T610. Review on Sony Ericsson T610

I purchased my T610 in the month of August 2004 and was really excited about it bcoz it offered me a variety of feature over other Nokia phones for a lower price.

However, withing 15-20 days of its purchase, it started hanging everytime I deleted photos. soon the same started while deleting sms too.

It was scary as the phone used to hang almost a dozen times everyday! One fine day when I switched it on in the morning, the display showed the message 'insert correct sim' ... I took it to the dealer, he was clueless about the problem.

Finally I found one repairer who said that all the four locks on the phone have been automatically activated (although I had never activated them myself) ... he charged me a whopping 1,200 for the repairs. I got the software upgraded. However, the moment I brought it home, it started hanging all over again.

A few days later, I read an article saying that a certain defective batch of T610s had been dispatched to India in the month of July-August! that is the reason they had slashed the prices from 11,000 to 8000! I strongly recommend others not to buy this piece in the grey market.

It was a major disappointment! However, I am still of the opinion that the phone has several advantages if you are lucky to get a good piece!

1) sleek design ... nicely spaced out keys

2) big screen makes it fun to capture and view pics

3) bluetooth

4) in-call timer (which is absent in most nokia phones)

5) camera with 3 special effects - BW/sepia/negative

6) GPRS (although I never used it), voice recording, etc etc ... some USPs!

Please note the disadvantages -

1) doesn't give full range vis-a-vis nokia phone (typical of all Sony Ericssons!) ... voice cracks during each call! very irritating!

2) low ringtones lead to lots of missed calls! (typical of all Sony Ericssons!) ... increasing ring cannot be turned off.

3) missed call list is very confusing ... doesn't list the number of missed calls!

4) camera quality is poor ... pixels pixels pixels! ... camera works fine only with lots of light around ... night mode isn;t that effective.

5) the display is invisible in bright sunlight ... impossible to click pictures in daylight! impossible to see the display outdoors!!! ... you have to cup your hand around the display even to see the caller's name for an incoming call!

6) nokia users will find the 'pop up' speed sms a little irritating!

7) only 2MB memory.

8) automatic clock screensaver that cannot be turned off! the display dies out after 15 seconds standby. even missed calls / sms do not stay lit up! Hence if you are at home / office, you got to keep checking for missed calls every now and then!

9) the screen is on the same plane as the rest of the body ... so needs to be protected! the body in general is very delicate ... prone to scratches!

10) problem of hanging persists ... so beware! Well!!! ... the cons weigh larger... in my case just I was getting used to them, it crashed! I am planning to dispose mine off and go in for a nokia 6230. (Official this time of course!!) ...

Maybe I was quite attached to my T610 coz it's helped me capture some beautiful moments in the most unexpected places ... but to sum it up ... I suggest you go in for a Nokia anyday... better quality ... better service! Cheers!