Why I Bought A Keitai

Buying a keitai is like buying a Ferrari, as mortifiedpenguin finds out.

3 months since I bought my new phone, I still haven’t found the best reason to justify why I made the purchase. For now, I would blame it on the worsening condition of my disease known as GSD, or gizmo succumbing disorder. No, this is not the same as what a spendthrift is suffering from. My money is blown on just IT stuff, not random pieces of clothing and white elephants.

Look back at the posts from 2008 and you will find an old article about my new phone then. It was a Samsung Pixon, one of the first full-touchscreen phones with a 8-megapixel camera. I liked it, but the processor speed of the Pixon just couldn’t keep up with my usage. As would how a Windows 7 user gets frustrated when using a cluttered Windows 98 computer, I was getting annoyed by how simple functions like typing an SMS would lag occasionally, and picture viewing wasn’t up to the standard of an iPhone. Then came National Service and the Pixon was relegated to more of a weekend getaway, collecting dust at home 5 days a week while I was away in camp.

My GSD meant that I was soon getting bored of the Pixon, and my fingers wanted to play with something new. The logical move would be to go buy an iPhone, but at that time Singtel was still the sole carrier and I was a M1 customer. I didn’t like qwerty keypads squeezed into a tiny compact size, so Blackberry and its fellow copycats were out of the question too. Surfing on GSMArena churned out lots of information on upcoming models from various brands, including my favourite Samsung, but alas nothing caught my eye.

I don’t know if it’s just my own nitpicky preference, but do you realise that phones are looking the same these days? Because Apple’s baby is becoming the world’s favourite handset now, everyone is trying to emulate its success and in so doing, they’re releasing models which have similar features. Touchscreen? Check. WiFi? Check. Camera? 8-10 megapixels, sir. Even the Apple Apps feature is not spared – look at the new Samsung Wave. But really, put a HTC, Samsung, LG and an iPhone side by side and the only major difference is the operating system. And I wasn’t impressed by any one of them. Even fan-boy favouritism didn’t convince me to buy a new Samsung like the Omnia 2. I needed something more revolutionary than just a thinner touchscreen phone.

All too similar - BORING!

A curious search on Hardwarezone led me to a mysterious place titled “Exotic Phones Forum” and immediately I was sucked in. Toying with my preference for Japanese goods, the forum seduced me with images of the latest phones from Japan’s mobile carrier NTT Docomo, none of the brands you would have seen in local telcos. When I was in Tokyo last year, I was wowed by the huge display of mobile phones at Yodobashi coupled with the enthusiastic promotion by sales staff. Rather than the usual black or silver colours we are used to seeing back home, these Japanese phones were available in bright shiny colours like pink, red, blue and gold. If walking by the electronics store everyday as I made my way from the hotel to the subway wasn’t enough, I had to force myself not to gaze at commuters on the train watching TV on their phones, or cute schoolgirls taking self-portraits easily with the clamshell screens rotated so that they could see themselves. Unfortunately, the lack of a Japanese passport or visa meant that I wasn’t allowed to buy a keitai as the law in Japan stated.

So now Hardwarezone’s offering me an opportunity to get my hands on a keitai, and there’s a hefty price to pay. Do I seriously need a phone which has limited features and can only be used on weekends, when the money could be saved for something more meaningful like my overseas trip next year? To give you a rough idea, the cost of the phone is equivalent to two months of my measly pay.

My cost-and-benefit analysis led me to compare my situation with that of purchasing a Ferrari.

You see, a Ferrari is not just a car. It’s an icon of engineering and styling perfection, as well as unbeatable performance. It’s a dream that not everyone can afford. Yet, it’s not the most practical car for the price you pay. Even with that immensely powerful V8 engine, you aren’t allowed to fully experience the exhilarating speed on Singapore roads. There’s only a seat for one more person, so you would have to decide between your girlfriend, or your other girlfriend; and the storage space is just big enough for a kitten so driving it on a shopping trip is very much inappropriate. But there are people who still buy one, or even own a collection.

Why? A Ferrari makes you feel good, and not just with that nausea-inducing acceleration or harmonious engine. It distinguishes you from everyone else, because you belong to a club exclusive to a privileged few who know how to appreciate the finer things in life. And when you wake Orchard Road up with that symphonic orchestra, heads will turn and you’ll be smiling cheekily to yourself like a boy who’s run away after throwing a rock into the neighbour’s window. Even when the car finally reaches the end of its lifespan, you most probably would still keep it polished in the garage because unlike that typical BMW or Audi which you could trade in to get a newer model, a Ferrari is more than just a car – it’s one of your life’s rare gems.

You're never wrong with a Ferrari!

Putting the above into context, a keitai would only be able to run on the GSM network in Singapore and many of its advanced features like mobile TV, Internet surfing and wallet services would not be available for use here, hence paying that whopping price-tag would be quite a ridiculous investment. However I didn’t want to hop on the iPhone-Blackberry bandwagon and become one of the thousands of Singaporeans tapping and sliding on screens or fiddling their thumbs on buttons designed for elves. I prefer to be unique, in the same way how I choose to listen to Lush 99.5 instead of the trash on 98.7. And to be honest, touchscreens are the passé fashion now. It’s time to start a new trend.

It’s time to own the clamshell again.

And boy, does it make me feel good.

mortifiedpenguin will discuss more on his keitai’s features in Part 2.

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Tagged: docomo, handphone, iphone, keitai, samsung

Posted in: Blog