Phone Cycle

Less than four years ago, I never dreamt that I would own a cellphone, much less have my life be dependent on it. It was ironic that I was working for the ad agency that did advertising for a major telecom company, and I didn't even own a cellphone. By the time I left that agency and headed for another, I still didn't have a phone.
But then, peer pressure got to me in the next workplace. Everyone had a phone, and I could not afford not to have one. Cellphones could let you be reached, or let you reach others, anywhere you were, at anytime. Up until that point in my life, I had thought such a thing was bad or undesirable. Pagers and beepers were still in business at the time, and they were horrid things. But whatever, I had to adapt.

My first phone was a big, clunky and heavy Motorola... I forget the exact model. It looked and felt like a walkie talkie, had a green digital display like a calculator capable of displaying only two or three lines of text, max. Furthermore, while it had caller ID, it did not have Texter ID, which made it a PAIN to figure out who the hell was texting me at any given time (I had to resort to writing down numbers on a piece of paper). Somehow though, I was able to make do with the thing.
I eventually LOST the phone on an FX taxi. The phone came with a leather jacket with a clip that fitted over my belt. Unfortunately, the clip really didn't have a good grip, and one day, as I got off a cab to Megamall, I did so sans my mobile. I was halfway to Comic Quest when I realized it, feeling an empty space where the phone was but minutes before. Oh well.
Of course, after a couple of months using a cellphone, I realized I could not exist without one. So a day after losing my Motorola, I was walking around the fifth floor of Megamall, looking for my next phone. At the time I was flush with cash, and I ventured to get a nice, feature-laded model.

As fate would have it, I saw a flyer for the newly-released Siemens M35i, a sporty little phone that boasted a rubbery exterior grip, a nice green screen (still monochrome), a '3-D'maze game and something arcane called WAP. For 8K I could own this state-of-the-art marvel! So, after just the time it took to withdraw from an ATM, I had my new phone.
I loved my M35i. It fitted me, and it was always on service. Sure, I didn't have any of the pop polytones Nokia phones had (WAAAAHHH...); All I had were the crappy tunes 'mixed by the hottest DJs' loaded into my Siemens. But nevertheless, I turned away from the 3210s of the time and just kept on truckin' with my little German workhorse. And it would serve me well for more than three years, the high point being it being stolen (and subsequently recovered) by a pickpocket on the EDSA MRT.
As time passed though, the weaknesses of the phone soon began to weigh heavily on me and the phone. About a year ago, shortly after I joined my present ad agency, the phone let me down. During a phone call, the battery died even though it was just recently charged. Perhaps it was just the battery. But perhaps as well I just wanted something new. I decided there and then I had to get a new phone.

The weekend after the incident I was in Greenhills, looking for a simple but snazzy new mobile. For all the models on sale, I found myself drawn to the Sony Ericsson T68i (I love 'em i's, don't I?). It was the same phone as my friend Dean, which for some reason made it seem ultra-hip and chic. I got it and I was at once enamoured with its tiny size, the wealth of features and... oh my gosh, the lovely, lovely color screen. It was Noel 'Flim' Lim who told me that once you move to color, you can never go back, and it's true. I stowed away my old M35i for retirement, though I would eventually give it to my Dad to use (he would later give it to our household helper after I gave him a new Samsung C100 for Xmas).
I was dazzled by color. For the next few weeks I preoccupied myself with putting cool images on my T68i's screen. Since it didn't have bluetooth, I had to upload images to a site and then download them to the phone via WAP. It was a pain to have limitations of having only 4000+ colors though- pictures became pale shadows of what they once where once they appeared on the phone, but at the time I was happy with my cool little toy.
For some reason though, I was pretty open with getting a replacement phone a month or two later. One weekend, I found myself again in Greenhills, looking for a phone. One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, I had traded in my T68i and some cash for a T610.

Another Sony Ericsson (my anti-Nokia spirit still held sway then) and one of the best phones of its class, I was thoroughly into it. I loved having a camera phone, though I used it mostly to grab images for the screen wallpaper. Later, I would use it to phlog. The T610 looked classy and smashing, it worked great and I was happy. Happy, but strangely I kept switching covers. Oh well.

Then, a couple of months ago, I was walking in Greenhills yet again, when a Nokia 6600 appeared in the secondhand phone display of one of the kiosks. It was the only secondhand 6600 in the whole place, so I took notice. I had been lusting for the 6600 ever since I heard about its features- still and video camera, internet, HUGE color screen that was miles better than the T610's, games, memory card expansion... this was my dream phone. A trade-in and cash payment later, and the dream became reality. My FIRST Nokia, and IMO the best Nokia phone, had arrived.
At present, my 6600 isn't so much a phone as it is an entertainment/media center. Installing some cool programs turns it into a portable theater capable of containing whole movies if I wanted to (I make do with shorter clips, trailers and excerpts though). Installing an MP3 player sweetens the pot even more. Who needs a digital cam/ I Pod/Gameboy/MP3 Player/Portable TV when your phone has MP3s, video capability and extensive gaming? I guess it's okay for me to lavish and spend on my 6600 when it pretty much saves me from having to buy any more extra gadgets.

I'd love to say that I am totally happy with my present phone, since I am. But given my history, a new phone swap might not be far away. What with models like the Nokia 7610 and the Sony Ericsson S700 about to break into local markets next month. We'll see.

Tech-head and Phonewhore signing out. We now return you to your regular scheduled blogging.