Singapore views...

Select your best iPhone 3GS 32GB plan…

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:30:00 +0000

Telco war

Peace is disrupted yesterday when all 3 telcos are selling iPhone. OCWORKBENCH is the first in Singapore to report live on the iPhone war with a nice chart breaking down the various plans offered by the 3 telcos. If you follow their twitter, you can be updated on last minute surprises offered by M1 and Starhub to sweeten their offerings. Many Singaporeans are queuing up to get their iPhone because monkeys see, monkeys do (as they said in the army). If you are one of them, do you know what plan is suitable for yourself? Or you just sign the cheapest plan to get your dream iPhone?

Factors to consider

I have earlier blogged on some concerns before you upgrade your phone or plan. Perhaps it is good for you to read it before you run down to queue up. It is important that you are sure that you NEED a iPhone before you read further on the plans offered. Many claimed that marketing department in Apple is doing a great job in pushing you a product that you don't need. So don't jump on it if you only make voice calls and send SMSs. It is trendy to carry the latest model 3GS but you look stupid if you have no applications using the data plan. Yes, all iPhone plans come with minimum 12 GB of data plan which is great if you use GPS, MSN, Email, Surf web, Twitter, Internet radio, YouTube, Facebook and watch internet TV. 12GB is a lot of data and most users are unlikely to exceed this quota in a month. Thus, we will not be considering data transfer in our tabulation.

I would like to introduce a term known as the total cost of ownership (TCO) in our evaluation. TCO includes the monthly subscription (voice and data) you are paying and the cost of the phone. It is only fair to compare different plans as there is an amount to pay for the price of the phone for different plans. Below is an example of the Singtel iPhone plan for 3GS 32GB.

iPhone 3GS 32GB	Lite	Value	Plus	Premium
Monthly Fees (S$)	39.00	55.99	95.00	204.99
Extra cost for phone (S$)	658.00	398.00	98.00	0.00
TCO for 2 yrs contract (S$)	1,594.00	1,741.76	2,378.00	4,919.76

After you confirm iPhone is suitable for you, you should consider how many calls you make a month because this is one of the determining factor in various plans. If you are a light user, a 100 minute/month plan may be suitable for you. If you are a heavy user, you should consider the unlimited plan. It may be a good time to take out your mobile bills for the past year and calculate how many minutes you use per month. With this, let's begin to search the best plan for iPhone 3GS 32GB.

Value Plans (<300 minutes/month)

As the name suggests, this plan is suitable for consumer with a budget or makes only few calls. If you choose this plan and use more than 300 minutes, you will be paying a dear premium. So if you use 350 min/month, it is strong advised to select the next higher plan. Based on TCO on the plans offered by telco, the table is derived.

TCO	M-Value	M-Lite	ST-Lite	ST-Value	SH-100	SH-300
50	$ 1,522.00	$ 1,742.00	$ 1,594.00	$ 1,741.76	$ 1,580.00	$ 1,810.00
100	$ 1,522.00	$ 1,742.00	$ 1,594.00	$ 1,741.76	$ 1,580.00	$ 1,810.00
150	$ 1,714.60	$ 1,742.00	$ 1,786.60	$ 1,741.76	$ 1,772.60	$ 1,810.00
200	$ 1,907.20	$ 1,742.00	$ 1,979.20	$ 1,741.76	$ 1,965.20	$ 1,810.00
250	$ 2,099.80	$ 1,742.00	$ 2,171.80	$ 1,934.36	$ 2,157.80	$ 1,810.00
300	$ 2,292.40	$ 1,742.00	$ 2,364.40	$ 2,126.96	$ 2,350.40	$ 1,810.00

This above picture shows the TCO of the value plans. The lower the TCO, you pay lower. So with the min/mth value in the x-axis, move vertically up and the first line you touch is the best plan you should get.

From the graph, you should get M-Lite plan if you using an average of 250 minutes/month. Note that the TCO increases drastically if you exceed the voice minutes in your plan.

Premium Plans (>300 minutes/mth)

Next, we shall consider the premium plans which range from 450 to unlimited minutes/month. The following table is derived.

	M-Extreme	M-Unlimited	ST-Plus	ST-Premium	SH-700	SH-Unlimited
450	$ 2,450.00	$ 4,752.00	$ 2,378.00	$ 4,919.76	$ 2,460.00	$ 4,920.00
500	$ 2,450.00	$ 4,752.00	$ 2,378.00	$ 4,919.76	$ 2,460.00	$ 4,920.00
700	$ 2,450.00	$ 4,752.00	$ 3,148.40	$ 4,919.76	$ 2,460.00	$ 4,920.00
800	$ 2,835.20	$ 4,752.00	$ 3,533.60	$ 4,919.76	$ 2,845.20	$ 4,920.00
900	$ 3,220.40	$ 4,752.00	$ 3,918.80	$ 4,919.76	$ 3,230.40	$ 4,920.00
1000	$ 3,605.60	$ 4,752.00	$ 4,304.00	$ 4,919.76	$ 3,615.60	$ 4,920.00
1500	$ 5,531.60	$ 4,752.00	$ 6,230.00	$ 4,919.76	$ 5,541.60	$ 4,920.00

With the graph, we can see the TCO for such plan has a minimum of S$2,378. So you should be signing for either M-Extreme or SH-700 if you are using 800 minutes/month.

Limitations

There are limitations in this method which should be factored in. Different telcos offer different candies to sweeten the products. M1 has Take-3 plan, Starhub has free TV channels while Singtel has other plans with MIO bundling. This analysis only consider iPhone 3GS 32GB and not 3G 8GB and 3GS 16GB.

Conclusions

To assist you in selecting the plan, the table below will help you in selecting your plan. You will also be able to know your damage in owning a iPhone 3GS 32GB.

mins/mth	Lowest TCO	Plan
50	$ 1,522.00	M-Value
100	$ 1,522.00	M-Value
150	$ 1,714.60	M-Value
200	$ 1,741.76	ST-Value
250	$ 1,742.00	M-Lite
300	$ 1,742.00	M-Lite
450	$ 2,319.80	M-Lite
500	$ 2,378.00	ST-Plus
700	$ 2,450.00	M-Extreme
800	$ 2,835.20	M-Extreme
900	$ 3,220.40	M-Extreme
1000	$ 3,605.60	M-Extreme
1500	$ 4,752.00	M-Unlimited

Looking forward, I predict that with iPhone setting the precedence, data plan will be more affordable to the masses and Singaporeans will be able to try and apply applications in their daily life. After all, Singapore is a small island and well connected wirelessly. We should be able to surf internet while on the move. Having said that, prices will only get lower so I see that there is no need to rush and get a iPhone. Spend some time in reading this blog and understand your needs is better than getting a white elephant which will eventually pass down to your children or your parents when you are sick of this "hi-tech" toy. If election deserves one cooling off day, so do you.

Should I buy CPF Life?

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:50:00 +0000

WHAT IS CPF LIFE?

