For no good reasons, my trusty Ericsson T39mc died last week. I like this phone a lot. It has a solid metal frame, and has survived quite a few drops. Battery life is very respectable, and it works with the Address Book on my TiBook via Bluetooth. I have a backup of all the contact on this phone.
The SonyEricsson local agent took HK$100 to check my phone, and then called me up and said that the motherboard of my phone needs a replacement and that would be HK$1,200. Consider that a new T39mc is around HK$1,600, this is insane. I told the gal on the phone that I bought the phone only last year, and the one year warranty has only expired for two weeks. I expect them to come up with a deep discount for fixing my phone and if she couldn't authorize such a deal she'd better talk to her managers and then call me back.
Understanding that the chance of a happy ending is rather poor, I started shopping for a new phone, with the following criteria:-
- It has to be relatively inexpensive, e.g. say under HK$3K.
- It has to be relatively small and light-weight.
- Bluetooth. And I mean a sensible Bluetooth implementation.
- GPRS.
It turns out that there aren't that many choices. Not that I care much about Bluetooth headphones, but for some unknown reasons the Nokia 7650 doesn't do voice Bluetooth. It's also too big and bulky, not to mention expensive. The only other Bluetooth-capable Nokia available in Hong Kong is the Ti Nokia 8910, which unfortunately doesn't do SyncML, so can't sync its phonebook via Bluetooth with most other devices, and is also one of the most expensive phones out there. The Nokia Communicator is way over the budget and far too big. It's also a bit out-dated. I have had excellent experience with a 6150, so I really wanted some kind of a cheap Nokia phone there...
I did look at the Alcatel OT715. It does SyncML and GPRS, and the price is right. Pretty good looking as well. However, it doesn't do Bluetooth.
Then I re-read this, and decided on another Ericsson, and bought a T68i yesterday. iSync really works rather well, and now I have my contact list and my calendar all nicely sync'ed up. Sweet.
Oh I bought the phone from some chain shop Wilson Telecom (no website), which gives a total of 15 months warranty for my phone. The price is also cheaper than Sunday, where I got my T39mc.
5:56:52 PM 
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