The Phone Confrontation: the Unlocked Nokia 6300?

The last month of 2007 had me planning to break a stalemate between me and U.S. telecom tyranny. This lack of progress has been going on for over two years! It’s been more than two years since I’ve had a contract with a domestic carrier. Now my non-plan plan seems to trade one kind of tyranny for another—but the “hell” I’m planning seems a bit cooler than the one I’m in right now…

It’s cool that I plan to buy an unlocked phone. It’s not cool that this phone runs on the proprietary Symbian OS. My choice intends to fall short of “smart phone” status but light years beyond the 1990’s Motorola crap (with Cingular logos) I’m toting now. I do not need to write Blog posts and edit spreadsheets with a mobile-phone-sized device—but:

• The SIM card support should allow me to pop in my existing Cingular/AT&T card and just keep going!

• It would be nice to catch some movie showing times via crappy WAP on the go…

• I guess a cheap camera with no flash could be useful occasionally…

• I’m sure I have no idea how much Bluetooth support in a phone will seriously make a difference…My choice is the Nokia 6300 sold by Amazon.com. This choice is supposed to be “boring”—not stupid:

• I’m pretty sure this is a “boring” but decent MP3 player—especially with the microSD support. Hey! What are these “ring tones” you speak of?

• This is supposed to be a horrible video player—but the screen is small anyway. I’ve got my eye on a Cowon D2-08BL for a bigger small screen.

• The volume buttons on the sides of the phone are supposed to be impossible to press—sounds like a fingernail-strength challenge to me!

• I might be able to hook this deal up with a real computer and use it as a “modem.”Just for the record, the table below summarizes my other sub-$300 choices:

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