Samsung Galaxy Pocket S5300

And the winner is: SAMSUNG GALAXY POCKET S5300! I don’t want to take the risk of replacing X2-01 with a low-priced phone but of low quality. As I’ve said, Samsung has established quite an integrity on the mobile phone industry and that’s just enough for me. I’m not a nerdy on phone stuff (I love laptops more than cell phones), I simply want a phone that’s QWERTY or touchscreen with Wi-Fi connectivity, and most of all great organizer application. Although I’d like for a dual-SIM phone, S5300 might compensate for that lack with its size, portability and of course being mini Samsung Galaxy on its features.

Finally, you can see its full specs and awesome price tag here, just search for the model. I can’t wait to buy one!

Maxx versus Torque versus Samsung

Do you remember my post about planning to buy a new phone? Well, I have chosen the store I’d like to purchase in and the winner is lazada phils! My reasons are: for one, they’re Philippines based; secondly they’ve got a lot of cheap brand new stuff.

After narrowing the three down to my choice I started browsing their catalogue having filtered the smartphones by prices that are from 1000.00 Php to 5,000.00 Php. Two phone brands came up as my top picks, Maxx, Samsung and Torque, there were also other brands like LG, which I don’t consider because my mom and I had a not-so-good experience with it before, and Nokia, this is the phone we had since ages ago, maybe using a new phone of a different brand would be awesome.

So I’d like to lay out my thoughts about my three top picks:

Samsung

It has quite a reputation –sleek, stylish and great features. It has established itself in the mobile phone industry shutting the ever-reigning then Nokia from being the topmost to second. Now, seeing the wide array of touchscreen pocket Samsung phones –because of the arising model brands from the Philippines that offers prices incomparable to them– I guess it’ll be a very difficult choice for me.

Maxx

I just knew this model on the site while browsing. It’s not really popular here in the Philippines because it’s founded in India thus it’s initially popular in India but at present maybe they’ll expand their market. I got interested at Maxx with its MT616 Zippy 2, it has a similar style with Samsung but much cheaper priced less than 3,000.00 Php.

Torque

As for Torque, it’s very new competing with Cherry Mobile and MyPhone –all Filipino founded mobile phone manufacturers. The advantage is that it’s really cheap. I don’t know about the features, some reviews I read on the internet says its features are cheap looking so that’s kind of a minus for me somehow. But it’s still cheap knowing that less than 3,000.00 Php you have a touchscreen phone that lets you surf the Internet through wi-fi.

What do you guys think?

Rainy Season Means Rain Gears

It’s not a very good season for some Filipinos presently as weather frequently changes and a series of storm, low or high pressure air has been going in and out of the country. Flooded streets and wet pavements, heavy rain and the difficulty to get a convenient transportation –this is why we need rain gears! Unfortunately, mine got broken. My one and only trusty yellow-and-green clover leaves decorated umbrella I bought early last year. Now that I’m working and it’s raining much frequent than it should be, its loss causes me great inconvenience especially near our place where flood is just around the corner. If it rains for an hour or two our street near the municipal hall gets easily flooded which causes traffic. It sucks.

Plus, it’s kind of a hassle to bring a non-waterproof jacket because when it gets wet it gets heavy and adds up to my load so this payday I’ll surely buy a new umbrella and if I can still afford, a jacket.(I saw great looking and cheap stuff from Cabelas which you can see here by the way.)

To give you a visual of what I’m talking about here’s a video where you’ll see our municipal hall flooded:

[youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9aCWA0TvIA]

Farewell to you X2

My cell phone went instant suicidal with an Eskinol (for those who have no idea what this is, Eskinol is a facial cleanser Filipino-made. It’s a native so almost all Filipino women know this product). It was a disaster. I thought my phone wouldn’t work anymore; I left it exposed to open air overnight until the next full day.

Now I can use it again but I’m really thinking about replacing it with a new one from Nokia, Samsung, HTC or Blackberry. Just to be in. But of course that’s a joke I just want to try a new phone that has a better organizer than my Nokia X2-01. Anyway, I’m looking for helpful suggestions, my budget is on or below 5,000.00 and if possible a smartphone or a very good phone that’s dual sim. I looked through the Internet for good bargain prices and I found a couple of good sites, one is in the ever cheap but reliable eBay (see the options here) although I’m ultimately targeting a brand new unit I’ll still consider this, then the other is a new online shopping mall here in the Philippines shore, Lazada PH, which looks promising since their prices are really awesome (options here), and the last one is an Aussie shopping mall called shopbot.com which is very, very new to me (check its list).

So yeah, I’m gonna be really needing your suggestion for this one. Thanks in advance!

Philippines Trademark

Every country has a “trademark”.

UK is known for their Beef Wellington, the Monarchy, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diane, rugby, The Beatles, fish ‘n’ chips, cricket, Harry Potter, Susan Boyle, and many more. While France has Chateau de Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, Croissant, Queen Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake!” among the many others. China has the ages ago two-child policy, the Giant Panda, of course its Great Wall, Yao Ming, Chinese noodles, Jackie Chan, cheap labor, etc. Japan’s got anime, samurai, sushi, yakuza, manga, its shinkansen or bullet train, sumo, weird game shows, etc.

Now, how about Philippines? For one is bagoong, our rich history of being colonized by Spaniards for 333 years, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, mangoes, OFW, seafarers, Manny Pacquiao, lechon, Lea Salonga, aswang, Boracay, Cebu, Puerto Princesa, Banaue Rice Terraces, Jose P. Rizal, Manila,  among the hundred more.

I posted this as a support (somehow) to our Department of Tourism’s campaign titled “It’s more fun in the Philippines”. It sounds so catchy and kind of “common” but very effective, I must admit. But seriously, I have seen photos that parody the campaign and they are completely hilarious!