In the last two weeks, I have had a minor life changing experience that has mirrored the release of the Apple iPhone. I was sat at home one Friday evening looking at my MDA Vario and I had a blinding thought about its feature filled goodness. This thought was that I actually do not really use many of its features and have to put up with the following key downsides:

• It is a large phone
• Audio quality is poor
• The screen gets dirty quickly because I use my finger on the touch screen and is generally grubby
• Memory management is poor – many times I try to use the built-in camera and I get an ‘Out of memory error

The features that I use the most are the audio playback due to the large number of podcasts I listen to, and the email (of course this is after the phone aspects!). The email usage however is mainly the reading with some replying.

All in all, this is a smartphone with advanced features but it is actually not a great phone.

I swapped to this phone from a Windows Mobile Smartphone 2003 – an SPV C550 in fact. This is a pretty decent phone with almost all the same features of the MDA Vario that I used, but with none of the downsides I listed above. The only area I have a problem with it is the lack of keyboard. At least, this is what I think now after almost two weeks of using it again as my main phone, because the change I did was to regress back to it after just 10 months of contract.

I only really miss the keyboard. I do have to deal with that, but I am not tempted to go back to my ‘phone upgrade’. I am looking forward to find a phone just like the C550 but with a keyboard, and I see that there is one out like this – the HTC Vox – a pretty funny name actually considering where I am bloggin this. Hmmm, I think I may have to actually buy it rather than wait for my contract period to lapse with T-Mobile, especially as I need the email for when I go to my annual jaunt to IBC Amsterdam in September –  a period when I do not carry a laptop but need email.

Now the iPhone reference? People are buying the iPhone to get a phone that has features and looks sexy. I did that almost a year ago with Vario, but I have gone back to something that is more of a traditional phone because in the end I needed a phone first. I wonder how may people will be regretting their two year contract lock-in in the next 12 months.