Ages ago I blogged about my mobile phone, which has to be The Worst mobile phone in the whole wide world. THE Worst because it has the most pathetic battery life of any mobile I have ever seen. I don’t know if there’s much danger of people buying it now because it’s an old model, but if you ever come across the Sony Ericsson J200i, run away in the opposite direction and don’t look back.
I don’t know about you, but to me, a phone you have to charge every day, after receiving a few text messages, doesn’t really have an adequate battery. It’s worse if you actually use it for a phone call longer than say a minute. If I don’t use it for a couple of days, the battery still goes flat. The battery has been like this for its entire life, so it’s not that it has deteriorated over time. And it ain’t the features, either – this phone doesn’t have a camera or a radio!
The annoying part is that when I got this phone, I did my research and took a look at a range of phones available at the time. The J200i didn’t rate all that badly. What I now find amusing (in a jaw-clenching sort of way) is the fact that “official” reviewers’ claims that the phone has a decent battery life is still prominent, while users’ comments make the opposite claim. See Cnet Asia’s review, for instance.
What I’m wondering is, if purportedly authoritative reviewers don’t test a phone enough to know what sort of battery life it has, how useful or accurate are their reviews? I’m just glad I can see users’ comments – but it’s frustrating when you already have the product and it’s way too late to take it back to the shop. We did go back to the shop about a week after getting the phone but getting a new battery would have cost about as much as the phone itself, and in any case I don’t think it would have made much difference.
When it comes to buying mobile phones I have yet to find a shop assistant who can give any good information about phones. All they seem to want to sell you are phones with flashy features, and if you ask about battery life, they look at you as if you are a fuddy duddy. What do you mean you don’t care if you can play 5-minute-long ring tones? Look at this super-uber-mega-wonderful hot pink case which you can personalise with all the dangly cutesy doo-dads you could ever want! And why don’t you want a phone that will display animated wallpapers that coo at you when you look at it*? …Battery life? Huh??
What should I do? What do you do when you buy a new phone? Where do you get your information?
* Okay, I am exaggerating a bit, but it is frustrating to talk to sales people who only have one sales pitch. We are not all 16 year old teenaged girls who need a fashion accessory you know!
6 Comments
I bought a mobile phone at the beginning of this year, and I walked into Optus World and said “I want a prepaid fliptop mobile without a camera or radio, for under one hundred dollars if possible”. She showed me 2 models and I walked out with the cheapest one, and it’s been perfectly satisfactory, no battery problems of any kind. Although my previous phone was a ten-year old Motorola the size of a brick and with all sorts of issues, so anything would be great by comparison.
I usually get suckered in by the phone’s design, and then I go to:
http://www.imobile.com.au/
to rein in my buying impulses.
I then decide on a phone, find the best plan amongst the carriers and go from there.
I bought a new mobile a couple of weeks ago. First i decided on the brand, shortlisted to two or three models that i liked the look of, then read up on user reviews online before deciding on the model. I didn’t need a new service package, so i then went online to find the cheapest/most competitively priced contract-free supplier. A few clicks of the mouse and five days later i had my new mobile. I’ve been very happy with my choice, battery life and everything else. I think it helped that i wanted to stick with my current brand of phone. If i’d been open to checking out the other brands, i’m sure i would still be trying to decide.
Sheena that’s a good point, I might have to decide exactly what I want and then see if I can get it š
Thanks for that, Mooiness, I’ll take a close look. Decisions, decisions…
jl, did your old phone die? I do like the idea of online shopping when it comes to getting a mobile – did you just google it?
I simply wanted a new phone; the old one is retired. I know, how indulgent. Yes, i googled. I wasn’t in a hurry, so i was able to browse at leisure. In the end i settled for a supplier that was a few streets away from my office, although i didn’t know it at the time.
I bought a mobile phone last year after my trusty Panasonic went flat and didn’t recharge again! Had no idea where to start so I went into Strathfield Car Radios and told them my phone had dies and I was after a basic model that had to have a timer that showed the duration of the call WHILE I was still on the call (not after I hung up!) and that had an inbuilt speaker so I could switch it to handsfree. I got s Samsung fliptop which has been brilliant – battery lasts ages.
Tania