Tempted by the N95 8GB

I finally succumbed to temptation and found myself having to get the latest Nokia N95 8GB phone. So after much online research, including comparing telco price plans, I finally trotted down to a SingTel hello! store over the weekend. The crowd was horrendous (blogged here). I eventually gave up on that Saturday night, and returned back before the opening time, 11am, the next morning.

To my surprise… there was a long queue already formed. What was happening? SingTel wasn’t giving away free phones eh? And there was nothing like a super-sale or anything of that sort. (The M1 store was just as badly packed, and the Starhub road show was still hopelessly sparse.) Ok noted the original N95 selling at $398 was drawing the crowds, and it turns out it was already out-of-stock on Saturday. Notices were posted outside the shop but it seems like few people took note of them.

Fortunately anyway, it was still early. The queue wasn’t that bad (I was like in the 22nd position), and it didn’t take me too long to get my queue number and eventually to be served at the counter. Overall, I think the experience at SingTel was not unlike at M1. Friendly staff, the buying process at the counter, the re-queuing for payment, etc. I thought I’d mention since some people (including myself) have the notion that SingTel is an unfriendly stuck-up corporate giant out to bully customers and competitors. 🙂 (Of course just one non-negative experience like this isn’t going to change my whole perspective instantly, and notice I say “non-negative” rather than “positive”…)

Just for those interested. I jumped ship because:

1. M1 refused to give me a handset upgrade voucher. Time and time again, after having been their customer for perhaps 10 years, I have always had to demand upgrade vouchers. I have had to point out that my friends, my relatives, etc are all getting vouchers. Only then did they bulge. But guess what, this time around, they claimed they “do not offer handset vouchers anymore”. Fine.
2. It seems new customers are offered more “free” stuffs in their mobile plans. Loyal customers are disadvantaged. Yes, noted this is the same with SingTel and Starhub, but I haven’t been a SingTel customer so I’ve still got a chance to demand to continue getting the free stuffs. Besides, with free permanent number retention, it is easy to jump ship.
3. It also comes down to $$$. M1’s price for the N95 8GB is over the roof. SingTel has further promotion offers combined with mobile broadband that were useful to me, and gave me further handset discounts.

So there you are, no more M1 for me. I think the only thing I’d miss is free weekend outgoing calls. Why doesn’t SingTel offer that!

The N95 8GB is new, so it is still relatively expensive. But I reasoned that, my existing N73’s high resale value isn’t going to hold much longer. In fact, I discovered that 2nd hand phone dealers are actually offering no more, and sometimes less, than what the 3 telcos are giving. On top of that, the 2nd hand dealers are expecting a handset in pristine condition and a full boxed package with all accessories, whereas the telcos are happy to accept just the phone and the charger in working condition. I get to keep the data cable, headset, charger adapter and memory card!

So considering the trade-in value and further discount for data subscription, I pay less than $400 up-front for the handset. There is also interest-free installment. The free value-added services for new subscribers are worth about $100 in savings (compared to having stuck with M1). And what about the handful of accessories I did not have to give back for the trade-in? So all-in-all, this new handset costs me somewhat less than $300. (Note: I signed up for a cheap $22 voice plan… so it is not like my handset was discounted by a super-expensive contract plan.)

Had I opted not to get number retention, I could also get rid of pesky telemarketers!

Change is good. 🙂

ps: A word on the battery. One of the biggest shortcoming of the original N95 has to be the short battery life. Many reviewers and owners have complained that it lasts about a day at most. Well… my N95 8GB has been running 16 hours now, the battery is still 7/7, despite “heavy use” such as GPS (couldn’t lock while I was indoor last night, and I was indoor because it was raining hard), and wireless (trying to figure out connection to WLAN at work), etc.

pps: Ok it’s now coming to about 27 hours of “heavy use”. About 1/7 bar left. I played a lot with GPS (never had GPS before you see), and mucked around quite long to get the 3G data connection working with my Mac OS X. I hope to drain the battery flat tonight so I can do another full re-charge.