Mobile phones

[Tsunku]

I use a sony ericsson too. Its the model that has a camera attachment, but not the built in camera. It set me back about 1400 RMB when I got it about 3 months ago, but I've been really happy with it. Its taken a lot of abuse but hasn't had any problems, and the battery also seems to last a pretty long time. It has all sorts of features which I never use and bluetooth capability, although I don't really understand bluetooth exactly. I too am perplexed by the phones here in China and how much people seem to want out of them. In the US it was the basic free phone you got with the service, but here there's practically a whole cell-phone culture and hierarchy. Wierd.

[skylee]

Explosion of Nokia 3310 (please bear with the Cantonese in the report)

According to the report, the phone was imported from the mainland. If you are using this model (actually one of my colleagues is still using one, and she is not alone), you may want to take extra care.

[Quest]

most likely caused by cheap battery.

[roddy]

Right, I hereby entrust this thread to recommend me a new mobile phone. You have a budget of 1500Y. My only request is that it isn't a Motorola, who in my experience make terrible phones.

Roddy

[skylee]

I've just bought a new mobile phone -> Sony Ericsson K700i

We can learn some Chinese here. To describe someone who often changes his mind or dumps the old one whenever he sees a new one, we can say he is -

朝三暮四 or

朝秦暮楚 or

貪新忘舊 or

見異思遷

(呵呵)

[LiYuanXi]

喜新厌旧

[wisder]

Yes,most of the youngsters in China prefer NOKIA.Because it looks youthful and "cool".But SIEMENS and ERICSSON are not so bad either.

SUMSUNG is popular both in youngsters and middle class.

[Zingaro]

When I first traveled to China a couple of years ago, I bought an Ericsson (Sony-Ericsson) R520. This is a candybar (non-clamshell) GSM phone with tons of features. (Bluetooth, GPRS capable, infrared, SMS, etc.)

It's not pretty, no color display, but it's built like a tank and it has terrific reception. And it's not terribly expensive. When I took it to a China Mobile dealer to replace the SIM card, the sales girls seemed impressed that it was a Sony.

You can still find them around on Ebay and here and there on the net.

[skylee]

I have just bought a Sony Ericsson V802SE -> http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=global&lc=en&ver=4001&template=pp1_1_1&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10206

[Tsunku]

Since I first posted in this thread I've gone through about 8 cell phones. They were always getting lost or breaking (I drop my phone constantly). The guys at the used phone market and I are good buddies by now! I

Right now I'm using a Chinese brand Amoisonic phone. It has dual sim card capabilities, which sounds cool, although I haven't really used this feature (if I had spouse to cheat on, maybe it would come in hand). The best thing is that I can keep the phone display itself in English, but switch back and forth between Chinese and English while texting. Besides my dear departed Sony-Ericsson, none of my other phones could do that.

[TSkillet]

Ever since I moved back to the States, I kind of missed having to buy the newest and greatest and latest phone to keep up with everyone in Hong Kong. I just like gadgets.

So last week, I went out and bought this bad boy:

Sony Ericsson s710a

Okay, it's not 1500 RMB, but it's awfully fun.

[skylee]

having to buy the newest and greatest and latest phone to keep up with everyone in Hong Kong

Not to keep up, but to get ahead of

I like Sony Ericsson (and its Chinese name 索愛). My new handset is a 3G phone. Because it was new I wanted to test the video-call feature. But it was all very silly because I had to first tell my friends to turn on their phones.

The best thing about my 3G phone is that with wcdma it can be used in Japan.

[Homeward]

Last summer, I bought the Motorola V878 and I loved it so much until I accidently put it inside the washing machine and now the screen doesn't activate anymore. *sigh* and I won't be heading to Hong Kong this summer, to get it repaired or get a new phone.

I'm phoneless now and all the phones in the current UK market is old by comparison and crap. Like my Motorola V878 is far more technologically advance than the mobile phones out on the UK market - oh what should I do . . .

[Quest]

http://wirelessimports.com/ProductCatalog.asp

How do these prices compare vs prices in China or Hongkong? Some of them seem insanely expensive to me, and most carriers in the US probably won't accept these unlocked phones. For example, Verizon disables bluetooth, mp3/file download and flash memory features on its phones, so when you need a new ringtone/picture you need to pay to get them from their site. These greedy tasbards are keeping the US mobile technology behind. Phones offered by carriers are crap, and the technologies are there but they are making them so expensive to use.

I think Asia will take the lead in technology eventually, as they already do in consumer electronics.

[kailin]

Any reccomendations for a good place to buy a good (nothing too fancy required) phone at a good price? I live in Zhongguancun, if that's helpful information. Thanks!

[skylee]

I bought myself this new phone yesterday and have spent the whole of today learning how to use it and putting things back to order. It was very discouraging and exhausting.

Shouldn't have switched back from Sony Ericsson ...

Plus there is no pinyin input (it has stroke order input, though). And it takes a long time to start up (I have been told that it is because its OS is symbian) ... sigh ... regret ...

[snarfer]

I bought my phone off eBay China and the price was 25 percent cheaper than retail. It was even less than the best US internet site price I could find.

[LiYuanXi]

Skylee: I can't believe there is no pinyin input for a nokia phone! The stroke input is so hard to use.

[skylee]

Probably the configuration is different for different areas. Few HK people use pinyin, so no pinyin input for the ones sold here. Alas.

Plus I've sold my Sony Ericsson V802SE and got back only HKD1,300. It cost me over HKD3,500 six months ago, and a new one of a similar HK model Z800i still costs over HKD3,000. People have told me that my old handset, despite its obvious beauty, is not popular in the second-hand market mainly because it supports traditional Chinese only.

[Gireesh]

Kind Attention Roddy:

Desmond referred your name. I have a problem with PM-ing. Can you please fix it for me ?

Thanks,

Gireesh Nambiar

gireeshgireeshd@rediffmail.com