Once upon a time, there was a golden era I use to be happy unreachable (no monitoring business) to folks at home, while I was away.
One bad day, I had to accept a gift of cell phone (a Nokia one) after good resistance. We are all testing the usage etc. Suddenly a friend of mine called me from outside and got up to see him. Imagine what, I slipped the cell phone from my hand and fell on the carpet.
Ooooph! There was a scream across the room & everybody looked at the phone on the floor carpet. I picked the phone and nothing is in display.
Wow! Wow! Wow!
I was happy again. The new cell phone was GONE, it’s not working. I had to hide my happiness and remember all the Hindi/Telugu movies enacting emotions of loss.
6 months later, /------/-------/
I wanted to try out a cell phone of my own again, after so much push at home. I still remember the horrified look on everybody’s face when the Nokia phone stopped working.
I went to a “mobile point” and asked for a demo of phones & different features possible on a cell phone.
Believe me, he was like a Rajadhani express of information and I was lost. Eventually I said to myself that I should come out with some parameters for me to select a phone. Those are,
Reliability & quality (past experience);
Sound quality;
Ease of carrying (weight on daily use);
Looks & feel (for self & for others);
Cost (from my pocket);
Talk time & battery life;
Long list, Huh!
When my eyes were roaming around the shop, there was a cute model which caught my eye. Asked the sales guy to show the model which is quite catchy & colorful. He showed me the model.
It was so light and slipped into my hand without a trace of visibility. I FELT NICE.
Have asked the sales guy whether it will work if it slips from the hand. He smiled & said don’t worry, it will work and meant to work. I said that I don’t believe. He replied “is it ?, took the phone and slipped it on to the ground (with carpet).
Wow~~
It was working even after it fell onto the ground. I WHISPERED.
Wanted to check the sound quality. He put on a SIM card on the phone and dialed into it from the land line and asked me to talk/ hear. It’s pretty ok, audible with clarity. The phone has 10 different ring tones and all are quite soft and good to ears. I SMILED.
He told me that it will have 3 hours talk time and 2 days standby time, decent enough for me. I can also fix different faceplates on, 3 plates are free along with the set.
Then I checked on the cost. He said with bill it costs me 5500/- (with Guarantee) and without bill, I can get it for 4000/- (without guarantee). I bargained and he came down to 5000/- with free hands-on set. Felt like a decent bargain. I LAUGHED.
I said OK (it met all my parameters) and pack it.
I can set the backlight to any of the 3 different colors (Green, Red & Yellow), further setting to a caller specific color. My favorite color is RED & the red here is just DARK and looks awesome (especially when it is dark). I can also set one of these colors as the default color not only when someone calls me but when I am using the phone as well.
I can store 100 contacts on the phone itself in addition to the storage on the CIM card. Has the standard SMS features though basic ones.
Coming to the quality & reliability, some time back an office friend of mine tried to tease me on my phone and said that he will count on the number of times I slip it on the ground. Believe me, he stopped counting after 260 times, a year back and my phone STILL WORKS FINE.
Well, well, well, that’s my v2088 cell phone, a cool model which I am using from last 2.5 years.