Symbiosis60

And so the drooling starts again… In the beginning there was Nokia 3650, then 6680, then N80 to be followed by my current N95. Over the period of three years I jumped through so many phones that each time I buy one, it’s almost obsolete. My current N95, which I bought in April of this year is the Euro version as there seemed to be no indication that “semi” American version would be released. I say semi because it contains only at&t frequency and no T-Mobile (which is the carrier of choice for me). Even though it means that I will loose 3G connectivity while traveling to Europe I decided to make the jump because of the higher specs and upon my return to Chicago I will switch to the American version of N95 (aka N95-3).

It’s not enough that I was debating the upgrade form N95-1 (EU) to N95-3 (US) now we have another newcommer on the horizon (with the possibility of release next week during the upcoming Nokia event in Finland. It’s the N82 which saw the daylight back in May of this year through some shots leaked on the internet. N82 looks like a hybrid between N95 and N73. While i drool over it I am also a bit disappointed for a couple of reasons. #1 - the display seems to be smaller than N95 (it seems to be more comparable to the e-Series devices) and #2 is a single WCDMA band support. I can only hope that it will be re-released in the US with T-Mobile’s 1700Mhz frequency. I really dislike at&t and would absolutely hate it if I’d have to ditch T-Mobile because of the lack of kick-ass devices. Nokia at this point only released N75 and N95 with US 3G bands (s60 devices) and NONE on T-Mobile. YES… I know - T-Mob’s 3G is still “sleeping” but Nokia could make an effort and churn out a device that would support both at&t and T-Mobile so people would be ready.

So instead of mumbling and complaining about US networks lets go back to Nokia N82. Xenon flash is a long overdue upgrade. Why didn’t Nokia re-release N95-US and N95-8GB editions with Xenon light bulbs is beyond me. They pulled the lens cover to accommodate “thicker” battery so there’s has to be a millimeter or two under the hood for some changes. I’d really debating if I should skip N95-US at this point and leap over to N82. In either case I would not have much use out of 3G…On N82 it would be good only during my travel to Europe while N95-US would make sense only if I’d travel to Canada (Rogers launched 3G on the same band as at&t) and T-Mobile doesn’t roam in the US on 3G so one way or another I’d be without 3G. Another thing is while it would be REALLY nice to have 3G everywhere I go, I make a great use out of WiFi spots (and with my unlimited internet plan through T-Mobile I also get HotSpot access included at no extra charge all for $19.99 with all ports open and tethering to laptop). It would be nice to see faster uploading of photos to the web but for now I can survive. It would greatly piss me off though if I would decide to go for the Euro N82 just to find out that in two months it will be released with FULL US Support. And unfortunately I’m not a member of Nokia Blogger Relations program therefore I pay for all of my devices out of my own pocket and Nokia doesn’t offer any kind of discount or upgrade program for early adopter geeks such as myself so for now I will just drool for two or three months and see what the wind will blow in towards the standards unfriendly US Land. I’d love to hear comments on what factors are taken under consideration when choosing what HIGH END devices to buy or upgrade from “previous” model.