New-old phone (geekery)
by at 2:08 PM
So, my latest "new" phone just arrived.
From top to bottom, left to right:
- Ericsson R520m, my third phone. I bought it on eBay in August 2003 (as discontinued closeout stock) when my first phone (Nokia 3390) got too unreliable (the charger port connection was flaky so it became difficult to charge). Prior to this I had a Danger Hiptop (a.k.a T-Mobile Sidekick) which was okay but had too many quality/reliability problems, so I switched back to the Nokia. Its main flaw is that the phone shuts off if the power button is held down for 10 seconds even if the keypad is locked. That, and being international, it has a hell of a lot of combinations that it'll treat as "SOS" even if the keypad is locked; I've accidentally called 911 at least once on it. (Not good!)
- Sony Ericsson T610, my fourth phone, purchased as an upgrade to the R520m in June 2004. The best phone I've ever had, except for one critical flaw: if it's rubbed around in a pocket too much, the joypad and answer/hangup buttons stop working until you disassemble the phone and apply a significant amount of pressure from the back, popping the key membranes back into place. (Not good!) Also its PIM functionality wasn't quite on-par with the R520m, though it's actually the third-generation successor to the R520m (after the T39 and the T68).
- Nokia N-Gage QD, fifth phone, purchased because it was a cheap Symbian phone and I thought it might be fun to develop for and useful for work. The most unreliable phone OS I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with. After it died (the firmware somehow got corrupted when I changed the time zone settings) I switched back to the T610 (I'd left the R520m at my parents' house) and got my R520m back as soon as I could.
- Motorola MPx220, a Windows Smartphone. This one had a lot of potential; unfortunately, this particular one was sold to me by an eBay scammer and is pretty much broken (it won't take software uploads which is the only reason I bought it, and the external screen is broken so I can't see who's calling, and also the microphone and speaker rattle a LOT). I don't count this as the series of "phones I've owned" since I've never used it except in a trivial testing capacity (same goes for a Samsung e315 I got as a backup to try to take advantage of an Amazon rebate, and for a Motorola A920 from eBay which was in even worse condition than this one, not to mention it was a huge monster of a brick).
- Ericsson T39m, the direct successor to the R520m. Basically the R520m with a shorter screen, no speakerphone (not that the R520m's speakerphone was that useful anyway), a slightly consolidated keypad, and most importantly, a flip phone — so no more in-pocket problems. Received today, works great. :) It's small (only a little bigger than the T610), fairly lightweight (ligher than every other phone in this picture other than the T610), and as soon as the data cable I ordered arrives, it will also replace my bulky PalmOS device because this has all the PIM I need.
Relatively speaking.
Comments
Also, the 3586i only came out two years ago, and it's CDMA-only anyway.
Then I got my first of a succession of Nokias, changing only when I have changed services. I have never had one die on me and they have all been adequate.
Mind you, I have very low standards for cell phones. It basically needs to send and receive calls, and if it has an address book: Bonus! Everything else doesn't matter to me. Still I usually buy one or two models up from the base Nokia, and I never by flip phones. I found the Nokia to be closest to my Ericsson, and pretty well done for quality. YMMV, as always.
Good luck with the new phone.
Gedvondur
My original reason for needing Bluetooth is that used to be the only way to sync an address book on OSX. Now there's so much other cool stuff I do with Bluetooth which needs a robust implementation, though (notably Clicker), and Ericsson's old phones have the best support overall for that (because they actually have the menuing and event-notification stuff built-in, since they were actually designed to work with other devices from the beginning).
I used to abhor flip phones precisely because I thought they'd be too unreliable, but their "mechanism" is nice and simple (unlike clamshells which are WAY failure-prone) and my pockets are way too hazardous for open keypads due to my asthma inhaler (which was the main thing which kept on mucking up my T610, though even if I put EVERYTHING ELSE in the opposite pocket the T610's buttons would still fail occasionally).
FWIW, I played around with a T28w (a much older Ericsson flip-phone) for a while and it was pretty iffy too. The T39m feels much more rugged. They haven't made any traditional flip-phones since the T39m though (the R380 and P800/900 series are flip-phones but the flips cover part of the screen, and the buttons are on the outside of the flip, totally missing the point IMO).
The old Ericsson flip-phone you had was probably a T18, which kind of has a "my first phone" look to it. The fact it does TDMA and AMPS really dates it though.
Depending on how small/expensive the 2850 is I might consider upgrading to one of those though. I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll basically be a walkman version of the S710 which is freaking huge.Argh, yeah, it's just a walkman version of the S710. Never mind.Gedvondur
I have no problem with the idea of a clamshell. The problem is that the hinge is always over-complex and carries way too much stuff in it (usually two display connections and the headset) which makes it much more prone to mechanical failure due to wires getting pinched, springs wearing out, etc.
Flips are much simpler because they only need to carry two wires (for the microphone) and often aren't spring-loaded. The T39m's isn't, for example (I'm not sure what keeps it shut though). This actually makes it even easier to deal with because it can be opened and closed with just one hand, unlike clamshells which often require two-handed operation.
If you have WAP service you can usually just download a .mid file and it'll work.