That seems to be the story of test drivers, people who are given the latest gadgets – cars included – to use and enjoy for a limited time. We can’t get too familiar and comfortable with the new unit or risk having wants way beyond our means. Tempting.

Samsung Z300

But it was easy to become familiar – and then comfortable – with the Samsung Z300. That is, if you have simple requirements like mine – call, text, easy to input and search contact file, simple alarm clock and easy to find silent, vibrate or loud mode.

As you might sense, I am over-aged for appreciating high-tech gizmos. I am a simple mobile phone user. For entertainment, I have my television set at home, my iPod Nano in my bag, and a test drive vehicle in the parking lot. And for the short while I had the Samsung Z300, I had a mobile phone as an entertainment.

That small piece of electronic magic which fits in your fist – and can get lost in a woman’s bag – is an entertainment center in my simple mind. It has an MP3 player with a memory for a few songs (get a memory card to store more). That means one less thing to put in between the waist band of my running pants and my stomach (my Nike pants does not have pockets). Incidentally, that waistband also holds car keys and a P20-bill for my water.

And if there’s more time to get entertained, that gadget also had a whole music video with exceptional audio and video quality. I was amused to view something I see only on TV when my kids have the remote, this time on a monitor where I read text messages. Naturally, it was more entertaining to follow a whole dance production routine, rather than read text messages from publicists inquiring about their press release!

As if that’s not enough to boggle my technologically-backward know-how, the Z300 had a video phone capability. That meant I could actually watch a friend talk to me, and she, me. I hesitated to use that function, though because I didn’t know anyone who has expressed the capability to send or receive video calls. Perhaps they are like me, who are too lazy to learn how to call a friend and allow him or her to see my face. That will require quite a performance from me because I am on the phone. (As you can sense by now, I am not a phone pal kind of person.)

The camera of the Z300 is another entertaining feature. It has two cameras – the interior lens can take your picture while you are holding the phone, and the exterior lens can take the person or scene in front of your phone. That’s neat. No wonder my son had good pictures of himself stored in my photo file.

But that’s not all its camera can do. The brochure said it has a multi-shot which can take several action stills and you can select the number of still images the camera will take. If you’re in the “artist mode,” the Z300 camera allows you to make a “mosaic shot” – take several stills and save them in one frame. You can even select the layout.

Other things it can do are: change the color tone of the image, apply a decorative frame, select the shutter speed between each shot in multi-shot mode, and many more! And you can do about the same things in video recording mode.

I didn’t have the time – and the patience – to try all of those modes. Next time, I might just have time for that kind of entertainment. I enjoy taking pictures.

For the time I had the Z300, I needed to learn how to use it so I could stay in touch with the office while I was visiting the Tokyo Motor Show. With my limited technical skills and my short patience, I learned how to call, send and retrieve a text message, record my contacts in the directory, and change the phone settings (like the ringing tone, the noisy keypad tone, and the wallpaper) – in half a day. My kids call that a feat because I don’t have enough patience to stay long enough to learn about a new gadget. (If I can’t get a kitchen gadget to do it for me! Or I put it back in its box to be given another “life” as someone’s present sometime in the future.)