Phone Drama

Well, since I don't have anything to write much lately, I decided to buy a new handphone just to blog about it... :P... of course not lah... are you nuts? It's not as if Sony Ericsson is paying me to blog about their phones.

My dear old phone Motorola E398 had been with me for more than 3 and half years and finally he is unable to serve me anymore even though I have been extremely careful with him. Well, I have dropped him twice during those 43 months... but still, I dare say that my treatment of my phone is above average compared to those who drop their phone in toilet, in the drain, into a puddle of water, into the fire, etc etc etc.

I still remember clearly getting him from my aunt. As a non-working citizen back then in year 2005, I had no handphone and had not possess any mobile phones even though during that time, even primary school students have these gadgets. I was not ashamed... in fact, being the only one without handphone in university made you stand out. Besides, the probability of someone looking for me is higher than me looking for someone. They all know where I live and so, if they want to copy my homework, they better get their asses to my house instead of asking me through the phone, draining my battery power and phone life.

Then, I got my first job and my aunt decided it's high time I join the mindless society which cannot survive even an hour without looking at their phones wondering why it hadn't rang or why someone did not sms them. With great reluctance, I accepted the gift. Initially, she even suggested getting a postpaid... I vehemently declined... which turned out to be a good choice. Getting a fixed line, even in those packages, one would need to spend a minimum of RM50... (don't know price got drop or not now)... but basically, I spend less than RM30 for two months... which makes my prepaid credit accumulating to incredulous amounts. As I have said before, the probability of someone looking for me is higher than me them :P.

Anyway, while the phone cameras broke through the 1MP and lines went 3G with super thin phones and radio phones, I was contend with my clunky, 0.5MP, no radio, terrible music and super slow online connection phone. I mean, even if I did use my phone, which is rarely, I would use it for sms or phone calls only... I did not bother myself with the phone's other functions. Every now and then, I would find myself staring at a new icon in the phone which I have no idea what it does.

My Motorola E398

Well, I supposed I shouldn't feel too sad. According to a research, people who are in their 20s to 30s, they would change their phones on an average of every 12 months... that's for Malaysians... Japanese actually change their phones every 3-6 months! Either their phones' quality are really terrible or handphones over there are damn cheap!

Well, a few days ago, I was charging my phone and a friend called me. I picked it up and there was no voice at the other end of the line. So, I hung up the phone and called him back... same thing again... no voice even though it was picked up. I sms him and told him something wrong... maybe line not clear. Then, I checked the settings and it occured to me that the buttons are not giving off any sounds when I press them. I went to the multimedia files and play a song and no sound came out!!! So, I check the volume of my phone and when I press the button, it gave out some sound. Confused, just then my friend sms me back and I realised that I can hear the sms arrival sound. After a few hours of searching through the settings, I came to the conclusion that while the phone will ring when someone call me, I can't play any music files and no one is able to hear me talking through the phone.

I immediately went to some mobile phone shops and ask them to check it out for me and they tell me that I have to take it to the official service center for repairs. Well, I did not know that since this is the first time I took it for repairs... and it was far, far away... it was late and so I decided to go during the weekend... oh, by the way, it was Monday.

Anyway, on Tuesday, I found that the control button is not working in the up direction and later that day, my phone kept telling me to insert my sim card even though it was right in there! It's like every single problem is hitting me at the same time! Fed-up, I decided to research for a new phone... afterall, it would cost me money to get my Motorola fixed since it's not under warranty anymore.

And my friend suggested W350i... I have never use Sony Ericsson before but their designs are quite nice. As for Motorola, I was researching on W388... which is damn cheap. It doesn't have bluetooth and it has a crappy camera, but it's cheap!!! Anyway, after comparing the two, I decided to go with Sony Ericsson since I thought it's time for me to try something new... and the reviews online were generally good.

One must understand that I suck at bargaining. Even though I was in sales line for a year and know some of their underhanded tricks, I almost always fall for their traps. And this person offered my W350i for a bloody RM490! He kept on saying that he'll give me 1GB memory which to my memory was not that expensive. I did research online and it was said that the phone can be bought at RM400 for a 512MB memory. RM90 for exchanging 512MB for 1GB? No thanks.

I just kept on showing a very reluctant face and kept on looking at those cheap phones (RM200++) and he actually reduced it to RM440 without me saying anything! Well, I'm not sure if I got it cheap or expensive... with the latter being of higher probability, but I am satisfied.

It is really sleek looking... thin, elegant and light. One bad point is that the camera doesn't have flash... ah well, I'll just take pictures with my super camera lah! I connected online and it says that there is an upgrade patch to the software... I downloaded it to my phone and voila... it doesn't work anymore.

Apparently after 'upgrading' my software, the phone was sim locked. The phone is initially not supposed to be used in this country and thus it need an unlocking code to unlock it and the upgrage patch has reset the system! Argh... why does this happen to me? Luckily I'm staying near to the place where I purchase the phone and thus it was not too much of hassle to visit them again. So, they sort of reformat my phone and unlock it again... (not sure working or not since I have to leave my phone with them to do the 'reformat')

Anyway, enough ranting... following are the pictures I took before my new phone broke down...

The whole package... mike, earphone, charger, data cable and of course, the phone itself. The salesperson also gave me a phone cover and a screen cover... which makes my absolutely fabulous handphone looking impossibly horrendous... and the 1GB memory inside... he also gave me a Digi sim card with RM5 in it, which if I want to use it, I have to load RM10 first...

Handphone close up... the buttons came in orange, purple and white. I asked for white but apparently sold out d... and since the normal version is orange, I took the purple... it won't do to have a phone that look the same as everyone's else :P

The inside... it's an old school flip cover... I supposed the cover would be easily damaged... but then again, I'm a very careful owner. :P

I hope I can get my handphone fixed soon... I wonder if it can be used as a substitute to ipod for my marathon...