Recently I decided to take Amazon up on their amazing cell phone rebate offers and picked up a Sony Ericsson T300 w/CommuniCam (free after rebate) for my fiancee. Before handing it over to her, I took it out for a spin naturally. ;-) Cell phone service provided by T-Mobile (formerly Voicestream) and I chose their $29.99 Talk-n-Text plan which comes with 1MB of T-Zones service (which is essential for full use of this phone).

Essentially, the T300 is the poor man's T68. Besides minor size differences, the only functional differences between the T300 and T68 are the lack of voice command and Bluetooth and slimmed down Organizer features. The T300 does have a leg up on the T68 in having polyphonic ringtones and better support for the MCA-25 CommuniCam.

Not Quite Edible
Many people have commented on the T300's candybar look and it really is pretty minimalistic as far as phone style is concerned. It's just a rectangle with rounded edges, without the suave curves of the T68. Size-wise it compares quite favorably to the T68, being only 6 mm longer and 1 mm thicker. On paper, the T300 is 16 grams heavier than the T68. In everyday use, these differing specs make zero difference.

With its glossy front cover though, stealing a line from the Mac crowd here, the T300 does look almost lickable. Not that I tried. =p The cell phone itself is basically all plastic which I don't really have a problem with. Although I do miss the old pre-merger Ericsson days where the T series were built solidly with some actual metal in the frame and the designs weren't so early Nokia-like. The one piece that does look cheap to me is the sliding volume key located on the left side. They could've made it a little smoother. But overall the unit that I have seems to be solidly put together. No strange and unexpected rattling noises when I shake it or anything.

The T300 is one of the few Ericsson phones that has exchangeable face covers although the only cover I've seen available so far is the default Mystical Green that comes with the T-Mobile offerings. It's more shimmering black than green and my fiancee isn't very fond of it. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like any of the other colors are available yet and the third-party ones are all pretty darn ugly. But the default black/green cover looks just fine to me.

The T300 does have the same sized 1.3" x 1.1" 256 color display as the T68. However, the screen on the T300 is _much_ brighter than on the T68 which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because the brighter LCD display makes it easier to use in daylight and makes the display just look better. A curse because some of the pictures I uploaded for use on the T68 which I then transferred over to the T300 now look a bit washed out on the brighter screen. This is especially obvious with skin tones which unfortunately, is what you're usually going to be seeing a lot of on cell phones since people will most likely have pictures of people that they know to associate with their phone numbers. So now I have to either readjust my existing pics so that they look ok on either phone or just make 2 different versions for each phone. Pain in the butt either way.

I just discovered an easier solution to the problem I talked about in the paragraph above. Basically, with the T300's brighter screen, the Contrast settings between the T68 and the T300 do not match. I have my T68's contrast set to 0 (range of -5 to 5). Comparing the contrast bar between the T68 and the T300 shows that the T68 0 is equivalent to the T300's -2. So once I set my T300's contrast to -2, the pictures look fine on both phones. Much better than having to adjust the pictures themselves. To set your phone's contrast, just go to Settings > Display > Contrast.

The other thing that I really like about the T300 screen is that you no longer have to worry about scratching it up or damaging it because the T300 screen, unlike the T68 screen, is actually located _under_ the face cover. Those of you who might have read my T68 review probably know that one of my pet peeves was the screen getting oily from everyday use. With the T300, I can wipe the oil and dust and other grime off the screen without fear of damaging it because I'm actually just cleaning the top cover. Plus if the cover area above the screen ever becomes scratched beyond the point of no return, just replace the cover. Easy.

The T300 uses the same joynub navigation system as on the T68 but the nub in this case is about a quarter of the height of the one on the T68. The recessed area that the joynub sits in is shallower on the T300 which is probably the reason for the shorter nub. Which is pretty unfortunate because it makes navigation a bit touchier to use. With the T68 I could use the nub with any part of my thumb without a problem. With the shorter nub on the T300, I have to use the area closer to the tip of my thumb to be able to use it effectively. Since I was already used to the joynub action with my T68, I didn't find this to be too much of a problem but I can see how newbies can find the system a bit annoying to get used to.

