My old and trusty Samsung SGH-D900 started getting the hiccups recently as the keys became less responsive. I bought it in 2006 so I forgive it, 3+ years is a reasonable lifetime I guess. So I was ready to spend a few % points of Friday’s P&L on a new phone ;-) I wanted to get a new Samsung since I like their physical and UI design but I also wanted a phone that supports Hebrew, at least in the browser so that when I check Gmail I can view emails. After quite a bit of research and digging around it turned out that most Samsung phones don’t and will not have Hebrew firmware since they aren’t very popular in Israel while Nokia’s and Sony Ericsson’s do. So I started looking at SE. I finally went with the T700.

Mostly because of:
1. It’s cheap, only 7,200 Bhat or about $200.
2. It’s super slim and lightweight at only 10mm thin and 78grams. The thinner and lighter the better.
3. Has everything I need: Quad-band + 3G + music player + camera + a really good built-in HTML browser (NetFront 3.4) + expansion slot up to 8GB.
4. There’s Hebrew firmware for it (another $10 at MBK shopping mall, can also be a DIY job if you know how to use a USB cable and google “debranding’).
So I bought it yesterday and I really like it so far. The screen is only 2″ but is of excellent quality, super bright and clear. The sound quality through the headphones is great, the camera produces good results for a 3.2Mp phone camera, the interface is fast and responsive and very intuitive. It supports java applications and stuff like google maps and geo-tagging through GSM triangulation. What else could I want. OK, it doesn’t have an Apple logo at the back ;-)
So the obvious reaction I’m getting is folks I know is: you should have bought an iPhone. Why didn’t I? Well it’s quite easy, in no particular order:
1. I don’t commute so it’s quite rare that I need to access internet on my phone.
2. I don’t need to bypass an employer’s corporate firewall to secretly check on Twitter / Facebook / Myspace / Jobsdb.com.
3. There’s no 3G in Thailand anyway (well not commercially and over HSDPA/UMTS yet), but there is 2.75G.
4. I’m a cheapskate who doesn’t like spending on status symbols / functionality I don’t use.
5. The iPhone is bigger and heavier without giving me anything extra that I need.
6. I don’t like touch screens.
I’m sure the iPhone is a fantastic phone which lots of people really like and enjoy but it just doesn’t suit my needs now.
So that’s it. I’m enjoying my Sony Ericsson. Maybe I’ll use the 18,000 Baht difference from the iPhone price to get a new travel lense for my Nikon.