Siu Lun

I searched the net the other day for iPhone 3GS information in Hong Kong. Some people has posted some different information to what I was told today by a Three iPhone 3GS sales person.

Here is the information on their official website

I was told that for the top-of-the-range price plan (HK$398 p/m). The handset cost is HK$3580. Plus you have to pay a HK$1100 which is rebate to you over 12 months.

Now then I am on the $268 price plan. The handset cost for me is HK$4180. Plus I have to pay an extra HK$500 which is rebate to me over 12 months.

This basically means. Regardless of price plan, you have to pay HK$4680. It is just that over time, the guys with the high price plan gets more money back (roughly as you can see HK$500, which isn’t much).

PLUS. You have to sign up an additional 12 months contract AND a HK$28 “value-added services” to your price plan (it doesn’t matter if you already have VAS in your current plan the $28 is on top of). This would bump my plan to $296. Over a year it is HK$366 extra. (bear in mind this isn’t just over a year, this is actually over the course of your remaining contract).

I already have a 24 months contract and I’ve used about 6-8 months so far.

Any how..

Net Payment then is actually HK$3580+HK$366 for ($398 price plan) and HK$4180+HK$366 for ($268 price plan).

For me, this means I have to pay HK$4546 to get the upgrade, but the cost of the 3GS on the Apple Store HK is HK$5388.

HK$5388-HK$4546 = HK$812

For that price difference. I would much rather buy the handset standalone than to upgrade my phone and be forced into extending my contract. (I can see a release cycle of 178 days which is around about 6 months for the iPhone, if I keep doing this, my contract would be longer than my life expectancy -.-”)

I have either been told wrong, or the guy at http://hongkongphooey.wordpress.com/ has got it wrong. It isn’t HK$2,480 net price but HK$3946 for the HK$398 price plan.

The above information is all for the 16GB version

Here is a mini independent review from me on the Cowon DAB D2 16GB PMP. The reason I brought this is because of my switch to open source formats such as Ogg and Flac. After around 2 days of research on existing portable players that can play Flac and Ogg, I’ve found the Cowon D2 ticked all the boxes plus a bit more!

The Cowon D2 is said to be one of the PMP that is amongst the top in sound quality. It features a lot of arrays of sound adjustment features and indeed, when I started loading up Flac files up on the D2 and listening it on my Sennheise PXC 450.

The sound quality is simply superb for such a small device. Definitely better than my 2nd generation Nano which I’ll be putting it up for sale soon.

Not only is the sound quality good on the D2, with the top of the range model featuring 16GB of space in a tiny device along with external expansion via SDHC cards. It is definitely the most suitable player to get to listening to lossless audio on. Having done a bit of research, I’ve found that this device has already been out in the market for a year.

A new revision is widely expected within this year. Having said that, if I were you I wouldn’t wait for the next revision, as who knows whether Cowon can repeat the success of the D2. As far as I’m concerned, D2 does exactly what I need with no compromise.

Not even on battery life. With up to 52 hours of battery life. Compared to the 14 hours on my iPod.

It’s got to be said however the only disappointing thing is that the DAB feature is a bit of a failure. The reception is not great, in fact, it apparently does not have any antenna and it relies on the audio cable to improve reception. DAB simply will not work well indoors. If you put it in your car, I’m sure it’ll work well. But don’t think that you can listen to DAB in the comfort in your home without being next to the window.

So my advice would be definitely get the D2 if you’re looking for a good player with excellent sound quality that can double up as a media player when you really want it. But save yourself a large portion by not getting the DAB version.

Cowon, nice try to be the first to give DAB on a PMP, but unfortunately without an antenna this feature is really hopeless most of the time.

/Ronald over and out.