Sony Ericsson T610: A Geek's Perfect Phone
Written: Mar 06 '04 (Updated Mar 06 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Clarity: |
 |
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Bluetooth, Useful PIM, Screen, Easy to Use, Built Solid
Cons: Proprietary Connector, Reception, Bad Camera, Slowness
The Bottom Line: A phone with it all, you cannot lose with the Sony Ericsson T610.
|
|
|
| mookiekong's Full Review: Sony Ericsson T610 |
I always wanted a Sony Ericsson T68i. That was, and still is a cool phone. The phone had Bluetooth, a color screen, and IR – still ingredients for a phone today that stand out. It was a geek’s drool toy. But, I came on the GSM phone scene a little late. And by the time I found it, it was already old news and there were phones that had a little of everything the T68i offered -- but no phone had it all.
So, when I dropped my trusty Nokia 6610 in a puddle one rainy day, I had a choice to make. Should I replace my Nokia 6610 with another Nokia 6610 or go for a new phone? How could I give up a chance to get a brand new toy? I headed out and found me a Sony Ericsson T610, which is the successor to the T68i. It comes with all the features that the T68i had and more. For those of you wondering what the difference is between the T610 and the T616, it is only a difference in frequencies that are supported. The T610 was originally made for European countries, while the T616 is specifically designed for the US. Other than that, the phones are identical.
Bluetooth
The biggest pro about this phone is the Bluetooth connectivity. A little note here, I will be writing this review from the perspective of a MacOS X (Panther) user, not a Windows user. Bluetooth is a short distance radio technology. It runs on the same frequencies as Wi-Fi, but the distance served is much shorter – typically 30 feet. It is built as a cable replacement technology. With the built-in Bluetooth on the T610 I am able to use my Bluetooth headset for handsfree and connect to my iBook.
The benefits are huge for this. The headset can ride with me while my T610 rides in my backpack. All controls are done from the headset or via voice control. But, the coolest thing is the Mac connectivity. In the box, the T610 comes with PC connectivity software. There is nothing for us Mac users though. That is not a bad thing though since Apple has been so nice as to fully support Bluetooth within MacOS X. Apple’s iSync lets me synchronize my Address Book and iCal with the phone immediately. Apple includes Bluetooth File Exchange for sending themes, ringtones, and backgrounds direct to the phone. There are other cool tools available also. One example is Salling Clicker (http://homepage.mac.com/jonassalling/Shareware/Clicker/) which turns the T610 into a remote control for the Mac. This allows me to control DVD Player, iTunes, and all sorts of other stuff from the phone.
I can use the Bluetooth connectivity with my GPRS connection to get wireless Internet access on my iBook and Palm Tungsten T from virtually anywhere there is cellular coverage.
As mentioned before transferring themes, ringtones, and backgrounds to and from the phone is effortless. This is hugely in part because of Sony Ericsson’s foresight; they did not make the file storage and transfers a proprietary affair. With a standard Bluetooth utility (whether Apple’s Bluetooth File Transfer or a Windows transfer utility), I am able to get files onto my phone without any fuss or software. The same cannot be said about Nokia or Samsung phones which need special software (Nokia’s PC Suite or Samsung’s EasyGPRS) to get files over to the phone.
Shape, Size, and Look
The T610 is a tad bit smaller than my old Nokia 6610. That means that the thing is pretty small. It is easy to slip into a pocket and carry without noticing it is there. The outside shell of the phone is made mostly of aluminum. There are parts of plastic, but it is very elegant looking and eye catching because of the aluminum. The actual shape of the phone can be elicit much debate. I think the simple rectangular shape with soft rounded edges and clean button layout is very elegant. Others may say that the phone is very plain looking. I find the look of the phone much more appealing than the funky layouts of the current releases of Nokia phones – which are bordering garish.
One problem I have is with the strange plastic material that Sony Ericsson picked to cover the screen with. It is a fingerprint and oil magnet! I have to constantly wipe the screen because it seems to attract everything.
The T610 comes with a beautiful screen that is large and able to pump out 65k colors. When used indoors the screen is bright and beautiful. The problem comes when using the phone outdoors. Because of the STN technology, the screen gets quite washed out. Sometimes it is plain unreadable. But in most conditions the screen is still usable outdoors. The STN technology also makes for slower refreshes of the screen. This may cause some ghosting while playing games, but otherwise it is not a big deal.
The phone shell can physically be replaced, but it is not made to be changed. Having said that, I like the solid feel of the phone. There is no hint of creakiness in the T610 as with Nokia’s that have a swappable faceplate. It comes down to preference though, if you like being able to customize the phone exterior, the T610 may disappoint. But if you like a solid feeling phone, then the T610 will not disappoint. My Samsung R225m felt as solid as the T610, my Nokia 6610 was creaky.
Say Cheeze! Or Maybe Not
Whatever you do, do not buy the T610 because of the camera. If you do, you will be sorely disappointed. The camera on the T610 is nothing more than a fun camera that takes some pretty crappy pictures. They are blurry, fuzzy, and generally barely visible. If you want a sampling of the pictures that come off the camera, look at this website: http://www.ultramookie.com/snap8/ Although it is fun having the camera on the phone, it is by far not a real digital camera replacement.