Singapore is not a welfare state and the government has no obligation to take care of your retirement and golden years after your retirement. The abolishment of the pension scheme (inherited from the British Colonial days) and the introduction of the CPF scheme simply tell Singaporeans that they must not depend on government's mercy if you are old and poor. Around 15 years ago, a few insurance companies introduce annuities policies for the retirees and many benefitted from the scheme with monthly payout of a small amount of money till they die. Due to the lack of financial acumen, those who did not take up this offer suffered now as they see their savings dry up after 20 years in CPF retirement or fixed savings accounts. The recent years of low interest rate on fixed deposits at 1% due to the turmoil worsens their woes. Inflation of prices on daily necessities shrinks their pool of retirement funds.

CPF LIFE aims to bridge the gap and offers this retirement vehicle in view of the increasing pool of retirees plunging into financial difficulties. CPF LIFE is definitely better than the Minimum Sum Scheme (MSS) which only last 20 years. In fact, it is replacing MMS and applies to those who are born after 1957 and have at least S$40k in the retirement account (RA). However, it arrives 15 years (compared to the private sector) too late and those who are already in trouble will not enjoy as much as their money has depleted over the years in fixed deposits. Those who are below 55 years will definitely benefit from this scheme. 30,000 residents (reported by TODAY) flooded to CPF and rushed to place over S$1.26 billion to buy CPF LIFE. But is this a good scheme? Is it suitable for you? Why 670,000 Singaporeans/PRs are not responding to this 2-month old call?

POSSIBLE REASONS FOR DELAY

Since 15 years ago, private firms are soliciting annuities policies and 71,000 are in force as of 2Q 2009. This tells us only 90% of residents are not aware about these policies, fail to see any advantages offered by these policies or cannot afford them. Indeed, there are 2 barriers of entry for these policies - a minimum sum (tens of thousands) is required and there is a waiting time (5 years) to collect the first payout. After working for many years and retire at 55, they can finally touch and feel their retirement money in the CPF. It is unbearable to part their hard earned money and tell them to wait 5 more years. Many choose to spend on their children or go for tours to see the world.

CPF LIFE eliminates at least 1 barrier for many concerned. You can buy any amount of annuities and those who are born before 1947 can get the first payout in less than 5 years. So we see a reshuffle of cards in the field of annuities and I hope private sectors will introduce better schemes soon. More offers and products in markets are always good for consumers. The promotion of such policies also benefits all residents with CPF Board pumping in more money to introduce what is the concept of "annuity" to many residents.

However, some just cannot afford to buy these policies as they are the sole income earner in the family. Sadly, many can afford but are not financial savvy to buy them. After all, to these folks, money is a sensitive topic and this quiet generation believes in keeping their money in trustworthy banks as fixed deposits over unit trusts, shares or other investment instruments. They fail to realize that their money suffer from inflation and depreciation over time. Let me tell you why.

CONCEPT OF PERPETUITY

Perpetuity (aka perpetual annuity or infinite annuity) refers to annuity that pays forever. "Forever" is a strong concept because it implies no time limit. As long as you are alive, you will receive monthly income from CPF LIFE based on a one-time fixed amount you buy previously. The only challenge for you is to stay alive and outlive others. This promises continuous income over fixed deposits concept. An example will better illustrate the concept of perpetuity.

Upon retirement, you wish to place S$10k in a bank which promises 2.5% yearly fixed deposit interests (current fixed deposit interests is 0.9% for S$30k). You wish to withdraw S$1k (at the beginning of every year) from the fund as yearly expenses. Using simple financial formula, you will exhaust S$10k in 11.32 years. For perpetuity, the present value (PV) for S$1k yearly withdrawal at 2.5% interests is S$40k. This is 4 times more the amount in an ideal condition. This simply implies that if you put S$40k in a bank which promises yearly 2.5% interests, you can collect S$1k forever or until you die, whichever is shorter. So you must live longer than 11.32 years to benefit from the perpetuity scheme. Eventually, the question to ask is not which scheme benefits you more how to live healthier and longer.

THE CPF LIFE'S OFFER

In the offer, there are 4 plans to choose from. The majority chose to buy the LIFE PLUS PLAN while one-third signed up for the LIFE BALANCED PLAN. The differences lie in the payouts to beneficiaries and a compromise between waiting time and premiums. Each has its own merits. The other 2 extreme plans are the LIFE BASIC PLAN and LIFE INCOME PLAN which promises the lowest and highest monthly payout respectively. The former is unattractive to many while the latter targets unmarried individuals with no friends, siblings and children. Interestingly, the difference in amount between the payout is insignificant for small amount (<S$67k) and we are talking about differences of maximum S$60/month for a maximum payout of S$440.

LIFE-BONUS (aka L-Bonus) is thrown in to encourage those born before 1963 to take the plunge. Those qualified will enjoy up to S$4k in bonus payouts if they join before a specific date.

AN ILLUSTRATION

Nothing beats an illustration. For the benefit of those above 62 years old and still hesitating about buying CPF LIFE, I shall offer you alternatives in choosing whether you should buy CPF LIFE.

You are a Singaporean male born in 1 Jun 1947. You have missed your chance to buy the annuity policy when you are 55 years old when you withdrew your CPF account 7 years ago. You do not qualify for L-Bonus as your Annual Value of Property (AV) is more than S$11k. You are interested in the LIFE PLUS PLAN and you found out that your monthly payout after you join LIFE is between S$56 to S$60. So is this plan better than depositing S$10k in the bank which promises 2.5% yearly interests without fail?

SCENARIO 1: FIXED DEPOSIT

Using financial formula to calculate N (periods), we derive that it takes 18.5802 years to exhaust your full savings. This means you will be broke in Jul 2027 if you withdraw S$56 monthly from the bank.

SCENARIO 2: CPF LIFE PLUS PLAN

If you choose LIFE PLUS, you will collect S$56 monthly till you die. To win over scenario 1, you need to stay alive after Jul 2007 which is very possible given that you are forecast to live till 2039 according to the statistic provided by the World Bank for Singaporeans. If things go according to plan, you will enjoy 12 more years of annuity over scenario 1. Therefore, it is not too late to jump into it now.

SCENARIO 3: OTHER INVESTMENT?

So what is the interest rate which can beat Scenario 2? Using financial analysis on perpetuity, if the investment vehicle can offer more than 7.2% of annual interests, it is a better choice over LIFE PLUS PLAN. In addition, this investment must continue to produce > 7.2% of annual dividends without fail forever.

CONCLUSIONS

It is encouraging to see that the government is stepping in to assist Singaporeans in their retirement planning. However, the financial burden of meeting the annuity payouts will lie in the continuing efforts of making money from the sum collected from the retirees. In view of the ever changing landscape of the financial worlds, it will be a challenge to meet up with the promises if global recession or hyper inflation hits Singapore. Having said that, I welcome any request to do the above 3 scenarios for you if you can provide the following details:

Date of Birth;
Desired amount to invest in CPF PLAN; and
The expected monthly annuity.

The above are simple financial analysis for your consideration only. We hold no responsibility if the data we provide are erred or misinterpreted.

Before you upgrade your phone…

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:59:00 +0000

Evolution of Technology

Technology engulfs us both slowly and silently. We carry technology with us in our cell phone and sleep with it. Little do we know that this small piece of device is packed with many features that change our lifestyles. You know how to use a mobile phone but you just don't know how to make it works better for you.

Real life stories about expensive phone bills frighten many of us. To avoid paying more, many choose to terminate core features of the phone or disable these features to make sure they don't chalk up their bills. Essentially you just defeat the purpose of getting the latest phone in the market if your sole purpose is simply making voice calls and sending SMSs.

