What are the hottest mobile phones in town? If you ask me, I would say they have to be Apple iPhone, Nokia N82, HTC TyTN II or its siblings such as HTC Touch and some of the latest Sony Ericsson models. However, I myself is quite impressed with the awesome touch screen featured in iPhone… blame that on my colleague showing me his big ass iPhone everyday… I fall in love with touch screen.

I took opportunity of the holiday break and went to check out HTC Touch in Mid Valley. Well, in fact I should have gone to gadget malls such as Low Yat or PJ Digital Mall, but since my girls wanted to do some Christmas shopping, I had to opt for IT World in Mid Valley.

Right in front of the entrance to IT World, there are two prominent PDA stores. I played with the HTC Touch (2nd generation) but wasn’t impressed at all. The much touted TouchFLO interface is not too bad and the enhanced Home screen is attractive also. But apart from that, it’s just a normal Windows Mobile 6 PDA phone. I think HTC tried too hard to compete with iPhone in this device.

The design of the device is very compact though. It feels good in my small hand.

I didn’t try TyTN II as the price is way too expensive. But on 2nd thought, I should have given it a try… just for the fun. Anyway, the salesman was kind enough to introduce another PDA phone to me, it was Dopod D810. Wow, although there’s nothing to shout about in the design department, the phone is packed with features. It supports 3G, HSDPA, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPRS/GSM, USB, EDGE… enough to scare you or not?!

Given the two phones above I think Dopod D810 is a better one because of the features it can support. As for the TouchFLO interface, it won’t be long before some smart people come out with a software that supports it on Dopod. You can’t add 3G functionality, not to mention HSDPA onto the Touch, can you?

Anyway, I was not convinced to fork out close to RM2k for any of the device. I decided to make a walk to check out some other smart phones. Before long I found myself at Sonic Power, a phone shop located just outside of the IT World.

Obviously, they have a wide variety of phones… most of the latest models were very nice and impressive. But I was only interested in phones with 3G, WIFI and a touch screen. There weren’t many choices under the budget of under RM2k, but Sony Ericsson P1i standed out among them - in terms of functionality and price. Of course, Sony Ericsson W960i looks much better… especially with its 8GB internal memory, imagine how many videos and MP3s you can save on it! But, I didn’t want to starve just yet!

Those are all the latest Sony Ericsson models, including Sony Ericsson P1i and W960i side by side. You can see that all the models supports at least 3G. Apple, where is 3G iPhone? Out of all those phones, I think Sony Ericsson P1i is the best for my bucks because it features 3G and WIFI! I was already dreaming about surfing the Internet and blogging anywhere I want! *Chuckles*…

If you could see the price tags on the phones, don’t let them frighten you. You are expected to bargain! After bargaining… some bragging (of how handsome he is) and begging, the salesman lowered the price of P1i to RM1450. Wait, not that cheap lar, with the condition I gave him my old but loyal Nokia 3230, but in return I get to exchange the included tiny 512MB M2 (memory stick micro) memory card to a 2GB M2 card.

2GB, sounds like very big. But mind you, iPhone is equipped with 8GB of on-board memory! Anyway 2GB should be enough for me to play with for some time… whack some MP3 files, some MP4 videos and take some nice photos (upskirt photos?) to show you. Hahaha…

That’s my Nokia 3230 which I traded in, and the newly bought Sony Ericsson P1i. Lying side by side, I was so reluctant to leave you, Nokia… bye bye.

Please stay tuned. I will show you more about this phone later. I had a few sleepless nights playing with this baby!