Many hours lost trying to decide which phone to get, replace the current phone I’ve got.

When we returned in February we obviously needed to get new phones to replace the mobile phones we left behind in Tonga. Not being sure of what I really needed in a telephone since and not yet having a job to know know which phone would be more productive in the event I got a job.

Now that I have a job (@nullcube.com the poor fellas) I’m ready to get a new phone (or so I thought.) Taking note of what I needed in a phone, and Apple kindly pre-announcing their iPhone version 2.0 it was time to research what would be an appropriate replacement phone.

Need: Key aspects i am looking for, a single device to aggregate my needs for an Media Player, a Digital Camera, and a Phone. The iPhone is a good MP3 player, but so far as I can understand from all the reviews the other two bits are pretty shitty.

Media Player.

Essentially, I’m spending 3 hours of my life each day in transit, so improving the effectiveness of utilising this time should improve my life? I currently use my MP3 capable mobile phone for listening to different podcasts, both professional, hobbyist, and religious, oh and music here and there when I’m too tired to learn.

A number of the podcasts that I want to ‘listen’ to seem to be video only. Yeah, there’s no redeeming value in watching the CrankyGeeks when their more geeks in their own delusion, but there are quite a number of things with computing that are easier to present visually than just in audio or text.

If you don’t know that, then skip on.

Digital Camera

I’ve got a camera phone with a 2 Megapixel camera, and I just hate the pictures that come from this and my previous camera phones.

For the past couple of months I’ve been considering getting a compact digital camera as a complementary device to our Canon 40D. Love the camera but there’s just so many moments with kids to capture that just doesn’t happen because it’s such a hassle to pull out the camera bag to pull out the camera and flash.

Video camera replacement, it would be nice to take more videos of the kids for sending to their grandparents in Tonga, and because I know you’re all just waaay to interested in seeing more about the kids as they do silly things that kids get up to. Again, we have a seriously nice Sony VX2000 miniDV digital video camera that takes hugely beautiful film. But that one is more adventurous to take out of its casing to use. Getting a smaller HD Video camera isn’t the answer, the quality is good already it’s the convenience factor of getting the equipment prepped that would make a single device hugely nice.

Nice feature but Not Needed. If I needed a good Internet browsing environment, I can freekin’ open this laptop up (which seems to be working fine on the train this past month, with a full screen and keyboard as a bonus.) Woohooo, I even got the version with WAN built in (came with a SIM card as well.) If you need the Internet browsing on your phone for brownie points, then go for it. I don’t need to be wasting anymore time browsing the Internet than I already am.

Nice feature but Not Needed. GPS. If I really need one for driving around, I think it’ll be a safe investment to get a dedicated device.

If I get lost walking with the phone in my pocket, I’ve got bigger problems than a phone can help with.

Nokia N95

List version 1.

On the raw list of want, need, wish to have features things narrowed down to the Nokia N95 which retails for approximately AUD$995 for the 8GB version 2.0 release (That was the cheapest retail price I could find walking the stores and found it at Dick Smith http://www.dse.com.au).

Whoa, … Time to look at that need, want, wish list to whittle the list down a bit ‘cause there is no way I can justify that much money on a phone (well, can’t justify it anymore that is.)

I’m a risk averse kinda guy, I need to get the phone and have it working so I can’t afford to be doing phone tagging with some eBay supplier on the chance the phone doesn’t work. I’ve done the rounds with phone servicing by Nokia and it’s not a pleasant surprise, although when the phone gets fixed it will be good for a long time.

The N95 gets great marks from everyone for the main three items I need, Camera, Media Player, and Phone (in need/requirements reverse order.)

As a replacement aggregator device it just might be good, but it seriously isn’t anywhere near comparable to current players or cameras. My $200 phone, I can add a $300 Media Player and a $300 compact camera and have higher quality for those devices and still have change left over.

Spec’ing out devices at the above $300 mark gets me some seriously great alternative products.

Find out that the N95 had a nice video editor that got dumped with the current N95 8GB rendition, but I think you can still get the N95 ex-8GB. I don’t know how interested I’d be in video editing on a small device, but I would love to be able to slice videos on the device without having to upload to the PC first.

Nokia N82

List version 2.

Hmmm, how close can I get to that original list and still get a full featured fone.

Wow,

Still a little high in price though.

Nokia N73

List version 3.

Camera quality drops significantly

Nokia 6300

Back to the current phone.

Note to self: Wait until the release of the iPhone and see if it can drive some of the Nokia prices down, or whether the release of the N96 will lower the price of the N95 and N82.

What alternatives exist?

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