I am now finding problems with the phones receptions the more I use it. My mates have Nokia 8310 and 6610 models and they work no problem when we are out on a pub crawl in the centre of Newcastle, however mine keeps saying SOS calls only when all people are on the same network wereas my mates get a perfect signal. I have tried swopping to a pay and Go sim card which I know was fine with my old phone. Stay with Nokia is my advice.....They aint the market leaders for nothing.
Regards
Barry
I am now the owner of a Sony Ericsson mobile phone which I bought on www.needamobile.co.uk. I was a little unsure which category to post in as I actually have the T68 model, which has had its software upgraded by Ericsson to the latest T68i spec. I have decided to post as a T68i as my phone has different feature to the T68.
The difference between the phones are minor, as the insides are the same. It’s basically the software on the T68, which is prone to crashing and is generally slower to use with has been improved on the upgrade. This is the biggest improvement over the two models, however the control joystick type button was also upgraded on the newer phone as its prone to becoming less sensitive with age on the T68.
The easy way to tell if your T68 has been upgraded is to see
if it still has Tetris on the games menu. If it has take your phone along to a Sony Ericsson service centre and they should upgrade it for you free of charge. Sony Ericsson admits that the old phone was full of bugs and this is why they don’t charge you. Saying that some service centres do charge up to £25 for this, so its worth ringing before travelling, to find out cost and how long it will take.
Costs ******
Handsets only are still over £270 for the T68i model and about £30 less for the T68 which has had the upgrade on it. I got my phone from www.e2save.com for £29.99 on a £13.99 a month package which included 600 off peak, 50 texts and 25 minutes off peak cross network. I have written a separate op on this company.
The proper T68i models will cost £59.99 on the same package. The difference is worth it, as the newer phone looks a lot more modern.
What I like ************
I like holding the phone. It’s nice and light without being too small that I would be scared of losing it. The buttons are on the small side, but even with my big fingers it’s easy to use. The back on my phone has a nice rubber effect that means it gives it extra grip. This is handy if you’re frightened of dropping 300 quid’s worth of phone. The rudder back was discontinued on the T68i models.
I like the build quality. Now many times have you dropped a Nokia to find the phone split in to four bits ever time you dropped it? With this range of phones the battery is part of the back cover and it fits on tight. The down side to this is that the covers aren’t easy to interchange. Covers can be bought on places like Ebay, but a special tool is required to remove them. BE WARNED if you open them up, it will void the remainder of your warranty, unless a Service Centre replace it with a genuine cover. These will however not be cheap.
I like the colour screen. You can download photo and have it as a background. I can have anything I want to look at every time I pick my phone up, including Kylie. A good place for T68 owners to download background screens is www.esato.com. The easy way to down them is to visit this site on WAP and then save the picture direct onto your phone. Once you have mastered how to do it you can download a picture in less than 3 minutes at a cost of 30p.
There is a counter that counts your text messages. This is handy for me, so I don’t go over my free amount of 50 each month. The phone also stores around 55 SMS messages. 45 on the phone and 10 on the sim card. This can vary depending on how full your phone memory is.
There is also a button on the side that tells you how many hours remain on standby and talk him. If this phone is not used I can manage about 5 days without charging before it falls less than 1 hour of talk time left. I do not trust the actual figures, but it useful to use as a guide.
What I don’t like ******************
I don’t have any major problems with this phone. There are a number of small faults that you learn to live with.
The biggest is that you cannot turn the screen saver off which comes on after about 2 minutes showing the time. This blanks out the screen making it hard to tell if there is a text message or missed call showing on the display. Everytime you want to look it’s a case of pressing a few buttons instead of just looking at the screen. So far I have found a couple of message up to a day late when the phones been lying about on a table. There should be away of turning the screen saver off, but it ain’t there on my phone perhaps due to the upgrade.
Text message is also a pain until you master it. If you press a wrong button and if goes to the next stage of sending the message, you cannot go back and amend it. It’s a case of starting all over again.
The Ring tones are terrible, but you can download and store up to 8 off them so it is not the end of the world.
Features *********
It’s a Tri-band phone, which means it will work in the USA as long as you set it up with your phone provider with around a week’s notice before you travel. You also need to make adjustments to your network selection once you arrive in the country.
The phone allows you to take colour picture, as long as you have the add on camera which costs £80.00. The phone screen is used as the viewfinder and you can send photos about for 40p on MMS to other MMS equipped phones. Current phones that use this feature are. Nokia 7650 and 7210. Sony Ericsson T68/68i , T300 and T200 (Black and White only on the latter). I am not interested by this feature and have not used it so cannot comment if it’s good or not.
For the full features of this phone please visit www.sonyericsson.com. This site is also useful to set your phone up for WAP and email. You enter your details and they send the details as a text message. To install simply press Yes. You will need to tell your network provider you wish to use WAP sometimes.
This phone also has the latest Bluetooth technology which allows you to connect to things like laptops, and headset without any wires. Bluetooth is still very expensive for the add ons, and headset still cost £99. I think I will stick with my free handfree kit for the moment.
Performance ************
It’s no good having a pretty phone with all the Gizmos if the call quality, or reception quality is poor. I had problems with the Sony Ericsson T200 with this. This phone doesn’t share the same problem. The phone actually shows a poorer signal that my other phones, but the call quality is better even on one bar. I haven’t yet lost a call with it. Sound quality is excellent, and the sound can be turned up to a level that my whole work place hears it.
Conclusion ***********
This phone is now become cheaper and is offered free now by many networks. Compared with other phones like the Nokia 7210, 6310i, 3410 and Sony Ericsson T200 and T66 models which I have used now and in the past, this is the best phone by a mile.
The 6310i is the nearest it terms of quality, but this phone is aimed at the business market and is slightly too big compared with the others. The Nokia 7210 is too expensive and not worth the money. The 3410 is an excellent budget phone but lacks the others features. While the T66 is simply small and is hard to work due to the small buttons, and the T200 reception and call quality is terrible.
So this phone in my eyes is the best available within the phones I have seen and used at the moment.
I am sorry to be flooding Ciao with Mobile phone ops, however I believe they will be a great use to those people who are looking for a decent review. A T200 review will follow as soon as there is a place to stick my op. If you are interested before hand in the T200 or have any questions please email me at bazza1603@hotmail.com.
Thanks for reading
Baz
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I find your UPDATE difficult to follow - I would have put a "flag" as to the UPDATE, but included it at the end of the review where it makes sense. It only makes sense at the beginning for those who have already read the initial review - and not everyone who has read the original will re-read if you re-post, even when you advertise its existence. jes ≈≈≈≈{; -)-{{:::{||||||<
JennieTanner 15.08.2003 12:51
great op - i have the option of upgrading my Nokia 8310 to this phone fro free - i was in 2 minds but i think i'll stick to old faithful for a bit longer - thanks
helencbradshaw 10.08.2003 01:59
I just bought this phone today...well free on an upgrade actually. So far Im impressed but having only had nokias i am struggling to get acquainted! Helen
Oct 22nd, 2002
(Oct 26th, 2004)
very helpful by (97%):
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