After receiving the $500 voucher from SingTel, I decided to head on down to Hello! SingTel @ OUB to purchase a handset. After much deliberation, I decided on a Nokia 6260.

Pros and Cons of the phone:

1) It's a clamshell (I love clamshells)
2) It's got Symbian OS (allows for PDA like applications to be installed)
3) It's got MMC card support
4) It's got Bluetooth
5) It's quite nice (design-wise)

Cons:

1) It's a Nokia
2) It's a Nokia
3) It's a Nokia
4) Lousy build quality (the flip part is not nice and fitting but can be rocked back n forth)
5) It's $498 - for $100 more, I can get another V3 but I refuse to spend anything beyond the voucher given.
6) The Navigation keys are too far up on the flip
7) It's a Nokia

Sufficed to say, I was pretty happy with the phone. It's a good mobile office tool with applications such as QuickWord and QuickPoint (they allow me to view MS Word and MS Powerpoint documents and presentations respectively).

There's also a head of available software for the Symbian OS, for example, Agile Messenger.

I didn't use the phone until I reached home at about 10.30pm last night. So I followed the instructions and plugged in the phone for it's first charge. Everything was working fine...up till then.

Fast forward to this morning, I went to NUSS for the photo shoot of kids at KRGH. Everything was still fine and dandy and the phone worked, well like a phone should.

I decided then to go down to Wheelock Place to send mom's Nokia 2100 in for repairs (since the "1" key on the keypad was no longer responding). After having to wait from 1.13pm to 2.25pm, I was served (I almost spouted a new goatee during the hour plus long wait).

Sufficed to say, the CSO mentioned that the spare parts for the 2100 were not in stock (this coming from Nokia themselves? REALLY?) and that it would be a 1-2 week wait. Fine...afterall, mom's got the Sony Ericsson to play with so she's content for the moment. So I let them keep the phone.

Meanwhile, I asked about the 6260's bluetooth functionality and whether or not it supports bluetooth internet connectivity through a PC that's on the internet. The CSO said that it shouldn't be a problem so I'll give it a try again when i get back,

However, during the 1 hour plus long wait for the CSO to attend to me, I received a file called Caribe. I dutifully installed it (since I was in the Nokia Service Centre). The CSO took a look at it and mentioned that the phone has to be sent in for re-formatting (that includes the MMC). He says that Caribe's a software that chews up memory AND battery power (in other words, a virus).

I was appalled. After all, I was at the Nokia Service Centre and I barely had the phone for a full 24 hours. What choice did I have? Gawd. The least that Nokia Service Centres could do is to post a warning that anyone receiving files via bluetooth while in their Service Centres (or anywhere else for that matter), should avoid the list of virus like files.

And I thought that really brilliant people worked at Nokia...I guess no I know that anywhere but its main office at Alexandra are manned and managed by idiots. By posting a simple list, they'd save themselves a crap load of unnecessary formatting of phones and memory cards. I guess, it everything worked too well for them, they'd be shaking their legs and obviously, the executives won't want that to happen.

So now, I'm at mom's place, minus the 6260. they said that it'll take 2 hours to reformat and reset the phone + memory card. Hmm...are they still using 9200baud rate RS-232 Serial cables? Does it really need to take 2 hours for a re-format? I've re-formatted my 160GB HDD in under 15 minutes and that's a low-level format too. Geez...anyway, I'll be heading back there in an hour or so.

So that's my experience with Nokia after a 2 year hiatus. Time to seriously boycott the brand.

Motorola V3 still rocks compared to the lemon of a Nokia 6260...and it's only $100 more.