The keypad is in a regular, utilitarian style layout with silver Tic Tac style keys. Mmmm... Lime Tic Tacs.... Anyway, the numerical keys are a bit thinner than I think would be comfortable for most people. The Option and Clear keys are just waaay too thin but the Yes and No keys are fine. Tactile feedback is pretty sound. No complaints there.

On the T300, the battery is actually located beneath a thin plastic back panel as opposed to being the back panel like it is on the T68. The panel has some give to it though if you push down on it but it fits fine. Although how do they make extended-length batteries for the T300? Doesn't seem possible with this layout.

The only other notable external features are the IR port on the upper right side, the standard charger, handsfree, accessories plugins on the bottom and a pushable notch on the top that you use to replace the front cover. Oh and the raised green/silver SonyEricsson logo on the back, above the latch that releases the back panel. Very nice logo.

The T300 also comes with the same portable handsfree kit that came with my T68. No frills, no problem.

Key Ingredients
The T300 uses pretty much the same software as the T68. Nine main menu selections: Phone Book, Messages, Calls, Fun & Games, Settings, WAP Services (renamed T-Zones by T-Mobile), Organizer, Connect, and My Shortcuts. Works pretty much the same as on the T68, no big deal. Phone Book functions about the same except you can't associate a voice command with a contact. Plus the phone seems to have half the built-in memory than on the T68. The T68 can pack in 510 numbers while the T300 can only handle 250.

Under Messages, you have the regular SMS and then MMS (or what T-Mobile relabeled "Pictures"). The only option missing here from the T68 is Area Info which isn't much of a loss anyway since it's not used. MMS works decently under T-Mobile. I've had cases of where it took two tries to get a message sent but overall it works. You can send messages to another MMS-enabled phone or an email address. Pretty handy. They don't seem to have skimped on the amount of multimedia stuff you can store on the T300 when compared to the T68 this time around which is a good thing. Sending out an MMS is pretty simple. You get to choose whichever picture stored under My Pictures and also get to add some text to the message and then you just choose where to send it. Easy as pie. Email and Chat functionality also exist on the T300 but I don't use 'em so nothing to say about them.

Nothing new with the Calls menu. You just manage your calls lists here.

Fun & Games here is a little different. Reflecting the usage that SonyEricsson is expecting for the T300 compared to the T68, Games is the first option under this menu. On the T68, it's buried way down in the 7 position. The T300 also does not have the Draw Pictures function which isn't really much of a loss. But besides that, everything else is here as on the T68.

The games included with the T300 are: Erix, Alien Scum, Black Deal, and Minigolf. Erix I never really figured out how to play. Alien Scum is basically Galaga although I find it a bit awkward to play with the keypad. Black Deal is blackjack and Minigolf is self-explanatory. There's also a New Games option that automatically takes you to SonyEricsson's game download page (via WAP) where you can download: Ace of Spades (card game), Deep Abyss, and Five Stones (looks like Othello or Go). These games are more feature rich than those on the T68 since they all take like a dozen seconds to load up when you run them and utilize the polyphonic sounds available for the T300.

My Pictures seems to come with the exact same stock pictures that were available on the T68. Tossed 'em. Open up more room for my own pics. Resolution is the same 101x80 as on the T68. Themes also come with the same stock seasons. Nothing special about them.

My Sounds is the same old except with the existence of polyphonic ring tones. You can easily tell the difference between a normal tone and a polyphonic one by the one note symbol next to the normal tones and the double note symbol next to the polys. You can download more poly tones from T-Mobiles site but you have to pay like a buck for each tone so choose wisely. Although every month they do have some free tones that anyone can download. The poly tones definitely sound a lot better but it takes awhile to get used to cause I'm used to the regular grating tones that have been used with cell phones since the early days. Another nice little feature is that the poly tones gradually fade in so that you (and everyone around you) aren't suddenly surprised by a loud rendition of Beethoven's 5th or something.

The Settings menu is also standard. Every part of your phone can be configured here. WAP Services (aka T-Zones) is where you go to browse any WAP sites that you might want to visit. If you purchased the phone from T-Mobile, then it should come with a T-Zones WAP profile automatically built-in. Unfortunately, they've also locked this profile so that you can't get in to see what the settings are. Very annoying although not surprising.