Some may argue that they "reserve" these features and will use them during critical moments. My question is how do you know if they are working during those moments and how much you know about using the application?

Many of my friends show off their new phones boosting many new features like GPS, WIFI, push mail, full QWERTY keys, LCD screen, vibrating touch and feel, 10M pixel camera, elegant look etc and etc… but they don't have a data plan. If you are happy driving a Ferrari in a congested car park, follow their footsteps. Many will laugh at you inside their heart if you notice the smile at the corner of their mouth.

So how can you avoid becoming the next clown?

Look into the eyes of Technology

If you confine yourself to making voice and sending SMS, Philips Xenium series is your best upgrade choice which boosts standby time of up to 30 days. It has no gimmicks like GPS, 3G or WIFI and squeezes its battery life to extend your calling time. So stop wasting time to shop around for other phones. Else, your 2G mobile is good enough till you are ready.

Now, if you are seriously wish to upgrade your phone and explore some new features, get ready to pay for data plan else read the earlier paragraph again. Many are tapping into data use and someone wrote about paying only US$23/month for iphone bill. So, the future is now.

I have earlier mentioned how to select a suitable mobile phone for broadband. Read about the technology and decide a phone which suits your lifestyle. Bear in mind the battery life and your budget in hand.

Next, do sign up for a suitable mobile broadband plan with your telco. You may wish to consider my earlier article on the BEST mobile broadband plan in Singapore. It is outdated but you may wish to read for your reference.

Myths on features in mobile phone

There are also many questions about the features which many are shy to ask around. I hope to disperse these myths which cloud your minds:

WIFI is chargeable
WIFI is free if you connect to a network which is free. For example, when you are at home or when you have access to wireless@sg in McDonald etc. Many WIFI network are private which requires password authentication. For example, you are in a Malaysia hotel which they may charge you RM25/day for using WIFI. The limitation of WIFI is the range of up to 100m in open space and privacy related issues.
GPS is NOT FREE
If you have a built-in GPS in your mobile phone, it is 100% FREE to use GPS above the sky and locate yourself anywhere in the world. You only need direct connection to the sky. If you wish to have more features such as navigation and locating friends, read my earlier post on installing a suitable GPS application on your mobile phone.
Data use is very expensive
In the past, you are right to say so but with the revise of plans by telcos and the increasing amount of users, the charge is reasonable. For pure data users, you may wish to refer to my earlier post on the mobile broadband plans available in Singapore. In exhibition, you may enjoy 50% discount and pay only S$19.36/month for M1 V2 for unlimited data use. For data plan over your voice plan, the minimum is adding S$10 to your existing plan.

Will my monthly bill costs much more?

It depends on your lifestyle and the data plan you choose. In any case, you should not be charged more than S$37 for unlimited use in Singapore.

If you make frequent international calls, having a data plan may actually help you to save more. You can tap on into skype for voice calls, msn for messaging and push mail for email exchange. You buy time and accessibility with data plan while you are on-the-road. You need not rush back home or office to check email and you can reply messages via msn on the street.

5 critical considerations

If you are a business and serious user, select a 3.5G phone with 7.2Mbps instead of a 3G phone with only 0.384Mbps of transfer speed. 3G is nearly 20 times SLOWER than 3.5G. The latter usually come with S$0 plan catering for students and budget users. You just have to pay more for a 3.5G phone and S$0 phone expresses itself clearly on its price tag.
Next, get a phone with good battery life by comparing their standby and talk times. There is no point in having a phone with low juice unless you only wish to satisfy your ego by driving a Lamborghini for 10m.
You have to compare data plans offered by different operators as some are simply not suitable for you. Questions to ask yourself are: Are you able to afford unlimited data plan? What applications do I need in my new phone which requires data plan? For instance, real time push mail requires unlimited data plan for businessmen while normal user may stick to pop mail for a periodical mail download.
Bundled plan offers incentives for consumers. If most of your family members and friends are using M1, it makes sense to join M1 as you may enjoy 3 free call numbers. For starhub hubbers, you enjoy further discounts for your maxOnline, maxTV and mobile lines. For Singtel users, MIO may be attractive due to the overall package. No matter which plan you choose, there is a binding contract of 2 years else a heavy penalty will be imposed.
Lastly, omit those features that are not needed in a phone. For example, do you really need a 12M pixel camera phone? Get a Canon or Nixon DSLR camera at S$1,299 with tons of features to take great photos instead. After all, phone is for making call and not for photo shots. 3M or 5M pixel is good enough for an average Joe.

The Best Prepaid Card for Singaporeans in West Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:12:00 +0000

Do I need a local prepaid SIM card?

Malaysia is the best getaway from Singaporeans despite increasing robbery incidents. However, Singaporeans are not daunted due to the ever increasing exchange rate versus Ringgit as Singapore Dollar becomes stronger over the years.

No matter if you are going to shop and pump petrol in Johor Bahru, enjoy a sweet vocation in Muar or Melaka or venture to Penang or Langkawi for holidays, you are constantly with your mobile to remain contactable. Roaming charges to dial back Singapore may range from S$0.60/min with S$10/mth roaming charges for postpaid customer or S$2/min for prepaid customers. The damage is higher if you are calling another friend who is travelling together with you in Malaysia who is using a Singapore mobile. Both sides are paying for roaming and the only way to reduce the bill is buying a prepaid local SIM card, especially for long or extended trips.

The obvious advantage of owning a prepaid SIM card is you do not need to pay for incoming calls. Need we say more?

The choices

There are 5 operators in Malaysia offering different prepaid services for travellers but not all the plans are suitable for Singaporeans. There are many Malaysians who are working outside their home states and buying a prepaid card is also their choice. Some plans are suitable for long terms use while many are suitable for short term use (ie Singaporeans). Below are the operators, their respective sites and unique selling points:

Happy – www.happy.com.my (lowest call out value for 15min @RM0.99)

Celcom – www.celcom.com.my (widest network coverage in Malaysia)

Digi – www.digi.com.my (auto reload of value)

Maxis – www.hotlink.com.my (3.5G data use)

U Mobile – www.u.com.my (per second billing)

The Needs

For a typical Singaporean, voice communication is all he/she needs. Ideally, we would like the following features for the prepaid SIM card:

Low startup cost to own a prepaid SIM card;
Low charge to call back Singapore;
Low charge to SMS to Singapore;
Low charge to call Malaysia landline or mobile;
Low charge to SMS a Malaysia mobile;
Low recharge value;
No expiry date of the SIM card;
Easy availability of recharge stations;
Good after-sales services;
Easy registration process;
Good coverage in city/rural areas; and
No cost to call the call center.

For Singapore drivers (GPS) or wish to surf the net via GPRS/3G/3.5G may have additional requirements on top of the above:

Good 3G/3.5G coverage;
Consistent link to network;
High bandwidth (both upload and download); and
Low cost in data plan.

Unfortunately, we can only wish the above but none of the operators meets all requirements. Therefore, we need to compromise and set different priorities for different needs.

For Singaporeans visiting city area (KL, Melaka, Johor, Penang etc)

Smaller companies are only focusing on city areas with exceptional good rates for voice and text communications.

