I got the T68i from Amazon for $50 with a one year contract with T-Mobile. I was a 5 year customer of Sprint and ready to switch to a new provider. But that's an entirely different subject on its own.

The phone is attractive (I have the baby blue), small, very light and almost disappears in your pocket. Much much different than the Motorola Talkabout I had been using for years. Despite its size the phone is sturdy and the battery sits tight in its socket, a problem several phones I knew had after a while.

The display is clear and thick and doesn't seem easily breakable. After a month of use no scratches on the surface although I don't carry it in a special case. However, I have noticed some dust acculumation underneath which enters through the joystick. A cover might therefore not be a bad purchase is the long run.

The reason why I bought the phone was for its ability to establish an internet connection via bluetooth and my laptop from the road. The address book and calendar synchronization are nice features but my primary concern has been the internet access from the road. So far I haven't been able to connect to the web with my Powerbook. The drivers are for PC only so I will have to do some more searching to get it to work. Since Apple and SonyEricsson made such a marketing push with this bluetooth phone I would have expected some more support on this issue.

Synchronization has been a breeze once I figured out how to pair the two devices. I am not a big manual reader and I like to just try things out but I am sure a less experienced user would be left to guess where to find the info.

When I bought the phone initially the WAP services would not work. I was informed by the T-Mobile technical support that I had received a phone with a fault config file on it. I was offered a refund, return or simply to try a workaround. The staffer gave me the new IP settings and walked me through the setup of a new wap profile. Easy a pie really (and I was impressed with how T-Mobile handled this). With the new profile the WAP connection started working immediately. Through T-Mobiles website I could enter my POP email information and within minutes I was reading my email from my T68i. WAP finally is usable on this phone. The display is large enough to read entire emails with a little scrolling and navigation is easy. A big plus for the phone.

I should note that I received a patch from T-Mobile a few weeks later which fixed the initial file bug so I reverted back to the original settings. No difference in speed. Just the same but now "T-Mobile endorsed".

Here some pros and cons for a quick overview:

Pros:
- light and small
- easy menu navigation with quick access to all areas
- good WAP implementation and email synch
- great calendar and phonebook sync via bluetooth
- fun games
- ability to upload your own screensavers and images
- use your phone as a modem

Cons:
- keys too small
- must hold phone in your hand to use it (no chin)
- no protection for the screen
- screen collects dust underneath



UPDATE 12/20/02
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Thanks to a user comment I was able to get the Bluetooth modem to work flawlessly on a my Titanium Powerbook using OSX. It worked like a breeze and was rather simple to set up. There is no mentioning of how to do that anywhere on the SonyEricsson site and the Apple Tech Note is rather hidden.

Not only was it easy to set up (simply select the T39 modem config under Network) but I was able to do this while being in Austria connecting to an ISP in Berlin, Germany.

On the same trip I was also able to check the roaming capabilities in Europe. I called T-Mobile and they saud it would take 24 hours until I could make and receive calls in Europe. It ended up taking 3 days but one morning my phone logged on to the local Austrian T-Mobile network.

The modem functionality and flawless roaming (even GPRS WAP services) makes this phone VERY usable and practical. I therefore upgrade my rating.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 50