Posted by a good friend whose name is Ian but who prefers to be called James online.

One thing about impulse buys, people almost always end up regretting them. That's exactly what I was thinking the other day as we rode the bus home from Alabang Festival Mall. I just bought something, on impulse. Something completely beyond my means. Something I would never buy on my own had it not been for a certain nagging voice in my left ear. I bought myself a new phone.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have finally relinquished my grip on my aging, obsolete Nokia 2600. I am now the proud owner of The Tube, Nokia's touchscreen flagship (or should I say flag-phone), the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

I got to say, the marketing girl at WellCom did a really good job at getting my attention -- Something Renee (the girlfriend) wasn't exactly happy about but still, I was mighty impressed. First thing that got me was that the 5800 was a touch screen XpressMusic phone that had everything else Renee wanted! WiFi, HSDPA, A-GPS and a good 3.2 MP digital camera with Carl Zeiss optics. She just had to convince me to buy it. Needless to say, I was being reeled in. After more salestalk (quite unnecessary if you ask me), I caved. Walked out of there with the silliest smile on my face.

Do I regret it? I thought I would. But, no. The phone's great. The haptic response mechanism really helps me transition to touchscreen typing. Response is a bit slow sometimes, especially when I got a lot of apps open, but on the whole, I don't see anything I want to complain about. And the music, oh the music. I don't think I'll be regretting this impulse buy anytime soon. When I do, I'll just take Renee and my atm card again with me to the mall.