U Mobile 018 charges RM0.42/min for voice or video call out rate nationwide in 1-sec block and RM0.08/SMS. Starting pack is RM6 with RM5 for 7 days. IDD call to Singapore costs only RM0.54/min (current promotion till 31 Dec). Minimum reload is RM10 for 10 days and calling to the call center is free. The use of 3G services (max 384kbps) is charged at RM0.01/kB which is not mentioned in the website. Free bundled VAS i.e. Voice Mail, SMS, CLIP, Call Wait, Call Hold, Missed Call Notification, Call Conferencing, Call Forwarding, auto activation of IDD are also thrown in to make this offer attractive.

Happy is another option with RM0.33/min and max at RM99 for 15min for voice call nationwide. You can reload any amount for 60 days validity. For long call, you only pay RM0.99 for 45min from 9am to 5pm. Starter Pack costs RM30 with RM30 value and reloading is easy. However, international call to Singapore costs RM5/min and RM0.33/min is charged for the call center. Clearly, Happy is not interested in Singaporeans.

U Mobile stands out as the perfect choice for Singapore who visit Malaysia for less than 7 days and only use voice communications with option for 3G services.

For Singaporeans who frequently visit sub-rural areas in Malaysia

There are 3 operators in this league. Since network coverage is the critical concern in sub-rural areas, we can only consider Celcom, Maxis and Digi. The interesting feature offered by the big boys are the friend concept where you can have friends at a discounted rate.

Celcom is the recognized leader of GSM coverage in west Malaysia and yet the network is below 80% of the entire Malaysia. This is reasonable considering the rural requirements for mobile use are non-existent so it is not cost effective to support these areas. Celcom has 3 different prepaid plans (Xpax, Blue and prepaid Broadband) to meet different needs. The top 3 advantages, besides widest coverage, over the competition are highest number of friends for discounted calls, lowest unlimited data value of RM6/day or RM20/7 days and RM50 for 2 years validity. In particularly, 2 years validity is a good offer for Singaporeans who frequent Malaysia because if you forget to top up, the card, together with the value inside, will vanish in thin air. For unlimited data over 7 days at RM20 is also good value considering a 5-star hotel will charge you RM20/day for in-house limited wifi. Drivers can also have a faster lock to the GPS with their smartphone with a-GPS function via 3G. One obvious shortcoming is Celcom restricts prepaid user to use 3G network which limits to 384kbps. For voice call, Celcom charges at 60 sec block compared to U Mobile's 1 sec block. The card will be suspended 100 days after last reload.

Hotlink is the 2^nd best option with reasonable coverage targeting many Malaysian teens. It prices itself close to the leader with slightly better values of RM0.33/min for local calls and RM0.35/min for outstation calls. A deeper look reveals that Hotlink's calls are much cheaper than Celcom and Digi over time. Moreover, it offers ad-hoc data plans at RM0.01/kB, RM8/day or RM25/7 days. The slightly higher cost is due to the 3.5G network offered by the network, which allows users to tap on the HSPDA network and surf at 7.2Mbps which is nearly 20 times faster than the nearest competition. The minimum top up is RM20 and RM33 for 1 year validity. IDD to Singapore is charged at RM0.5/min.

Digi is last player which fails to threaten the leaders. It offers RM0.36/min flat at 30 sec block and RM0.10/SMS nationwide. It charges unlimited data at RM5/day via EDGE (max 384kbps). IDD call to Singapore is RM0.28/min and minimum recharge is RM10. It also offers RM30 for 1 year validity and suspension is 90 days after last reload. There is no highlight in its prepaid offering and therefore should be avoided by Singaporeans.

Conclusions

It is clear that U Mobile 018 is suitable for Singaporeans who seldom visit Malaysia and just pop into the city with infrequent data needs. For frequent travellers, Celcom (Xpax or Blue) seems to be the clear winner for network coverage while Maxis's Hotlink is the clear winner for data if you need 3.5G speed.

If your family members are travelling with you, why not get them a U Mobile 018 prepaid to contact them when you are lost in the crowded city areas? If you are driving into West Malaysia, a prepaid Hotlink card enables you to search for the online review of a food outlet. You can even track your friends' locations via GPS and 3.5G combined live on your mobile in real time. Try them with your Singapore postpaid SIM card and I assure you will faint after receiving the exorbitant roaming charges.

Avoid 5 myths when you DIY a PC

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:09:00 +0000

It is time to upgrade my 5 year-old Pentium 4 so I hunt around for good bargain and update my desktop knowledge again.

My budget is S$1000 for a mid-performance desktop. After reading some materials and reviews on DIY desktop, I like to share with you my experiences in avoiding the 5 myths in DIY.

Myth 1 – I must get the fastest processor or CPU

CPU is the brain of the system but the performance of the system depends on the teamwork of all other parts. The main reason why I do not buy branded desktop is because they always cut corners on those parts. The advertisement highlights the latest Intel i7 PC but they gives you only 2GB RAM or a IDE harddisk. If you like to sprint 100m with 10kg of extra weight or you have no idea what you are buying, you will fall into the trap. If you are aware of these bottlenecks, you will upgrade them and in the end, the cost is higher than DIY.

So what is a reasonable CPU speed for today's application for multi-tasking purposes? If you ask me for a DIY budget desktop, AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000+ or a Intel E7200 for good enough for general purposes and light gaming. Any extra is a bonus. Knowing the limitations and restrictions on hardware and software is important in selecting the components to get a balanced system for the money you pay.

Myth 2 – There is only a few branded motherboards, the rest are rubbish.

Motherboard is a critical part of all the components that connects to nearly all components. Many chase after branded motherboard during DIY. Branded motherboards are good due to their strong R&D team, quality and features offered. However, latest features are always implemented in the high-end motherboard so they are not strong in low- or mid-end motherboard in S$120-200 range. Adding to the cost of promotion, marketing and advertising, these low-end or mid-end branded ones lose out to less branded motherboards who positioned their high-end motherboard at the same price range.

Therefore, choose less branded motherboard instead of branded ones if your budget falls below S$200 unless you are going for the latest features.

Myth 3 – I want the highest video ram offered by the video card. The core is not important.

The current video RAM in a video card is usually 128/256MB. Some video manufacturers use a low-end video core but add 512MB ram as gimmick. Many rush to buy them ignoring what core processor it has. The truth is the core processor dictates the power of the video card and the increase in video ram offer <10% in performance. Unless you have a large LCD screen of 32", you need the high video ram for buffering.

Myth 4 – I want 2 video cards for best video performances

NVIDIA has SLI technology while ATI offers CrossFire technology. These technologies are used in overall 3D enhancement but are incompatible with each other. Tests have shown that two video cards can only improve the performance slightly (SLI has 20-30% improvement while Crossfire has 10-20%). With many motherboards with such technologies, many users buy another specific card to complement the on-board video. However, the price of video card has dropped significantly and it is cheaper to buy a dedicated video card instead of using the on-board video.

For example, if you have a 780 motherboard and wish to buy another video card, it is better to invest in a HD4850 instead of a HD3450. You will get 3-4 times the performance at double the price.

Myth 5 – Any accessories are good enough for me as long as they can be used.

