18 May 2006

So I'm in the market for a new cell phone.

I didn't care for my old one, but was too cheap to buy a new one given how infrequently I use it. That all became moot last night, when I dropped it from a height of about 4 feet on to a tiled floor. While the battery was easily put back in (the cover popped off on impact), I also had the face plate buckle. I can now peer into the phone though a little gap, which I could live with if all the buttons worked.

This was not the most sturdily-built phone to begin with. For starters, it appears that lint managed to find its way from various coat pockets to between the display and the plastic that covered it. The bits of plastic that make up its case also felt like they were moving when I'd slide my finger along the side of the phone. All in all, it is not a testament to the art of engineering at Nokia. In their defense, though, I'm sure it was made with an eye towards being replaced by a better-made, more expensive Nokia product.

Not quite bait and switch, but certainly a testament to the capitalist heart that beats beneath Finland's socialist exterior.

Now I just have to figure out if I'll buy new or give eBay another shot. That didn't work so well the first time, but my cheapness may win out again.

3 comments:

Greg said...

Cellphones are a commodity now...you should be able to go to a competing carrier and get a perfectly cromulent new phone for free or cheap, plus keep your old number, if you sign up for new service. Or use this argument to strongarm your current carrier into giving you a phone.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Greg. If you don't care about taking pictures and videos with your phone you can get a pretty decent one very cheap. If I recall correctly ours ended up costing 10-20 dollars each after re-upping our service.

Mark said...

Thanks for all the advice. I'll likely be stopping in the local Cingular store this weekend to haggle. We seem to extend our contract every time we deal with them, so at this point I think we're signed up with them until 2017.

I do have a slight interest in a camera phone, but I think I like the idea of it more than I need it. Better to stick with the basics, I think.

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