This is mainly because my old phone is dying. The old phone is a Qtek8500, also known as the HTC Star Trek, running Windows Mobile 5.0. Over the past few weeks it has been showing signs of near death at a progressing rate.

The first symptom was that the “5″ button stopped responding to prolonged contact; i.e. when I’m in a new text message, and the T9 dictionary is active, and I need to enter a number, I press and hold the number button for a couple of seconds until the number shows up. The number 5 is now nonresponsive, so I need to deactivate T9, press 5, and activate T9 again to keep writing.

The second symptom is one I like to call the “Red/Green/BlueScreen of Death” (RGBSOD for short), freely named for the infamous BlueScreen of Death (BSOD) familiar to most Windows users. It first appeared when I was restarting the phone to allow the Edge-connection to function, and looks a bit like this:

After a weekend of messing about and reinstalling the OS on the phone, I found out how to bypass this screen and enter the OS properly, so I am able to actually use the phone for something besides smacking people upside the head with.

Oh, sorry; I forgot to tell you about the Edge/GPRS/webconnection issues; for more than a year now, I’ve had to restart the phone a couple of times a day, due to the web connections suddenly shutting down. The only error message available says: “could not open the page due to unknown error”. So let’s rename this one for Symptom no.1, the 5-button is Symptom no.2 and the RGBSOD is symptom no.3.

So now for symptom no.4, and I really think this is the critical one… This one occurred yesterday and goes as follows; the combined USB/power/charging/headset socket on the phone seems to have come loose. It follows the plug a good 3mm / ninth of an inch outside the casing of the phone. To convince the phone to charge, or connect to the computer to syncronize contacts/calendar, I have to press the plug by force into the socket at an exact angle. EDIT: It is no longer possible to sync the phone via the cable socket, only charging is possible.

Ooops; I nearly skipped symptom no.5 entirely: The built-in camera, though it was never great, has stooped to a new level over the summer; it seems to have been knocked out of focus, with no apparent possibility of adjusting it back, so all photos are now quite blurry…

To conclude; I want a new phone. And as I’m a bit specific in my wishes, this has not proved to be very easy. I want a phone that can really compare in functionality to the ones from Windows Mobile/Qtek/HTC. As neither Qtek or HTC or anyone else has come up with a new flip phone supporting Windows Mobile, I’m forced to look elsewhere.

Checking out this article: Høstens Nyheter gave me a couple of suggestions, but no cigar yet. After extensive googling, (and trying the Man’s Nokia 6290), it appears that the Nokia OS Series60 is functional enough even for me. As I tend to not treat my phones very nicely, I’ve grown quite attached to the clamshell approach, by reasoning that at least then it will be the minor, secondary display that will be scratched to bits by keys, credit card holders and other items rooting about in my handbag.

Also, as you may have noticed; I’m a girl. Or woman, if you like. OK, a female nerd, if you’re going to be all specific about it. So I like the full blown functionality to be accompanied by a nice look and feel. I’ve gone a bit off the “ooh, Pink phone”, so some form of silvery slim design would be perfect. And then I find out; Lo and behold; Nokia has a new model launched in march this year; the 6650 Fold. It seems perfect; S60 operating system, nice look, and a nice smooth silver/steel clamshell design. For the record; the S60 os for
Nokia allows such functions as Mail for Exchange via MS Activesync, and reading text messages on the outside/secondary display (handy for discretion during meetings), which are sorely lacking on the S40 phones.

Just look at this beautiful phone and tell me it isn’t perfect: Nokia 6650 Fold. Well, I’ll tell you why it’s not perfect; it’s not available to be bought anywhere. Oh, except via T-mobile in the UK. Apparently this
model was designed and developed exclusively for T-mobile, and possibly At&T in the US.  I couldn’t believe my eyes; The Perfect Phone, and I can’t buy it anywhere.

So, Nokia, if you are reading this: Please, pretty pretty PLEASE make the 6650 Fold available to buy in Norway! (or if that’s utterly impossible, just send one to ME or whatever. I’ll give you my address if you email me: thelady@thelady.no)

I promise, if you let me have one, I’ll love Nokia for ever and ever, and tell all my friends that you are the greatest mobile phone company in the world!!!