Sony Ericsson M600i smart phone
Sony Ericsson challenges RIM's BlackBerry
Review UIQ never really took off as an alternative to Nokia's Series 60 Symbian user interface and only Sony Ericsson and Motorola UIQ devices have ever made it to the European market.
But Sony Ericsson has finally brought its first UIQ 3 device to the market, the M600i. This is the first of three new UIQ 3 smart phones to arrive this year from the company, although all three phones are very different in terms of the functionality they offer...
Features-wise the M600i has the least on offer of the three devices, but this doesn't mean that it's feature-free. The M600i looks very different from previous Sony Ericsson UIQ devices, such as the P900 series. First of all, it doesn't have a traditional keypad and as such it resembles a BlackBerry more than the P900. Even the keyboard bears more than a slight resemblance to those on the smaller Blackberries, with two letters per key, but it doesn't work the same way.
The trick to the M600i's keyboard is that it's not of the multi-tap kind, but rather each letter is typed by rocking the key left or right. It only takes about five minutes to get used to. The keyboard offers the usual QWERTY layout, but it's been modified to suit the M600i. This means that to access certain characters you have to press the Alt key, which is also used to select the numbers when you're in text-entry mode.
The M600i makes texting both quick and easy, although I'm sure I'd be beaten by many teenagers with normal mobile phones. But the M600i also offers email functionality and it is even compatible with BlackBerry Connect. That said, the RIM application doesn't ship with the M600i, though you'll soon be able to download it direct to the phone via Sony Ericsson's website.
Besides the keypad, there are three buttons scattered around the phone's edge, as well as a jogwheel. However, don't mistake this for the excellent wheel on the P910i, as the one on the M600i only allows for up and down movement - it can't be moved sideways, although it can still be pressed inwards for menu selections. Sony Ericsson has also placed the back button here, but in such an awkward location that you have to move your thumb quite far down from the scroll wheel.
The other problem I found was that when you're using the keypad, there's no alternative back button here, which means you have to reach for the side of the phone to exit the application you're in.
COMMENTS
Psychic phone
Previous poster said: "You *can only search on last name OR first name* depending on how you flip that switch on the phonebook. Keyboard, pen, whatever...you can still not search the *whole* name.
The predicament is that sometimes I need to search for first name and sometimes for last name - to do this I have to re-sort the phonebook. Not going to happen."
Yeah, when I buy a phone, one of the criterias is that when I think of the person's name, the phone should call it too. :D Your comment made no sense whatsoever in searching for name criteria. Maybe you should stick w/ a regular phone line and not use cell phones at all and not post such stupid comments for everyone to see.
Keylock
Re the keylock issue highlighted in the review, you can actually take keylock off by just pressing and holding the "back" button on the side of the phone - avoids the carry on with pressing the unlock button on the key pad and then tapping the unlock button on the screen.
Re: M600 better than you think
"Searching Contacts, for example, can be done using the keyboard so need to scroll the long list of 1000 contacts."
Yes, but that's not the point...
You *can only search on last name OR first name* depending on how you flip that switch on the phonebook. Keyboard, pen, whatever...you can still not search the *whole* name.
The predicament is that sometimes I need to search for first name and sometimes for last name - to do this I have to re-sort the phonebook. Not going to happen.
Disabling USB charging may be a good idea
I can think of a good reason why you might want to disable USB charging. You may be connecting to a device, such as a palmtop, which doesn't have oodles of spare power to throw at the phone. So I think it's a good idea, though whether it should be disabled by default is another matter.
Lack of Camera
Claiming that a lack of camera function is not a quirk its a godsend. More and more companies and firms are denying entry to people who use cell phones with cameras. I use a Nokia 9500 at the moment and find it s camera to be a nuisance:
Ian
