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Women make up a significant percentage of phone buyers these days. No longer are they satisfied with phones designed for men. So which phones appeal to women?  Stefanie Khaw
A jazzy tune with a thumping bass line blares out loud as a platinum blonde vixen strolls through the lobby of a swanky club and stops to takes a black object from a fluorescent rack. In another scene, a gorgeous redhead is seen accepting a black device from a waiter. Clad in a skin-tight body suit, she manages to spot her handsome male companion for the night and flashes an alluring come-hither pout.
These are scenes from Nokia’s fashion phone TV ad, targeted specifically at female consumers. Women, unlike men, generally prefer form over function. And these ads feed on that fact.
Stereotyping may not be a good thing but sometimes they contain more than a grain of truth to them. For this month’s cover story, we look at the best phones for women and we’ve identified five phones for five different female types.
 The typical teenager
The typical teenage girl, is outgoing, fun-loving and trendy. She would essentially look for a phone that epitomises her traits, and this would likely reflect her first type of phone she owns.
Her phone is less of a verbal communication device but more of a text messaging, picture-taking and music listening gadget. Growing up during the Golden Age of portable music players, the typical teenager wants to listen to Britney Spears when taking the LRT to KLCC, Gwen Stefani when out for a jog and Daniel Powter after a Bad Day.
She spends a lot of time with her friends embarking on crazy and somewhat happy-go-lucky antics. A good phone for her would be the hip and trendy Samsung SGH-E530C as it comes equipped with both an MP3 player and a high-resolution digital camera.
"The E530C is very attractive to teenagers because of its bright and sunny colours," said Angel Chai of Bluetooth Innovations. "Many young girls who came to our shop gave the E530C more than just a glance; some were so fascinated after trying it over the counter that they bought the phone immediately."
There’s enough memory for an average of 20 songs and the one-megapixel camera will take photos good enough for 4R prints. On top of that, the MMS feature of the phone is also good enough for sending smaller-sized pictures to her friends’ MMS-enabled phones via its GPRS capability.
She can choose to listen to MP3s stored in the SGH-E530C via a stereo headset, or opt for the phone’s loudspeaker. It can also use MP3 tracks as its ringtones, so the next time you hear Oops, I Did It Again blaring somewhere from a group of people waiting at the LRT stop, it could be you’re in the vicinity of the typical teenage girl with her cool Samsung phone.
The chic chick
This fashionable girl-about-town wants the phone everyone is talking about. She wants to look hot and hip when Tatler magazine snaps her picture at the charity event she’s attending this evening. No way would she be caught dead with a Nokia 9500. That would clash with her Jimmy Choo shoes.
The chic chick wants something fun and in vogue like her teenage counterpart, but she desires a touch of sophistication and maturity. She snaps photos while partying the night away with her exclusive clique, shamelessly flaunting her fabulous phone.
The avant-garde Nokia 7270, part of Nokia’s fashion phone range, is MW’s recommendation for this kind of girl. She would absolutely love the changeable textile covers as she’ll be able to match her outfits with her phone.
The 7270 offers sufficient memory to keep a few favourite songs of hers in the phone, which would mainly be using them for ringtone purposes. She’s also able to share pictures via MMS. But she won’t just stop there because the phone offers video recording capabilities as well. What better way to flaunt the best side of her beautiful self than to have a short video clip of her doing the catwalk in her sexy MNG outfit?
The bargain hunter
The bargain hunter doesn’t necessarily go for the cheapest phone in the market but will hunt high and low for the one that gives her the best value for money.
She cuts out coupons for cheaper deals at the supermarket religiously and scours the discount rack for items with 70% price slashes. The bargain hunter believes that if she’s going to spend the equivalent of 10 shopping trips to Carrefour, she has to get a camera, a video recorder, an MP3 player, an FM radio, a free plastic phone cover and an RM50 discount to boot.
The I-Mobile 603 would be the ideal phone for her as it is feature-packed and still costs below a thousand ringgit (it’s RM999!). It even has a high-resolution camera (1.3-megapixel), a typical feature of higher-end phones. There is also an external SD/MMC slot that allows her to store up to 1GB worth of songs on her phone, an equivalent amount of images taken with the built-in camera, or a mix of both.
