Sony Ericsson T630

Click for images of the Sony Ericsson T630.

The Sony Ericsson T610 will be remembered for many things. Mostly good, thankfully, from the slick design to the plentiful features, but also some bad. Its display looks dark under direct sunlight, the software is sluggish at points, while firmware upgrades have been hit-and-miss affairs. With the brand new T630, Sony Ericsson commences work on those flaws, but let the truth be told: This phone doesn't do anything too radical.

Design
At first glance, the T630 is very similar to Sony Ericsson's hero product of 2003. The T630 retains the same rectangular outline as well as the general layout. But a closer inspection reveals some differences. For a start, the mobile is encased in hard plastic unlike the aluminum shell of its predecessor, but build quality remains acceptable. The shiny coat has also been replaced by a matt finish so you don't have to worry about smudges. Furthermore, the new Sony Ericsson's seamless buttons are now larger and easier to press.

Despite its cosmetic changes, the minimalist white-and-gray T630 retains a touch of class. It weighs a comfortable 92.5g and measures 17 x 102 x 43mm. In Europe, a black version is available exclusively from operator T-Mobile, but it is not elsewhere at present.

Interface
For users accustomed to the responsiveness of Nokia phones, the T610 may have felt like somewhat lethargic. The T630, unfortunately, doesn't pick up the pace. The lag when it comes to messaging is particularly evident as the predictive text engine struggles to keep up with texting.

Our evaluation unit did not hang or restart on us during two weeks of testing. Hopefully, the stability issues of the T610 will not resurface and users can finally steer a wide berth around service centers.

Features
One major introduction in the T630 is the improved TFT display. Although sporting the same 16-bit color depth, the new Sony Ericsson has more vibrant colors and offers better viewing angles. It is also slightly more viewable under sunlight, but given the T610 is already pretty good as far as passive-matrix displays go, we reckon the T630 doesn't boast a decisive advantage here.

Nor does its built-in camera. The viewfinder is responsive and showcases images quite well. When we transferred pictures to a desktop computer via Bluetooth, we found the quality no better or worse than standard camera-phones. Indoor images proved surprisingly good, with accurate color reproduction. Outdoor shots were slightly blurred with a bit of color bleeding. Resolution, which goes up to 352 x 288 pixels, is relatively low.

The handset's reverse contains the recessed camera lens as well as a small mirror for framing self-portraits. Oddly, there's some misalignment here as all our faces ended up off-center.

The phone comes with more than 2MB of memory, but less than half of that is free. With each photograph taking up at least 30kb in size, you won't be able to store too many wallpapers and ringing tones in here.

The T630's implementation of Bluetooth again works well enough. We were able to send images and MIDI files as ringtones effortlessly. The games in the handset, especially the ones based on the Mophun platform, deserve special mention. Minigolf is customarily challenging, while HoneyCave2 is one of the better executions of a side-scrolling action-adventure game. The graphically impressive V-Rally2 gives a good sensation of speed as trees fly past and tarmac sweeps under your racecar. Sadly, it's really just a teaser, with only two cars and two tracks available.

One new feature you can find in the T630 is "My Friends". Like Nokia's "Presence", this allows you to find out which friends are available for chatting. It will, however, take a bit of time before your mates obtain compatible phones and operators roll out services.

Reception And Battery Life
We found the T630's reception average and we failed to obtain signals in areas of poor network coverage. Voice quality was, however, adequate. Battery life was good, not great. The phone's 770mAh Lithium-polymer cell gave us three days of normal usage.

Conclusion
The Sony Ericsson T630 currently goes for S$618 with a two-year contract or S$818 without line. That's a good S$150 more than the T610--rather steep for a slightly better display and a fresh look. To be fair, given the awesome quality of the T610, the T630 really doesn't have to work too hard to become a very good handset--which it surely is.

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