Vivek’s Blog

Sounds like the name of a Scrubs episode, doesn’t it? Except, I’m not Zach Braff or a doctor for that matter. But I like to think that I know a thing or two about technology and cell phones to come up with my ideal device. It’s not going to be some kind of elaborate phone that can literally do it all. But I do have some rigid requirements that this phone must fulfill. Anything that the phone can do beyond my requirements is just an added bonus. I’m going to make this post look like the spec-sheet of this hypothetical phone, minus the picture of course. I’m not a graphics designer unfortunately.

HARDWARE:

Form Factor: Don’t care although sliders and candy-bars are preferable since they can accommodate larger screens.

Surface Finish: Matte finish please! No glossy surfaces. Those attract fingerprints like crazy. A matte-metallic finish/surface would be ideal. Black matte would be great too.

Size: Reasonable enough so that the device can fit in my pocket and still have regular keys. Under 20mm thickness is good, mmkay?

Display: 2.4″ or larger and at least QVGA resolution. If the size is going to exceed 2.5″, then something like 352×416 or 480×320 would be a lot better for viewing webpages and documents and maps.

Battery: 1000mAh minimum. This device is going to suck power and it better come with enough juice to last more than a day.

Connectivity: Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and triband HSDPA (850/1900/2100). I could do without the HSDPA though since 3G data is obscenely expensive. EDGE is slow and still expensive.

WiFi is important. Living in New York City, there are plenty of available hotspots. Almost every part of campus has WiFi available so it will be great to quickly check up on some news or email when I don’t have access to a computer.

Camera: 2 Megapixels and up. I just need something that takes decent pictures when I don’t have my Canon Powershot on me. A second camera for video calls would be useful only if I can use it over WiFi for video chat via IM clients.

SOFTWARE:

Operating System: Symbian OS (UIQ or S60) or Windows Mobile. S60 preferred.

Music/Video Player: I won’t be using the cell phone for music and video that often, but during times when I don’t have my Zen Vision: M, I’d like a secondary media player.

Maps: Some kind of application for maps will be very useful. Nokia has Nokia Maps which is swell.

Any feature other than what I’ve listed is welcome, but not required. GPS is slowly making its way into more and more phones and that’s good. It’s nice to be able to find your way around new places or get help when you lose your way. Phones with built-in 8GB of flash are relatively expensive right now and if I already have a dedicated media player, I don’t really need it. Perhaps 1 or 2GB with a microSD slot would be a better idea.

I don’t think the phone I’ve described above is difficult to achieve in practice. By dropping features like a 5MP camera and 8GB flash memory, existing phones like the N95 can be made cheaper and still satisfy my requirements. As it stands, I’ve settled on the N95-3/8GB as long as they drop to an acceptable price level. With CES and 3GSM just around the corner though, new devices are not far away.