My first 3G experience

I tried a bunch of 3G phones for the first time today at a Starhub store. A mixed experience. Here's what I found:

• Download speeds are as good as promised, even for video. Comparable to broadband on a PC.
• When a site isn't optimised for mobile, it isn't that much fun. I typed in www.google.com and a version of Google's site custom-made for mobile phones opened up in a flash. Search was good too. Then I typed in www.amazon.com. Gave up on it after about a minute or so. Even though Amazon has a page specifically for cellphones, it was either still too large to be downloaded as fast as Google or my phone browser wasn't automatically forwarded to the cellphone area of the site.
• Typing in URLs is a bit of a pain. Typing in a top-level domain isn't that bad, but can you imagine typing in something longer? I guess the Bookmarks function would be pretty heavily used. But I still think a better interface is needed.
• Watching video was a surprisingly good experience, I thought. Videos downloaded within two shakes of a bon-bon. But was that because the files were hosted locally on Singapore's country-wide broadband network? I don't know. Another continuously streaming video worked just as well. Nary a hiccup after the initial buffering.
• But then, watching videos on a tiny screen was no fun at all, especially when I tried to watch some football highlights. Forget the ball, I could barely see the little men in shorts even with the phone practically stuck to my nose. Watching videos from the Entertainment catalogue was much better because I didn't need the detail needed for watching sports. The only thing missing was probably a good pair of earphones. Maybe when these crazy Star Trek-type eyewear thingies come out, it'll be a better experience.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  (See here, here and here for more.)
• I got bored pretty quickly with the videos. Many reasons -- tiny screen, not a wide enough range of videos, standing in a noisy place with people breathing down my neck, tinny sounds...
• Starhub also seemed to have hooked the phone up to some game provider's site. But I gotta say -- S$6 (about US$3.50) for a game w/o seeing a screenshot or even a game synopsis? That sounds frightfully optimistic. I'd never buy that. (Of course, that's a comment on the game seller's business model, nothing to do with the phone or with 3G.)