Karthik: ?Hey man guess what? I wanna buy a mobile?
Madhan: ?Hey that?s kewl, but which one??
Karthik: ? Not sure, but the best?
Madhan: ?bugger the new 7250i is really kewl, it has a camera, radio and? didn?t u see the add, but its expensive man, it cost around 24 grand?
Karthik: ? see you guyz don?t understand, this is a one time buy, I’m not gonna keep em buying daily, and besides I have my cousin in Muscat, I am gonna be paying the least for it?
These are precisely the conversation I had with my friend before I decided to buy a 7250i and before I ended up paying twenty thousand rupees, now vacillating when someone asks, is it worth?
Although I have no regrets of being an owner of Nokia 7250i, I guess I have a few observations to exhort you, just in case you are planning to buy a mobile.
With ambitious plans of mobile companies and advancement in new technology like WI Fi, 3G, blue tooth, yellow tooth and?, mobile manufacturing companies are here aggrandizing their wealth.
But all the affluent yuppies, the nou·veau riche and the rest, you better watch out.
Mobile phones, disregarding their basic features like call quality, battery endurance etc is rated purely based on what one may term as the ?swank quotient?. It is considered as status symbol and is highly derogatory to own a mobile with just the basic features. Let me make an effort to list out parameters to consider before you choose a mobile phone and beseech experts who pass by the review to comment those that have been conspicuously missed out.
While there are many features a mobile offers following is list of few features that one has to look for and those that deserve a cool ignorance.
Things to consider
1) One of the basic features is call reception and voice clarity. Although I haven?t heard anybody complaining about this, don?t have second thoughts to enquire and test before you buy your instrument.
2) Battery: I guess one of the most important factors is the battery endurance. The battery should last at least for a day, so that in the night you can recharge. I have heard many complaints on this aspect from many of my friends. Remember it is also embarrassing to come up with an excuse like I didn?t attend or make a call coz of low battery, besides you might miss out on important calls and is of zilch use in an emergency. Also be chary when replacing your batteries. There has been 93 cases of mobile accidents reported so for during the year on account of duplicate batteries.
3) Look out the one, which looks cool, sexy and light. After all you don?t want to carry something like a cordless phone in the name of mobile.
4) Remind yourself always about your budget. Please remember that with a marginal increase in price some feature or the other is going to lure you. Matching a mobile with all the features you look for and price will appear to be an impasse, but with a little research you will find a model customized to your needs.
5) For many of us, oodles of time is spent in messaging than speaking, so make sure the keypads are easy to use and type. But with other features being met this can be overlooked coz frequent usage will make us comfortable with what we have.
Have listed above some of the basic things, but there are other parameters one could think of, like a monophonic tune, polyphonic tunes, GPRS, Keypad locking with password (esp when you have an ISD enabled), screen size (color mono) etc. Some may not like to have a loud tone when in office or meetings, instead would prefer a beep or flashing light or ring once etc. Many mobile offer customized profiles with expiry time, so check out those if you are particular about these.
Things not to consider
Expensive mobiles:
Abusing your mobile, by throwing them down, keeping them on the sofa or wherever you want to or forgetting to take back after you placed them in the table next to you in the restaurant could all end in a costlier affair. If you are conscious about abuse or losing it, your mobile always irks you some corner of your mind. You would be forced to behave like a mother partying out with her kid back home
But the most important point is this, how many of us vaunted that we own a Pentium 166 MHZ processor with 16 MB Ram, not so long ago. Even the rag picker fails to take note of that when found in the trash these days. Technological breakthroughs are so fast that it makes a mobile bought yesterday a passé. Besides with mass production prices plummet to a new low every day we check. I am not an expert but I surmise, days not very far from now, will soon arrive to buy a mobile with most advanced technology. I guess it is a sound practice to be happy with a basic mobile right now and wait for that day to happen.
Camera
All the mobile users with a camera feature would agree with me, when I say that these definitely don?t? supplant even a basic digital camera. Why have one, except that it is handy to capture things as they happen. For all those working in IT and ITES companies, wait till your security policy is amended, interdicting the usage of mobile phone with camera. For all those girls who want to engage in sleazy stuff before the camera, presage your partner?s intentions.
Radio
These days we get cool mp3 players, ipod, doesn?t make sense to get lured for a radio service.
Organizer
Quite often we crib for not using the 2MB organizers that we have, why have one in a mobile, that too typing using the key pad, being a Herculean task. You may be tempted to reply that there are gizmos that have everything in one with touch pad screen and stuff like that, but hold on technology hasn?t saturated yet.
To summarize the whole thing, keep your mind ajar to all your needs before you make your final decision, and don?t get tempted to buy one, in the go-go attitude of ?Just buy one?.
For all those who have the latest mobile with cool features, no qualms, it?s you attracting the attention of attractive gals.
So have fun with whatever mobile you have, while I cadge.
Are girls around me to gimme a buzz and
Are you guyz to drop in your priceless comments.