I've been on a gadget rampage recently, which only kinda-sorta ended today. For the past couple of years (I think), I've been using a trusty and still-awesome iPhone 3GS. As I probably wrote a long time ago (probably on my other blog), I balked at getting an iPhone 4 for various reasons- that weird issue about the antennae and reception troubles (an issue which kinda just tapered off eventually but never got sorted out to my satisfaction), the trouble and inconvenience getting the device (Globe has it so overpriced, and confusing to get) and worst of all, the stagnation of the memory. The iPhone 4's max memory capacity is 32 Gigs, which is the same as my 3GS. But since the iP4 has that 'retina' screen and HD video recording, it should eat up more memory. Why no upgrade? If the iPhone 4 had a 64GB model, I'd probably have been more receptive.
As it was, I finally, eventually and ultimately settled on getting instead an iPod Touch 4G (or 4th Generation). It was, literally, the iPhone 4 without the phone issues, slimmer and lighter but still having pretty much the best of the controversial Apple phone- the hi-res screen (which looks freakin' gorgeous), the two cameras which you the use of Facetime, a faster processor (making my 3GS look chuggy in comparison) and best of all 64 gigs of memory. I'm two days in with my new Touch and it's awesome- I'm thoroughly enjoying the gyroscope, which makes gaming on the device pretty amazing.
Getting the Touch 4G meant though, that I had to divest myself of my 3GS. Well, since the beginning, I knew that the 3GS would be going to Mom, to replace her iPhone (the original 8GB model, which also came from me) which by now has a failing battery (which we haven't been able to replace) that dies in less than a day (even faster if you try to use any of the features, like music or such). Finally now, with the 3GS, Mom can listen to her Josh Groban and Rod Stewart tunes to her heart's content without fear of the battery conking out after a few songs.
That of course left me with an awesome media player/social networking/gaming device (aside from my iPad) but no phone. So I had to get one. Basically, I was going back to my old combo of IPT and simple phone- I thus went off to the nearest mall looking for a particular model phone- I wanted a Sony Ericsson W890i, which was small, trusty, durable and slick (plus it was a nice Walkman phone).
Unfortunately, after scouring the phone stalls, I failed to locate one. Perhaps it was due to my bad luck, but the place was teeming with a particular brand of phone- which I, inexplicably, found myself looking at and ultimately, purchasing.
And THUS, I walked away with my cheap phone to go with my hi-tech iPod Touch 4G... none other than a Cherry Mobile Z5. This may have some who know me raising their eyebrows. Really, CM is a relatively new, local distributor of obviously China-made phones whose models boast quite a lot of nice features but are of dubious quality. However, in my hands, the Z5 seemed... decent. It's a very slim, qwerty phone with a camera, FM radio and a ton of features... and who could beat the price- less than 3K! Well, after a night of tinkering with it and inputting my contacts one by one by hand (damn the iPhone's inability to return contacts to the SIM card), I was off. So far, so good. Hopefully this time I don't 'get what I paid for' with the Z5.
That said, the cheap phone is just a utility- my main thing is that now I'm happy as a clam with my Touch 4G, and Mom's happy with her new/old iPhone 3GS. All is well that ends well.
But then again, there's still that possibility of me getting an iPad 2. Maybe. We'll see...
