My Next Phone

What’s my ideal phone like?

For a while now (which is over an year now), I have been planning to upgrade my phone to something newer, trendier and more useful. So what's delaying it? I want a (smart)phone, that would rid me of carrying any other electronic device on myself on a normal day. Here's what I think is critical for me:

1. The most basic need: It should be a phone. I should be able to make/receive calls :)
   
2. High Speed Internet support: 3G / HSDPA, so that I am 'always connected'.
   
3. Wi-Fi Support.
   
4. The phone should be usable as a modem as well in case I want to connect to the net.(I know that depends on the service provider too)
   
5. Bluetooth: for wireless talking and possibly attaching to the car stereo system
   
6. QWERTY keyboard: that's a must for me. I love the touch of 'real' keys.
   
7. (A)GPS: for finding my way when I am lost.
   
8. An expansion slot. A huge memory (think 8/16/32GB) will be a plus.
   
9. A good Camera (>3.2 mp with flash – vibration reduction desirable and so is zoom). Video recording support...I love taking pictures but don't want to carry around a camera all the time. Videos are a necessity too for capturing those 'once in a lifetime' moments.
   
10. A good screen resolution(pretty much everyone has this)
    
11. Exchange/pop/imap mail support. Office documents support. 
    
12. Support for playing videos in diff formats. Should support flash.
    
13. User Interface: Touchscreen for basic needs like dialing numbers, receiving calls, viewing pictures etc. Coverflow, multitouch is good but not a necessity.
    
14. Good Music Output with music output option(through FM transmitter, maybe )
    
15. Desirable: dual camera (video conferencing).
    
16. Replaceable battery.
    

I can add a few more, but I think this pretty much covers everything I am looking for (and that’s also pretty much the order in which I need it).
What's missing in today’s phone? A few things that come to my mind right away:

Apple iPhone: QWERTY/Bluetooth/Video/Camera resolution/expansion slot.

Sony XPERIA: RAM / Accelerometer / its Windows :( . Moreover, for some reason, I didn't find it very charming when I took it in my hands(although at one point of time, I was quite excited about it)

Blackberries: Camera/Music

Palm Pre: Closest to perfect : The best so far. I have used a Treo for 2 years, and I totally trust Palm products. However, the absence of expansion port is troubling given that I seem to exaust off memory pretty fast ( probably because of my love for pictures and videos). I will have to research a bit on the USB expansion option though.

Nokia N97: The challenger round the corner. So far, it appears to have everything I am looking for. Moreover its a Nokia, so quality should not be an issue(although Nokia isn't much present in the touchscreen world). Moreover, if it really has the FM transmitter that's being talked about, it's going to be awesome. :)


At this time, I think it will be wise for me to wait for N97. It may not be having the touch capabilities of iPhone, but as you would realize from my needs above, I need a phone that 'works' for me and not just looks good. Looks are passé.

N97: I am waiting for you.

Sony Xperia X1

If you are someone who keeps track of the what's going on in the Electronics world, you sure would have heard of Sony's new Smartphone Xperia X1. But isn't that an old news ? Well, Yes and No. Sony announced the phone way back in Feb. But its back in news now due to some leaks on the net that put the release date somewhere in Sep 2008. Details of the smartphone fewtures can be found here . You got to check it out. It sure is a cool one, specially that arc keyboard. You may also want to checkout the X1 film on the X1 site I linked to above that will give you an idea of the relative size of the phone.

I am more of a business user who has been using a Treo 650 for a while now and I find it exciting and easy to use. Based on my needs, my perception of an ideal phone for me is one that lets me talk a lot, lets me get onto the internet when I feel like, has wi-fi so that when I am in a hotspot, I can use the high speeds, provides support for music and videos, has a decent camera, and has a touchscreen for sure. In all, I want a smartphone that makes me feel smart for owning it.

Personally, this phone has excited me more than iPhone did. Why ? For one, when iPhone hit the market, like many curious people, I went over to the Apple store to check it out. And I sure liked it. But the biggest drawback that I found with the phone was an absence of keyboard. While music and wireless access is fine, when it comes to typing on that touchscreen, I thought it was a pain to be write long messages. My index finger was twice the size of the keys on the screen and I made a lot of mistakes typing. For the 15 mins or so that I experimented with iPhone, I kept wondering if I will ever be able to type with both my hands on iPhone, and everytime, I found myself answering a NO. While everything about iPhone is a breakthrough and I respect the Apple guys for the mega technological innovation, I had to keep down the display unit and head back home :) I still am an old school guy who prefers those 26 alphabets on different keys because, lets face it, I am a normal person who needs a phone for normal day to day activities that includes talking, making notes, mailing, and well, maybe music too ! I don't see myself using applications that will somehow be restricted due to those keys physically being there.

So when Sony announced X1, I thought they heard me ! Here you have a phone that does everything I want it to, has a touchscreen like iPhone that lets me do things easily when its just a touch that is all needed,but when I want to type out something, an arc slider slides out that offers me a full QWERTY keyboard! Phew ! Thats cool ! There are other phones available that have similar design like ATT Tilt but the reviews tell me that the QVGA display it sports isn't a great choice for internet applications. And somehow Xperia excites me more :) Read the specs on the site I mentioned above and see a few videos on you tube. It will excite you too ! And as with all phone launches, XPERIA also has a bunch of other exciting features. But visual voicemail is definitely not one of the, something that I loved on iPhone.

Xperia has it downsides too ! The most discussed one is that its going to run on Windows Mobile 6.1 . Ah, windows here too ? Well, when the phone comes out, we will have to check that out for ourselves. It seems unlikely that its going to have a huge inbuilt memory, but then it will support microSD and I can live with that. But at this time I am eagerly waiting for Xperia X1. I hope it delivers what it promises to.

BTW, the P1i from Sony isn't too bad either. I am still to get my hands on it but I think its a nice option for people who don't want to wait till XPERIA comes out, or think XPERIA may be too expensive for them(the rumored price for unlocked version of XPERIA is said to be around a 1000 $s !!!)

So till then, I will stick to my Treo 650, which is an excellent phone but lacks wi-fi. We never feel satisfied, do we ? :)