Now here is what an IT person on the run needs !!!
A messaging Device with a full KeyPad (wont call it a keyboard because its still a pad), Nokia puts it as a flip Pad. :)
I have used a few phones in the past, Samsung N620, Nokia 3310, Nokia 7210, Samsung C100 and some of them....
I live in the outskirts of Ahmedabad, thus, there is no Cable Internet Connection, and the dial up is too costly as well as slow.
So I wandered in the market for some slick looking mobile phone that caters to my needs... I looked at Sony Ericson’s T610, Samsung’s and Panasonic, but most of them did not have EDGE (Enhanced Datarate for Global Evolution), only a few devices supported EDGE, following are what I found, there may be more by now, cause I bought this phone in April.
Nokia 6220, Nokia 3200, Nokia 6600, and 7600.
I later found out the 3200 does not have a modem functionality, so its useless for my purpose.
When I came across the new Nokia 6280, I knew I found a gem of a piece.
It supports EDGE as well as Bluetooth connectivity (bluetooth is used to connect the mobile with my PC, while EDGE and GPRS connects the PC to the service provider)...
Even though EDGE was and is not yet commercially launched in most of India (except Delhi), I wanted to be ready with the latest in the technology, so I bought this phone.
It has a very good battery life, goes for about 4 days without recharge in normal conditions, but GPRS and bluetooth coupled together eats a lot of battery.
It also has a BlackBerry Email client which I found to be very very useful for a business man on the run. You might be thinking what that?
BlackBerry’s Email client is a POP and IMAP client for mobile phones, which I found in a very few devices and 6820 being one of them, I use it to download my pop mails on to my mobile, and then I can even reply to the mails using smtp. As there is an inbuilt keypad it does not take a lot of pain to write small mails. (small mails, about 500-700 characters).
It also comes with an inbuild camera, which is not so great. i.e the picture quality is very dull and sometimes leaves you thinking whether to take a picture or not?
While currently I am getting great download speed (10 KBps average ), with hutch, I will soon be migrating to some other service provider as hutch has changed their scheme and is charging 50 Rs/Mb.
The only thing that this mobile lacks is, Memory, Nokia has done a great job of putting an xHTML browser, BlackBerry’s Email client, an inbuild camera, Java support now a days is common, it supports java applications of upto 64Kb each, but all this in shared memory, and there is no way of extending it, as there is no support for MMC.
So, my advice will be, that if you are looking for a perfect mobile with a wireless connectivity between your PC and the mobile, and a super high speed internet Connection, then this is the one you should go for.
On the other hand if you are looking for a music player, camera, gaming station, then this is a wrong one to buy.
It does not have a FM Radio player, but I am not worried about it. Bluetooth and EDGE are its best qualities, with a Keypad which I use very frequently (I dont know how I would type long, 4000 char, e-mails using only 9 buttons ;) this phone beats every other phone in its range.
By the way, I bought it at 15, 650 with bill and 2 year warranty. In April, 2004.
salient features :
talktime : 2-5 Hrs,
Standby time: 150-300Hrs (does go upto 420 Hrs though)
PIM (Personal information manager)
Itegrated messaging keyboard
A 5 Way Joystick
Bluetooth, infared, and DKU-5 Support.
GPRS, EDGE, HSCDS Compatible.
it also supports FastChat ( only mypresence)
3.5MB onboard memory
I say get this device and start tapping on its keypad :) enjoy connectivity on the move.
By the way, it also has an inbuilt loud speaker, for hands free talk.