Ericsson T68 and T68i (Ericsson T68)

Member Name: Phage

Product:	Ericsson T68
Date:	29/04/02 (3530 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Connectivity, Bluetooth, GPRS

Disadvantages: No Built in Camera

Well I'm sure you have looked into the Ericsson T68 and T68i, but I have a few bits and bobs that may sway your decision. I?m a ?power user? of the phone and work in the mobile telephony business.

I?m going to tell you this:

1) Quick basic features and what?s so good about the phone
2) How I use it to maximum benefit
3) Some things you may not know.


1) Quick basic features and what?s so good about the phone


Nice, small, light phone with a good colour screen and some great features.

Good for Ericsson as they have teamed up with Sony for the phone and have a much better user interface than ALL the other Ericsson phones. This is truly a step in the right direction.

Battery life is good for such a small phone. There?s a neat little feature whereby you can flick the button on the side of the phone and it will tell you how many hours talk and standby time are left.

The colour screen is good too, I have downloaded a bunch of backgrounds on my Palm using FunnyPhone (you can download it off the web) then I beam the pics to the mobile via the Infra Red port. I even had a picture of myself on it for a while.

The built in calendar will synchronise with your PC, but the software for your PC doesn?t come in the box, you need to download it from Ericsson?s web site.

I?ve configured my phone to fetch my e-mail every hour, so I get that on the move using GPRS. Very neat.

Now the good stuff, what makes me a ?power user? and some up and coming things you may not know???..


2) How I use it to maximum benefit

The phone is a GPRS capable and WAP enabled. The GPRS is 3+1, that?s 3 times the speed down link and ?normal? up. This makes WAP browsing fast (assuming you can find something to look at!). In addition (at least for Vodafone) you only pay for data sent and received, not all the time you?re connected to WAP (unlike older WAP phones costing Xpence per
minute). I use Yahoo?s Instant Messenger on there. Very good.

Another good thing you can do with this phone is use the BlueTooth technology. This allows you to talk to other BlueTooth enabled devices within 10 meters for free. The T68 lets you exchange address book settings and play games, but the real value of bluetooth is modem connectivity. It?s like the Infra red port without having to have line of sight. I keep my T68 in my pocket use my ipaq PDA to surf the net and get e-mails. No mucking about putting the phone in front of the PDA and waiting for the IR to break! It also talks to my laptop so I can log into work?s Intranet on the move. Being GPRS it isn?t all that slow.

I also bluetooth synchronise the calendar with Outlook on my PC. It does the tasks, phone book and appointments. Very good for editing your contacts, I do it on the PC and re-sync.


3) Some things you may not know.

You have been able to get T68?s for a while now, but the T68i will be out soon. What?s the difference?

Well, the T68i looks a little different, same basic shape, but the styling is different. It?s also badged Sony Ericsson.

The features are pretty much the same, but the T68i will support MMS (Multi Media Messaging). This is like SMS (text messaging) but a lot more free form. Send sound, pictures (real photos) and even video in the future. The text is colour and you can change the font. You can even change the timing on the display of the message, e.g. have a screen that says Happy Birthday, then auto replace it with the name of the person you sent it too, or perhaps a picture of yourself. This will be the next big thing. Imagine text messaging without the 160 character limit or a limit of text for that matter.

A camera will be available for the T68i ? Com cam 2 (there?s one for the T68 ? Com Cam 1, but this 2 has more memory in it and allows you to use the phone?s screen as a view finder ? 1 doesn?t). Clip this on t
he bottom of the phone, take a picture and MMS it to your mate, or to an e-mail address. Good ah?

If you already have a T68 and wished you got a T68i I the only real difference is software. All that needs to happen is for you to get a flash upgrade. I?ve heard that some of the mobile phone companies will offer this for free.

Summary: