Pro's out-weigh the cons... (NEC E606)

Member Name: Dominocat

Product:	NEC E606
Date:	06/08/03 (1201 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cool piece of kit

Disadvantages: battery life is appaling

I've had my NEC e606 phone for about two months now, after getting it through a special offer from Phones4U. The phone was free, if I connected to the Videotalk 750 tariff.

Like many technology whores before me, I was eager to get the new G3 phone, and positively drooled over the prospect of 750 cross network free minutes per month. This left my old T-Mobile "Everyone 150" tariff to choke on the dust left in 3's wake. You can't begin to compare T-Mobile's 150 minutes for £25 per month, and 3's 750 minutes for £35. (The £25 equivalent on 3 gives you 500 cross network minutes.) The Videotalk 750 tariff also included 50 text messages free, and £20 worth of video downloads per month, although it wasn't til later that I found out that this was only for the first three months. I have to say, the information on 3's website is not very clear on this point. Neither was the guy in Phones4U.

Then there was the phone itself. The NEC e606 is a flip phone, with a generous colour LED display screen, allowing easy navigation. Once you know where you're going, setup and customisation is a piece of cake. The phone has polyphonic ringtones, and although there aren't many programmed into the phone itself, they are in midi form so adding them to the phone via your PC is easy.

The phone includes a basic digital camera, and a facility which enables you to record 12 seconds of video footage. Not having used a camera-within-a-phone before, I don't have anything to compare it with. It looks basic, but does the job.

G3 allows you to access the internet, and download news, movie trailers, games etc. This is actually quite cool, as they download in Mpeg format, and are saved on your phone, so you can watch them as many times as you like. Basically, once you've downloaded the clips, they're yours. The phone is Java enabled, and there are downloadable games available. From what I've s

een, the games are free to download - but - you do pay to use them. However, in the first three months, this is covered by the £20 worth of downloads.

What about the drawbacks? Well, the obvious one is that to use videotalk, you need someone else at the other end of the phone with a G3 phone. Until G3 takes off, and until more of the UK is G3 enabled, this is going to be a downer.

The main drawback for me is the battery life. The standby time is 41 hours - much less than most G2 phones. Talktime is 2 hours, or a measly 1 hour on videotalk. To me, this is reminiscent of the heady days of analogue, when my old 'brick' needed to be charged every night. Having said that, the phone does come with a spare battery, and there is a longer life battery available separately (however the longer life battery is larger, and adds to the bulk of the phone). A desktop charger is also available separately, and this is next on my shopping list.

In summary, I like this phone and tariff. As long as I remember to put the phone on charge at night, I'll be happy.

30 October 2003: addenum

I thought I'd add that I've just bought the extended life battery, and it has made a huge difference! I've had it installed, fully charged for two days now, and the battery life indicator is still green! If you decide to get the bigger battery, bear in mind that it adds about 10mm depth to the phone, and you can't use the leather phone case with it.

Also, shop around. I have seen this battery available online for £40+, but I bought it from a Three shop for a mere £10! (Based on a current 1/2 price sale on accessories)

Summary: