Sony Ericsson Announce m600i UIQ Smartphone

[Ewan]

The second UIQ3 powered smartphone has been announced from Sony Ericsson. The m600i is powered by UIQ3, with a 240x320 touchscreen, 80mb of memory, with UMTS GSM 900/1800/1900 support. The main difference, compared to the P990, is the lack of Wi-Fi and availablity (in Q2 2006) in both black and white (Sony Ericsson m600i Homepage).Stay with us for more coverage on the m600i throughout today.

Read on in the full article.

[martinharnevie]

Great! Finally! They've been shaking this chilli bottle for quite a while...

[Bassey]

I'm not sure who this is aimed at. I like it a lot, but it lacks WiFi so is clearly not aimed at the Corporate or Power user. On the other hand, it has no built-in camera which, so everyone (SE Included) keeps telling us, is essential in the "leisure" market.

Nice looking device with great specs (size and weight etc), but not sure who is going to buy it.

[slitchfield]

Indeed. What puzzles me is why most of the publicity photos show the device with what looks like a shattered screen. Or a screen that's been covered in gel. Really wierd and not at all clear.

Steve

Ummmm ... the screens are showing something like a raindrops falling screensaver

Does the fact it comes with a stylus mean it will have a on screen keyboard ?

A quick note for all small businessmen/women who want to achieve the right balance between phone/email/pda without having to switch their simcard between divice depending what they are doing each day.

I previously owned (still own and still take with me on trips abroad) a p910i (brilliant for email/office) and a tiny samsung phone (fantastic for weekends - no email). However I came to resent the simcard switching and various different power chargers/USB devices I had to switch between to run both devices.

I'm not a techie. I have never posted to a forum like this before, but I do feel moved to jot down a few words - if only to save a few poor hard pressed British business men/women the amount of web research I had to do before I found the perfect compromise between business smartphone and weekend phone.

I just need a decent phone and really good email connectivity to run my small business efficiently. I get between 20 and 60 emails a day (many for viagra) but one or two are quite important, hence I need, or at least feel I need, to be in touch at all times, including weekends.

I have used the SE P910i, since it launched a couple of years ago, connected to my office server, via imap. It is a brilliant phone/pda however I have found it's bulk a problem. I just don not want to carry such a lump around, particularly at weekends/evenings. I have thought a lot about whether to carry a phone plus an extra email device (all my clients have blackberries - however, somehow that seems to me like a cop out - carrying two devices - twice the hassle).

Therefore I have been looking for a solution that gives me blackberry- type connectivity for email, MS Office plus a phone that is not so bulky that I resent carrying it on weekends. (I haven't owned the more recently introduced SE P990 but the really bad reviews on the web and one personal 'non-recommendation' dissuaded me from upgrading - and its bigger than the p910). After a considerable amount of web (and anecdotal/friends) research I have bought the SE m600i. I recognise that each phone/smartphone/pda is a compromise but here are my thoughts......

It looks good - understated, refined, grown up but modern.
It works - it has worked perfectly with our imap servers and I gather it is good with MS Exchange. It will allow pretty well all push email solutions, including blackberry. It is just as good as any other device from a 'phone' point of view.
Battery Life - to date, the one downside. Not that it is really bad, very similar to p910i - i.e. but despite SE's claims you would be pushed to do a really long day in London with say, 2 hours of calls, plus email, on one charge. However, this is true of all smartphones I know of (just invest in a spare battery and maybe a spare charger for your briefcase - it only costs a few squids). 'Real' mobile phones' batteries, like in the small Samsung I have, last for days but the reality is is all they have to do is make calls. The M660i handling all email etc does so much more (you can't have everything!)
Processor - Since this is a next generation phone, this took me a bit by surprise. Switching between menus seems slow, particularly if you have used the p910, but somehow you get used to it. It all works perfectly well enough for usual business use.

Basically, I am delighted to at last have found a device that allows me to run my business properly without having to carry a 'brick'.



Overall, this is a great compromise between smartphone and phone-only. It has it's quirks but I have quickly come to love it. I recommend it.