Sound and Reception
The sound of the phone is much better than the Nokia 6610 and the Samsung R225m. The Nokia 6610 phone had a hissing problem and did not perform terribly well with high volumes. It also sound a bit tinny. The Samsung R225m sounds OK. But when the two are compared to the T610, it is no comparison at all. The T610 has a full sound to it and there is no hiss. The volume is very loud at the loudest setting. On the other side of the call there is no noticeable difference from the Nokia 6610 or Samsung R225m though. But, incoming sound is a lot better.
The Nokia 6610, by far got the best reception of the three phones. The Samsung R225m and the T610 are pretty close in reception. Though I think the T610 is slightly less than the R225m. In my room, there is hardly any reception at all for all three phones. The 6610 and R225m are able to pick up a usable signal, but the T610 sometimes has a hard time getting a usable signal. Especially sitting on my desk. Don’t listen to those that will tell you that the reception of the T610 is as bad as the T68i. It is not, not by a long shot. The phone performs well, but just not as well as my last two GSM phones. Outdoors, all three phones perform the same.
The one thing I miss is the speakerphone option from the 6610. That is one useful feature and it is sorely missing from the T610. The use of a Bluetooth headset is a good replacement though.
The GPRS connectivity with the T610 seems a lot snappier than the GPRS connectivity with the 6610. Pages come back quickly when I access them from the built-in WAP browser. The built-in WAP browser is much better than the Nokia 6610 WAP browser. It stores the last few pages that have been entered into the system, saving a lot of tapping on the keypad!
Software
The built-in software is based around a proprietary OS. The PIM (Personal Information Management) software is pretty good. As I mentioned before the phone can be easily synchronized with a PC or a Mac. The built-in calendar, though not as fancy as the Palm calendar, is enough for most of us. I have been switching away from my Palm Tungsten T for calendaring because of this. Now I have been using the iCal plus T610 combination and most all of my calendaring needs are taken care of. The one thing that is bothersome about the calendar and the iSync integration is that whole day events do not seem to get synchronized correctly, so I end up making appointments for 12:01am for these whole day appointments to show up on the T610.
The phone book in the T610 synchronizes only phone numbers and email addresses with the Apple Address Book application. Address information is left on the iBook. That’s not something that I really miss a lot, but it would have been nice to have addresses synchronized over to the phone also.
There is a built-in IMAP/POP3/SMTP mail client in the T610. This is an awesome feature that I did not realize until I started playing around with the phone. What this means is that I can check and send email from my T610 without having to go through some WAP page. All the email gets downloaded to my phone, I can even set the phone to check email on a set interval. This is one very convenient feature to have on the phone and was a great surprise to me when I discovered the functionality. Very cool.
The Java implementation on the T610 is slower also. It takes a lot longer to launch a Java application or game on the T610 than it does on the Nokia 6610.
The short joystick on the front of the T610 makes for easy navigation throughout the well laid out menu system.
Drawbacks
The phone is near perfect in features and functionality. But there are still some things that could have been better. The T610, like the Nokia 6610 does not have a standard 2.5mm hands free port and relies on a special connector. For those that cannot afford a Bluetooth hands free headset, this limits the options for wired hands free headsets. Though in the box of my T-Mobile T610 there was a free wired headset.
The built-in OS is a bit sluggish at times. There is more delay than with my 6610. It is not extremely slow, but slower nonetheless. The menu system is definitely faster than the T68i menu system. Along with this slowness is the T9 predictive text slowness. Nokia’s T9 is fast and efficient. The T9 on the T610 is a lot slower and requires the use of the joystick, which is inefficient. With the Nokia T9 system the key (usually 0) is used to flip between the different predicted text. With the T610 it shows a drop-down menu that one has to use the joystick to select with. It just does not feel as efficient and does not work as well since the implementation is a lot slower.
The buttons on the T610 are small and because of the larger screen, the buttons are pushed down the phone. This makes for the need to use two hands to text message in most instances.
Also, the phone comes with an increasing ringer that can’t seem to be disabled. I set the increasing ringer setting to Off and the ringer still does it. It is an annoyance in loud environments where I cannot hear the beginning of the ringer and may miss a call because of this. I have turned on the vibrate mode along with the ringer mode to alleviate this if the phone is in my pocket or in its holster on my hip.
Conclusion
The Sony Ericsson T610 is a phone that has everything but the kitchen sink in it. It is a great phone for those who are looking for a phone that has some serious connectivity. And for geeks like me, it is a dream phone with all the options that it gives – especially Bluetooth connectivity. For the general public who is just looking for a regular phone to use, the T610 maybe an overkill, but even if they do not use half the functionality, it is still a well performing phone. There are some drawbacks to the phone such as the crummy camera, slow performance in some situations, and less than perfect reception. But, on a whole this phone is one to keep. I am glad I picked it up and you won’t be sorry if you got one too.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
Recommended for: Adventurous Technophiles - Tough and Durable
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
mookiekong
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: San Jose, CA, USA
Reviews written: 68
Trusted by: 25 members
About Me:
Current Mookie Obsession: Apple iPhone 8GB and Fedora 8.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.