Mobile Upgrade Time!

Well it’s that time of the year again and it’s time for me to upgrade my mobile. Now this year I have a bit of a problem with getting a new mobile. A couple of years ago getting a new mobile was an easy task since technology was moving so fast it was obvious which was the best mobile. However there are so many mobiles on the market it’s difficult to choose one that would fit exactly to my needs.

Now on the phone market there is a lot of activity with mobiles coming from Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Nokia, Motorola, Asus and now even Apple so there is a lot of competition. However three phones seem to stand out of this forest of beautiful materialism and they are:

- Sony Ericsson W880i
- O2 XDA Graphite
- Nokia N95

Now I bet your wondering why on earth I only listed these three phones out of the dozens I could have picked. The fact is these three phones are the example of ‘next generation’. All of these phones aren’t some ‘easy middle job devices’ companies made to only make money. Companies made these three mobiles to show what was possible, these phones seem to have feeling put into them and this is reflected by their nature.

Sony Ericsson W880i
Now since I already own a Sony Ericsson W810i obviously this new mobile announced by Sony interests me hugely. The design seems to be based off an apple iPod, except Sony has improved it by giving the design a more mature sophisticated look. However it’s not just the look of this mobile which is impressive, just like an iPod it’s built for music from the ground up and includes a huge 262K colour screen which is a fast improvement from the Sony Ericsson W810i 64k screen. However there is a down fall and this down fall proves the modern isn’t always the best. The W810i model uses ‘Memory Stick Duo’ memory cards which are fairly large but allow storage up to 8Gb which leaves many iPod nano’s far behind. However the new W880i model uses a new kind of memory technology called M2. These memory cards are about the size of an ant, however so is the memory with a maximum storage capacity of 2Gb. Although this is a lot of space for a mobile device I can help thinking was the Sony Ericsson slim fast look worth it? Again this slim design seems to have limited the phone in a number of different ways. The camera on the back of the phone is exactly the same as the W810i model but worse since it doesn’t have a flash, onboard speakers are worse with less depth which makes music even more high pitch and the keypad is difficult to use if you have large fingers like me.
Overall this phone is stylish, sophisticated but somewhat lacking the minimum output expected from a modern mobile phone.

O2 XDA Graphite
This mobile may look ugly and bulky looking however things do get better. This mobile is more than a mobile, it’s a computer complete with Processor, Ram and Operating System. Powered by a powerful Intel XScale 416Mhz processor, 64MB Ram and 128Mb of memory with a M2 add on capacity with a maximum of 2GB this phone is basically a travelling office. It even uses the highly advanced Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system complete with Office, Window Media Player and MSN. Built in Wifi allows this mobile to connect to wireless access points which is excellent for on the move work. However the downside definitely comes from the battery front with a minimum of 4 hours talk time, however from the amount of features this mobile contains it’s worth it. Once more this mobile is built by Asus, so needless to say this device should be something special...

Nokia N95
As soon as I saw this phone the word ‘elegant’ came to mind. The smooth edges and rounded style are like that of a perfectly formed woman. This isn’t just another Nokia N series slider phone, this phone slides both ways. Slide down and the key reveal themselves like legs hidden beneath the dress and an upwards slide shows the lovely blue glowing media keys. This mobile defines what a media mobile should be with a huge 16 million colour screen and 5MP camera. With the capacity to store up to 2Gb worth of music this mobile seems to be the best mobile out on the market, or is it? I have used the Nokia N70 and that is dead slow, infact is takes about a minute to switch the thing on. Embarrassingly the Nokia N95 is used exactly the same technology. I just hope Nokia have sorted the slow speeds out otherwise this mobile will be useless as a media devices, infact XDA Graphite maybe better.

Conclusion

Now for the conclusion. All of these mobiles are something special Sony Ericsson W880i is a beautiful music phone, XDA Graphite is a portable desk and Nokia N95 is a media center. Dispite this I still have a hunch that the mighty Sony Ericsson W810i maybe better. Even though it is now a couple of years old the W810i as a music phone still sets the benchmark. Its small, good looking and gets the job done. Unless I want to take some fancy 5MP pictures all the time there is no need for me to upgrade to any of the above mobiles. Basically this means this whole feature of my blog was pointless. Ill update my blog once I have got my new mobile.