in my opinion, 3g phones do not recieve signals like data cards do. if you use phone in PC for internet (long hours), you are killing the phone. battery drains soon and the phone heats up fast. (my
Nokia 5320 cant be held in hand after one hour usage). however, if you are on the go and want to DL stuff like 20mb files, songs videos etc , phone is a good option. data card is designed for heavy duty. get a good one and forget the rest.
You would almost always carry your phone rather than your data card.
After recharging with 4200/-, i thought of buying a data card, but did not due to below reasons.
1> Most data cards available on the market support max 7.2 or 3.6 Mbps speeds.
Huawei E series are amongst the best. I have heard about issues with Micromax and Terracom linktop.
2> On the contrary, 3G mobiles (I use a Nokia E52) supports HSDPA@10.2 Mbps. I might not get these speeds now, but no harm having one ready
Nokia 5230 > HSDPA@ 3.6Mbps
I recharged on the 04-Nov, today its 11-Nov. Have downloaded 19GB in 6 days, all through my E52. Mobile was tethered to the
laptop with data cable via ovi suite. Never once did the phone heat up to an extent that could be noticed.
Interesting observation- I also checked with a data card, but the speeds i got while using the mobile was approx 10% higher.
For folks who hate cables, try out Joiku Spot light/premium- this is turns your phone to a full fledged Wireless
router..!!