It was a reward of sorts.

It was my first year managing the Philippine operations of IAS, Inc. and I was still alive so I thought I’d get something nice for myself. I had my eyes set on a PDA phone and the Sony Ericsson M600i seemed to be my best bet in terms of affordability and functionality (though I was kind of bummed it didn’t have a camera).

Sony Ericsson’s P900 series has ‘em but I found the models too bulky for my taste.

As a comic book creator, I use a lot of photo reference in my work and a digital camera has become an invaluable part of the gadgets I carry with me on a day-to-day basis.

The only problem was that the model was sold out and none of the outlets I was talking to knew when the next batch of units were arriving. I even checked with Sony Ericsson’s Glorietta branch but it was the same story. I was leaving their store when I noticed Motorola’s display stand (their store was beside Sony Ericsson’s) and decided to check it out.

There it was, right at the back, near the counter…the Motoming A1200.

The Motoming is an attention getter, no doubt about it, but in an understated kinda way. It’s the type that makes you go “…wow” as compared to other flashier phones that elicits “HWAAAOOW!”

Of course, I didn’t buy it right away.

I did what any self-respecting geek would do before making a major purchase: I went home and surfed for porn…and also did a bit of research about the A1200.

It turns out that there were very little reviews about it. It was so new in fact that the Motorola Philippine website still didn’t have any details about it. I tried analyzing the things going for it: a 2 MP camera (has a macro mode, can take videos, and a business card capture feature), an MP3 player with an FM radio, document reader, photo-editing features, speaker phone mode, the ability to play 3D games, and PDA capabilities.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

I checked with the M600i’s features and…uh, well…

On December 22, 2006 I became one of the first owners of a Motoming A1200 in the Philippines.

Little did I know that my life would be changed by the purchase.