New mobile, the HTC Explorer

I was waylaid at the shopping mall just the other day. There I was, minding my own business while walking through the mall with my son and aunt after a nice hearty meal at one of the eateries when a young lady openly called me over to her. Uh, perish the thought if you thought there was something untoward going on.

No, she was only trying to interest me in one of the mobile phone packages that her company was promoting. "But I already have a package from you," I told her. "And I don't want any new package that would cost me additional money," I added, hoping that she'd leave me alone then.

"But here is an offer of a free phone," she persisted. "If you will allow me to look into your current mobile account, you may actually qualify for it," she continued. And then she shoved a brochure under my eyes. Gently shoved, that is. "If you qualify and if you subscribe to this data plan, you can get the HTC Explorer free."

Mmm, a free phone? Now I'm interested. I'll tell you why I'm interested. I'm interested because for the past two months, I've been reduced to using my wife's spare mobile, an ancient clam shell Samsung, while I considered a permanent replacement for that lousy junk of a mobile, the Nokia C6. And I haven't been able to make up my mind at all! My son has been suggesting the HTC One V to me, my daughter asked me to go with the Samsung Note, while a friend had been telling me about the Sony Experia V which, by the way, I can't find in the shops!

So in a sense, walking past by this young lady sort of forced the decision onto me to get the HTC Explorer. All I needed to do was to have her terminate my old data plan and resubscribe to it. Of course, there was a small catch. I had to pay a deposit of RM300 into my mobile account and be tied into a 24-month contract with the mobile phone company. But, the lady beamed at me after having snared a customer, your monthly bills will be offset against this deposit. Frankly, I didn't mind because well, it's still my money in my account.

Now, having played with this new toy for the past few days, I must say that it satisfies all my needs. I don't need one of those high-end, spiffy mobiles that have a fast chip or the latest operating system to go with all the bells and whistles. Many of the features will be lost on me anyway. I'm already quite satisfied if I can now connect occasionally to the Internet through 3G in order to check my emails.

And I certainly don't need a five megapixel or an eight megapixel mobile camera. In my opinion, nothing can outperform a dedicated camera. Having said this, let me say as an aside that I was pleasantly surprised by the results from the HTC Explorer's three megapixel camera. Had used it yesterday as a last resort when I discovered that I had forgotten to bring out a camera when I visited the Nandaka Vihara Buddhist Meditation Centre at the foothills of the Bukit Mertajam Hill at Cherok Tokun. Quality's not that bad, right?