Today's corporate environment demands 24 x 7 connectivity, and the once humble, now turned "smart" phone has become an indispensable tool for the corporate warrior.
This piece tries to define the characteristics of a the "model' cell phone, one that would serve as a trusty aide, an able lieutenant and be up to the challenge of both work and life.The scope is not restricted to currently available models, as the idea is to identify what could have been the best.
The commonest utility provided by the cell phone (apart from voice calls and sms) is that of email.
So, its a no brainer that a great cell phone must give its user access to email.
But most phones do that, don't they ?
Blackberry pioneered it, but lenient BYOD policies have pretty much leveled the playing field.
Microsoft had always supported Mail for exchange on Symbian Nokias, and now with its own Windows based phones, syncing office mail accounts is a breeze.
Ditto for Apple, Samsung and everybody else - all the major brands are at the same level here.
Email is a tricky little animal though - it contains attachments, is usually long (owing to an unending chain of trail mail), and makes little sense peering into a small screen to be able to read it properly.
It may contain jpegs or videos that may need approvals, or any power points that need review.
Hence, phones with small screens are out.
This eliminates BB, Nokia E63-72, E5 - basically all the qwerty phones.
Which leaves us with - Windows phones, Samsung, Apple, and the new BB range (not too popular)
Staying with email - one needs to type, and do so rapidly, without any errors. Same for SMS.
I believe that its far easier to type on a keyboard than on a touch screen. We anyway spend so much time on the keyboard that a high level of comfort has unknowingly developed between the keyboard and us. True, most touch screen phones do have nice, virtual keys - but losing phone access owing to a damaged screen is a pain I have suffered far too many times. So, keyboards ahoy !
Unfortunately, barring BB Q35, none of the phones meet this criteria (call it whim if you may !!)
Solid battery backup - a common malaise with smartphones today is that they need to be charged at least once during the day. Frequent travelling would mean that cell phone chargers need to be carried, and the phone may not have been charged.
This leads us to my old favourite - Nokia - the only phone capable of providing awesome battery backup.
A large touch screen - to approve artwork, to look at reports better, review presentations...need I say more.
All the ones except BB Q35 fail to make the cut here.
Camera (front and rear), and storage space - mostly used during quick skype calls or reporting from the field. Most phones do a decent job of this, barring BB - haven't used the new one though.
App support - Google maps, social media, news - most phones have them
So, which model of cell phone combines / combined all of these attributes into one solid device.
Not an iphone, not a BB, Samsung or a Windows phone.
They were the good old Nokia Communicator and its updated avatar, the E7.
or 
I am at a loss to understand why the plug was pulled on these superb models.
How I wish Microsoft and Nokia bring this back, in a Windows version !
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