The square phone was referring to Motorola Flipout, which i originally had my eyes on for quite a while, even before it was released. I didn't get it in the end though.
Anyway, i have my first Android phone now.
So how i ended up getting X10 Mini Pro instead? Ok, let's see if i can make the long story short.
I am now holding three mobile phone lines, two from the company and one of my personal line. All employees of manager and above rank in this company is entitled to a company phone, and the main purpose is for us to be contactable anytime, anywhere, whether through phone calls or emails.
The company phone that i am holding is an iPhone. It's not the new iPhone 4 of course, and i will not get the new version because the one i have was only given to me a few months back.
Then, as i return to JB every weekend and am in KL for a week every month, the data roaming charges for my iPhone was sky high. There was a month that it went up to SGD800+. Big boss then decided that each of us who goes to KL frequently should get a Malaysian mobile line. Then when we are in Malaysia, we can switch off the data roaming on our Singapore line and switch to the Malaysian line instead. So each of us was given the old out-dated Blackberry and a DIGI SIM card. Hence i have two company phones now.
Yet, don't forget that i do have a personal line too. I've been using this phone line for many years. It was such long time that the mobile plan i'm holding now is already obsolete. It was with a monthly subscription fee of SGD22 only, without free data plan or any other extra fancy packages like the mobile plans today. That was ok for me since i only use it for calls and sms. For Internet connectivity, i'd use my company iPhone.
For my personal line, i had been using the Samsung INNOV8 that YY gave me as birthday present about two years ago. Naturally, this phone would remind me of the past, but i continued using it, as i was too occupied to go buy a new one.
Then, about two months or so ago, it broke down. I had to get a new phone, otherwise all my friends would not be able to contact me (none of them know my company mobile phone number). But i couldn't make up my mind on what phone to buy, as i hope to get something small so that it's convenient to carry around. Both iPhone and Blackberry are considered big, and i do not need a third one that is big too. Yet, the mobile phones nowadays emphasised on multimedia capabilities that require sizable screen, and hence the various manufacturers hardly produce small phones anymore.
I browsed the Web for small phone with QWERTY keyboard (as i've never owned one with it and wanted to have one), and came across the Xperia X10 Mini Pro and saw that it is rather small. Then i also saw the Flipout, which is of a very unique square shape. I had my heart on Flipout, as i thought it was quite cute and fancy, but at that time, this phone was not released in SG yet. So i continue to wonder what phone to buy, and in the meantime the IT manager lent me a very old company's Motorola phone for my personal line.
Then recently, i was happy to find out that Flipout was released in SG. Last Tuesday after work, i went to the Starhub shop, thinking to recontract my plan and to get the new phone. After i got a queue number and waited for my turn, i looked around in the shop and saw that X10 Mini Pro was also on promotion. Then i had a second thought.
I then remembered the one and only Sony Ericsson phone i ever had, the W580i, which i liked but dropped into the toilet bowl and spoilt it after using it for less than a year. As i travel frequently, the mobile phone also serves as a MP3 player for me. I do not load any songs into the iPhone because it belongs to the company, and i had been using the INNOV8 for this purpose. I then decided that Sony Ericsson is better when it comes to playing music, and i seriously thought about buying the X10 instead of Flipout.
The final straw that made me changed my mind is when i looked at the size of the two phones again carefully. Yes, Flipout is small when it's not opened up, but because of its square design, it is rather wide for my small hand. Basically, it is about the same width as the iPhone and as big as iPhone too when it is swivelled opened.
Here's how it looks like when i hold the iPhone (yes, i have short and fat fingers despite being quite tall and slim):
And X10 Mini Pro will fit nicely into my palm.
Oh, and the X10 Mini Pro is also about SGD30 cheaper than Flipout, which wasn't really a factor in my consideration.
So in the end, i changed my mind and bought the Sony Ericsson instead. When i was paying for it, i was told that i have a SGD100 voucher and hence the phone only cost me SGD38.
I checked with the sales representative about future upgrading to iPhone 4, and she told me that i could do that after a year even though my recontract was for 2 years. If i indeed leave my current company, i may upgrade my mobile plan and get the new iPhone instead, but that will be in the future.
I know the review for X10 Mini Pro hasn't been very good, but the bad reviews were mainly for the smartphone features, which wasn't a concern for me at all. As i am using an old mobile plan with it, my bill would sky rocket if i use it for Web browsing or emails. I still use the company iPhone for all the other smartphone functions.
As for the OS, which was one of the main factor that i found to be on the losing end compared to Flipout, turned out to be not a concern either anymore. The Android upgrade for Xperia has just been released in SG on the day before i bought the phone, and i seriously wasn't aware of it. After i bought it, i searched the Web and found out that i could drop off my phone with the SE service centre and get it upgraded to a newer version of Android (even though not the latest).
So, my phone is now with the service centre. I have to leave it with them for 3 days or so for the upgrade. Well, i'm not in a hurry so i'm fine with it, even though not being able to perform the upgrade ourselves was kinda troublesome, as i need to go down to the centre two times just to get it upgraded.
But then, i'm happy that things turned out to be all well for me. God really loves me!
(The funny thing about this is that when the IT Manager found out that i did not upgrade my mobile plan and have no intention to use any smartphone features on this phone, he asked me why then i got a phone with QWERTY keyboard. I then said to him, "for sms". I could almost see him rolling his eyes with my reply! )
Labels: toy
