So after ordering late in the day yesterday, I already have my hands on my Sony Ericsson T616 and have been playing with it for the last couple of hours. My first impressions?
This thing is built like no other Sony Ericsson phone and that’s a very good thing. It’s covered by an aluminum and mid-grade plastic body. It’s a bit larger and heavier than my T68i and that is also a good thing. I found the T68i way too small to handle. The “joystick” and buttons also feel much more solid. I wont be worried about breaking them off by throwing it in my pocket (a scare I had with my T68i). The screen is large (for an Ericsson) and very bright. There’s no problems seeing it in the sunlight. It’s spec’d at 68k colors, but I haven’t really been checking out photos on it to tell.
This phone is quick. Startup is quick. Moving through contacts is quick. SIM card loads are quick. With my T68i, I felt like I could turn on the phone and walk away for 5 minutes before it was ready to use. None of that with the T616. I’m guessing you can credit that to the updated OS running on it which is simply a lot less “dry” than on other Sony Ericsson phones. The T616 is Bluetooth enabled with full iSync compatibility. Mac OS X found it instantly and had all of my calendars and contacts transfered within a minute or so. You gotta love Apple for this kind of simplicity.
There is one thing that I don’t like about the T616. There is a camera on it and I have no need for it. In fact, I don’t know who would need it. Seems way too gimmicky. It’s really not that great of a camera anyway and it takes up a lot of memory I could use for other things. I haven’t fully tried it yet, but I’ll put up a gallery soon for you check out.
Now back to the pros. For me, this is the pro. Unlike my T68i, I am actually getting strong signals in places where I couldn’t before! The reception is incredible from what I’ve seen so far.
So I guess you can say I like the T616. Ok, you can say I love the T616! It’s damn sexy looking, feature rich, does work as a stand-alone phone, and performs all of the tasks I need it to do extremely well. Anyone want a T68i? You can have it for a big bowl of nothing and maybe some shoelace ends.