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Crazy kiya re, mobiles

Photo: M. Moorthy

Wide range Amazing features

You have just got a mobile phone that is a tad thicker than the SIM card. It doubles up as camera, FM with a data card reader and makes you proud about its looks and voice clarity. But hold on. That was not the one Genelia D’ Souza sported in & #8216;Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.’ Neither was it one among the five sleek Samsung phones with ICE amplifiers and face detection that Aamir Khan launched recently.

But before you decide to exchange your mobile for any of these, you are late by few days. And that means there is a whole new set of phones with newer additions dropped off at the outlets. Feel trapped in the buy-high-sell-low phenomenon? Gizmo buffs in the city suggest a way out.

“You could pick out just the accessories that you really need. That way you don’t overspend on gizmos that will anyway become obsolete in few months,” says Sivasundar Nagarajan, marketing executive of a private concern.

Wireless is no more new to the city. Bluetooth is the most happening accessory and those who bought the mobiles little ahead of combo offers, don’t mind picking up the thumb-size gadget separately. Like Nirmala Devanathan, who is glad about the new addition to her phone.

“I have Nokia 6233, which is outdated. I’ve attached a Bluetooth BH-100 and a hands-free car kit, which worked out to Rs. 3,000. It doesn’t seem to be a wise option to me to go for higher version mobiles with loads of extra benefits that I don’t use at all,” she says.

Aravind, who runs textile business, carries a wireless keyboard for his GPRS mobile to text the messages faster. “It’s foldable. So there isn’t a problem of carrying it. My friends suggested me to go for higher versions of mobile for a better music and camera quality. I don’t think they are essential to me.”

But for the younger lot, mobile phones are more than essentials. They are now a fashion statement and even serve as substitute for accessories in girls’ handbags. “My Motorola i285 phone has a vanity mirror and the multi-colour panel looks chic. If there is new phone in the market with more girly look and new features, I would go for that. I don’t prefer to assemble accessories. It’s a lot of clutter,” says Margaret Williams, a journalist.

Since boring black doesn’t interest girls, phones are feminised. Some of them are doused in a splash of pink. If new one enters the market with sparkly white and grey, women are all for it. Even the standard beige interiors of mobile phone leather pouches are substituted with chocolate browns and flashy oranges, which slim your purse by Rs. 400.

While many of the working lot are happy about plugging in an ear phone to tune in the FM radio in mobile phones, gizmo freaks find the wires dangling around the neck as clunky and unglamorous. Before people got hold of MPMan, the phones with integrated MP3 undid its popularity. The wireless technology of Bluetooth made techies dance to the digital tunes without untangling the wires around their necks.

But phones with the consortium of multi-services that go beyond camera and songs are the ones that sit on the pockets of youngsters. They essentially fuse the function of telephone, e-mail, maps, camera, music system and instant messaging. “I plan to go for Nokia’s 6110 navigator. It looks cool and has got amazing features. When you get the phone with accessories fitted, then servicing isn’t a problem. Buying them separately will be such a pain when even one goes off,” Venkatesh Ramesh, second-year student of National Institute of Technology says.

His senior Nishanth Krishnan, in the final year of Mechanical Engineering, can’t agree more. Though they had to limit their usages to evenings, as communicators are banned at classes and computer centres, the students make sure they are in tune with the gizmo world.

Even if you are frugal in spending for phones, you don’t have to miss out all the fun. Get hold of accessories that give you necessary features without shelling out a fortune. But if you want to flaunt your communicators, you are spoilt for choices.

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