Ericsson T39....a real winner in my book (Ericsson T39m)

Member Name: Marland

Product:	Ericsson T39m
Date:	16/08/02 (2430 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: durable and reliable, good voice quality and reception, VERY stylish with LOADS of features

Disadvantages: screen and buttons on the small side

Why I got an T39

I received an e-mail that said GRATIS, like the majority of people I read it and thought ‘free’ then thought ‘junk mail, hit delete’. Fortunately I didn’t listen to me, instead I opened it, which was damned lucky, as any Swedish person would read GRATIS and think ‘congratulations’. The person who had sent the mail was in fact Swedish. He worked for Ericsson and was informing me that I had won an Ericsson T39 with luxury accessory pack. At the time I was using a Motorola cd160, ‘great’ I though ‘there IS a God!’.
That was back in August 2001.

Techie Stuff

I won’t go into details here, you can get the full low down from the official web site and the other reviews but if you need a phone that is really mobile, then this is a good one, it is capable of GPRS triband (working on GSM 900/1800/1900) or High Speed Circuit Switch Data (HSCSD). It also includes a WAP 1.2.1 browser, email support (complete with POP3 and SMTP support) and Bluetooth. It weighs in at a meagre 86g, runs (and runs and runs) on a flat Lithium-polymer battery which boasts a standby time of 300 hours and 11 hours of talktime;
Features, where do you start? Personal Information Manager that allows you to manage your daily events. SyncML support for wireless synchronisation of contacts and calendar events to your PC via WAP, Bluetooth or IR. Enhanced security for the WAP browser. Enhanced Messaging System, you can send sounds and pictures in SMSs. Games, you can play solo or with other Bluetooth users. There are some nifty things you can do with your voice, leave yourself a memo or set the phone up to either answer or reject a call by voice, for example if the phone displays ‘Boss’ you might feel the need to tell the phone to ‘shut up’ and it will reject the call, or maybe ‘Mum’ and you’ll tell the phone ‘in a minute’ or ‘wh
at!’ and it will connect you. Plus there is all the usual standard stuff alarm clock, phonebook etc., There is also loads of chat stuff, but I don’t know much about that, so if you are a chat fanatic check the other reviews. You can tell already cant you, I love this phone :0)

What I like about it

Apart from the obvious fact that it didn’t cost me anything, the first thing that I like about the T39 is the size. There’s no point having a mobile phone if it is too large to conveniently take with you, it’s small enough to fit in any pocket without leaving an unsightly bulge or squeeze into the smallest evening bag. Yet it’s not silly small and likely to be lost if placed in a large bag. Another feature that has proved useful is the design of the belt clip. You open a clip on the clip to attach it to your belt pocket, whatever, then there is another catch to attach the phone onto and off of the clip. I’ve made it sound complicated maybe, but it isn’t, it is effective however, twice I’ve caught people trying to lift the phone off the clip to no avail, only an embarrassed ‘sorry mate, just going to borrow it’ – yeah – my eye! Another thing I like is the flip cover that means not having to lock the phone and unlock it to avoid making accidental calls. The flip top appears quite flimsy, but I’ve dropped my phone on several occasions and it has skittered across s the floor and in one instance bounced off a shelf, the phone is still good as new though. I like the add ons, the radio and the MP3 could have been combined into one though in my opinion. And the battery lasts seemingly for ever, despite constant MP3 player use, I’ve never had it run out on me during all the months I’ve used it. But what I really like is the fact that I’ve never had any reception problems and the voice quality has always been good, after all, at the end of the day, a phone is a pho
ne and if you can’t make and receive calls...forget it.

Draw backs

The buttons are a little small, but I don’t like to use the add on chat board and they aren’t so small that I can’t use them, also the phone itself is small, so what else can you expect? Also, if you’re going to make a big thing of including WAP capability, then you should arrange a way to include a decent sized screen. Ericsson haven’t. I don’t use the WAP or e-mail facilities, because I’m economical that way and have 24 hour cable Internet connection so it’s cheaper and more convenient to SMS and e-mail from my machine, but if I needed those facilities on the move, then I would want a slightly larger screen or a PDA.


Conclusion

I like to use e-bay, and from my experiences with the T39, I wouldn’t be afraid to buy a another second hand T39 should (God forbid) anything happen to this one. I can’t think of anything else that would make me switch or change phones. Of course, there's always it’s big brother the Ericsson T68. But we’re talking a lot of Mullah for a colour screen! So if you see one up for grabs in a competition...drop me a line :0)

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