God, I hate those adverts. You know? The ‘Phones4U’ ones. The ones with, well, what can only be described as ‘special’ people struggling to comprehend the latest mobile phone offer which the annoying gimp with the Ted Rogers-esque twiddly-finger ‘Phones4U’ gesture is hawking to them from the back of an Ice Cream van. I’m sure you know the ones.
I’m in the market for a new phone. The contract is up on my T-Mobile provided Nokia E61, and I’ve been hunting around for a decent deal on its bigger, brasher, heavier! brother – the Nokia E90.
I had a little wander around Meadowhall the other day, figuring that with the plethora of mobile phone shops inside, I’d be bound to play them off against each other and end up with a sweet deal. It didn’t quite pan out like that.
The trouble is, the E90 isn’t your average consumer mobile phone, and, generally – that’s all your High Street mobile phone dealer wants to flog you. Whatever the latest Samsung Vomit or LG Chavty is what they want you to end up leaving the store with.
I went into the Meadowhall branch of Phones4U just to see if they had any E90′s in. Needless to say, as soon as I crossed the threshold I was pounced upon by the spotty salesdroid.
Salesdroid: “Can I help you at all sir?”
Me: “Yes, maybe. I’m looking for a Nokia E90, please.”
Salesdroid: “Urrrm. Is that the new Samsung, you mean?”
Me: “Erm, no. It’s a Nokia E90. It’s the new Communicator model”
Salesdroid: “Urrrm. Are you sure? Is it new out?”
Me: “Yes. Quite sure. It’s fairly obvious you don’t have them, or you’d know about them, thanks anyhow”
<goes to walk away>
Salesdroid: “Errrrm…Sir! I think you’ll find they are very old and slow, the Samsung Armani is where it’s at right now!” …
Yes, you heard me right – the Samsung Armani phone. It’s a Samsung phone, with a Giorgio Armani badge stuck on it. It’s badge-engineering at its very worst. To be fair, Samsung are only copying the likes of LG, who tout a ‘Prada’ phone, and Motorola who did a whole sequence of RAZR phones ‘branded’ by designer names. It’s a ridiculous state of affairs.
I’ve never really understood the requirement for a mobile phone to be a fashion accessory. Perhaps I’m showing my age, but I prefer things to have function over form – if they happen to look good too, well, that’s just the gravy. There’s plenty of tat on the mobile phone stores’ shelves at the moment – Nokia are just as guilty. There’s a hundred* different Nokia models that all share exactly the same functions and Series 40 interface, but each model has one or two slightly different functions between them – say the camera on one is 2 megapixels, whereas on another, it’s 3 megapixels – oh, and the case is a slightly different shape. It’s ridiculous.
* – A slight exaggeration, but only just
I visited a few more places – like the Carphone Warehouse, and each network’s branded store (although the E90 only appears to be available on O2 or Vodafone at the moment) only to be met with blank faces when enquiring about the E90 – only the Vodafone store had some, but the prices they touted for picking one up on a sane contract make the iPhone sound reasonable!
I eventually ended up ordering one from O2 online, who gave the best prices and tariff for my needs, for this phone. It should arrive on Friday. Exciting!
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