But it didn’t have Bluetooth (we have a bluetooth headset in the car) and no Hebrew support (as we bought in China). So I finally took the plunge and got me a new phone – a Samsung Galaxy S. It’s an Android v2.2 smartphone with a 4″ Super-AMOLED display. And yeah – I chose that one because of that cool OLED display…

So I thought I’d write a short review comparing these two phones. As a phone, I have to say that the Nokia wins hands down. It’s smaller (less than half the size), has about 10 times the battery life, can be read better in the sun, the sound quality is better and the speaker is a lot better (The Galaxy S speaker is awful).

Now of course the Galaxy S has some advantages. Like the beautiful OLED display, touch (writing SMS messages is great!), applications, GPS, camera (and quite a good one, too) games (although, to be fair, the 1202 has Snake built-in while the Android phone comes with no games, so it’s a tie on games really) and the internet of course. Yes – I can now behave annoyingly like everyone else and stare at my small phone all day long instead of looking after my daughters at play. I can check my stock portfolio, read my gmail messages and throw birds at angry pigs (or is it the other way around?).

The biggest advantage of the Samsung phone is the great OLED. I can finally show everyone what I’ve been talking about all the time for about 12 years. It is really quite impressive – the colors are just so beautiful – when you take pictures, it looks better on the screen than in real life.

So am I happy with the switch? sometimes. Luckily I have two sim cards with the same number, so I can take the Nokia with me when I want to talk. To conclude, here’s a short feature-by-feature comparison:

• Display: the Galaxy S OLED is amazing, but the Nokia is more readable in the sun. It’s a tie really.
• Size: The Nokia is smaller – about half the size. Nokia wins hands down.
• Talking: The Nokia has better sound quality and a better speaker. Nokia wins hands down.
• Battery life: The Nokia lasts for 2 weeks, the Galaxy S only 2 days. Nokia wins here too.
• Buttons: There are a lot more buttons on the Nokia, so it wins again.
• Price: The Galaxy-S costs around 2,000NIS, you can get the 1202 unlocked for around 200. Nokia wins.
• Connectivity: The Nokia supports GSM. The Samsung has GSM, UMTS, HSPA, Bluetooth, Wi-fi and GPS. Samsung wins.
• Games: The Samsung has tons of games which you can download, but none are pre-installed. The Nokia has Snake, Chess and Sudoko – you don’t have to download anything. It’s a tie.
• Attention: The OLED on the Samsung is great, but everyone has such a phone today, so you don’t get any attention. The Nokia sure stands out though. Nokia wins
• Usability: The Galaxy-S is great if you want to find contacts, send messages, take a photo or a video, surf the internet or anything really. It wins here.

Final score:Nokia 8, Samsung 4. But I’ll keep the Galaxy S – just for the OLED display

But now I’m mostly taking photos of Abigail. Suddenly a nice lake or building just isn’t enough. I’m not sure how this happened. It might be because it’s more difficult to reach nice places now, with her on the back. Or it might be that almost everything seems to involve Abigail these days (I really take pity of the people we have to hang around with these days).

Anyway, here’s a new bunch of photos from Chengdu. And yes, most of them are with Abigail…

The weather in Chengdu is usually simply a mist – part humidity, part pollution, 100% gray and depressing. I’ve taken a lot of photos, expect some soon…

Abigail is behaving great – she’s getting a lot of attention (children are not so common in China, and western kids are really rare!), she’s starting to walk, and she’s talking all the time and learning new words and funny things to do every day. She’s also starting to get used to spicy food…

We are now settled in a nice little apartment (ok, not so little), Michal has started her studies (and is quite happy with it), and I’m back to work on my blogs and sites. Life continues…

Here are some more photos if you want.

PS – I can’t access Facebook from here, so if you want to comment, better do it via e-mail or my blog…

We went to the great-wall, and did some site seeing in Beijing, but we didn’t like the city very much. It’s a huge city, and it’s impossible to get from one place to the other on foot. The streets are wide, and the traffic is terrible. It’s not a hospitable city, at least not to us.

We’re hoping Chengdu will be better. We want to find a nice flat (I hope it will not take more than a few days), so we’ll have “our own place” and start to get into the daily routine.

It’s amazing how much more difficult it is to pack with a child. We carry about 3 times as much weight as we would if it were just the two of us. But somehow it’s also more fun because of Abigail – it’s gonna be great showing her the great wall and the panda bears

You can expect a lot of pictures – most of them with Abigail obviously. I took 2 cameras, 8 GB flash and almost 20,000,000 pixels…

Abigail is also getting excited, and has started to read Mao’s little red book:

Check out the photos we took at the beach