Keyboard and mouse are the only contacts to the desktop and they indirectly affect our health and efficiency especially long period of use. The power supply regulates and stabilizes the power and helps you to save your monthly bill if you buy a highly efficient one. A good casing provides noise insulation, heat dissipation and prevents electronic static discharge and dust. It ensures a cool and quiet desktop. All these investments offer a good experience in using a PC in the next few years.

What is my final decision?

Below is my consideration after comparing the prices.

CPU: Athlon II x4 620 + Biostar TA790GX A3+
RAM: Kingston DDR3 1066 2GBx2
HDD: Western Digital 640GB, 32MB

Casing: Cooler Master 341
Power Supply: Andyson G480

DVDR: Samsung DVDRW

Video card: HD4850

Athlon II x4 620 is the new kid on the block. Comparing with Phenom x3 710, both consume 95W but Athlon II x4 620, without L3 cache, has 4 cores instead of 3. 4GB of Kingston RAM is more than enough for WinXP due to its memory restriction by the OS. BioStar TA790GX A3+ is the valued motherboard using 790 chipset with HD3300 build-in video. It supports AMD AM3 processor with support for DDR3 RAM. 640GB offers the best GB/$ ratio now so it is a default. Cooler Master 341 offers easy installation of components and Andyson G480 is 80+ certified. HD4850 offers the best bang for the bucks now if you are into heavy gaming. If the video card breaks down after the warranty expires, I can turn to the built-in HD3300 while I shop for another video card.

This system can also be used when I upgrade to Vista or Windows 7 in the future.

The ULTIMATE Guide to make your smartphone battery lasts longer

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:53:00 +0000

Introduction

A marketing survey reveals that everyone wishes their battery to last for preferably 2 days or more. However, many are disappointed when their new phone fails them when it fails to last for 8 hrs. Why? Indeed, 37% of the responders felt that the lifespan of the mobile phone is too short.

There are websites which spelt out the tips and tricks to conserve your mobile phone battery. Unfortunately, they are only covering major aspects of the topics and give general tips. So far, none of the website provides a complete guide on the determining factors and squeeze battery till the last watt. I will try to fulfill this role here.

Selecting a phone that suits your lifestyle

All 3G phones have Bluetooth and GPRS. Certain models have Wifi, GPS or Email client which may deplete the battery faster. The size of the screen is another crucial factor of the battery life. 3.5G promises HSPDA which speed up the download speed of phone. With a data plan, 3.5G phone is the best buy for the bucks. With many applications installed in the phone, the battery life becomes the most important factor before you grab it.

When you select a phone, you must check if the phone is powered by an adequate battery. Based on the manufacturer's specification, it is good to estimate the estimate real lifetime of the phone at use. I shall term it the REAL BATTERY LIFE (RBL). RBL of a mobile phone (hrs) is defined as the multiplication of the standby time found in the specification and the RBL percentage. RBL percentage is derived from the average battery life of mobile phone in real life as spelt out below:

RBL Percentage	2G	3G without data plan	3.5G with data plan
Light user	40%	20%	20%
Moderate user	25%	15%	10%
Heavy user	15%	10%	5%

For example, if you are buying a 3.5G smartphone with 300 hrs standby time, the phone will last 60 hrs for a light user but only 6 hrs for a heavy user. Therefore, it is unwise to buy LG KS500 if you are a heavy user unless you have access to a charging facility.

Therefore, you need to perform a match of your lifestyle with the RBL. Failing to perform this check may cost you dearly in buying an expensive phone that cannot keep up with your busy lifestyle. RBL is valuable more to a heavy user than a light user. Currently, Philip Xenium X500 offers up to 3600 hrs of standby time based on a 1720mAh battery. However, it is a simple 2G phone with no GPS, 3G and wifi features. If you are using purely voice call and SMS, you may like to consider buying Xenium X500 instead of a smartphone since it is tailored for your lifestyle.

Battery Maintenance

To prolong a battery life, you need to understand your battery. A lithium battery lasts for 500 charges so it is advisable to change your battery after every 2-3 years. It will permanently lose ~20% of its rated mAh after 400 charges. Although there is no memory effect for lithium battery, it is unwise to fully discharge unless the phone is not displaying the correct amount of energy. It is also unwise to charge your phone when you still have more than 50% battery life else you will use up the number of recharge. Therefore, charge your phone when the battery shows 1-2 bar.

If you have a spare battery, you need to use and charge it regularly because it will deteriorate if they are not in use. Having said that it is not advisable to get 2 batteries, why not get the best battery for the phone? For Motorola Q 9h, the standard battery is Li-Ion 1170 mAh. If there is a trade-off to get a 1300 mAh which is also supported by the phone, you have an improved battery.

Maintenance is also important to prevent the battery from exposing to extreme heat or overcharge for too long. These damages may be permanent on the battery lifetime. If it is too hot, battery may be malfunction. Therefore, it is unwise to charge them every day or exposing them to moisture environment. Insist on buying an original battery is also important to prevent circuit damage caused by the clone battery during charging.

Tips for the mobile phone

These are the usual tips recommended by reviews and popular websites:

Turn off your Bluetooth, GPS, Wifi and 3G after use;
Lower screen brightness and time;
Select a black or dark coloured theme;
Remove screensavers and animated wallpapers;
Switch off the phone when not in use;
Disable the number of applications in the phone especially the battery consuming ones;
Turn off the vibrating mode, keypad tones or ringtones;
Use a longer polling time for your mails;
Use less radio, camera, browsing, speaker and games and switch them off after using;
Switch to GSM mode instead of using 3G or 3.5G network. This is important for users who talk very often and sending a SMS does not require 3G at all;
Lower the volume of your speaker;
Avoid installing redundant or repeated applications with the same functions;
Update to the latest firmware with fixes on bugs; and
Install your critical programs into your phone memory instead of external memory cards. Remove your external card if possible to stop frequent access.

Even if you are not using any of the functions and switch your phone to offline mode, the real life idle time is still a fraction of the standby time provided by the specifications.

Signal Strengths

Depending on your location, signal strengths from base stations varies. If the phone is struggling to lock on to a network, it will use more power. It happens when places have weak signals, no signal or when you are underground. If you stay in these places for a prolong time period, it is advisable to switch the phone off since it has only 1 or 2 bar of signal strength. When you are moving and using the phone concurrently, moving from cell to cell requires the phone to negotiate between stations so it uses more power when you are mobile.

Useful S60 applications related to the battery

For Symbian smartphones, there are a few gems to have.

Nokia Energy Profiler or NEP (free) – provides a comprehensive result on the power consumption, current, voltage, CPU, signal strength, data traffic and estimated hour of idling time
Ravensoft Battery Extender – employs a few profiles to optimize the battery
Capree's iON Battery Timer – estimates the remaining time of the battery before it is flat
Alie Tan's ActiveFile – removes tasks which hoard power
Dr Jukka's Profile Scheduler (free) – switches to offline mode while not in use (flight or meeting)
Plan Task (free, www.opda.net.cn) – switches off and on the phone at specified timings (sleeping)
Mobisophy Technology's Interactive Voice Call Master – provides answering machine facility to save call out for voice mails when you have missed calls
Cclock (free) – enables the power saving mode with no screensaver.

