Ahh..Chinese New Year…For some reason, CNY has always been my favourite holiday of the year. I know some people just hates CNY (yes huei, I am talking about you! hehe) but I’m not one of them.

I get angpow, drink as much soft drink as I want without getting scolded and gamble like no body’s business.

This year my brother came back from Papua New Guinea to celebrate CNY.  My aunt from Wales also came back for CNY.  The more the merrier!

Anyway, I’ll make this short as I want to wake up early tomorrow!

Gong hei fatt choi!!!!

I have a killer day tomorrow.  Five events in one day but I’m going to four as there are clashes.  Jason is going to the other one.

Anyway, I gave in to temptation and bought the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic on Sunday from Ah Kit (he is working in a Nokia Authorized Dealer shop) and after using it for 1 hour, I found out its a faulty unit.  Damn.

The colour on my unit changes for no apparent reason.  It changes to blue, red, green, yellow and purple-ish for about 5 seconds, then it changed back.  I have no idea what went wrong.  I didn’t bother and continue using it.

On Monday, the phone acted up again and this time it changes colour to black.  The whole screen is black but you can still see the images under the black.  It doesn’t change back to its usual colours like last time. 

I had to switch the whole thing off, turn it back on and it worked again.  After a few hours of using it, the screen went black again! I was so angry that I took the SIM card out and put it back in the iPhone!

I went on Google and found out that this is one common problem with the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.  I’m glad that I am not the only one experiencing this problem.  I had an event at Bangsar on Tuesday so I figured I’ll send the phone for warranty as there is a Nokia Care Centre in Bangsar.

Yesterday, I went earlier to Bangsar, got a nice parking spot and went to the said Nokia Care Centre.  I waited for 15 minutes as there were only two people working.  There were two customers at that time.  So fair enough.  I waited.

When it’s my turn, the guy asked me what’s the problem.  Then I told him the screen is faulty.

Dude: Har? New phone so fast spoil ar?
Me: Yalor. The colour change here change there.  And I bought the phone on Sunday, it’s only Tuesday…
Dude: Sorry we no support 5800 here
Me: Huh? This is Nokia Care Centre right? And I’m sending in an original AVAXX Nokia phone.
Dude: This phone too new.  Only Plaza Berjaya support.  Sorry.

So I had no choice but to leave and went for my event.

I called Ah Kit and told him the problem.  He said he’ll call the guys in Plaza Berjaya since he knows them quite well.  He called me back and told me that my case is not the first case.  It’s a problem with the screen and there were several units sent for warranty because of the problem! I have no choice but to send the phone back to Plaza Berjaya when I’m free, which in this case, never.

I guess I have to live with the screen for a while.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the microSD card is a bit gila-gila too? Sometimes it can detect my card, sometimes it just says “Error”.

I really don’t think this is an isolated case since mine is not the first unit and it’s been actively discussed in Nokia Europe’s discussion forum, as well as lowyat.net.

I can’t imagine that the tonnes of Nokia phones I’ve reviewed had no problems but the one and only one I bought is plagued with problems…haih…

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was good. Comparable to my iPhone. Why is it not better than the iPhone you asked? Well, there are only this much software for the Nokia but the iPhone has tonnes, both official and unofficial. The accelerometer is still not as good as the one on the iPhone. Video quality was as good as the iPhone although technically, it should be better. I like the iPhone’s not-responsive-to-fingernails screen as this will mean that the buttons are big. The Nokia has big buttons as well, so no issues there, but it’s not the iPhone type screen.

The camera on the Nokia sucks. Although it’s supposedly better than the iPhone’s 2 megapixel camera, i still think that the pictures taken with the iPhone is better. Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone’s camera sucks as well, just that I was expecting a 3.2MP Carl Zeiss optics camera to perform better. However, to be fair to the 5800, I evaluated the picture quality on the phones and not on a proper computer screen.

The 5800′s various input options for text was good, but it’s still not as good as the iPhone’s onscreen QWERTY. I know there are a lot of complaints on the iPhone’s QWERTY but I LOVE it! The predictive text input is THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST! People have seen my typed on my iPhone and they were amazed at the speed I can achieve. I couldn’t achieve that kind of speed if it isn’t for the predictive text feature.

So what is stopping me from getting the 5800? The first reason is, I still love my iPhone, just bored with it. If you are bored with your car, do you change it? No!

