phone shopping

It's that time again... time to buy a new keitai (short for keitai denwa, which means 'portable phone'). I got my last phone, the NEC 503iS, about two years ago, just before the camera phone boom kicked in. Back then I had no idea how cool it'd be to have a camera in your phone, so I just went with the camera-free model that looked the best. Now that the new 505i line is out, it's time to upgrade, but I'm having a tough time deciding which one to get.

This time around, I've got only three concerns: 1) the phone has to look good, 2) it's got to have a good camera (but not necessarily great -- see below), and 3) it's got to have decent e-mail functionality.

Last December I bought a Sony Cyber-shot FX77 digital camera (4.0 megapixel), at which point my need to have a good camera in my phone diminished quite a bit. Still, I'd like to have a moderately decent one in there so I can stick a photo moblog (mobile blog) on this site. The new 505s all have cameras built-in, but some are better than others. Right now it seems as if the Sony model has the best camera, but the phone looks like it was designed by blind chimps, so there's no way I'm going to buy it. Putting the screen on the outside of the phone? Yeah, brilliant thinking there, guys. Why not just include a handy scratching kit so users can get a head-start on their friends? The damn thing is gigantic and heavy, too.

No one phone seems to be perfect, but I've managed to narrow it down to the following three models:

From left to right: the Fujitsu 505i, the NEC 505i and the Sharp 505i.

The NEC is (once again) far and away the most stylish of the bunch (you can't really tell in the above picture, but trust me, it is). Also, it seems to have the best e-mail functionality, which is important to me because I'm an e-mail whore. I probably send something like 10-15 keitai mails a day. Unfortunately, the camera is pretty weak. It's a .32 megapixel CMOS, while the other 505i models are all CCD and closer to (and in some cases better than) 1 megapixel. Now, I'm no genius when it comes to this stuff, but my understanding is that CCD is better than CMOS. (If anyone can tell me why, I'd love to know -- seriously!) If I can take decent "phone-size" shots with this camera (i.e. 144x144 or whatever), I'll be happy, but there's really no way to be sure until I buy it.

The Fujitsu comes out on Friday, so I'll check it out then. Specs-wise it seems pretty decent. The camera is a 1.28 megapixel CCD capable of taking pics up to 1280 x 960 in size. Of course, again, that doesn't mean much to me because I've already got a far better camera that I take with me almost everywhere. The Fujitsu doesn't look too bad either, but the mail capacity is kinda small (300 incoming, 100 outgoing).

Finally, there's the Sharp. It's not especially stunning in the looks department, but apparently it's got the best screen (no surprise, it's Sharp), and the 1.0 megapixel camera is definitely more than capable of doing what I need it to do. It seems to be OK in terms of e-mail as well, falling somewhere between the NEC and the Fujitsu overall.

I guess I just need to find out if the camera in the NEC is good enough for moblogging. Anyone have any idea? I think I'll probably go for that one, unless I find out that CMOS is utter crap or something, in which case it'll be either the Sharp or the Fujitsu.

Ahh, the life of a gadget freak. Decisions, decisions...

Posted by john tv at July 10, 2003 12:14 AM | TrackBack