Controversial design of T28 creates Love-It or Hate-it argument. Yet, nobody argues that it look exclusive, combining rich materials (magnesium chassis, and tasty color option). Buttons location are quite spreadaway, which is good for individuals with big hands (although the *, #, and the 0 buttons are a bit cramped due to the flip). Display lighting is excellent, in which it spreads evenly, pleasing to the eyes (green lighting is healthy for your eyes), and creates impressive readibility in dark surrounding (and when exposed to direct sunlight, too). T28 may not have the smallest footprint, yet it feels slim in the shirt pocket, which is more important than being small
The T28 is as quick as other Ericsson phones to find signal. Although the antenna is somewhat sensitive (touch it, and you see the signal loses 1-2 bars), signal reception is excellent. When talking, no heat built-up was detected (@ 20 minutes of talking continuously).
Intuitive User Interface (UI) utilizes the 3-line display effectively (unlike some phones with large display but use up some display space for soft-key menu). Unsuccessful transmission of SMS is automatically saved as "UNSENT ITEMS", while sent -SMS is saved as "SENT ITEMS". Very helpful indeed. Sliding control on the left side of the phone reveals phone status, including battery capacity left. This is also proven to be helpful, instead of estimating the battery life through the traditional battery indicator.
Keypad is tactile, non-rubbery feel. However, the "YES" & "NO" buttons are somewhat too large with too-small contact with the machine inside, thus they are not too precise when pushed. User might want to find the precise location of contact (eg. pushing the narrow section of the button will not work).
Vibration alert does the job well, and the voice command works 100%, even in noisy area (you might want to save the name using consonant first, instead of vowel, otherwise it won't work).
Now, many people has said that the T28 is unreliable as the unit can switch itself off automatically, and some even reported total failure, resulting in the phone not wanting to power up at all. This should be the weakest point of the phone. I did some "surgery" on the (spoiled) phone (talked to Ericsson's service engineer, as well) and find out that the part that has been causing all the trouble is the PA (for signal amplification). The Li-Pol battery may be the trigger (the people at Ericsson suggested me to not-wait for the battery fully drains out; charge it before the LOW-BATT signal appears; and avoid too-long overcharging, too). The main symptom is that the unit does not ring loud enough (compare it to other T28s when choosing one). Flip-catch becomes loose over-time since plastic rubbing against plastic would cause friction, resulting in loose flip. Try pushing the side-button (the flip-lock) when closing the flip helps it last for long-long time.
I heartily recommend this phone since the list price now is even cheaper than a Nokia 3310 (based on no-agreement with GSM provider). Good signal, good looks (in my opinion), good aftersales support (responsive CS), excellent UI, up to 99 name memory on the unit, unnoticable when put in the pocket, what else?