Geek out! We gotcha! Or thinking out loud. I'm sure you're not interested...

My mate Dave has been loyal to the Sony Ericsson camera phone line, ever since I introduced him to the old T610 way back when in 2002. and stuck with almost every one right through to the K series. Now he's on the hunt for a new one and was looking for the ultimate. So much so, he almost got swayed by the Nokia N95. Despite me telling him to forget it and just buy a camera, as he never answers his phone anyway, he finally came to his senses and decided he wanted as he put it, "a camera that can be a phone if I switch it on. The 850i is a match made in heaven." So he and Sony Ericsson are back together again and he's happy as Larry.

My mission for the ultimate or most suitable mobile companion has been always more complicated and painful. Finding the perfect balance between form, function and productivity has never been easy. Gadget for gadget's sake, has never been my cup of tea either. So here's my reply to David when he told me the good news.

Well David my old mate. Didn't tell you I've been gadget hunting myself. I've got my W880i and whilst I love it for the slimness and okay MP3 playback my sausages can't hack the tiny keys. Apart from that it's a great multimedia phone with some good PDA functionality, but due to the data entry issue doesn't quite get the balance right. So my main gripe is data entry. I decided that a phone screen is not ideal for lengthy data input even with a portable bluetooth keyboard, so it's best to use the phone just as a note/ideas jotter. Not for full blown productivity. So in that case all you need is a powerful multimedia phone with a good keypad rather than a full PDA phone, as you can never get full productivity with such small screens.

My short list was the HTC Touch, Motorola Q9H, Sony Ericsson W960i, and the Nokia E90 and N95 (after you mentioned it) for all of 5 minutes. I'm a Nokia traitor now, so there's bad blood there straight away and although I have sentimental attachment to the E90 due to it's Psion EPOC heritage, the issue of restricted productivity looms it's ugly head again. Essentially, why buy a phone/notebook for the price of a brand new top of the range laptop, when you can buy a cut down notebook for a third of the price. The Nokia E90 retails from £500 to £600 plus. So go figure. You can get cut down Linux machines or second hand laptops for much less these days. In any case, I may be geek under my skin, but I don't want to walk around and shout to the world about it.

Crossed off the Q9H, as it's two Blackberry-ish. There'll be too much temptation for heavy typing and I've already got a RSI problem. Tried and just finished testing the HTC Touch, and being Microsoft it's buggy as hell. Hangs every minute for the smallest of tasks and can't take the slightest of abuse let alone heavy usage (forgot to mention that to the next guy I sold it too, oh well). Shame as Skype and Google Maps on Wi-Fi was fun for all of 5 minutes.

All my experiences keep compounding the fact that a phone is not ideal for full productivity. Try editing a Excel spreadsheet or Powerpoint presentation on a phone, or simply sourcing and referencing items when writing. So occasional quick emails, texts, notes/ideas jotting I think is the ideal scenario for me, together with some good multimedia capabilities such as MP3 playback and a so so snapshot camera. Don't need anything grand like your beloved K850i, I've got my Casio for that. Yes they make much more than just calculators and watches. So that leaves me with the W960i, with it's 8GB built in memory for MP3's and 3.2 megapixel camera and decent keypad. However, it's not available till December and I can't wait that long too test a phone only to feel it's not for me. So my search brings me full circle to Motorola!

I left them after a whirlwind affair way back in those heady days of the mid 90s. StarTac was her name and she did everything I wanted back then, but had no staying power. After that was the many years of Nokia's corporate gloom, until Samsung and Sony Ericsson got their act together and brightened things up. Now Motorola are tempting me back with this killer - the RIZR Z8 or Jason Bourne banana phone! Yes I eyed her a while back during the recent movie hype, but thought her to be another one of Motorola's quirky glitzy all fur coat and no knickers kind of girls, so stayed well out of it, as any decent gentleman would. Well wadduya know, I saw her in a symbian top phones line up whilst searching for the P1i. She looked good and for some reason something told me to check her out later. Well it kept niggling at me and I finally did after your email. After viewing the demo video I fell in love. We're not together yet but soon my friend, soon. Then we can all go out together in a foursome.

Motorola's new line up. Worth a look. Finally, a very good RIZR Z8 review. Beware serious geek alert!