Debugging the culprit

After you have applied the tips, your smartphone still cannot last for 12 hours, there must be something wrong with the phone, battery or software. If the battery depletes too fast or gets too hot while on use, it may be faulty and a change is necessary. If you have upgraded to the latest firmware and the problem persists, it is likely due to the applications running in the smartphone. Below is the debugging process.

For instance, my battery lasts run 20 hrs running applications with an average watt of 0.28W (Graph 1). If there is incoming or outgoing calls, the power consumption is higher driving battery life to only to 4:20 hrs of talktime based on 1.35W (Graph 2).

Switch off all unused functions in the phone (Bluetooth, GPS, Wifi etc)
Switch off all applications (Push mail, Battery monitoring softwares etc) except ActiveFile and NEP
Run ActiveFile first and take note of all the tasks running in the background (around 20).
Start NEP recording for 20-30 minutes.
Stop NEP and spikes are observed at 1.5 min intervals (Graph 3)
Spikes recorded during the process imply that some applications are running in the background.
List down the tasks. Some of the safe and common tasks are listed below. They are the safe list.
1. DevEncstarter
2. ActiveFile
3. Anykey
4. vcommandmanager
5. Autolock
6. SysAp
7. aknnfysrv
8. screensaver
9. Telephone
10. HomeScreen
11. akncapserver
12. essysapp
13. LedController
Identify the unknown tasks and eliminate one task at a time (with application manager) and observe the graph in the NEP over 20-30 minutes
Take note of the deleted task which produces lower current and lower average power. If there is no change, repeat step (8) again and remove another task. (Graph 4 and 5)

Uninstall the identified task with the application manager.

Reboot the device and repeat step (1) to step (10) until graphs show that the current is 4-5 mA, CPU utilization at 1% and average power is 0.02W (Graph 6).

At 0.02W with no spikes, the idle standby time is recorded as 273.22 hrs which is the best lifetime of the battery. It is still far from the specifications of 20 days or 480 hrs.

You have eliminated the resident programs which cause the high current consumption.

Now, reboot your phone and you should get an optimal battery life running all essential applications based on your lifestyle.

Below is the table for the standard 1500 mAh battery and the number of days the battery can last:

Average Watt - Number of day
0.250W - 1 day
0.125W - 2 days
0.0833W - 3 days
0.0625W - 4 days

So, if NEP shows that the average watt is 0.23, your phone will last slightly more than 1 day.

Conclusion

After running the exercise, your smartphone is performing at its peak with the best battery consumption. If it is still not satisfactory, I conclude either you buy the wrong phone, you like to torture the phone or your dream phone has not been produced yet.

Completely Free GPS navigation in China

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:25:00 +0000

Have you been to China and feel lost? Or the cabby is driving you round and round to make more money from your pocket?

Now, you can have GPS navigation FREE OF CHARGE to track your location and find the nearest restaurant or hotel. How about GPRS data charges? No worry, the best part of this tutorial is you don't even have to pay GPRS traffic. So what do you need?

You simply need the following:

A mobile phone with a GPS hardware (not a-GPS) running S60 3^rd or WM 5.0 or 6.0;
Your SIM card that can work in China to start up the phone (no roaming required);
Fully charged battery to navigate longer; and
Yourself in China.

Yes. That's all you need but you must equip your phone with an application and map. Follow the steps below:

Download the application (version 4.0 Beta) here to suit your phone from mapabc.com. Choose either Symbian S60 3^rd or Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6.0 edition.

Install the application (1-2MB) into your mobile phone. Note: A SMS will be sent out to register the software.

Choose and download the specific map(s) where you will be visiting from HERE and the LARGE SCALE MAP of china. If you still need help in installation, please visit HERE (in Chinese).

Unzip and copy the maps into the memory card of your phone into the specific folder.

Run the application and you can now set your routes before you trip.

When you are in China, enable your GPS in your mobile phone and run the application to lock on your position.

What are the features of this software?

Determine your location;

Locate places of interests like hotels, restaurants, ATMs, shopping centres, banks, parks, car rentals, hospital, clinics etc;

Obtain descriptions of the places of interests like telephone and detail address;

Navigate your route via walking, driving and public transport;

Weather forecast in cities (with GPRS charges);

Public transport, train and air flight enquiry (with GPRS charges); and

Real time traffic status (with GPRS charges).

With all these information, you will enjoy your trip better and save time and resources hunting for your destinations.

Which GPS software for my mobile phone?

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:51:00 +0000

Global Positioning System (GPS) is taking by storm into virtually all new mobile phones. New users may fully pay for their phone but unaware that their new mobile phone has a-GPS or GPS support. Simply, it is a case of ignorance or the constant fear of being charged extra for data traffic. I summarize the differences between GPS and a-GPS in below table.

GPS	A-GPS	Comments	Sample Phone
YES	YES	a-GPS can speed up and lock the location faster (Eg. 5 sec). If a-GPS is disabled, locking the position may take up to 5 mins.	Nokia N97
YES	NO	Older model like N95 need firmware upgrade to include the software a-GPS.	Older Nokia N95
NO	YES	a-GPS requires GPRS traffic and maybe costly	Nokia N81
NO	NO	GPS software is needed	Your old Nokia phone

When they realized that GPS is actually FREE OF CHARGE (FOC) and bear no data traffic, they will start hunting for GPS application suitable for their phone. The common GPS applications are listed below in alphabetical order.

Vendor	Program	Navigation	Data Traffic	Maps	POIs	Guide
Agis NAVFone	$	Free	Optional	$	Yes	Yes
AmAzeGPS	Free	Free	Yes	Free*	No	NA
Garmin Mobile XT	$	Free	Optional	Free	Yes	NA
Google Maps	Free	NA	Yes	Free*	No	NA
Mapking	$	Free	Optional	Free#	Yes	Yes
Nokia Maps	Free	$	Optional	Free	NA	$
Route66	$	Free	Optional	$	No	NA
TomTom NAVIGATOR	$	Free	Optional	$	NA	NA

* - Free maps with BBOM

# - Free maps with S'pore Land Authority

Agis NAVFone
This is a local company which can provide unique yellow pages search and public transport route planner. Both program and maps are chargeable but local support is present. It is also the first company to launch postal code search.
AmAzeGPS
The installation is swift. However, data traffic charges for map download maybe costly because it constantly download the map as you move. You can use tulip navigation to reduce the data charges and generally costs S$0.20 for a city navigation.
Garmin Mobile XT
The selling point for this program is map can be downloaded from a 3^rd party (malfreemaps.com) where the map for Singapore and Malaysia is updated nearly every week. However, it beeps to warn but regretfully, cannot verbally tell you that there is a speed camera ahead!
Google Maps
Everything is essentially free if you have broadband on mobile (bbom). It has 2 shortcomings. The first being no POIs customized for Singapore and the second being no real-time navigation.
MapKing
Mapking claimed to be the number 1 seller in Singapore for GPS products with free download of map from malsingmaps.com (free version updated every quarter). The best selling point is the virtual reality look of the map that make the interface realistic.
Nokia Maps
Both real-time navigation and guides are chargeable. It is ideal for casual users like tourists. Download of worldwide maps is available which is helpful if you are visiting other countries.
Route66
Both program and maps are chargeable making it less popular in Singapore. Its market segment is mainly in mainland China and USA.
TomTom Navigator
Tomtom is strong in Europe and USA but less popular in Asia.

So which GPS application should I choose?

