Mobile88’s Holiday Shopping Guide

There are many arguments about phones. Even on the mobile88 forums, we have hundreds of users who argue about the prices of the phones they wish to buy and trade on a daily basis. Instead of getting caught up in that, we went and approached the manufacturers, asking them for a list of things that they had to sell and how much those things would cost. 

It is true that you may be able to purchase some of these things at a lower price. Perhaps the dealer is willing to earn a couple of percentage points less in commission just because he wants to close the sale. However, it is more likely that you are getting short-changed. 

If you buy something that does not have a proper warranty, you will be left up the creek when something goes wrong with the phone. Believe me, wear and tear is a common reply when you talk to industry executives, and they give you a shrug when saying that. 

This is just a small sampling of what is available out there. It you go around Sungai Wang and Low Yat Plaza in Kuala Lumpur, chances are that you would be able to find the 200 or so models that have been released in the last two years. Add to that a whole menagerie of phones (illegal or otherwise) that have been brought in from Korea, Japan, China, India, Thailand and what have you – and the problem of coming up with a comprehensive list becomes apparent. 

We have 23 phones here on this list, and it is unlikely that any source of information in Malaysia will even come close to having something like that. Despite planning more than a month ahead of time, we only had a handful of manufacturers respond to our contacts. Others gave us half-complete information or did not bother to reply at all. 

I have found that there is a strong connection between the willingness of a manufacturer to efficiently respond to enquiries and their ability to make and sell good phones. In other words, from experience, the manufacturers that mess up in handling information about their products are highly likely to mess up handling the product as well. 

This time around, Sony Ericsson and Nokia responded the quickest, and this is reflected in the giant market share that these two companies have in Malaysia, despite what competing manufacturers might claim. My tried and tested method is simple. Just go out for a dinner or drink in town, and observe what phones other people are carrying about and using. 

Just for the record, we contacted eight different manufacturers or their representatives. Just about half of them responded efficiently. Even then, I would estimate that what I have on this list will constitute a good 70% of phones that you will see people carrying about in KL. 

As a bonus, there are two Bluetooth headsets for you to consider, as giving a phone to a friend might be a little too expensive, but in the season of giving, perhaps a Bluetooth headset might be within your budget for a gift. Let us start off with the best products in the market. Upon giving it some careful thought, it might be better to describe this as the most expensive stuff in the market. These toys are for those who have a modicum of passion, a surfeit of cash, and occasionally – a lack of sense. 

If you want to turn heads in the clubs, then the premium phones are what you would go for. However, you might want to figure out how to use the phones first. Not everyone who has a Communicator is aware of how to use it. There are PDA fans that could not manage their way out of a bathroom and use the device for gaming only. 

Anyway, here is how to lose a good part of your monthly income. Read and enjoy! 

RM 2,001 and above Nokia 9500 Communicator At this point of time, the Nokia 9500 Communicator is the most expensive, mass-distribution phone in Malaysia, retailing at RM 3,988, or pretty close to the price of a laptop. This is of course not including the collector item phones and the limited-edition, bejewelled handsets for the ultra-rich. Although not as versatile as a laptop, the 9500 is small enough to fit into your pocket, which is something that few laptops can claim. The 9500 gives you Wi-Fi connectivity, and lets you edit Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint directly on the device with a full keyboard hidden within its body. RM 3,988 Sony Ericsson P910i The third instalment of the ever-popular P800 is here now, and it sells for RM 2,999. This is a touch-screen phone, and the flip part now hides a mini-keyboard for text input. The P910i is the international version of the phone. It comes with the usual load of features for the smartphones – Bluetooth, Infrared, WAP over GPRS and a Memory Stick Duo Pro slot. Video and camera recording are present too. RM 2,999 Motorola V3 At 17 millimetres or so, this is currently one of the hottest phones in Malaysia right now. Its slim form factor is simply outrageous, and never before has anyone succeeded in making a clamshell this thin although Samsung did come pretty close with the candybar C100. RM 2,799 HP 6365 This is HP’s first attempt at a PDA iPAQ that can field calls as well. It was included here because if you are going to spend nearly 3,000 of your hard-earned money, you might as well ask yourself what else the phone can do besides just making and receiving calls. A full PIM inside the shell might not be a bad idea. RM 2,788 Sony Ericsson S700i The S700i is a rare offering from Sony-Ericsson in the form of a rotating phone. It has a 1.3 Megapixel camera and sports a Memory Stick Duo slot. A rather large 262K screen dominates the front half of the phone. At 240 x 320 pixels in size, this display is slightly larger than the one on the Motorola V80. RM 2,499 Motorola E680 There is one thing that Motorola does do very well besides making clamshells, and that is making Linux phones. Somehow, the funny thing is that the Linux phones from Motorola work much faster than its Windows Smartphones and even those that run on proprietary software. The E680 is capable of two hours of video capture and even longer for playback on a screen that can be switched to landscape display with just a tap. Need we say any more? RM 2,199 Nokia 7610 The 7610 is still a perennial favourite. Just browse through the forums of mobile88.com, and you can see that the 7610 dominates the thoughts of Malaysian users. The 7610 was Nokia’s first attempt at a Megapixel phone, and it took CEBIT by storm and made the very word megapixel a commonly-used phrase today. RM 2,099