The inclusion of FM radio, video recorder and a moderate amount of built-in memory makes the I-Mobile 603 one of the best deals available for the bargain hunter when it comes to a phone with almost everything in it… except for Bluetooth and the kitchen sink.
The corporate queen
This woman needs to make an impression. She realises the importance of image when competing in the corporate world. She’s straight-talking and determined, yet beautiful and elegant.
The corporate queen acknowledges the importance of networking so she needs something which can store lots of contact details. In terms of design, nothing too cheap or tacky that would look out of place in a boardroom full of blood-thirsty executives. E-mail and Internet browsing functions would be a plus-point as well.
Motorola’s RAZR V3 is the ideal phone for the corporate queen. Don’t be fooled by its slim exterior because this sleek, cutting-edge phone contains a 1,000-name phone book that can hold up to six phone numbers and an e-mail address in each entry.
There’s Bluetooth connectivity for over-the-air file transfers with another Bluetooth-enabled gadget or to connect to a Bluetooth headset for hands-free conversations.
Li Tyng, a salesgirl at Yes’s Comm Enterprise, confirms that the corporate woman needs a business tool while retaining her distinguished lady status. "The RAZR V3 is small, very slim and can be easily put away in a handbag, but it also has useful features and functions too," she says.
The quad-band aspect of the RAZR V3 gives the corporate queen peace of mind when she has to travel overseas; she won’t have to worry about network compatibility with this slim Motorola phone.
 Angel Chai, a sales executive at Bluetooth Innovation The practical homemaker
What about the woman who just wants a phone? This sensible woman does not see the importance of owning a phone with a plethora of functions when all she wants is to make calls. She wants something user-friendly and none of that built-in radio/camera/Infrared jazz.
What the practical homemaker wants is an entry-level phone. This is defined to be a phone ranging from RM400 to RM600 – no picture-taking capability, no memory expansion slot and definitely no MP3 playback on the phone. But this lady would not miss all of these functions as she does not find any practical needs for them.
MW recommends the Nokia 3120, a simple phone with a colour screen that features some basic functions. Retailing at RM519, it’s by far, the best deal for those who only need basic phone functions.
The function of making and receiving calls is the main object of getting the 3120, but even so, it still comes with MMS capabilities should any one of her friends have some interesting MIDI ringtones or photos to share with her.
 Overrated features
The best method for identifying a phone specifically designed for women is not so much the colour as the functionalities.
Phone manufacturers sometimes include fragrance solutions, calorie counters, pink schedules and BMI calculators to attract the female crowd. Some phones even feature a built-in vanity mirror: the LCD screen doubles as a virtual mirror should the need arises.
These functions are all highly dispensable and serve mainly as marketing gimmicks to sway the uninformed. Take the life applications for instance, how accurate are they anyway? No woman should base her procreation schedule on a low-end piece of software on a phone.
As for integrated features, things like a virtual mirror will never function as well as the real thing. For less than RM5, a woman can get a small pocket mirror which would work just as well; probably better.
The Nokia 7280, which looks like a digitized lipstick, is an example of a phone that’s made specifically for women. It looks great but the phone falls short in terms of user-friendliness. Rather than having a keypad interface, it has a Navi Spinner that functions somewhat similar to the scroll wheel of an iPod. Looks cool but very hard to use. Thanks but no thanks.
Conclusion
Although we mentioned that with most women, form beats functionality, it doesn’t mean that we think it’s a good idea for a woman to choose her phones based on how they look alone. Ideally, some research should be done before a purchase is made.
If you’re a member of the fairer sex and have been cracking your head over what phone you should buy, MW hopes that this report will help you make an informed decision.
As for the men, we trust you’ve had an interesting read. The next time a pretty girl catches your eye, perhaps you’ll try checking out the type of phone she uses; it may give you a clue to what sort of person she is.
With additional reporting by Aaron Gray
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