After so many years, I finally bought a new mobile recently – the Motorola E680i. The last time I bought a phone was… hmm… around 1998? It was the Motorola Startac that Mudeen sold to me after I lost my Ericsson GH337 (second pic below). Gosh I miss that bulky baby. Not that I’m a Motorola fanboy or anything like that – between the Startec I had a couple of Alcatels and a couple of Motorolas as well. So this is my seventh. Everybody seems to be using Nokia in this parts yet I never had any. Hmmph… anyway.

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Sim Lim Square, Singapore

While I had been thinking of getting a new phone for quite a while, I didn’t actually plan to buy this particular model (or any phone for that matter!) when I was browsing for stuff at Singapore the other day. The C350 was working fine. Well, except the battery seems to be losing charge quicker. Somehow something clicked that particular day and before I knew it, I was looking at and evaluating phones. I started looking at the Samsung ones, mostly of the clam shell designs but they just don’t appeal to me. And Amy’s experience with her Samsung (it lasted her a year) wasn’t very encouraging either.

I was initially very attracted to the V3 Razor but then I found out that while it has killer looks, function wise the V3 is just shitty. Kinda reminds me of my old Startac. I briefly looked at the E398, but that too didn’t really do it - bulky and not enough shizzle, IMO.

That’s when this bugger of a salesman showed me the E680I and for the price he was offering me, I just couldn’t resist. The offer was for S$540 for the complete phone package, and I added in a Kingston 1GB SD card for S$110, for a total of S$650. That’s about RM1,430, and the same phone in KL at about the same time would cost a few hundred Ringgit more! (I’ve verified this after coming back to KL the next day).

The package includes (as it should) two very important thing for this kind of phones ie the data cable and the earphones. I’ve checked with other retailers there and it is true that while they can match that price, wait till you look into the box – they’ll tell you that the data cable and earphones come as optional accessories that you need to buy separately! This applies to all mobile phones, btw.

I guess I was fortunate to have been persistent enough till I met the guy I bought mine off. A good salesman that I would recommend to anyone - look for Steven Lee at Song Brothers, 1st Floor, Sim Lim Square.

Linux

I’m a sucker when it comes to things Linux. So when I found out that this baby runs Tux, I just can’t resist. It’s based on the MontaVista Linux developed by TrollTech. Between Symbian, Windows Mobile and Linux… it was an easy choice for me.

So what does this thing do? To start with, it’s not exactly a very conventional mobile phone – it doesn’t even have a physical keypad. There are a few buttons below the screen and 3 on the sides, but you pretty much do everything on the screen either with a stylus or the tip of your nails, as I often do. The buttons are good for controlling the Real Player, or to accept calls, or some other stuff that I haven’t bothered to check yet. I’m now on the lookout for a good bargain for a Lamy Stylus pen or some such as the tiny stylus that comes with the phone is rather… umm… tiny. It’s alright but not very comfortable.

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