Nokia 6120 Classic

After about 3 years of life, my old mobile phone finally became useless. The keys were giving out -- either not working at all or double clicking, and the battery needed replacement. There are hundreds of new models available now, especially since I use T-Mobile USA's GSM-based network, which is largely compatible with the phones and networks used in most of the world. I actually like T-Mobile for the most part, so I glanced at the phones I could get a discount with contract extension -- of course none met my needs that well.

Here's what I wanted in a phone:

1. Excellent phone calling, of course -- that's what it's for! For me, this means not only easy to use keys, good sound, reception, and so on, but also a very easy to use integrated address book. Not one like you find on Motorola phones. Something actually useful. This leads to...
2. Simple and reliable synchronization with my Mac. Address book and calendar synchronization should work wirelessly via Bluetooth, since that means one less step (find cable, plug it in) to actually syncing.
3. A reasonable camera. Having a decent camera with me all the time has proven to be a valuable thing.
4. Good battery life and trivial pocket-ability.
5. There is no #5.

This turned out to be a harder problem to solve than I imagined. In the end, I bought a Nokia 6120 Classic via Mobile Planet (the US arm of Expansys, whom I know to be a reputable company). The new 6120 seems to be the smallest, lightest and cheapest Symbian S60 phone available. S60 phones as a rule have great Mac OS X iSync support, and this one is no exception. As an added bonus, the web browser is actually quite usable, and the S60 platform allows for many add-on applications. I've installed the latest Google Maps mobile S60 app, and it's very cool as it uses cell tower location information to map my current location (within 1 km or so) on the map.

I spent about two hours tweaking the phone when I first got it, but the initial setup took maybe ten minutes: swap the SIM card, configure for T-Mobile, pair and sync with my Mac, and that's it. Happy happy.