It has become a pass time of mine, when I’m on public transportation to count how many old skool mobile phones I can spot. I remember three years ago it was cool to spot the first iPhone and now you see more iPhones then you can count. If you don’t like to be like everyone else and like to stand out, you can now buy a brand new old skool mobile phone.

Lëkki™ a French brand sells the Nokia 3210 and the Motorola StarTAC. It’s totally back to the 90′s with these two phones. Plain old mobile phone with black and gray screen, no camera, no internet only calls and SMS messages. You can choose amongst different colors, like green, yellow, and black.

Starting at 95 euros you can own a brand new Nokia 3210 that is sure to raise eyes in a iPhone and BlackBerry dominated world. It is also an ideal gift for people who shun all the latest technology.

The StarTAC I remember well, it was the first mobile phone we owned back in 1998. I used to take it with me when going out at night. I still remember how thin the pull out antenna is.

The original starTAC costs 150 euro while a brandless one costs 130 euros. What a difference compared to what they where worth back in the 90′s.

The overall winner was the woZZon search engine application that gives access to a 60,000-strong database of geocoded venues and 90,000 unique events.

When used with Ovi Maps, it makes it easy to find local events, whether they’re huge stadium gigs or small, local shows.

The winning company wins £20,000, a place in the Ovi Store, plus ticket and travel to a Nokia developer event in Spring 2010 and one year’s membership to Forum Nokia Launchpad.

Runner-up apps were Little Spender, which tracks spending behaviour; Live Talkback that offers live audience interactivity tools; Virtual Scorer that uses advanced handset features and state-of-the-art motion detection for a virtual gaming environment; and MoviesNow that offers local film information.

Nokia intends to run similar competitions in other countries, with winners getting their apps in the local Ovi Stores.

It’s a good idea, but it does suggest that Nokia’s store is not nearly as popular as Apple’s app store. I can’t imagine Apple running anything similar, because so many developers are already creating apps for it.

Of course, running such schemes means that you’re more likely to get quality apps, rather than just quantity.

If you are not familiar with this model, just think of the Nokia E71. They are basically the same except that the E71 has additional features and costs considerably more. Physically, they are practically identical, except that the E63 comes in red and blue colors. The casing is also made of plastic and not steel.

So why did I choose the E63 over the E71? This is mainly because of the huge difference in pricing and the fact that I can do most everything with the E63 that you can do with the E71. True, it does not have GPS but hey, I don’t really need one.

So here are some of the relevant specs:

Display and 3D
• Size: 2.36″
• Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA)
• Up to 16 million colors
• TFT active matrix (QVGA)
• Two customisable home screen modes
Operating frequency
• E63-1 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/2100
• E63-2 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/1900
• E63-3 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/2100
Data network
• CSD
• HSCSD
• GPRS class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 100/60 kbps (DL/UL)
• EDGE class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 296/177.6 kbps (DL/UL)
• WCDMA 900/2100 or 850/1900 or 850/2100, maximum speed 384/384 kbps (DL/UL)
• WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g
- WLAN Security: WEP, 802.1X, WPA, WPA2
• TCP/IP support
• IETF SIP and 3GPP
The only drawback I am seeing right now is that I cannot seem to find a lot of apps made specifically for the phone. But that’s probably because it’s still new. Most apps for the E71 will work for this, though. Seriously, it’s good value for your money.

I am now on the hunt for a new phone that will replace broken phone. I am torn between going back to the usual candybar phone, which is more durable because of a smaller screen, or just get another fully keyboard phone (I never type that silly text speak. There are some things that need to be preserved and that’s the ability to spell correctly). Price is also a big consideration in my hunt. The iPhone looks very nifty but I don’t want to blow good money on an iPhone just yet. The E71 is priced more conservatively but the Nokia PC suite is just a pain to use!

So many choices to consider. I think I’ll resurrect my trusty SE K750i for the time being while I’m thinking of what phone to buy.