The scaled-down Organizer menu is missing the Calendar, Notes, and Code Memo functions but retains Alarms, Stopwatch, and Calculator. Calendar/Notes is replaced by the new Events function which allows you to schedule events and alarms to go with.

Connect is where you can play with the Infrared options to transfer files to and from the T300. Without Bluetooth, the only way to get files to the T300 is either downloading them from a WAP site, using a physical data cable, or through infrared. I've transferred pictures, themes, and sounds between my T68 and the T300 without a problem. And with the relatively small file sizes that we're dealing with, it's plenty quick enough.

And My Shortcuts is the same as usual. You can assign any other function on this phone to any position in this menu. Pretty simple stuff.

T9 predictive text input works just as well on the T300 although they did move the position of some characters. Like when you want to add a space, you now use the # button instead of 1.

Phone reception is, as far as I can tell, _exactly_ the same as my T68. I get the same number of bars on both phones no matter where I go. I've never had a problem with reception (probably since I spend most of my time in or near metropolitan areas) but I know plenty of people who have complained about this issue so if you didn't like reception on a T68, you won't like it on a T300 either.

Some Icing
The T300 from T-Mobile comes with the new MCA-25 CommuniCam accessory that lets you take pictures of varying sizes: S (80x60), M (160x120), L (320x240), XL (640x480). Unfortunately, the pictures you take with this camera does not look _anything_ like what you see on either SonyEricsson's or T-Mobile's website so don't be fooled. I'm talking about the pictures displayed on the phone themselves. I mean c'mon, a 256 color display is _not_ going to give you anywhere close to photo-realistic pictures. So just remember that any picture you take is going to look pretty darn chunky and blurry on the phone itself. Ideally you take a picture and then send it to your computer via MMS/email. In this case, the smaller resolutions look fine for regular web/email use. The XL resolution is ok in bright light conditions. Otherwise things start looking rather grainy.

When you first connect the CommuniCam, your phone will directly show you the 3 available menus: Take Pictures, View Pictures, Options. Options lets you choose your picture size, whether or not to use white balance, and what special effects if any you want to use. Unfortunately the effects are generally labeled Effect 1 through 10 so I have no idea what they actually do since I haven't had the time to go through them all yet to see.

Take Pictures takes you to a screen where you can see a fuzzy representation of what you're going to be taking a picture of. Picture resolution is shown on the bottom along with how many pictures are already stored in the camera. A thin bar to the right of the main window gives you a graphical representation of how much memory you have left on the camera for pictures. When you move the camera around, what you see on the main display changes as well, although it has an annoying slow refresh time. You can also move the joynub (left and right) to zoom in and out although I seriously doubt this will make the resulting picture look any better since it's obviously going to be digital zoom which will just make the picture look worse. You can either click on the Yes button to take the picture or the button on the right side of the CommuniCam itself. The phone will ask if the picture you took is acceptable or not. If so, you are shown the Picture Options which allows you to save the picture to the camera, send it immediately via MMS, or rotate it.

When you use the View Pictures menu, you first get a list of existing pictures stored in the camera's memory. You select whichever one you want to view. While viewing that picture, you can hit Yes again to bring up the Picture Options which will allow you to send it via MMS, show you the picture's info (name, size, file type), copy/move the picture to the phone memory, delete the picture, or delete all pictures.

No Leftovers
Well, to sum up, the T300 is a decent offering for those who like an affordable color phone that's tri-band GSM (thereby usable all over Europe, Asia, and the US) and has a pretty rich features set. It's aimed more towards the average consumer than say the businessmen or gadget junkies but it does have enough features to satisfy them too. So I think it's a pretty well-rounded phone. As long as you're not sucked in by the hype that SonyEricsson and T-Mobile throws at us from their websites, then you should be happy with this phone. It does have some UI quirks but nothing that would prevent someone from using the phone for its intended purposes. All-around solid phone.


My Sony Ericsson T68 review:
http://www.epinions.com/content_76007444100

My mobile service provider:
http://www.epinions.com/content_39762890372






Recommended: Yes