RM 1, 501 – RM 2,000 L et us proceed down the ladder of prices, and see what else you can get if you don’t plan on blowing that much cash on a brand-new handset for Xmas. This is the category that is just slightly below all those flashy phones in the previous category. This price range is quite a sensible amount to have on hand if you are looking for a very functional phone that can do much of what is currently available from a technological point of view. Nokia 6670 The Nokia 6670 is apparently the third of the Nokia Megapixel models to show up in Malaysia. The keypad design has reverted back to the traditional rows of Nokia, and although it might not look as fancy as those on its cousins, it is my opinion that regular keypads are more functional than all those fancy keys that let you down when you need to SMS in a hurry. RM 1,999 Motorola V80 Motorola makes another go at the Rotator form factor. This one succeeds the V70, which was one of the last of the monochromes in its time. However, as stated in our review earlier, the V80 is slightly thick and Motorola had best stick to making the clamshells that it was so famous for at one time. RM 1,799 Nokia 6230 This Nokia was touted as being the ‘complete Nokia’, sporting a whole host of features including a four timeslot capability for EDGE or EGPRS connectivity when nearly all the other models in Malaysia are still two timeslot models. More timeslots equals to faster connectivity. Why do you think one of the local telcos keeps using this phone in their advertisements? RM 1,779 Nokia 7200 This is Nokia’s first try at making a clamshell. As a result of a whole legion of fans waiting for this phone, the 7200 is one of the best-selling phones in the Nokia portfolio. It runs on the Series-40 operating system, and was a very good effort for venturing into a new design from any manufacturer. RM 1,729 Nokia 6600 I happen to own the 6600 as well. I have taken to calling the 6600 the ‘fat boy’, just like how Harley Davidson refers to a particularly popular model of motorcycle that they make. Anyway, nearly a year after its launch, the 6600 still ranks in the top five of most lists, be it on the Internet, print or broadcast media. The third edition of the Symbian finally gets it very right, and the 6600 is set to be a best seller for a long time to come. RM 1,599 Nokia 6260 This is another Symbian phone from Nokia, and appears to be the first time the Symbian OS on the Series-60 platform has gone into a folding form factor phone. What a tongue-twister! Anyway, we are still waiting to take a look at this one before passing judgement. The original Symbians were so good, we now can’t wait to see how it will work on a clamshell phone. RM 1,599 Nokia 6800 This one has done even better than the 6600 in terms of maintaining its price! The 6800 is simply the best phone on the market for SMS texting, and together with the succeeding 6820, has just about cornered the market for full-keyboard phones. Few manufacturers can squeeze a keyboard into a device, and do it well enough to have a successful product. RM 1,559 Sony Ericsson K700i Sony Ericsson’s K700i is a steal at this price. This is more or less the first in the series of Sony Ericsson phones that go for the ‘Phone in front, Camera at the back’ concept that Sony Ericsson is pushing now. Although the T630 is designated the successor to the wildly popular T610, it will not be surprising to find that the K-series might eventually overtake the T-series phones in popularity. RM 1,529

RM 1,001 – RM 1,500 Going even lower, here are the phones available for just above a thousand ringgit. They have most of the functions found in recent phones of the last year, such as a colour screen, support for MMS and an integrated camera in a couple of cases. However, something is usually missing to make for the lower prices, so if you can live with what has been taken out, then you should be quite comfortable with owning something in this range. Nokia 6108 This is a surprise! The Samurai phone with the flip-open bottom and a stylus on the back is still available for sale, and at a price that is pretty close to what it was worth when it first came out. This one was made and designed by Nokia’s engineers in China, and although they worked from existing Nokia phones, the 6108 was primarily a phone made for the oriental market. RM 1,399 Motorola E398 The Motorola E398 is arguably one of the best musical phones on the market right now. This phone was so good that a whole bunch of reviewers bought the phone for their own use after testing the phones. If people who test phones for a living start buying something, you can be sure that it is worth a second look. RM 1,299 Nokia 6820 The Nokia 6820 is the second of the foldable keyboard types from the Finnish manufacturer to come to Malaysia. It has been tweaked a little to include Bluetooth connectivity and a camera this time around, but has a slightly more feminine form factor too. The only downside to the foldable phones are that you have to take really good care of them as it is difficult to find protective casings that are effective for these kind of phones. RM1,229 Sony Ericsson K500i The Sony Ericsson K500 could also be described as the scaled-down version of the K700. However, after looking at the phone for a minute, it occurred to me that the K500 looked like the Alcatel 535 and 735 because of the large and thick screen portion and a slightly thinner keypad portion. RM 1,099

RM 1,000 and below Nokia N-Gage QD The QD is the second version of the game deck design from Nokia. The best part about a gaming phone is that those rides on the LRT are no longer that boring. Nokia has made a few improvements to the first N-gage. The speakers have been moved to a more conventional placement, and the MMC can be hot-swapped without having to remove the battery and switch off the phone in the process. RM 999 Nokia 3220 The Nokia 3220 is a series-40 type unit, and one of the first in that series with a 65K screen. It has an integrated VGA camera. However, its key selling point here is the introduction of a new ‘wave’ messaging, where parts of the phone’s body can light up and be used to visually signal a friend who is standing a short distance away. RM 999 Nokia 3120 The Nokia 3120 is a series-40 phone from the previous generation, which comes in 4096 colours for its display screen. The camera isn’t built into this phone as it is optional, but it retains nearly all the features that are common to the series-40 range of Nokia phones. RM 699 Motorola C115 Still out of your budget? Here is a monochrome display phone that looks suspiciously like the V70. This is a small and simple phone with no frills. It will make and receive calls for you, and it will support SMS. However, if you want a full camera, video and radio built in, obviously you are going to have to spend much more than this. RM 269

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