Sony Ericsson T68i

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When the T68 was released last November, it was hailed as Sony Ericsson's wild card for the company's future earnings. Consumers flocked to shops and competitors scrambled to put up a response to this new threat, but we highlighted that the phone failed to make full use of its color capabilities. The T68i corrects that.

It's A Sony
The new T68i gives Sony--creator of slick, sexy electronic devices--the chance to showcase its considerable design savvy. Gone is the classic but plasticky finish of the original T68. The new Sony Ericsson T68i sports a fresh blue-and-white color scheme. The rubberized battery cover has also been replaced by a hard plastic version, although we actually prefer the former for its firmer grip and better protection against impact.

Otherwise, much remains the same on the outside. The dimensions and weight of the 84g T68i are the same as its predecessor. The antenna is internally sited. The keys are similarly laid out, and are responsive if slightly lacking in key depth. The mini-joystick has been retained for easy navigation, as has the icon-based software interface.

Making Use Of Color
The more interesting modifications really take place under the hood. While the original T68's color display was dazzling, the most we could do with it was personalize the wallpaper.

The T68i does better. You can now customize much of the onscreen look of the handset with the several preset themes, from changing the wallpaper to the font colors, to setting animated GIFs as screensavers. Picking the "Winter" theme, for instance, fills the menu screens with white snowflakes against a sky blue background.

According to a Sony Ericsson spokesperson, there may be downloadable themes from Sony Pictures in future, such as from the Spiderman movie. There are also plans to release a developer's kit for users to create their own themes.

Other enhancements include a gallery where you can view the pictures, which can be downloaded or snapped with an optional digital camera add-on, as thumbnails; and a Picture phonebook feature that lets you assign photos to contacts. So the next time a friend calls, you know who it is from the photograph displayed onscreen.

All these are displayed on an 80-by-101-pixel display, with an effective screen size of 30.3-by-24mm that can accommodate up to five lines of text. That's certainly less than the generous screens that come with other phones, such as the 128-by-160-pixel resolution of the Samsung SGH-T100. With the T68i's 256-color display, cartoon graphics appear satisfactory, but real-life pictures may look pixelated.

Ericsson Features

Ericsson phones are known for their tremendous feature sets. The T68 was sophisticated for its advanced menu, and the T68i is no different with:

General Packet Radio System (GPRS)

Bluetooth

High-speed Circuit-switched data (HSCSD)

Triple band technology (GSM 900/1800/1900)

Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS)
On top of that, Sony Ericsson has included a few other interesting features with the T68i. It sports one of the first Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) 2.0 browsers on the market. This new version provides support for XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), which allows developers to create Web applications for both PC and WAP clients.

At the same time, SyncML lets users synchronize online calendar and contacts over the air, while WTLS (Wireless Transport Layer Security) class 3 provides security during mobile commerce transactions.

When the T68 was first released, the company reneged on an earlier promise to deliver Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Sony Ericsson cited the lack of MMS networks as a reason for the delay. Now with telco operators in Europe and Asia steadily rolling out services, the time is ripe for the T68i. Unfortunately, we were unable to test this feature of the phone as telcos in Singapore have yet to launch MMS services. This would certainly be a letdown for early adopters of this handset.

The other disappointment is that the hidden games or Easter eggs that charmed users of the original T68 have been removed in the T68i. In their place are several new--unhidden�ones, including a fine conversion of the old pen-and-paper "Battleship". This game, which is playable with other T68i users via Bluetooth or infrared, has you guessing where your opponent's ships are and trying to sink them.

As is the case with many phones today, the T68i utilizes a dynamic memory system. You can store at least 510 phonebook entries, independent of the SIM card. If you don't use that many names, you free up more space for pictures, melodies and other functions. Likewise, the handset comes with 18 ringtones, but you can add as many as you like, depending on your available memory.

For Chinese users, the T68i supports Chinese text input. Again, Sony Ericsson�s SMS isn't as responsive as that of other mobiles, but this is made up for by a nifty implementation of predictive text. When you type a few letters, a list of suggested words automatically appears. This is unlike other phones where you have to scroll through the predictions word by word.

Lack Of Accessories
Considering that the T68i costs S$698 (with a two-year plan), you would expect it to pack a few more accessories than just a travel charger. The Samsung SGH-T100, for instance, comes with a PC-link cable to transfer pictures and ringtones to the phone. For the T68i where user customization is key, we would have expected Sony Ericsson to have done the same. Instead, the company is relying on infrared and Bluetooth for data transfer.

SAR Rating
According to the information leaflet included with the standard package, the T68i measures 0.38 W/kg on Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) tests. Based on the recommendations of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), this is well below the limit of 2.0 W/kg.

Reception And Battery Life
What sets the T68i back is its reception which in our tests was poorer than average. In areas of below-average network coverage, the phone failed to register a signal, whereas other phones normally would. So if your operator's network coverage is already dodgy, you may have problems getting signals from this handset.

We had no issues with voice quality, though.

Sony Ericsson expects the 700mAh Lithium-polymer battery of the T68i to provide up to 12 hours of talktime and two weeks on standby. In our real world tests, it lasted us a credible four days in normal usage.

Conclusion
The T68i is a nice improvement over the T68, which was an excellent phone to begin with. But the T68i comes after Samsung launched a much better color-screen phone in the SGH-T100, with bigger display and 4,096 colors. The T68i remains a strong contender with its advanced feature set, but you'll have to be patient before you can harness all its functionalities, from the MMS feature to the developer's kit.