I guess for a while I thought I was surely married to SAMSUNG after the long five-year love affair with their phones. From the very first ultra light Windows Mobile Blackjack to the Omnia, I felt completely at ease with the way SAMSUNG made their mobile phones. In some ways, I felt it even included engineering that was superior to the iPhone. But the haptic response on the iPhone's capacitative touchscreen is highly addictive. I scoured the mobile phone stores for over three months, debating between Android and waiting for Windows Mobile 7, between HTC's HD2 and the SAMSUNG B7610, between the new Xperia and the Vivaz Pro. Then, just this afternoon as I was heading back from Suntec City on the MRT, there was this girl texting at incredible speed with both hands tapping away furiously on the QWERTY board on a touchscreen phone, which I realised was the Blackberry Storm. I wanted it when I first read it about it in June last year - probably in Men's Health US Edition. But I knew it would be sometime before we would see it in Singapore. I chanced on the phone at Lucky Plaza, famously for these parallel imports at ridiculously high prices. But after checking a few stores, found one which offered a stiff deal at S$640 with a 16GB microSD card, and accessories. I could not get the price down further and thought it would be a good buy to replace my aged Omnia. Afterall, at the SAMSUNG centre at Plaza Singapura, they would replace the metal casing for S$110 and even that needed five days. I was beginning to think that I should get a new phone.
Specifications wise, check out the Storm2's impressive line-up, which makes it a truly world-wide mobile phone. But PC Magazine's solid review makes this purchase a definitely great choice. I have installed the latest software driver and updated the phone, synchronised it with my Outlook and transferred my 1500 songs into its memory already. Perhaps a few more files and reference documents and I think I have made this my new laptop remote device. I can't be more happy. Also, with my pal Chong Jin whom I had drinks with this evening, we found another mobile store at Lucky Plaza that had an OEM leather flip pouch with a hard plastic cradle - quite just what I wanted and at just only S$25. What a grrrreat deal! I checked M1's Blackberry plan and if I were not leaving Singapore and relocating so soon, the basic plan would have worked very well for me. Anyway, I can still use the Mobile Broadband data plan on the Blackberry to exploit its connectivity features at no extra cost.
I am really pleased with this phone...!