FOR FREQUENT USERS IN SINGAPORE
Being a frequent user, it is wise to invest in a good software for navigation purposes. My clear choice is Garmin Mobile XT with frequent updated map and Point-of-Interests (POIs). For those with bbom but unwilling to buy the program, you can settle for AmAzeGPS for direction navigation. Else, Google map or Nokia map are good enough for simple location tracking.
FOR FREQUENT USERS IN MALAYSIA
For those who often drive into Malaysia for good food and cheap petrol, it is wise to equip with professional GPS device for driving navigation instead of depending on your small screen mobile device. You can explore more areas with ease and discover and share more good food locations via forum discussions. You enjoy faster speed in navigation, clearer graphic for viewing and better voice and power integration with your car. Some popular brands are Holux, TiBO and Garmin.
FOR CASUAL USERS
If you are planning a trip to overseas, it is good to bring along your mobile with GPS and download the latest Nokia map. With the battery fully charged, you can be assured that you will not be lost in the Wonderland.

How to test the data speed of your mobile phone?

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:56:00 +0000

From the earlier posts, we consider both the mobile phone and the data plan for mobile broadband plan.

Now, how do you know the speed of your data transfer of your mobile phone? Does it matter?

Of course, there are many factors that affect the transfer speed. If the transfer speed is slow, then you have failed to select a good mobile phone or you have signed a rip-off data plan. So what are the factors?

Mobile Phone
1. Can your mobile phone support high speed transfer? I hope you get the right phone from earlier post.
2. What browser are you using? Different browsers may affect the transfer speed due to their efficiencies.
3. Are you running too many applications while running the test? I would suggest you to close all applications before running the test.
4. What test sites are involved? Read on…
Data plan
1. What is the promised maximum download speed? Higher speed means higher price but do you really need the extra mileage?
2. What is the promised maximum upload speed? This speed is usually slower than the download speed and most of the telcos match their competition.
3. How much are you paying monthly? You have to make sure every penny you pay delivers the promised speed.
Environment
1. Are you testing in peak hours?
2. Are you getting a 3G or 3.5G network?

Before we can answer the above, let's run the tests on these 2 websites from your mobile phone.

DSL Report - mspeed (http://dslreports.com/mspeed)
The user interface is simple and you can start selecting 100k to run the test. You should get this result: "unstable/too fast a result (0.324s) please choose a larger file ". You will keep trying until you select "1MB" because the smaller files are too fast to show any latency during transfer. Eventually, you should get messages like below showing the kbps, Latency/Sz, Domain (if any) and the User agent (browser):
"875 0.191s (1024k)
elisa-mobile.fiHTC_Touch_Pro_T7272 Opera/9.50 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)" or
"664 0.393s (1024k)
tmodns.netMozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.5; en-us; HTC Hero Build/CUPCAKE) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1"
Using the same file size (1024k), we can see that HTC Touch Pro (875kbps) has a faster transfer speed than Android (664kbps).
You may need to run the test a few times to get an average. Make sure the network is consistent at 3G or 3.5G during your tests else the results may differ.
Webs-TV (http://speedtest.webs-tv.net) (in Chinese recommended by OCworkbench.com)
This website is straight forward. Once you enter the web address, it will start to run and generate a report. If the smiley face is smiling, you are in business.

Else, consider changing this plan when the contract expires. The speed is written in red located on the left of the smiley face.

I hope you can try out these 2 test sites and post your results here. Your results will help others in selecting the best valued mobile broadband from telco.

Which mobile phone should I buy for mobile broadband?

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:50:00 +0000

Many have bought a brand new latest expensive mobile phone but never fully utilize its functions. Ask yourself, if you are just using it for voice communication, then a S$60 phone is good enough for you. You do not need camera function, radio function, 8GB memory card and HSCSD support... not to mention mbb plan. Instead, you should look at size, weight, appearances, large keypad, battery life, big characters for easy viewing and durability.

However, manufacturers are packing tons of features into the phone to make it the best selling models. To best utilize mobile broadband (mbb) plan, there are some fixed and variable factors to consider and I list them for your considerations.

Fixed factors - Must have for mbb plan

3.5G support – There are many standards of data transfer. We are concerned on the maximum speed as listed below:

Technology	Generation	Theoretical speed (Mbps)	Practical speed (Mbps)
GMS	2G	0.0144	0.002
GPRS	2G	0.1140	0.056
EDGE	3G	1.0000	0.300
HSDPA	3.5G	7.2000	2.500

For mbb plan, this is the critical criteria of selection – HSDPA. Forget about GPRS and EDGE which are older technologies and cannot be utilizing the full bandwidth of the mbb plan. Visit GSM Arena for the list of mobile phone with HSDPA. Please note that the practical speed maybe even slower than stated due to network traffic. Therefore, it is pointless to select a mobile phone without HSDPA support. It just cannot make the mark.

For example, why Nokia E71 and not Nokia E63? Both have identical outlook. The former is HSDPA (3.6Mbps) while the later is UMTS (0.384Mbps)…nearly 10 times speed difference. So E63 is a bad choice and that's why it is selling cheap or given away free.

Long battery life – Running applications can be torturing for the battery. Without a long lasting battery, you have to run to charge it every now and then. I would recommend a battery with stand-by time of minimum 300 hours for 3G.
Reasonable large screen – We prefer to have the largest screen size so the words are bigger for viewing. However, the larger the screen, the more power consumed. It is best to balance battery and screen size after comparing the specifications.
Good Operating System (OS) – There are a handful of OS in the market dominating by few players. A good OS will minimize hanging issue that disrupts routine use of mobile phone.

Deciding factors – Deciding applications

Deciding factors are the 2^nd most important key in selecting your mobile phone for mbb. The more features you have, the more applications you can run with your mbb. Therefore, it is important to select as many factors as possible from the list below.

Wifi – VOIP calls and local connection thereby saving battery life
Global Positioning System (GPS) – Location based service
Internet Radio – Use of internet radio can save some battery life over conventional radio using antenna
Communication services – Support of emails, RSS, messaging services
Web browser – Use for browsing the web
Games – for leisure and in between work/study.

Optional factors – Desirable and good-to-have

Though are optional, they make the phone fun and complete.

Bluetooth – for transfer between phones
Video Camera – for video call
Memory card slot – for data storage
USB connection – for data transfer

Soft factors – personal preferences

Size and weight
Form factor (bar, flip, swivel or slide)
Colour
Touchscreen/QWERTY
MP3 ringtone

Lastly, I feel these features are of little significances – camera flash (drain battery life), infrared port (replace with Bluetooth), WAP (replace with standard html).

