensive. But maybe this is the one. My true love. The love I can buy in relatively safety come May when the Dads 'N Grads promotions start to run.
What do you think? Have I missed something? Are you using the perfect phone? Please share. I need help.
Comments
I would go with the Nokia N95. It looks great and it makes sense to me. I could use it, unlike many of the other phones. ATM I have a razor like yours, for me its been the best phone yet. But yea, the photos kinda suck.
Don't know about the camera on the 8525, but if it's the same as the 8125, then it'll be a disappointment. Mine takes decent shots in just the right light, and horrible shots in anything else. Video quality is pretty much crap.
I'm seriously considering the 93i... I'm hoping they'll hook us up with a deal.
Is the Pearl really a crappy camera? I heard it was ok. Barak has one and I thought his were decent.
And as for the "quality" of a camera in a phone, if all you want to do is take some pictures of the kids and such and moblog them (versus print them and frame them for grandparents), my 1.3 megapixel camera in my TMobile MDA (Windows OS) seems to be good enough for me. If I want anything better in terms of quality, I pull out a cute little Olympus 720SW digital with 8 megapixels that I just carry in my purse all the time.
As Todd noted, the issue I think (for all of us) is that we want just ONE (please oh please oh please) device to carry around and we want it to be great in all respects and to do everything we need it to do.
(Uh oh. I think in that last part I started veering into that other post you were going to write about "settling down with the right person".)
;-)
You can read about my experiences (and hopefully others when they join the group) <a href="http://windowsmobile.groups.vox.com/">here</a>
Todd, you are not spamming my blog. I had all of my fingers and toes crossed that you would pay attention and give me your advice. There is no one I trust more to help me.
I figured that I was going to have to pick between good photos and email and frankly that just sucks. Are the demographics really so different? Is it really so hard to do both? Bah humbug.
If I have to pick, I'm going to pick camera. I love my kids and I simply won't carry around a camera. And if I did I still wouldn't want to have to download my shots or transfer from SD cards. (Lazy, lazy) If you were going to pick between the 93i and the K800, which would you pick?
And while I do think that the Razr has an awful camera, I still love the form factor. If any of the other Motorolas took better pictures I would consider buying one of them. Is there one that you love?
I also have figured that I am probably going to have to go the unlocked route. It's more expensive, but I don't want to be fenced into Cingular's bad taste in phones.
Barak would be the guy to answer this. I did borrow my boss' Pearl and took/sent a picture with it. I found it to be very mediocre quality in ordinary office light.
There is just no way I'm going to carry a camera. Even if my purse was big enough, which I hope it isn't, it doesn't satisfy my need for instant gratification (attention span of a toddler, remember?)
N93i versus the K790? I guess that would depend on your video needs. The K790 doesn't do video anywhere near the N93i. If all you cared about was photos, then I would go with the K790. But these new Nseries Nokia devices that are coming out might be worth a look. Such as the N95 or N76.
I don't know the specs on the N95, other than the increased camera resolution. And I don't have one of them yet, so I can't report about whether it's faster to get into camera mode - faster than the slow N73.
The N76 is a nice slim phone, if you're looking for something like a RAZR body style. Technically, it's a hair thinner than the RAZR, too. And it's a real Nseries Nokia device, which means it has a real OS on it (Series 60 Symbian), which means you can install applications on it (Series 60 apps and Java apps). The Sony Ericsson phones are Java-only devices. The N76 has a fixed focus camera, not auto-focus, so it's not like the N73/N80/N93, but I'm sure it still takes decent 2 megapixel pictures.
If any of the Nseries devices, with auto-focus cameras, got faster, I'd take any of them. That is, except for the N93i - which is what you were asking about, above. I can't use the N93i as my primary device, because I need to be able to get into camera mode with one hand. You see, the N93i forces you to flip open the phone, then twist the screen around, then it goes into camera mode. If you have a beer in your hand - which is how I prefer to test phones out - I am not going to put my beer down in order to take a picture with my phone. So that issue, along with the increased size and weight of the device, means I can't make it my primary device I put in my pocket.
So again, I guess I'm not much help narrowing things down. I wonder what it looks like for availability, in terms of being able to buy something. Maybe that will help narrow down the choice.
One last thought... wifi is really nice with these devices that take good pictures, because the file size of the photos is really large and takes a while to send to a site like Vox via GPRS. So, I think a device that could connect to my wireless router at home would be a big plus, so I could sync all my photos to Vox in a fraction of the time it would happen via GPRS. I looked at my desk and noticed the Nokia N80 and remembered it had wifi, which is cool.
Okay, more later, if I can think of anything else to say.
Where do people even buy unlocked phones? I don't even know where to look online.
Karen,
I have a treo and I love it...I have had two now....I got a 650 about two years ago and just after christmas upgraded to the 700. I have the palm based OS not the windows. It syncs perfectly with outlook, I can check email, surf the web, and there is even a vox application for it that allows me to moblog. The camera isn't awesome...there is no flash or other settings but it does take decent pictures in good light. Video is crappy but I don't use it much anyways. The new 700 has a HUGE amount of user memory on it so I can load it up with applications that are useful to me, I use it for everything, a checkbook register, budgeting program, health and fitness tracker, caleandar, tasklist, email, you name it...the treo will do it...well...except rub your feet after a long day.
I believe there will never be a perfect phone...but the treo is as close as I have ever gotten.