blog
My New Mobile Phone
I've finally retired my trusty Nokia 6210 (which has lasted me almost exactly 3 years) and gotten myself a Sony Ericsson T610 last week. It is a beautiful phone that is about the size of the venerable Nokia 8250 (maybe slightly thicker) yet it has a nice big colour LCD screen and all the bells and whistles of modern mobile phones including Bluetooth connectivity, a camera (which sucks and I doubt I'll be using much), polyphonic ringtones, Java (for games and utils), an email client, a WAP and XHTML browser and basic PIM functions.
I know the successor to this model is the T630 but I decided it's not worth the extra expense just for a new casing and a new screen. As nice as a TFT LCD is, it still doesn't solve the problem of it being hard to see in direct sunlight. My Palm Tungsten T3 has a TFT screen and I can attest to that. The other change in the T630 is the software which has 'presence' features that, if supported on the network and other phones, will be able to show your phonebook contacts' status and connectivity methods much like ICQ or other IM programs. That way if you're in a meeting and you've set your own profile not to accept calls but only SMS, the other party will only be able to SMS you. As far as I know, no network in Australia supports this, and the new T630 is the only phone that has this feature. Though the T630 in white looks a bit like an iBook or iPod, I prefer the 2-toned colour scheme of the T610.
I've been playing with my T610 for a week now, and have had it sent in to the service center for a firmware update which did wonders to the speed of the phone especially the Java VM. Still, menu navigation and predictive text input isn't as fast as some Nokia phones, but it's within acceptable range and I can live with it. That said I actually prefer how the T610 presents the word suggestions in a scrolling list rather than how my old Nokia changes the word in-line and you wouldn't be able to guess what word is going to appear next (or if it's in the dictionary at all).
Bluetooth is fantastic. Immediately after I got the phone and had it charged up, I used iSync on my Powerbook and had my entire Address Book transferred over to the phone. No problems at all. Likewise with sending images (for use as wallpaper or picture Caller ID, MIDIs (as ringtones) and Java and Mophun games. I've even paired up my T3 and composed SMSes on the PDA and sent them through the phone. Having tried Salling Clicker on my Palm previously, I've now had the chance to play with it on the platform it was originally for, and it works great! Using the phone to control iTunes on my Mac or moving the mouse around is something you have to experience to believe.
The phone's 2MB memory doesn't sound like a lot, but I won't be using the camera much for photos anyway. This leaves plenty of space for ringtones which are usually less than 10K and games averaging at 50K each.
I got my new phone for 'free' on a 2 year contract plan with AAPT, where I pay $41.95 every month, and I get $40 worth of voice calls and SMS included. Call rates are cheaper than the Optus Prepaid I was on previously, and talk time is billed by the second, instead of 30-second blocks that most other carriers do.
NB: Looks like my favourite blogger, Jason Kottke, also got the same phone as me, a few days after after I got mine. What a coincidence!
Comments
i am using the same phone too since oct 2003. awesome gadget!...
March 15, 2004 11:22 AM | SY said:
Man, that was a long entry! :) You do sound like you're very impressed with the phone. HAHA! :) Boys' toys! :)
March 15, 2004 11:54 AM | RaYz said:
There's a cantonese saying for this - "New Toilet Bowl" :)
March 15, 2004 12:52 PM | jonathanpoh said:
i don't get the 'toilet bowl' thing...
must be something insulting. :P
March 15, 2004 3:13 PM | SY said:
I'll tell u when we meet for my "farewell" dinner. I'm returning to Melbourne, pal! By hook or by crook :P Don't send me off so quickly yet :P
March 15, 2004 10:52 PM | Tristan said:
Toilet Bowl...? Anyway, nice phone bro! I knew you werent gonna get the N Gage if you wanted to replace that old phone...Looks a bit...weird though..Just like that freakish Kermit doll...Brrr...Sends shivers down my spine! :p
March 16, 2004 1:51 AM | etsuko said:
I was thinking of getting that phone but didn't have that much cash on me so I settled for N6610 instead and still happy with it. :P
Eh, jon, have you figured out how to setup the email client to get emails from Yahoo or Hotmail? Lemme know when you find out. Cheers.
March 17, 2004 2:30 AM | Shryh said:
*sigh* Am still on the quest to find the "perfect" phone. I forget, which model cooks, cleans and irons already? I can't believe that I've been cellphone-less for four months in a major Asian metropolis. Good thing is, no one from work or from the dastardly institution I encounter on a regular basis can ruin my weekend. Jon, if not the T610, what do you think you'd get? Is there anything comparable that is not the T630?
