Sony Ericsson T68i Mineral Grey
by Volker Weber
Mobile phones don't live forever in vowe's magic flying circus. Although my current phone is still working well, I ordered a new one. The carriers seem to dump their inventory of the T68i on the market. Both Vodafone and T-Mobile sell them off for 29. As of today O2 is still at 99 and e plus at the regular 249. I expect those to follow soon.
So, why did I choose the T68i? The carriers also dump the Nokia 6310i, which is an excellent phone and has roughly the same features. The T68i however is much smaller and it has SyncML support which is a lot more useful than the proprietary Nokia protocol. Last but not least, the Ericsson accessories like travel chargers and so forth are better than the Nokia stuff.
As far as the newer phones are concerned that come with cameras, FM radios and such, they miss one very important feature: Bluetooth. Once you have your second BT device you are not going back to cables or infrared. And BT support in Nokia phones is, well, let me say not as good as it is supposed to be. :-)
Comments
As you know, I've had this phone for two months. I really love it. The battery life is amazing. The features are very good, too.
One piece of advice -- learn to use the key lock feature (it's just a two key sequence to enable). Otherwise, the keypad is -very- sensitive.
I know. You called me from Barcelona and never knew it, you remember? The phone also has an automatic keylock that engages after 25 seconds without a key pressed.
That is something i love about my Ericsson R520 - the auto keylock. I'll never understand why Nokia doesn't incorporate that...
For anyone with a T68 rather than T68i Ericsson offer a free firmware update which I have just had applied to mine. The T68i is exactly the same hardware as the T68 just with better software, and a different case. The T68 is then a T68i (in fact the software is a later version than the T68i). I would guess the T68 must be even cheaper to pick up than T68i.
jcf, I understand, Nokia is adding this feature with newer firmware releases.
And I still think that a clamshell design is superior, because it hides the keyboard inside and also gives you a "longer" phone when unfolded, so it feels more naturally to speak into the phone instead of thin air. I liked the T39m flap. Unfortunately the receiption on that phone is bad and the screen is a bit too small for my aging eyes.
I added a better antenna to the T39m but I cannot do anything about the display. I remember that Ed complained about the receiption of his Erissson smartphone which is closer in design to the R520 and T39m transmitters. As he did not complain about the T68i, I felt comfortable to get it.
Mike, all of the Ericssons, Nokia and Motorolas of this world constantly update the firmware of their phones. That is a very good reason to never get a brand new model. That was also my final push to go for the T68i which is nearing the end of its lifecycle.
Hm,
I hope vowe is right in expecting eplus will cut the price for the T68i.
still on of the best mobile phones.
i am using the t68 since jan-2002 without any problems.
It works great with XTND Connect PC and Lotus Notes :-))
