Up until recently, I’ve been using the Nokia E63. I’ve spoken of how amazing it is before. It is a fantastic QWERTY phone, especially when you take into account the price tag of less than $300. I term myself a heavy user, because I am constantly on it Tweeting, Facebooking, taking photos, reading online articles, my emails are also received in real time (push emails) and since my car has no radio, I listen to music on it loudly on speaker. That means if it is not connected to the 3G, it’s on Wi-fi. Despite all this activity, one of the most awesome thing about the E63 is that, I only charge the batteries at most once every two days.

However, as is with all phones, to love it, you need to make it yours. For my phone I uninstalled and deleted all games that came prepackaged with the phone. With the space, I downloaded applications that are most useful for me. They are:

1. Opera Mini: fast and reliable phone browser, better than Nokia’s web browser. It has shortcuts, and loads low res photos so you don’t burn data charges like it’s free!
2. Snaptu: It is a Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Flickr, Picasa client all in one! It constantly runs in the background and best of all it’s free!

That’s pretty much it! I love that phone and would’ve gone on to use it forever but I was suddenly and uncharacteristically lucky and got myself an iPhone 3GS in Ranoadidas‘s Twitter Competition!!! It was all over the news and everything haha.

Now, I’ve always marvelled at the iPhone, as I do with all things Branded with The Apple. I’ve always wanted it but I’ve always seen it as nothing short of “unattainable” cause of the (at least) $1000 price tag. Don’t argue with me on this. The iPhone, no matter what it claims to do, is an expensive, expensive phone that no matter how much in love I am with it, I would never buy for myself.

So there I was handed an iPhone 3GS on a silver platter. I didn’t even wait to go home to peel off the plastic and insert my sim card! I won the phone at the Mall and opened it at McDonald’s. Hehe.

First photo taken on the iPhone 3GS.

That night I plugged it in my Macbook and after syncing my contacts, photos, and all the shizz from the E63, slept happily while it charged.

The next day, after installing apps like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. I went out with friends in the afternoon, and went to work at night. I used my new phone with the same frequency as I did on the Nokia E63. It was amaaazing. Typing on the touch screen keyboard feels peculiar at first but quickly got used to it. I love QWERTY keypads!  However, I left home with 100% battery and sadly, not even halfway through my class, the batteries died on me.

I was taken aback. It can’t be? Surely a phone priced more than $1000 could get through at least ONE working day before dying on me? Is my phone faulty?

So when I went home, I researched and apparently it’s a common complaint among iPhone users all over the world. There are unified laments on the phone’s pathetic battery life. On Apple’s website, there are tips on how to prolong the battery’s life. Among the tips they offer are:

1. Don’t use the 3G
2. Turn off WiFi
3. Use Airplane Mode.
4. Don’t use location services (Switch off GPS)
5. Don’t use push notifications.
6. Dim the screen
7. Don’t check your email too often
8. Don’t use 3rd party apps (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare) a lot

In short, Apple wants us to use our iPhones like iPods. 😦

The problem is I WANT a bright screen, and I WANT to use GPS for Foursquare and I WANT to use my 3G for everything I do. EDGE is damn slow why would I want to use EDGE when I have a 3G phone lah. And I WANT push notifications. I like to receive my emails and get alerts. These are the things that made the iPhone awesome and Apple is suggesting that I should turn them all OFF? Aiyah how like that!

So being the resourceful person I am I searched for alternatives. Apparently, there are two ‘remedies’. First is to get many many charging cables. One at home, one for the car, one for the workplace. Obviously, this won’t do. I travel a lot and I’m always on the move, and I don’t stay long in one location to charge a phone! All these wires just make me fell so nauseous!

The second is to get a hassle free battery pack that extends the life of the battery, and apparently a really low maintenance, remotely attractive looking one is made by Mophie! Chewah. Found out AV Electronics stocked the Mophie Juice Pack Air, and swiftly bought one in white! (Well, no I didn’t. I had to save up for it, cause it’s pretty expensive at B$139 a pop.)

But I love it. I extended the battery life more than twice and I don’t have to switch off and compromise what features I love in the iPhone. For a more complete review read here. SHIOK! It doubles as a sturdy protective casing for my iPhone and I don’t need to whatever bring so many wires around. The only thing I don’t like about the case is the fact that I have to buy it and that’s not Mophie’s fault!

So that’s that. Please welcome to the family me new phone. 😀