Virgin

This news is old. But it's probably necessary.

Don't message/call my Malaysian number! That number is still in use, but by my mum! Any invite to supper/gossip/secret love confession you send me will be read by my mum instead! The same applies to calls. If you're dying to hear my voice, call my Australian number!

Oh, but don't delete my Malaysian number from your phonebook. I will still want to use my old number when I get back to Malaysia. I like that number. Hehe...

Here in Australia, I'm a Virgin. Well, I was a virgin back in Malaysia, but now I'm a Virgin virgin. Haha. Haha. Stale joke, I know.

Innuendos. How we love 'em.

I'm on Postpaid. Back home, I would have never even considered using postpaid. Prepaid was so much cheaper in Malaysia - especially with the crazy low SMS rates that keeps getting lower. Not that anyone is complaining, though.

That Little Red Book is full of sexual innuendos. Virgin is sex-crazed.

Here, things work a little differently. Australians don't generally SMS each other that much. So the SMS rates are WAY higher than what I'm used to. 30 cents (AUD) per SMS! In Malaysia, 15 cents (MYR) per SMS is already considered way too high.

On the flip side, the postpaid here is better. For $30 a month, I get $150 to spend on calls and SMSes. And 20 Mb of data for mobile browsing. There are other plans I can choose from. Obviously, cheaper plans offer less talktime.
This is starting to sound like an advertisement.

But the best thing about the mobile plans is...

FREE PHONES!

And I am not talking about free Nokia 3310's or phones so large you can mistake them for toasters or those phones you can use to smash a crab's shell with. They're giving away top of the line phones! I am talking about mobiles like Nokia N96, Samsung Omnia and even the fabled iPhone 3G! No kidding.

The only strings attached to such a deal is that you will be bonded to the number for 24 months. Which isn't much of a problem if you're not the person to change numbers like you change girlfriends shirts. And sometimes better phones require you to add in another $5 or so per month on top of your phone bill. After 24 months, it'll amount to about $120. Still pretty cheap if that's the price to pay for a Nokia N96!!

So have I convinced you all to come over here? =P

And me? I got myself a Samsung F480.

I decided to go for the gold one.

5.0 MP camera with autofocus and flash, 3G, HSDPA, touchscreen candy bar. Quite satisfied with it, although the user interface could be much more user-friendly. The touchscreen is responsive and the menus don't lag (most of the time), which is a plus compared to many touchscreen phones out there.


The camera flash isn't very useful - often causes discoloration of my snapshots! I usually leave it switched off. Flash aside, the camera works pretty well except in low light conditions and extreme close-ups. Still better than the 2.0 MP non-focus, non-flash camera on my K618i so I am not gonna complain too much!



Looks like I'll be retiring my Sony Ericsson then...