She's THE BOMB! (And she almost didn't make it!)
Ok, so I had to replace my current phone with one that I could use for personal calls a bit more. Well, HAD to is a bit of a stretch. I was afraid that because of my personal usage of my current cell phone, I would eventually get in trouble at work.
Now, technically I *own* the "old" cell phone, AND the phone number was originally mine, but all in all, I've transferred the financial responsibility of that to my company, so I really shouldn't use it for personal stuff.
That having been said, I decided to give some of these new GSM phones a whirl. Being that its GSM, it doesn't have the world's best coverage yet, but from what I understand that's getting better.
This phone has a LOT of really cool features I like, and in general, I think it rocks, although there are some things I would change about it if I could. I still have some time to send it back if I decide to, and that may indeed be the case... This phone takes pictures, which is really really neat, however, the pictures can be really fuzzy if you don't remember to wipe off the lens first... and it takes videos which is also really cool, but it only takes the videos in this weird format (so you can send them to other phones) that can't really be used on websites or anything, so you have to convert the files... but its REALLY hard to find a converter that works, in fact I haven't found one yet.
The phone also has polyphonic ringtones, (meaning unlike older phones, the phone can play more than one note at a time, so the ringing sounds a lot better.) which are also really fun.
This phone is also very compatible with lots of different ways of getting information to and from your phone. I can use BlueTooth or InfraRed to get things from my PC into the phone, and I can send contacts to myself over smart messages sent from AT&T (so if I want to add a contact, I can just go to AT&T's website and type in the relevant information using a keyboard (much easier than using the keypad on the phone) and send the information to myself over the airwaves. Receiving messages is free, so that's a good alternative, but you can't "bulk load" or import from your address book or anything.
A few of the things that I *don't* like about the phone: A lot of people who've held the phone say that it feels like a toy, or cheaply made. It *does* feel that way, although its not really cheaply made, as you'll see if you keep reading. I think the thing that makes it feel cheap is that the back cover and the keypad don't really feel all that TIGHT. They kind of wobble around a bit, therefore making the whole mechanism feel cheap.
Which brings me to the keypad and the covers. The keypad is *round*. Nokia says this is for "speed typing" on text messages and stuff, and I say that's a bunch of crap. I think they just either thought it was cool, or they couldn't fit a regular keypad there. I think it sucks, and its *really* hard to dial from. Now, you've got voice dialing (where you say the person's name and the phone dials them) and you've also got speed dialing where you can just touch one key then touch "talk" and the phone dials whoever is associated with that number, which both help, but in general, when you've got to dial, its hard to do.
The covers are flimsy and therefore you can't attach a beltclip to the phone, or else the phone cover might break off, leaving just the cover attached to your belt and the rest of the phone somewhere in the gutter.
And oh, by the way, I nearly killed my phone by accident. I was getting a pedicure with Adam (if you want to see my green toe nails, go to our blog and look at May 20th's entries.) and the phone literally dropped from my lap into the bucket of water where my feet were. I cannot tell you what 20 screaming asian women and two screaming gay guys sounds like all at once, except that it was not pretty. The phone literally just fritzed, and would not turn on. I quickly grabbed the phone out of the water, and removed the battery and all of the SIM chips and memory chips and left the covers off... then when I got home I put the phone in the oven with just the pilot light on (like you'd do to dry breadcrumbs) and left it there for several hours. I woke up the next day, totally bummed about my phone, convinced it would never work again. I put all the chips back in and the batteries and whatnot, and lo and behold, it worked. It was fine. I couldn't believe it. I've seen more sturdy phones just die at that point and never come back, but this one is all good. Once I restored all the settings from backup, it was as good as new.
In general, I think the phone
rocks, and I'm going to try to put it through its paces for the next
few days and see whether or not I think its worth keeping. I'll let
you all know what I figure out.
Update -- Ok, well, I finally got a leather case for the phone, and that made (believe it or not) a HUGE difference in how the phone felt. It feels much more substantial now and much less like a toy. Adam got one too, so now we've both got them and we pass pictures back and forth all day, its a blast. I've decided I *do* love the phone, but sort of like you love a temperamental teenager, because it acts up a lot. ugh.
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