New Phone!

20080803 I just got an Nokia N95 from Softbank and I'm pretty excited. My minimum requirements for a phone were:1. At least 3MP camera - since I have no digital camera
the cellphone camera has to be powerful enough to take pictures for my blog. With the N95's 5MP I can do all that with autofocus and flash! And I can even take DVD resolution videos(MP4 baby!) with stereo sound.
2. Can view/edit office applications - I'm fond of using ms excel for financial plans and computations and I constantly update them. Although the basic software pack of
Nokia N95 cannot edit office application, I can always install updates from torrents so that it would be able to.
3. Has multimedia capability - Nokia N95 can store up to 2G of music and multimedia files in the expanded microSD slot.
4. Has an english-japanese dictionary - Again, although basic package does not contain a dictionary I can download one via torrent and install it to my phone.

These are my disappointments for this phone:
1. The OS is not Windows Mobile - more applications are available in WM than in Symbian.
2. The battery is inefficient - I tried to use the music player for the whole afternoon, the phone went dead at around 7PM.
3. No QWERTY keyboard - I've always liked layout keyboards and keypads. It makes typing faster! Even a virtual one is good enough.

For around a month I have been weighing options about what phone to switch and it all narrowed down to 4.

The candidates were:
1. iPhone (Softbank) - I love this phone. But the price plan was too high at a minimum of 7K++ per month (although now it's not that expensive anymore). Besides it only has a 2MP camera with no autofocus!
2. Nokia N95 (Softbank)
3. HTC S730 (Softbank) - This one has a really small screen. But it is equipped with a QWERTY Keyboard. WM OS but only 2MP camera.
4. HTC Touch Diamond (Docomo) - This could have been my dream phone except for the fact that it cost twice as much as my Nokia N95 and it is available only in Docomo not Softbank! It has 3MP camera, virtual keyboard, also touch screen like the iPhone although not as smooth, Windows Mobile(Japanese). The Windows Mobile phones here in japan are driving me insane because they are all in Japanese so even if I get one, I will still end up groping.

So all in all, I made the best choice with my N95, according to my needs and preferences.
Aside from buying a new cellphone, I also got myself a new cordless mouse for the office which did wonders to my cubicle.(No more messy wires!).