Clean design, distinct lines, a full color screen and quality materials make the Sony Ericsson T306 stand out from the rest. And under the surface lies the beauty that makes the T306 best in class. It has the latest mobile messaging - multimedia messaging service (MMS), along with text messaging with pictures and sounds (EMS) and picture messaging. It even has its own e-mail that lets you use your T306 to send and receive e-mail wherever you are... [Continue reading Sony Ericsson T306 Review]
Sony Ericsson T306 User Reviews
1. Posted by Hrothgar
Tue Aug 24, 2004 5:15 pm
First, I should note that the T306 is just the American version of the T300 and they are essentially identical (though the black faceplate of the T306's European cousin looks cooler), so read the T300 reviews for more input on this model.
I've had this phone for a little over a year and can't really complain. I got it in June 2003 after my wife dropped my old school TDMA Nokia on the pavement, shattering the LCD and rendering it useless. I used it as an excuse to upgrade to a phone with a color screen and polyphonic ringtones (my Nokia didn't even have customizable MONOphonic ringtones). The price was reasonable (at the time the phone's had just come out and I got it free in exchange for another year on my contract). I was a little concerned about moving from TDMA to GSM, but the only time I get out in the boonies is when we go and visit my inlaws so I wasn't too worried about it.
I'd say reception over the past year has improved slightly overall, but I still get a very weak signal at my folks' house in Marietta (a major suburb north of Atlanta) and dodgy reception in my home. Reception at my office in Norcross is great and is fairly strong all along my commute. I have no way of knowing if it's AT&T or the phone itself to blame when the reception drops but for the most part it's been there when I needed it.
As others have said, the color screen is nice, but has a pretty small pixel count and only 256 colors. After you see some of the 65k color screens out there, you will be jealous. If you try to make wallpapers yourself, however, they'll generally come out looking pretty dithered and cruddy due to the small palette. There's noticeable ghosting as you move from menu to menu, which isn't really a problem unless you're playing an action game. On the up side, the Themes are very cool, and the seasonal ones that come loaded on the phone are pleasant enough that I haven't really felt the need to get more (though they're out there if you look).
The two best aspects of the phone are the polyphonic ringtones and the infrared port. I hear so many people complaining about not being able to get ringtones, images, or other files to and from their phone. I've never had a problem with T306 in this respect. When I first got it I invested $7 on eBay in an infrared USB port and cable. You simply plug the cable into a USB port on your PC, turn on the IR port on the phone, and place it within a foot of the PC IR port. Windows XP automatically detects it as a "nearby computer" and will send and receive files with no problems whatsoever. This makes it quite easy to manage your memory by moving stuff off and onto your phone (I'm constantly swapping out ringtones).
Furthermore, since polyphonic ringtones are simply MIDI files (which have been around for two decades now), you can grab as many MIDI files as you want off the Net and upload them on your phone as ringtones FOR FREE. And the MIDI synth on the T306 is amazing. With 24 voice polyphony you can get some incredible sounds coming out of this little box. In fact, the quality of the music is more often limited by the talent of the individual who sequenced the MIDI than it is by the phone itself. I've got unbelievable renditions of Radiohead, Coldplay, music from Lord of the Rings...all sorts of stuff. And it still puts most people's ringtones to shame. I know some people say it's too quiet, but it seems like it gets quite loud to me.
I'm currently looking to change phone service (Cingular?) and upgrade my phone in the process (probably to either the Motorola V600 or the SE T637). But I've enjoyed this phone while I've had it.
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2. Posted by zooxeez
Fri Jul 30, 2004 10:33 pm
I bought 3 of these phones when I signed up for the family plan with Cingular, one for me, one for my brother and one for my mother. We have had nothing but problems with them. There are numerous dead zones in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area. The reception is spotty at best. The ring is too quiet even at the highest volume. Half the time the phone doesn't even ring when you do get a call. We had all three of them "serviced" and ultimately replaced by Cingular with the same model. When we were given Nokia phones as loaners they worked wonderfully. I was informed by a technician that this model of GSM phone does not work well in some areas. Apparantly this area is one of them.
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