Secondly, I’m an Apple fanboy, how am I supposed to convert others to go Apple when I myself am not using an iPhone? However, I’m a different type of fanboy. If Apple’s product sucks, I’ll say it sucks. I’m not the type that lives and die by Apple. So it’s a small sacrifice to make.

Thirdly, I bought my iPhone for about RM1500 and I checked the price on Lowyat.net last night, the price for an immaculate condition iPhone 2G still fetches RM1500, some even sell it at RM1600-RM1700. This means that even if I sell my iPhone now, after more than 1 year, I still have the possibility of making a profit!!! How cool is that. I foresee that the 5800′s price will drop tremendously within the next few months. It’s Nokia’s “trend”. Look at the N96, it’s now retailing at less RM3000 (IIANM RM2599). Its launch price was RM3338 and that was only about 3 months back!

Fourthly, the iPhone syncs seamlessly with my MacBook. I have not tried syncing a Nokia, or in this case, a Symbian, with my MacBook before. I know it’s funny because I’ve reviewed so many Nokia phones. I usually do my reviews on my office/house Windows machine as Pages08 just don’t talk well with Microsoft Office (had plenty of problems). So I have no idea if PC Suite can run on OS X or not.

Like I said, the 5800 is a nice phone, so is the iPhone. Maybe I’ll buy the 5800 but still keep the iPhone. I am currently using the iPhone as my main line and a sorts of review phones from my second line (AKA girlfriend’s hotline). If I get the 5800 and keep the iPhone, I’ll just use the 5800 as my main line and downgrade the iPhone for my second line.

So what do you guys think? Should I

• Sell my iPhone, get a Nokia 5800 and be despised by my Apple friends?
• Keep my IPhone, buy the Nokia 5800 and be broke for the rest of the year? (Yes, I am that broke!)
• Keep my iPhone and be a true Apple fanboy?

There is one easy way to solve this problem. David Lian, I know you are reading this! So when am I getting a free Nokia 5800 XpressMusic?

I know I said that I’ll be using my iPhone for another year but the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is really tempting.  I know it’s not fair to compare the iPhone and the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic as the iPhone is in a totally different league, so is the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

I’ve never used the actual phone yet but based on the reviews online, it kicked the iPhone’s ass.  The screen is of a higher resolution, the speakers are louder (the iPhone’s speakers sucked anyway) and it’s slightly lighter.  The iPhone has a larger screen, albeit lower resolution (but the pictures showed that the screen is just as good), the Airport is SUPERB, Safari is great and integrating it with my MacBook is seamless.

What attracted me the most is the price of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.  Although its not official yet, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be retailing for RM1,499.  Which is about the price i paid for my iPhone.

To be honest, I’m bored with the iPhone already and although I’ve used all kinds of phones in my line of work, I’ve still yet to encounter a phone better than the iPhone. I don’t use MMS, I don’t really use Bluetooth but I’m still bugged that there is no copy and paste.  The iPhone has everything I need and all the things I don’t need.  The accelerometer is also second to none.

But like I said, I’m bored with the iPhone already and the Nokia is cheap.

Is the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic the one? I’ll find out tomorrow at the launch.

i forgot about this in the previous entry!
Last year I made a few resolutions, let’s see how many did I fulfill.

• Lose weight or just stop getting fatter

I lost a bit of weight.  A TINY bit.  So I’ll give myself 5% for this.

• Save money for holidays

Nope. No money saved, spent too much. (0%)

• Do more exercises

Physio therapy is a form of exercise as well! (5%)

• Graduate with Masters in Business Administration post graduate degree

This i fulfill fully! (20%)

• Improve my writing skills

I sometimes write really well.  However, my writing skills is like the share market, up and down.  I’ll give myself 10% for this

• Stay healthy

Struck by backache 2 times last year.  Not really healthy.  But I quit drinking Coke and soft drinks.  So I’ll give myself 10% for this as well!

I know I know.  I give myself too many points.  I got 40%, which is still a pass (in secondary school standards!).  All in all, getting my MBA is really a huge thing for me.  I might be bragging here, or telling everyone that I got my MBA but please bear with me.  It’s not easy!

So my resolutions this year:

• Lose weight – This time I’ll set a target! 10kg! err…wait..5kg lah!
• Save money – I’ll try my best!
• Do more exercises – Will try to swim
• Stay healthy
• Something I don’t really want to say (This is a big thing for me but don’t want to blog about it)

So yeah, most of it is the same as last year but this time, I’ll try to gt 20% for all!