Buying a phone – the ‘where’ factor!

Buying a cellphone is not an easy task. One first has to choose a phone model and then to decide from where to buy it. Until date, I have purchased four cellphones and every time my only concern was where to pick the device from. Shall I go in a company owned exclusive store, who charge a bit more or pick a reasonably-priced phone available at other local retailers. There was not a huge difference between two but at the time of purchase even Rs 1,000 would make a huge difference.
My friends, Nimish and Charu, faced a similar problem recently. Both decided to go in for the same handset, the Nokia E61i. After doing a bit of market research, Charu decided to purchase the phone from a local distributor, who was charging Rs 1,000 less than what the device was priced at a Nokia Priority center. But Nimish was not so sure. He went to the Priority center and picked up his device.
Initially, both these devices were working fine but the battery of Rashi’s device used to get discharged by the end of the day, even though she used it mostly for calls and text messaging. But Nimish’s battery ended up lasting longer, even though he used his phone as a communication device – from surfing the Net to checking e-mail, he used to do everything over his E61i. And even after heavy usage, the battery used to last for a day and a half.
This is not just one instance. A similar incident happened a few months ago when two friends invested in the N 70 and the results were same. I don’t know what the moral of the story is, but I know one thing: I am going to buy my next phone from a company showroom. Never mind the extra Rs 1,000!