Generating the list

Apart of the clone and doubtful quality china-made phones, I run a list of my criteria above from HERE and below are the results:

Screening	Nokia	Sony Ericsson	HTC	Samsung	LG	O2	Apple	BlackBerry	Total
Fixed	20	34	15	27	7	4	2	1	110
Deciding	13	6	15	9	1	3	2	1	50

Namely,

Nokia: 5730 XpressMusic, 5800 XpressMusic, 6260 Slide, 6710 Navigator, E55, E71, E72, E90, N78, N79, N85, N86, N97

Sony Ericsson: Aino, C905, G705, W715, W995, XPERIA X1

HTC: Advantage X7500, Advantage X7510, Dream, Hero, Magic, P6500, S740, Touch Cruise, Touch Cruise 09, Touch Diamond2, Touch 3G, Touch HD, Touch Pro, Touch Pro2, TyTN II

Samsung: G810, i550, i7110, i780, i8510 INNOV8, i8910 Omnia HD, i900 Omnia, i907 Epix, S8000 Jet

LG: KM900 Arena

O2: XDA Orbit II, XDA Serra, XDA Stellar

Apple: iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS

BlueBerry: Bold 9000

From the above table, we can see that manufacturers made mobile phones but compromise on key features such as GPS and Wifi capabilities. Only 45.5% of the phones are qualified for our next round of review. A total of 50 mobiles phones qualified for mbb plan. Note that some of these may not be available in Singapore.

Narrowing the choices

The key to find the right phone likes in how much you are willing to pay for it. Older models are cheaper when new models are launched in the market. Out of these 50 sets, 4 are new models (Nokia E72, E55, 6710 Navigator and SE Aino) which have yet to be launched.

After considering the optional and soft factors, you will zoom in to a handful of models. For instance, if you further set below criteria:

Standby time - 400 hrs
With radio
Minimum 2.2 inch touchscreen
Form factor - slide

The final choices are Nokia N97, SE XPERIA X1, HTC Touch Pro or O2 XDA Serra. Happy shopping!

Singapore’s BEST 3.5G broadband for mobile phone Plan (Jul 09)

noreply@blogger.com (longfeng) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:53:00 +0000

Time flies and prices just got cheaper and we are talking about 3.5G plan with more 3.5G phones readily available in the market.

Again, the conditions for comparison must be stated before we proceed further:

We aim to identify the BEST VALUE plan - broadband for mobile phone (not mobile device or notebook).
Monthly data transfer is UNLIMITED. Those plan not included in this review are purely rip off plans to slaughter so-called causal or low-end users.
Typical broadband mobile access speed of 3G and 3.5G phone are limited to 384 kbps and 3 Mbps (max) respectively.
The minimum download speed is fixed at 2Mbps to optimize the capability of 3.5G mobile phone.
Plan must support data and voice in the SAME sim card.
We are focusing on ONE (1) SIM card for voice and data to explore the full functionalities of 3G/3.5G mobile phone.

Someone mentioned that my table is too complicated to compare. So I have broken them into stages for your easy viewing.

STAGE 1 - 100 minutes free incoming plans

Let's look at what is available for mobile broadband + voice (both data and voice) for 100min free incoming plan. This target segment consists of low-end voice users.

Telco	Singtel	Starhub	M1	Singtel
100min plan	iOne Plus	Powervalue 100	Sun Saver	3G Flexilite
Free minutes	100	100	100	100
Basic charge	25.68	25.68	25.68	39.00
Unlimited data plan	37.00#	38.72	27.10	500MB^

100 min	62.68	64.40	52.78	39.00
150 min	70.46*	72.43	60.81	46.78
200 min	78.23*	80.45	68.83	54.55

*Singtel charges excess minute at S$0.204 (peak) and S$0.107 (off peak). For simplicity, we take the average at S$0.1555.

#Singtel offers 50GB limit for mobile bb plan. We presume there will not be any excess usage above the limit.

^This new plan is included for comparison but 500MB can easily be exceeded in view of the heavy traffic that the current applications are running.

On first look, there seems to be a conspiracy between the 3 telcos offering similar plan at the magic number of S$25.68. However, due to the cheaper mobile broadband (bb) rate offered, M1 becomes the best plan in our first stage selection for unlimited data use.

STAGE 2 – 300 minutes free incoming plans

For the mid-end users for voice, we compare more plans offered by the telcos.

Telco	Singtel	Starhub	M1
300min plan	iTwo Plus	Powervalue 300	Sun Saver Plus
Basic charge	48.15	48.15	48.15
Unlimited data plan	37.00#	38.72	27.10

300 min	85.15	86.87	75.25
500 min	116.25*	118.97	107.35
700 min	147.35*	151.07	139.45

#Singtel offers 50GB limit for mobile bb plan. We presume there will not be any excess usage above the limit.

Again, M1 offers the BEST value plan for Stage 2. For high-end users, you can see that it is also M1 who offered the best since it has the lowest mobile bb charges.

STAGE 3 – Other mobile broadband plans

Singtel has introduced new new plans to capture bb market. But are they worth the money? Definitely not, the plans launched are not competitive with M1 V2Mbps plan.

Telco	Singtel	Singtel	Singtel	M1
Plans	3G Flexi	3G Flexi Plus	Plus	V2Mbps
Free minutes	200	500	300	0
Basic charge	48.15	95.00	48.15	27.10
Data limit	50 GB	50 GB	1GB	Unlimited

100 min				35.10
200 min	56			43.10
300 min	70.10		62.08	51.10
500 min	101.20*	95.00*	93.18*	67.10
700 min	132.30*	188.30*	124.28*	83.10

STAGE 4 – Evaluation

In this evaluation stage, we take the best plans from the above and combine them into this table. They are all benchmarked against only 1 plan (M1 V2Mbps).

Free minutes	Telco	Plan	Data (GB)	Charges (S$)	Saving over the 2^nd best plan
100	M1	Sun Saver	Unlimited	52.78
	Singtel	3G FlexiLite	0.5	39.00
	M1	V2Mbps	Unlimited	35.10	50.37%

200	Singtel	3G Flexi	50	56
200	M1	V2Mbps	Unlimited	43.10	29.93%

300	M1	Sun Saver Plus	Unlimited	75.25
	M1	V2Mbps	Unlimited	51.10	47.26%

500	Singtel	3G Flexi Plus	50	95.00
500	M1	V2Mbps	Unlimited	67.10	41.58%

700	Singtel	iTwo Plus	1	96.86
700	M1	V2Mbps	Unlimited	83.10	16.56%

It is no surprise that M1 V2Mbps stands out as the clear winner in all categories from 100 to 700 min free incoming calls. Where is STARHUB in the final comparisons? No idea. They are totally not in the bb league.

STAGE 4 – Conclusions

Since M1 V2 plan beats all categories, is there any catch? Yes, there are. We list them below for your reference and consideration:

Why we are not including V4Mbps or V7.2Mbps? The answer is obvious. Most of the 3.5G mobile phones have a maximum download speed of only 3.6Mbps. So V2Mbps is the optimal plan in this selection.
SMS uses are not factored into our discussion. My question to you is - Why use SMS when you have MSN?
M1 V2 plan is a per minute billing and not per second billing.
There is no discount on 3.5G mobile phone as compared to regular sign-up for new mobile plan. A brand new 3.5G mobile phone may cost S$450 - S$1300. Do not get a 3G phone for mobile bb plan because the maximum download speed is limited to 0.384Mbps (for example Nokia E63).

Despite its shortcomings, we still consider M1 V2Mbps plan to be the BEST valued 3.5G mobile bb plan for a 3.5G mobile phone. So after selecting the plan, what 3.5G phone should be purchased and what are the applications to tap the full capabilities of the bb plan? We shall discuss next time.

References

Singtel (voice)
Singtel (mobile bb)
Starhub (voice)
Starhub (mobile bb)
M1 (voice)
M1 (mobile bb)