I need a new phone. Currently I’m using an old Nokia 6310i, which is nice for its age and really fast to use. What I don’t like is that it’s a bit big, maybe a bit heavy and it has no colour screen or camera. Plus I kinda want something a bit tougher because I’m a bit of a moron; I drop my phone pretty frequently. I used to have a Nokia 5100, which was great because it was really tough (it still worked after I dropped it in a beer…for about a week), but it was slow and clunky to use because the menus were slow and the buttons were soft and rubbery and didn’t give you nice clicky feedback.
So, I now either want a cheap phone, so when it is stuffed in a year I won’t care; or a tough phone that will last longer and have more features, possibly even organiser-type features like reminders. And of course I want a camera. I was looking at Nokias, but they’re really not value for money; you pay for the brand and I don’t think it’s really worth it. Sony-Ericsson look to be better value, but still a bit more. Siemens phones seem to be really cheap for the features they have. I had to use an old Siemens at a previous job — it was the support phone — and I liked it. The menus are a bit different but they make sense once you get used to them. So here’s my shortlist:
- Nokia 6610i - Cheap (under $AU 200), outdated looks, not very tough. FM radio! That’s a plus.
- Siemens C65 - Really cheap (under $AU 100), tiny size, light weight, plenty of features
- Siemens M65/CX65 - Cheap (under $AU 200), heaps of features and is tough. No CX65s on ebay.com.au
- Sony-Ericsson T610 or T630- Cheapish (over $AU 200), tons and tons of features.
- Nokia 5140i - Not that cheap (around $AU300), heaps of features, but apparently the same rubbery buttons I hated on the 5100. Not keen.
So far, the Siemens M65 is my favourite. There’s a few on ebay at the moment. There are a few C65s as well, and they’re even cheaper. But I think the extra features and toughness of the M65 could win. We’ll see.