I finally gave in and got a shiny new mobile, a Sony Ericsson v630i, and I’m disappointed
My old Nokia 3200 was dying for a while – the back light was erratic for a while, some of the keys started dying this winter, the battery was loose and it would was filtering my calls by not ringing randomly – although some people would like a phone that does that!
I really wanted the new sport Nokia 5500 – not for the sportiness, but because it might last longer with a stainless case and an ugly rubbery exterior to protect it – but I really couldn’t justify the cost. Instead I settled on the cheapest phone with a memory card I could find, which appeared to offer decent features.
Boy, was I disappointed.
I held onto the old 3200 long past its retirement date, and I expected in the interim that phones would have advanced a lot. Sadly, the reality doesn’t match the feature list. My son’s older, cheaper Sony Ericsson has a flashlight, so I assumed it the better model would also have this very useful tool. Nope, no dice – and no help when looking under beds, rummaging round the car floor or out looking for the cat’s dish at night.
I was also used to being able to group my contacts, and assign ring-tones to groups. Apparently, I can’t do this anymore either. It made sense having one ring tone for my wife, one for the office, one for friends and not having to rush to answer to unimportant ring-tone. This is a advance how??
I also have a radio, but I don’t. I did have an FM radio in my 3 year old phone, but now I have an ‘improved’ selection of ‘predefined’ 3G channels – and since I seem to have a portable, personal 3G blindspot that moves from my living room to my office with me, that ain’t much use. Does anyone in this country get good 3G coverage? Where?
I’ve only had the phone for 24 hours, and there are a few other things about it that are not up to expectations. Maybe it is just that I don’t get along with Sony Ericsson phones, or maybe it is the model. I’m not saying it is a crock – it has a pretty decent camera and shoots adequate video, and with a big enough memory card I can do quite a lot of snapping, videoing and listening to MP3s so it does save me the cost of a pocket sized camera and an MP3 player. When I get to the mythical place where there is 3G coerage, I can buy a decent game or two. These are all positives, but it still isnt everything I want in a mobile. Maybe I should do like Pete and stump up for a Treo.
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