I bought a Sharp GX series mobile phone again, a GX-32. This new phone was put on the market by Smartone on Tuesday. I missed the first shipment and got the phone on Wednesday. Quite a lot of people are interested in this phone, and the waiting list is long at every Smartone outlet.

The most fascinating feature of GX-32 is the built-in one mega-pixel CCD camera. The largest dimension of picture it can take is 858 x 1144. The camera also features digital zoom (7 levels for the smallest-size photo) and adjustable shutter. The camera can also be used to take videoes for length of one minute or less (I have not tried this function so I am not sure about the limitation).

GX-32 also has MP3 replay capability, with some limitations. In the manual, it is stated that the player only supports 128-bit sampling rate, non-VBR MP3 songs. Users reported that they can play 192-bit songs. Others said that Chinese song names cannot be displayed (a solution has been provided: just delete the id3 tag in the MP3 by using software like Winamp). I read these reports and applied the solutions, so none of these problems have happened to me. The problem I did encounter is that I cannot use my Bluetooth headset to hear MP3.

Yes, GX-32 supports Bluetooth headset, but headset only. You cannot connect GX-32 with your PC or PDA via Bluetooth. It really sucks as you have to revert to the infra-red port if you want to go online with your PC or PDA wirelessly via GX-32. If you are worried about transferring the files from GX-32 to PC, relax, because GX-32 supports expansion memory card, either SD (up to 512 MB) or MMC (up to 128 MB). You can use the card to store and transfer photos, videoes, ringtones and MP3s (but not the Java games).

By the way, I have also purchased a Bluetooth headset, which is very lightweight. The connection is just alright, at least I lost connection long before I reached the alleged maximum distance of 10 meters.

One improvement I have found is the time for loading the portrait when you received a call. It is a tradition that you can attach a photo with a phone number so when you receive a call from that phone number, the photo will pop up. The problem for GX-22 is that it takes about 10 seconds for the photo to load (on the external screen), the person at the other side of the line would hang up by then. With GX-32, the loading time is much shorter (though it is still too long for me — I become impatient when the phone rings).

But not all the flaws are remedied. The alarm function is still a joke: you must turn on the phone for the alarm function to work. So you must keep the phone on if you want the alarm to wake you up. It is just stupid.

Almost forget to say: unlike the upgrade from GX-12 to GX-22, you cannot retain and use the old batteries — GX-32 uses different batteries.

After all, mega-pixel cameraphone is the trend. You may be able to suppress your desire to switch now, but that cannot be held for long.