A discussion we were having on Technomaly, fuelled this.

With reference to last week’s post, I got a good deal on the N82 + E50 combo, which I duly traded in for a Nokia E63. Insane battery life, enough business features for my purposes. (This is no way reflects a fluttering state of mind and an insatiable thirst for new gadgets).

Besides, I figured that having the N82 was a BIG stumbling block in me getting a Digital Camera with Optical zoom. Now that I got rid of the N82, I bought myself a Olympus FE20 8MP point and shoot, which should suffice for the kind of photography I do.

Convergence is there, and I’ve happily enjoyed it until now but the limitations seem to be too much for me to sacrifice. The downside was the lack of an optical zoom on the N82.

I’ll do an E63 review later, when I find the time, I guess.

The confusion about upgrading my mobile phone stands solved. Got myself a Nokia E50, the lowest end business phone I could find. Obviously, I chose to retain the N82, after having nightmares about it metamorphising into a beautiful woman with big..eyes and emotionally blackmailing me into ditching my girlfriend. (No, I’m not talking about it further).

Nevertheless, the N82 remains, though the workload off it is technically halved, with the primary Internet Device being the E50, with an always on data connection, allowing me to tether it to the XPS whenever I want, for full blown Net connectivity.

The N82 will be the Multimedia Device, carrying a backup of all my essential Music, serving as the Camera, Camcorder and GPS Device. I’m still not too sure about retaining Internet connectivity on this phone, though.

Between these two phones, I guess I have all that I want!

Flipside? With 3G set to be launched soon, I should have got myself a 3G capable handset, since the E50 is incapable in that regard. Plus, the lack of wi-fi in the E50 dents the options. The E63 I guess, will be a viable option. Though not tech nirvana, I’ve come pretty darn close, I guess.

Seriously considering replacing both these devices into one device with monstrous battery life. Wondering what to do, though the choice seems to be just at the end of the tunnel.

Considering I’d quit Reliance by the end of last month, and would no longer be in Mumbai, the geek in me began to pester me to move to a mobile computing solution. Granted, the N82 was doing more than well until then, but I’d need to have another machine. Brains racked, head banged, days were spent thinking. Even flirted with the thought of having a Desktop + Netbook combo, sonsidering I’d just upgraded the graphics card on my Desktop to an ATI Radeon HD2600, plus had purchased a licensed copy of Windows Vista. Not to mention the 22′ Samsung Syncmaster monitor. But, as luck would have it, SEV was upgrading his home PC in Mumbai, and quite a few gadgets changed hands leaving me free to buy a laptop, without worrying much about getting rid of the desktop.

The answer came in the form of a custom built Dell XPS M1530, after significant research and analysis about it. A 2.4Ghz Core2 duo with 3gigs of RAM, a 320GB 72000rpm HDD and an NVidia GeForce 8600GT graphics card, giving me a Windows Experience Index of 5.3. Incidentally, I’ve retained the 22′ monitor, which basically gives me two 1440X900 resolution screens stacked up against each other, to give one Windows Desktop that looks something like this.

Sheer computing bliss, this. I’ve been enjoying every single moment on this until now, and its bound to stay that way for a while.

I’ve been thinking about this long, and hard. The N82 is the best phone I’ve used. Period. I’ve succumbed to this school of thought that tells me that I must keep my personal and professional life separate. An integral part of this involves having two phones, one personal, and the second, professional.

Now, since I’ve quit Reliance, this really has given me the oppurtunity to look at a good business phone. I was really impressed by the Nokia E63, partly because of the QWERTY, and partly because of the awesome battery life. But this decision has created a major confusion, leading to three possible, viable solutions. I really cannot choose, so any help in this regard would be appreciated.

Option 1: -

Retain the N82 as the personal phone, and get the E63 as the 2nd phone. This would obviously mean that I carry two high end handsets around, which would be some serious overkill, not to mention that it would be the most expensive proposition.

Option 2: -

Sell off the N82, and buy an E63. Agreed, I’d be sacrificing a very good digital camera, and a GPS, but, on the bright side, this would also let me get a GOOD standalone digital camera somewhere down the line. GPS is something I really would not use anyway.

Option 3: -

Spruce up the N82, get a new panel for it and stuff, and use that as the only phone. This would obviously mean I have a single handset for all my purposes, which would be against my own principles, but this would also be the cheapest of the three options.

So, there, these are my thoughts, out loud. Feel free to suggest anything out of the box. No, I’m not looking at a Blackberry just yet. Its just between the three options above.

The my Hardware Section is now updated, to reflect the multitude of new purchases over the past 6 months. I’m now close to living the dream techie life.

Check it out from the link above, or click here.