The new Nokia N80 phone. (Below) A Motorola phone on display

And the winner is... Love makes the world go round? Yuck! That’s old hat, man. A certain Geoff Boycott would say, “oonly my granny woould be saying sooch a thing”.

In the new world order, the mantra is technology, technology and more technology. Now we talk of not just plain engineering with balls and bearings but cutting-edge technology of micro-processors which can make a thousand calculations in a nano second and chips not bigger than a 25-paise coin, storing gigabytes of data.

From mobile phones to i-Pods and palmtops, technology has changed lives like never before. Come to think of it, now you have special competitions for “films” shot with mobile phones fitted with cameras. And if you thought mobile films and photos are just “junk”, think again.

Pinjalim Bora, a young man from Jorhat in Upper Assam, has won a worldwide contest organised by Nokia N-series titled See New Photo. Guess what Bora has won? He will spend a day with photographer Raghu Rai, get two complimentary tickets from Virgin Airlines and a free Nokia N-90. And you thought mobile phones were just a tool for communication!

N’s the buzzword. No wonder the Nokia N-series has become the latest craze in the city and those who love their handsets are already flaunting their latest gadgets.

Says Sobhan Vyas of Vishal Electronics, a dealer of mobile handsets in Fancy Bazar: “The N-series mobile sets are among the best in the market today, packed with great features like a digital music player and sophisticated cameras”. He adds, “The N-series phones from Nokia are a big hit with youngsters and those employed in the corporate sector.”

The Nokia N series, however, does not come cheap. But price is not the moot point. While the N-70 range of cell phones start at Rs 19,500 in the city, price for the other models are:

N-71 for Rs 21,500, N-80 series for Rs 28,000, N-90 for 28,500 and the latest N-91 for Rs 29,950.

Debojit Bhuyan, a businessman who bought a N-91 mobile handset a week ago, said, “It’s the most amazing phone I have ever laid my hands on. It’s superb. I have to travel constantly on business engagements. The N-91 is the best companion I could ever possess. I can put on my headphone and listen to my favourite music all the way.”

According to Bhuyan, the N-91’s best feature is its 3.5 mm audio jack which allows users to attach headphones of their choice and not depend on the custom-made headphones that one has to use for other handsets.

Though everyone is impressed by the N-series, there is a common complaint among buyers. The N-series cell phones come in sealed packs and hence buyers are unable to “see and feel” the handsets before buying. “It is like buying a fish blindfolded,” said Chayamoni Talukdar, a housewife who uses a N-series cell phone. But that’s going to change when Nokia introduces its “N-Zones” range of cell phones for select dealers.

“These will be counters dealing only with N-series cell phones. Here, we will have demo sets for buyers to see, feel and then buy,” said Vyas.

Another handset which is a close second to the N-series is Motorola’s Razr V3i and Razr V3, which comes for around Rs 12,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively but are packed with cool features beneath a stylish exterior. It comes with a 1.23 mega-pixel camera, I-tunes music software and extendable memory.

“I love the shocking pink colour of the V3. It bowled me over the moment I saw it for the first time,” said Sanchita Choudhury, a sophomore.

Coming up: Guwahati wakes up to the i-Pod revolution