March 18, 2004 1:00 PM | elise said:
u have the same phone as me! :o)
welcome to the ex-nokia, now SE club!
March 18, 2004 3:04 PM | SY said:
Uhh, Jon, sorry to tell you this, a friend of mine thinks the UI of this stinks so he's selling his phone on Ebay. Only have got it for 5 months. Any takers? :)
March 18, 2004 11:06 PM | jonathanpoh said:
That 'review' turned out much longer than i expected it to be.. I guess I am pretty happy with it.. It's been something i've been looking forward to getting for a long time and all my expectations are met and I'm sure i'll be satisfied with it for quite a while yet (for the duration of my contract at least :-) )
etsuko: i don't think you can check hotmail or yahoo mail with the built-in email client unless you pay for their POP3 mail access option. Alternatively you have to use WAP to access mobile.msn.com or mobile.yahoo.com and login to the webmail from there. Another was is to use a proxy gateway which would collect and reformat your mail into something the phone mail client can download or read via the WAP browser.. do a search on google for "t610 hotmail".. lots of articles.
Shyrh: Besides the T630 which is the obvious successor to the T610, there's also the Z600 which is a clamshell version of the T610 (exact same features and phone software). If you can wait (and willing to pay a premium for a new-model phone), there's the Nokia 6320 due in the coming months which matches the T610/630 in features and in some cases exceeds them even. Sony-Ericsson also recently announced the K700i which is the new successor to the T610/630 line. You can read about the phones at their respective sites and also many phone review sites. If you don't need or want the nifty features like Bluetooth, then the Sony Ericsson Z200 is not bad either (but it's a clamshell, and i don't like clamshell phones)
Elise: It's a great phone.. I love it :)
SY: I don't think the UI stinks at all.. and trust me.. I'm a stickler for good UIs and was initially very skeptical about Sony-Ericsson phones coming close to Nokias, especially after seeing how difficult it was to use my dad's old Ericsson T28. I like the fact that you can basically navigate through the entire navigation and change most settings by using the joystick alone, but if you know exactly where you want to go you can also press the number of the menu item directly (similar to nokias). Hope your friend's phone finds a good owner soon.
March 19, 2004 3:52 PM | SY said:
I was willing to buy him McD brekky in exchange for the phone. Unfortunately, he turned my very attractive offer down. Well, attractive to me, that is :)
March 20, 2004 12:11 AM | johny said:
jon poh: nice phone... i`m thinking of getting the N-Gage, you think its any good?
March 22, 2004 2:16 PM | jules said:
haha finally!.... after debating the t68i / t310 / t610... anyways i too wanted to get it but the p900 is just too awesome.
March 22, 2004 6:34 PM | johny said:
so the N-gage is not really that recommended? or you just prefer the P900 to the N-gage... hey werent you testing it or something? how you find it?
March 22, 2004 9:01 PM | jonathanpoh said:
wah, suddenly i'm like _the_ phone expert? I wouldn't get the N-gage and never even considered it. The most hyped-about feature of the N-gage is it's gaming, but from the demo I played with in the shop, it wasn't all that impressive. I get a much better gaming experience with a GBA (at a much cheaper price too). The N-gage also is too big and with it's shape, it's hard to be taken seriously. Call me boring but I prefer phones that are a bit more conventional like most of the Nokia 6xxx series. No funky changeable faceplates or weird button layouts for me.
If you're looking at Smartphones, the P900 looks pretty impressive, but the PalmOne Treo 600 is also worth checking out... Or just get a T610/T630 and a separate PDA with bluetooth.
If your PIM needs are modest, even the SE T610 is quite sufficient actually.. it's phone book can store names with up to 5 numbers each, in addition to additional info like company name and email address. It also has a Calendar, 2 Alarms (one-off and recurring), a notepad, a password protected 'code memo' for storing PINs and such, an email client and a WAP browser. And there's java so you can add even more apps including an IM app that connects to ICQ, Yahoo and MSN (haven't tried it though... GPRS rates aren't exactly cheap).
March 22, 2004 11:49 PM | johny said:
maybe i should consider the SE T610, maybe i should bug elise to pinjam her phone to let me play play for a month, hahahaha... like that will come true...
March 23, 2004 12:59 AM | SY said:
No, no, not phone expert. all round techie expert onli :)
March 23, 2004 10:53 PM | Tristan said:
Haha, not phone expert! I still looove Colin's phone...Nokia 6610? I think thats the one..!
March 14, 2004 7:06 PM | genedavinci said: