New Year, New Toys!

As we welcome in the year of the rat, I welcome in my new toys. Last year, I had to sell my phone to fund my engine overhaul as it was badly needed (it was burning a liter of oil almost every week). So I was stuck with my back-up phone, my very old nokia 8210. But alas, it is now being bugged with problems due to it's old age. So I had to scrunch up my remaining money plus my christmas bonus and get a new phone. Off I go to the shops, marketplace threads of the forums I visit, and friends that sell mobiles.



As my wife and I were scouting the phone shops we frequent, I found the phone that I always wanted to have the HTC Hermes (aka dopod 838 pro, i-mate jasjam, spv m3100). I asked for the price just to check it's current value. Luckily, it narrowly fit my budget!! So I was haggling a bit when my wife somewhat liked the phone next to it, a dopod 818 pro. Since my wife was also in the market for a new phone, we asked for its price. It too somewhat fit our budget. So the following day we bought the two phones. Yey! Two gadgets in one outing.

What I really liked about the jasjam is its slide out keyboard. It made texting and making documents with a Windows Mobile device a lot easier. It's also a 3.5G capable so surfing on the net with the cellular line would be faster. It has wifi so whenever there's a free hotspot I could check my e-mail or visit online forums. Bluetooth, Irda, and a mini-usb port are also included for file transfer or syncing with a computer. The only thing that I didn't like about it (just like my old v3x) is that it has no regular headphone jack. You have to have a usb headset or buy a usb to 3.5mm jack converter. It's currently running on the stock WM5 but it won't be for long (the itch to modify. hahaha!) I'm still learning the in's and out's of the device so i'll just try to update you guys on the things i'll be doing to the device.

As for the dopod, for connectivity, it has Bluetooth, Irda, a mini-usb port, head phone jack, EDGE capable, and has WLAN. Sadly it has no slide out keyboard. The upside to this is it's lighter than the jasjam. I also noticed that the battery life of the 818 pro lasts longer than the jasjam. I think it's because the processor eats less battery. For expanded memory it has as MMC/SDIO slot rather than a micro sd slot of the jasjam. Good thing is MMC's are cheaper than the micro sd ones. This is also currently running on WM5 (I will also mod this phone slowly. hehehe).

In the meantime, i'll keep both phones as stock as possible until I settle on a particular WM6 upgrade.