A smart phone for me?

After work today, I decided to check out some smart phones which the business community herald to be indispensable.

The IPhone 3GS, HTC X2, Nokia E72 are just among the plethora of smart phones now in the market in all their glory. In my office, at least 2 of my colleagues are walking around with an E72 (and my office isn't very big).

The vendor whom I talked to at Success One on the 2nd floor of TC Mall took a look at me and after brief introductions to some other phone modes said that the Nokia E52 would be a suitable cell replacement for my battered-up 3310 classic. My first impression of such a remark is "sales guy talk". I mean, here I am looking at all the more appealing phones on the display and he suggested a mono block phone? Then, he goes no further than suggesting that I do go home to think about it to avoid making any rash decisions, it was then I started the flick the inquisitive switch on and let me defences down. So what's the next best thing than to ask more about the product.

For one, the E52 has a fantastic talk-time of about 8 hours and a standby time of about 6 days (theoratically if your phone just sits in one place with no calls of course). It was not easy to dispute the vendor's views that mono block phones generally have better talk time than touch-screen phones which saps power the moment it's on and more so to power the touch screen sensors . This notion can't get any less believable as the resolution is a mere 252k, although disappointing for high-res junkies.

The phone looks sleek and weighs in at only 98 grams! Comes in black, silver or gold.

At the heart of the E52 is a 600mhz CPU with 160mb-stocked memory, running on a Symbion OS, S60 UI with FP2. This unit comes with a micro SD slot for memory expansion and is already shipped with a 1GB card.

The built-in A-GPS is as fast as the E55´s and the navigational software provided by the manufacturer is Ovi Maps, but you I can always pay a small fee to upload Garmin's software into the unit and load maps and POIs from MFM (Malfree Maps). It apparently has a digital compass too!

The device supports high-speed HSDPA and HSUPA connections.

Getting up and running with email is simple. Support for Nokia Messaging, Mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveller make it simple to add personal or work email accounts.

But the 3.2-megapixel, fixed focus camera is nothing to shout about. Then again, it's a business smart phone.

The E52 comes with noise cancellation, so now you’ll be heard clearly no matter where you’re calling from.

These and many more features makes it tempting for this potential 'up-grader'.

The E52 retails for about RM890.00 (from the authorized distributor).

So, I'm taking the 'friendly' advice of the vendor at SC and will sleep on it.