Venkatarangan Blog

I am unashamed to say I am a fan of Nokia phones, especially the communicator series. For last 18 months I have been using Nokia 9300 which is  a fantastic phone. In between briefly I used Nokia Communicator 9500, when my 9300 was taken by our mobile team for testing. Both 9300 and 9500 (which is heavy) are great phones and if you are used to them its very difficult to move to another phone.

My experience with Windows Mobiles have not been pleasant (read this earlier post on Benq P50) so I am skeptical about buying one. Anyways, both my 9300, 9500 were taken away from me for testing, so I was left shopping for a new phone. I was tempted by Nokia E90 Communicator & E62 but I wanted to give Windows Mobile another chance. So hesitatingly for last few weeks I was using Dopod (HTC S620) borrowed from Vishwak’s Mobile test lab. Being a Nokia user, I did encounter some nuisances with Windows Mobiles, but overall I got hooked to this phone. This is the first Windows Mobile that I had used which has a good battery life of few days without charge. Most items about the S620 phone were good – it was sleek and light, but it was difficult holding it during long calls and I don’t like using Bluetooth headsets. Its keys were too small for my big fingers. So I wanted a clone of S620 but in smaller form factor convenient for single hand use. I am not a fan of PocketPC form factor, so I was not attracted to the new HTC Touch. So when it was time today to buy a new phone, I went with HTC’s new SmartPhone – HTC S710. This runs Windows Mobile 6.0, Camera/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, mainly no stylus and a good spaced QWERTY keyboard that pops out when needed.