I went into the Vodafone shop.
I looked around.
I came out again.
I hovered around the Phones4u store. There’s a point on Oxford Street – the Tottenham Court Road end — where, if you stand just past the Plaza shopping centre where Dean Street meets Oxford Street (from memory), every where you turn, there is a mobile phone store.
I stood on the pavement looking at the Vodafone store, the Phones4u store (x2 — one on each side of the road), the T-mobile store, the o2 store and the Orange store.
I looked and I looked and I browsed.
You know what? None of the phones are as good as the N90 at the moment — not for what I want. I want video. I want extensible space. I want modern. I want super quality pictures too. I was temped by the N80. I ALMOST did it. I played around with the 4gb Nokia too.
But you know what? I’ve resolved that data is the most important component for me from a service plan perspective. With T-mobile’s web n’ walk, I’ve got unlimited data. That’s extremely valuable when you compare it with a standard Vodafone 3g price plan and me sending 4-5 meg of pictures and video each day.
The T-mobile store had a sign up in the window saying: “Unlimited web access, £7.50 per month”. I think, but I couldn’t find any information on this, that this applies if you’re already on a standard price plan. Who knows. Unlimited is good.
I had a browse around on the web when I got home.
Finally, I have made a decision.
Short term I’m going to get an N90. They’re on ebay at the moment used/new for around £200. That, and my little brother is, I think, beginning to get tired of lugging around his N90 so I’m going to borrow it this weekend and give it a try out. I’m off to a wedding, see. I’ll be live-blogging it from the Staffordshire Hills 😉 Video, pictures and text.
Within 2-3 months, after the juice has gone on the N90 and the N93 is ultra hot (and properly available) I may well get that one. Meantime I am very encouraged by the new Sony Ericsson K800i with it’s 3.2 megapixel camera.
So I’m sticking with T-Mobile. It’s-the-data-plans-wot-wun-it, guv.
I’m also sticking, with an air of frustration, with Three. Their service of late has been phenomenally good. Photos and video have been sending quickly and being received by friends on all networks quickly and reliably. Plus I like playing around with video calling. BUT. And this is a HUGE but: I don’t carry my Three phone with me because it’s data locked, locked, locked. No damn use at all when you’re out and about. If I want to check my gmail or stick on a java applet I can’t. I positively abhore this. Otherwise I’d be totally delighted with Three AND carry the phone with me AND increase my ARPU with’em.