I stayed with a few friends while in the Bay Area last week instead of getting a hotel (many thanks Eric, George and Shelby!) and managed to leave my Treo 600 USB charger in Oakland mid-week. The Treo lasted a day and a half or so, then I had to switch to the A900 – nice to have a backup.

Using the A900 as a phone was an interesting experience – I’m a pretty basic cell phone user (I don’t use the cameras, download ringtones, etc.), but getting to things that I consider top level data (call history for example) is several clicks and navigations away in the A900¹. As well, there are numerous animations, graphics and other jazz that I just don’t need and actually made it harder for me to figure out how to do what I wanted to do.

It’s been a long time since I used a “normal cell phone”, and frankly using the A900 made me miss the simplicity of my old StarTac or Kyocera 2235.

Luckily, Scott dug a Treo car charger out of his car so I was able to get the Treo charged up and back in service after only a day or so.

However, when my flight was delayed and I spent an extra hour and a half at the San Jose airport today, I sure was glad to have the A900 with me to use as a modem. 🙂

1. I admit I’ve not read the book yet so ther emight be an easier way – but that doesn’t excuse the lack of usability. [back]