Nokia Lumia 710, The Toyota Axio with the Maserati Voice

It is that time of the year whereby your Telco contract expires and it is time to hunt for another new mobile phone. My soup dunking Nokia E72 was due to be decommissioned. And I started looking for a replacement mobile phone. It has been lucky that the trusty E72 has managed to continue serving me till the contract ends after that dramatic scuba diving exercise.

In case for those who are not aware, this blog is written almost solely on the E72. Hence, it is important that the succeeding mobile phone be up to the task in continuing to power this blog.

The search was brief. As the running robot goes, budget is always tight. I could salivate at flagship phones like the iPhone 4S or the Samsung Galaxy S2 but sadly those phones are way out of my budget. I shortlisted a few phones by browsing on the Telco website (Singtel) in my case and submitted them to my colleague WJ, the Oracle of the mobile phone realm for his wisdom.

The Shortlisted Phones are as follows:
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia W
Samsung Galaxy W
Nokia Lumia 710
HTC Radar

Ideally, I would prefer an android phone after using wifey's Samsung Galaxy R a great deal to play games. The screen was big and it is fast. However, budget once again got in the way and there were limited choices for Android Phones. The only feasible choice being only the Samsung Galaxy W which would set me back by about SGD$200. An iPhone 4S will set me back by a whopping SGD$599 based on my current phone plan. Samsung Galaxy S2? $649.

Talking about Windows Phones which is pretty much the rest of the choices, its seems to be the way to go. There is a huge promotion for Windows phones by Singtel so the prices are hugely discounted.

There is a great pull factor for Nokia phones for me. First and foremost, I have never been disappointed by the Finnish firms products. They are always well-built and sturdy. True, the last generation Symbian software were iffy and crashes often, somehow the E72 still managed to power this blog. Secondly, my phone always double up as a sat nav during overseas drives and only Nokia provides a free and complete sat nav package with their phones. It is especially useful when I am able to use it overseas when I do not have data connections.

Hence, the first choice was the Nokia Lumia 800, a beautiful flagship model meant to pull the Finnish firm back to competitiveness. Its sleek polycarbonate body coupled with an a beautiful Amoled display. It was a deserving replacement for the outgoing E72 which was a flagship model for the Eseries when I bought it. The Windows 7.5 platform for the Lumia 800  is all new and is as slick as the phone's body. As a car person, the Lumia 800 to me is like a Maserati Grantourismo. A bit of the underdog,  with a questionable company future, sleek, fast with a beautiful sonorous engine.

The Samsung Galaxy W and Omnia W was quite quickly eliminated due to the need for a sat nav package with offline maps.

In the end, I struggled with the choice of the Lumia 710. To be honest, I do not fancy its shape, it was frumpy looking and initially I wasn't quite happy with its build quality. To me it was the Toyota Axio. Boring, decent, get the job done kind of family car and also cheap.

It was a real struggle, the Lumia 800 will cost me SGD$399 and the Lumia 710 only SGD$98. Deeper research reveal the truth between the two phones. They uses the same processor and the same operating system. Hence, the Toyota Axio actually has the Maserati sonorous flat crank V8 engine. The difference is only asthetic and the more powerful camera in Lumia 800. This seems like a good deal.

I asked myself, would I buy a Toyota Axio with Maserati V8 at the price of a family saloon. The answer is a unanimous YES!

So here it is... The first post powered by the Lumia 710!
Roar.....the sonorous V8 wailed....