The EG-120 Swiss (ok, Chinese) Army phone

[twilyth]

This is the coolest thing I've ever seen.



It does almost everything.

Cell phone with blue tooth, headset or speakerphone.
Video recorder/player
1.3 MP color camera
audio recorder/MP3 player
FM radio
Personal organizer with to do list, calendar, alarm, world clock.

PLUS: When hooked up to a pc it can be configured as either
1. webcam
2. external storage (comes with 1Gb micro SD and supports 2Gb)
3. USB modem

The last one is especially cool because if you're on the road and need internet access, you don't have to buy a cell card or pay for a kit. You just use the same cable that you use to charge it with. Max throughput seems to be 14.4kbps, but for a quick email check or a fax, that's not too bad.

It does have some disadvantages.

You can't sync the phone with a computer. You can copy stuff from the phone memory (512Mb) to the SD card memory and dl from there, but that's it. You can also copy the phone book to a bluetooth device.

It's pretty bulky and will scream "GGEEEEEEKKK!!!" to anyone in your line of sight. The all-black finish does mute some of the geek factor though - or at least that's what I tell myself.

It will probably take me a while to review all of the features.

Here's a video to get you started.

Edit - not my video btw.

[twilyth]

reserved

[twilyth]

reserved2

[NidStyles]

My current cellphone does all of that already, and it doesn't look like an 80's calculator watch. Not to mention I get 54.4Kbps transfer speeds rather than 14.4. Plus my phone has WiFi in the G band, and does sync. Gotta love Nokia.

[twilyth]

My current cellphone does all of that already, and it doesn't look like an 80's calculator watch. Not to mention I get 54.4Kbps transfer speeds rather than 14.4. Plus my phone has WiFi in the G band, and does sync. Gotta love Nokia.

Go ahead, pizz on my nice new toy.

I know there are phones out there that do this, but they're called bricks for a reason. Wear one of those on your hip and you're asking for scoliosis.

I'm kidding, but for it's size, it's pretty impressive. I had a smartphone a couple years ago and it was useless. It was one of the HTC models Verizon had at the time and it cost me $500 or thereabouts. I won't list all of my complaints, but let's just say that until someone has a phone that can run a desktop OS - or at least a stripped down version - I won't even look at this type of device. And forget about anything running Win CE - that is bullsh*t.

The fact of the matter is that these types of things only appeal to a certain subset of geekdom. That's why they're popular in China and not here. I don't know what the characteristics of that subset are. Maybe people who remember D_ick Tracy or grew up lusting after 007's toys. I don't know.

So it's not about the feature set - not primarily. It's about being cool - in the geekiest way possible. Try to wrap your head around that oxymoron.

BTW, I kind of like the 80's retro look. I didn't like it the first time around - in the 80's - but refried, it's not bad.