Yoo minna. It’s been a long 3 weeks hiatus. Life has been busy for me, although I have to stress that getting caught up with real life issues is definitely not fun at all, so I’m sorry for the lack of updates. Rest assured that there will be some slow but steady updates coming right back soon within the next few days, as I have finally found the time to blog again. Got myself hooked up with some freelance projs recently, and also currently struggling with my on-going japanese classes, which explained why I was missing from this space for pretty awhile.

Anyway, I got myself a new phone earlier on this month again (sigh what to do, a gadget freak I am) and it’s another one of those Vodafone models again. May I introduce you guys to the limelight of today’s blog entry, the Toshiba 803T by Vodafone Japan (now officially known as Softbank Mobile Corp).

View Full Specifications: here.

View Product Features: here.

Now we shall move on to the pictures. : )

The main differences btw this model and the Vodafone Sharp 903SH that I had bought during last year, is that this phone is aimed and marketed for music enthusiasts who loves to enjoy music on the move. Similiarly in terms of phone models such as the Sony Ericsson’s W800i and the W900i music functions in this aspect, this phone features a dedicated music console and easily allows you to listen to your music while you are free to do other things on your phone as well. Although I would admit that since I already do have a dedicated DAP currently (my Sony HD-5 Network Walkman) for most of my music needs, but it’s still really cool to have a phone which can perform this kind of functions whenever I need it, since most of us do carry our phones with us for most of the time when we’re outside.

Another reason why I decided to get this phone was also because this phone was also well-known as the phone model that ‘Doumyoji Tsukasa’ (acted by Jun Matsumoto) uses mainly in the TBS jdrama Hana Yori Dango, which was aired on October last year. In this drama series the Sharp 903SH was featured in it too, and was used by the character ‘Nishikado Soujiro’ (acted by Matsuda Shota) in it. Back at that time when I was watching HanaDan, I already knew and owned the 903SH myself so I wasn’t really surprised when I saw my own phone featured in it. However when I caught that few glimpses of the Toshiba 803T model featured in that show at that time, I was immediately attracted to that phone and tried to researched more information abt that phone online. Unfortunately it was pretty bad news, because during that time last year Toshiba phones were still unable to unlock by the people in the unlocking scene so it was unavailable for local use yet. Which wasn’t until recently last month when I actually gotten some new updates from Liangwei as well as another HK friend of my, that it was mentioned that the Toshiba phones (902T, 903T, 803T, 904T etc) was finally able to be unlocked, so slowly but swiftly the good news started to emerged and surfaced from the unlocking scene to the rest of the internet and online forums. That was when I realised my hopes of owning the Toshiba 803T finally came true, and was truly happy and elated and went to purchase one.

The above are some scans from the Vodafone brochure that came with my 803T package. As you can see, the first pic shows alot of emotive icons which can be sent from Vodafone models to the other 2 Japan operator phone models as well, and of course Vodafone to Vodafone users as well. So what does this mean? It means if your friend owns a Vodafone model, and you own one too, yes you can send this kind of emotive icons to each other via sms. I already have 2-3 friends who are also using Vodafone phones, so this is very useful and fun indeed. Other scans include java games which you can download from the Vodafone LIVE! network (which unfortunately to say I cannot use it, as I’m not a Vodafone subscriber nor am I living in Japan, damn it…) like the Minna no Golf series by Sony Computer Entertainment, Taiko no Tatsujin Mobile as well as Mojipittan Puzzle by Namco too. (Mojipittan Puzzle was available as a trial game on my 803T, think of it as scrabble game but in japanese, pretty pretty fun!)

This is a very interesting function on the 803T which wasn’t available previously on my Sharp 903SH. Although I have to say that most Vodafone models are quite similiar to each other in terms of user interface, there’s certainly still quite a few key features btw them which tends to separate the various respective phone models apart from each other. This electronic dictionary software on the 803T enables me to search word for word in japanese to english language, and vice versa too. Pretty useful when it comes to learning japanese. My Nintendo DS library actually also has one such software called the DS Rakubiki Jiten which has similiar functions too and supports hand-writing recognition as well, but asking me to bring my DS along and taking out during classes is abit weird, so I really appreciate this function very much on the 803T hehe.

Here are just some sample shots for you guys to see how well the 803T’s 2.26MP CCD-camera works. There’s a vast difference in the camera quality btw my 903SH and the new 803T, but I’m not that surprised cos the 803T was not touted for its camera features in the first place, as it’s more of a music-phone for music-lovers. Personally I would say the camera is decent enough for a 2MP, but it’s no where near the performance of my Sharp 903SH, or even the Sony Ericsson’s K750i or W800i series for that matter. Generally, the outdoor shots are mostly decent and alright, but indoor shots tend to be atad grainy or showed a lack of focus. But this isn’t much of a problem to me since I didn’t buy this phone in the first place for its camera features, but because of its design and music features.

And last but not least, may I present to you guys the Chilean pigs in ‘Brokeback Mountain style’ freshly imported from Chile! Hehe, all my friends whom I love has gotten one of these, and it’s said that these Chile pigs are meant to bring their owners good luck and fortune, and also as a symbolism of Friendship. So you guys better treasure and treat me well from now on ok? If not who knows I might just ask the Chilean piggys to bring you guys bad-luck and suay fortune, bwahahahah. (Yah lah like real heh)

More updates to come soon! Have tons of photo updates coming up too, yup yup stay tuned minna! = ))