Have much Patience, Yes?
Written: May 05 '03
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Pros: Color screen, good battery life, polyphonic ring tones, camera included
Cons: Bad reception (?), slow response, long "boot up", camera not built-in
The Bottom Line: Do you know what a 3-toed Sloth is? If you're thinking about getting the T300, you will.
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| nad_masters's Full Review: Sony Ericsson T300 |
An affordable brand name color display cell phone. That’s all I ask. Really. T-Mobile delivered the service, so I must choose my weapon of choice. Amazon.com offered the Sony Ericson for a penny, with (mind you) another $80 in rebates. This should cover my first month bill! (They do charge more than the price of the plan the first month, thanks to activation charges – and I was right! It costs me $83 when the first bill arrived). So I added the T300 with the service plan to the shopping cart.
First Impressions
I already like the way it looked and the feature set it listed at a local Best Buy. It was definitely a better deal thru Amazon, so I took the bait. When it arrived on my door step, it was just as elegant as the display model – if not more so, thanks to it’s real functional display.
Upon turning it on, I found the battery to be fully charged and service already activated. And what a bright LCD screen! I found out later on, however, that when the lights go off, so does the display (practically). Without the built-in lights, you can barely make anything out on the display. Thankfully, it’s realatively easy to make out the time, since the T300 shows the time in huge fonts – white text on black background.
In Use
Setting up the phone was pretty intuitive, once you know how to get into the menus. It took a while, but I finally figured it out. You only need the tiny joystick on the top-center of the phone (just below the display). Moving it up and down causes it go through your phone book. Hitting t side to side (or just pushing the joystick itself down like a button) will cause it to go into the graphically laden menu. Evenly spaced-out icons (9 total) make up the entire options you can choose from this menu.
In order (from left to right):
Phone Book, Messages, Calls (missed, outgoing, incoming, etc),
Fun & Games (Games, Composer, Themes, Sound Recorder, etc), Settings, T-Zones (internet),
Organizer, Connect (via infrared or T-Zone/SMS), My Shortcuts (program one-touch keys)
The volume is a slide switch on the top left side of the phone. It can also act as a scroll button.
The features that got to me was that it has a color display, and battery life seem decent for such a phone. Also, the fact that it has internet access via WAP, it was a sweet entry phone with extras.
The features that knocked me over when I got it were simply… interesting. Polyphonic ring tones were something that I didn’t expect. With this feature, it’s pretty much like having a WAV or MP3 file played as your ring tone. The built-in ones are kind of lame, but you can also download new ones off the internet, or even compose it yourself on the phone’s built-in composer (though not polyphonic when done this way).
The built-in sound recorder is great for making quick audio notes, but what’s even more interesting was the fact that you can record phone conversations! File sizes for these recorded sounds are amazingly small, they can actually fit on the SIM card, or on the phone itself!
The included camera is nice, but pretty much useless. Unlike other camera phones, it is not built in, and comes as a separate attachment. Where would I carry this extra equipment? As if carrying a cell phone is not enough! However, as a novelty item, it sure woos most people into buying this phone – it comes with in the box. Once connected, you can snap pictures at very low resolutions. The LCD may not represent the quality of the picture. There is currently no way of uploading the picture to your computer (short of using T-Zones to email it to yourself). My current plan doesn’t allow that, but do include free text messaging (SMS). Otherwise, it is grainy at best when viewed thru the T300’s display.
The T300 can be set to auto-lock, which is one feature I’m glad existed. Previously, I had to make a conscious effort to lock my phone before I put it on my holster or pocket for the fear of making calls I didn’t intend to make. With the T300, it would lock the keypad by itself after maybe 10 seconds.
The built-in infrared makes transferring numbers and names an easy task when the other person has an infrared-equipped phone as well. I was able to transfer all of my contacts from my Nokia 3360 to the T300 without any manual labor on my part. Sweet!
Reception is not that great around my house, but it is just “okay” outside. There are many factors contributing to reception (such as the service itself), so I really cannot judge the T300’s reception without testing it with other phones with the same service and area coverage.
Otherwise, a pretty solid phone and well built for a couple of drops.
Faults In Use
Using a cell phone everyday makes you get use to it’s quirks and menu system real easy, as well as key combos. With the Sony Ericson T300, they would like you to SLOW DOWN! The phone have some serious lag issues. This is worse when you are trying to look for a friend to dial from a phone book.
With this phone, my memory would tell me to hit the joystick down (to enter the phonebook mode), and hit a number a couple of times (depending on who I’m calling) so I can get to the first letter of the person’s name I’m trying to call. Then scroll down manually to get to the person.
However, the T300 sure makes it more difficult, since it takes about 1 full unexaggerated second for it to respond from the button/joystick movements! It’s not so bad if it was just lag, too. But it’s not! Lets put this example to good use: my memory serves me greatly, and I push this sequence real fast:
Joystick down
555 (for the letter L)
Joystick down, down, down (3rd person on the list with the letter L in their name)
Send (to call)
So what does the phone actually do?
Joystick down (address book)
555 for the letter L (will probably only see the first ׃” and go to “J” instead)
Joystick down, down, down (ignored, because it’s still processing)
Send (starts calling the first person on my list with a “J” in their name – obviously the wrong person)
It is enough to drive a person mad!
Other faults include a proprietary jack for it’s hands free set and charger. They sure want to make sure you come back to them when you need accessories. 3rd party accessories will fit the jacks perfectly, but they don’t think about where the wire is coming out. With the Sony Ericson products, the wires come out in completely opposite directions, so they don’t bump into each other, allowing you to charge the T300 whiling using the hands free set. Not so with the aftermarket accessories, as I cannot charge and use the hands free set by them or Sony Ericson. For shame.
Conclusions
Battery life is definately in the "pretty good range" with 3 days of standby time with a few conversations here and there.
I would definitely not recommend this phone just for the fact that it is very annoying to use. However, it would have been a great buy if it was not for this fact. It’s sleek, modern looking, and attractive. It’s fully featured. But it’s slow. Annoyingly so.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): .01
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nad_masters
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Location: Chicago, IL, USA
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If you mind is in the gutter, where are your hands?
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