Choosing a New Phone (SE G900)

     For a long while I’ve been racking my brain as to what phone to get. My Sony Ericsson K800i served me well for the past 2 years, but I really hate the navigational knob (which broke halfway through it’s use). Navigating my phone has been quite a bitch for me and I keep accidentally calling people, missending text messages, and all sorts of navigational mishaps. Not only that, the surface of my keypad is shedding its skin like a snake. So yeah, my phone isn’t that pretty anymore.

     I’ve been researching on what phone to get for the past few months and these were my options:

• iPhone 3G: I entertained the idea of getting the new iPhone but when I saw how much it costs combined with the subscription to Globe, I changed my mind. It’s not worth the price considering that there were alot of other phones out there with much more features and functions. Personally, I think the iPhone is overrated. But the iTouch, though, that’s sweet.
• Samsung Omnia: After the iPhone 3G, the Samsung Omnia was my next option and was the first phone that I found on the Net that was labelled as an “iPhone Killer”. I tried out a test unit at a Samsung store and it was pretty cool. The sensitivity of the touch screen was not bad, but I wished the phone was a tad bit smaller. I’ve also read some reviews on the Omnia and it didn’t impress me all that much. The interface didn’t look too user friendly, in my opinion. I decided to keep exploring my options.
• HTC Touch Diamond: This phone is beautiful! I really wanted it when I saw it on the Net and read reviews. Not only is it stylish and small, it comes with an Opera browser, Youtube client, a magnetic stylus, and a visually pleasing user interface using Touchflo 3D technology. Unfortunately, people said that it was quite laggy and the price is insane. P40k? I could spend that kind of money on something else instead. On top of that, I recently decided that I wanted to get a DSLR camera someday so I’d rather settle for a more reasonably-priced (yet functional and pretty-looking) smart phone.

     So what did I decide on? The Sony Ericsson g900!

     The g900 comes in two flavors: Dark Brown and Dark Red. I’m kind of leaning towards Dark Brown (though it looks almost black in real life) but then again, the Dark Red looks more feminine.

     It’s a touch sensitive candy bar phone with a keypad for easy texting. While you could easily navigate the phone menu with your fingers, you could also choose to use the directional pad or the stylus that comes with it. To my surprise, the user interface reminded me of HTC’s so it made me like it all the more. And this is just half the price of the HTC!

This phone has alot of nifty features:

• Notes: It’s got a cool Notes feature (with it’s own dedicated shortcut button) where you could choose the color of the notes, scribble on it with your stylus, set an alarm for it, then save it onto your phone. This is going to be pretty handy for me since I tend to end up constantly looking (and losing) for a pen and paper. 
• Business Card Scanner: Take a pic of a business card with the business card scanner and the phone will automically add the details to your address book/contacts. Sweeeeet!
• Touch Focus 5MP Camera: When you want to focus on a particular area in your shot, just touch it and the phone will automatically focus on it. No more out of focus subjects!

     Haven’t bought the phone yet but I’m really itching to get it. See full specs of the phone here. And to show how cool I think this phone is, here’s another video!