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View Best Sellers   Release Date: Q2 2002 Released For: AT&T - Discontinued T-Mobile - Discontinued The Sony Ericsson T68i is all about imaging, usability, great looks and the latest mobile technology. As the first ever phone to support MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), it's the most expressive way to communicate on the move. With Bluetooth, infrared and fast GPRS connection to the mobile Internet, the T68i can communicate with a whole host of other devices. Sleek, curved and small but sophisticated, the T68i is designed for people who have fun in style... [Continue reading Sony Ericsson T68i Review]

Technical Specifications
Network:	GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
Form Factor:	Block
Dimensions:	100 x 48 x 20 mm
Weight:	84 g
Antenna:	Internal
Navigation:	4-Way Joystick
Battery Type:	700 mAh Li-Polymer
Talk Time:	7.50
Standby Time:	384
Memory:	865 KB
Expandable Memory:
Imaging
Main Screen:	256 colors (LCD) 101 x 80 px
External Screen:
Camera:	Accessory
Audio
MP3 Player:	Accessory
FM Radio:	Accessory
Speakerphone:
Push-To-Talk:
Multimedia
Wallpapers:	101 x 80 px
Screen Savers:	101 x 80 px
Ring Tones:	Ericsson Melody Format
Themes:
Games:
Streaming Multimedia:
Messaging
SMS:
EMS:
MMS:
Email:	POP3 / IMAP4
Chat:
Predictive Text:	T9
Applications
Phonebook Capacity:	510
Calendar:	300 entries
To-Do List:
WAP:	1.2.1
Voice Commands:
Calculator:
Connectivity
Bluetooth:
Infrared Port:
High-Speed Data:	GPRS (Class 4)
Wi-Fi:
GPS:
PC Sync:	SyncML
More Information
Website:	Sony Ericsson T68i Website
Discussion:	Sony Ericsson Forum

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AT&T	T-Mobile	Verizon Wireless	AT&T	AT&T
Free!	Free!	Free!	$19.99	Free!

Pretty good phone overall, but has some weaknesses

The T68i was one of the most popular cellular phones. The reason being it was one of the first to use MMS, and Bluetooth technology. In addition, its got GPRS and a 256 color screen.

I ordered the T68i through Amazon with a T-Mobile plan. The phone was free and the T-Mobile plan was hard to beat. I had high expectations for the T68i, and at the time it was a great phone.

Although it was great when it came out in the spring of 2002, nowadays the 256 screen might be too small. 256 is quite low for color screens today, and the lack of polyphonic ring tones and downloadable games limits the T68i.

The call quality is pretty good. However you will notice some noise while talking in quiet areas. Reception on the other had is a bit shakey. It's probably attributed to the internal antenna, but it's not very good.

If you don't use Bluetooth much other good alternative to look at might be the Sony Ericsson T300 or the newer Siemens S55. Both have a similar style of the T68i.

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252 out of 328 people found this review helpful

Disappointing

I had high expectations for this phone. I've used it for about four months now and it has not lived up to them. I'm amazed that so many people like it. In fact the phone's behavior irritates me on almost every call.

For starters, the software on this phone causes it to operate S L O W L Y. The lag between menu-navigation commands (i.e. with the joystick) and screen response is REALLY annoying, because it causes many mistakes to occur. Example: One shortcut menu contains only the key lock and the "turn off ringer" option; for some reason, the slight lag causes me to select the wrong option about 30% of the time. This is fantastically maddening! Also, the phone takes 13 SECONDS from "Power on" to "Ready" -- and ANOTHER 16 SECONDS to access my contacts list. This is a phone that takes 6 seconds just to turn OFF.

The menus are also counterintuitive in my opinion, and in most cases I must use the "No" key to back all the way out of whatever action I took. There's no way to completely clear the numbers I've keyed from the screen with a single button click, so (for example) my N-digit voicemail password remains on the screen for all to see until I've clicked the "Clear" button N times, or held it down for a comparable amount of time.

Finally, Bluetooth has not at all lived up to its billing. I felt entitled to expect Bluetooth capabilities for a) a wireless handsfree headset, and b) synchronization with the PIM data on my PC. Neither of these has been very successful. I'm putting down some detailed information about what's not working. I'm aware that these are not specifically issues with the t68i, but I'm listing them anyway because they contribute to my overwhelming disappointment with the phone.

Bluetooth/Headset:
Owing to poor design, the Sony-Ericsson HBH-30 headset feeds its earpiece output back into its own microphone at all but the lowest volume setting, with the result that callers to my phone hear their own echo, unless the volume is so low (for instance, in a car) that I can't hear them at all. Also, the phone fails to route outgoing calls to the headset about 20% of the time. I'm not kidding. This creates an awkward moment at the beginning of each call where I watch the phone to see if the call's actually started yet. You can forget doing this safely while driving.

Bluetooth/PC:
By no means are the kinks worked out of this technology. My only suggestion about this is, carefully research in the newsgroups before assuming that you'll be able to synchronize to your PC via Bluetooth. Check specifically for your PIM software (e.g. Outlook), your phone, your transceiver (e.g. Microsoft, Belkin, TDK) and your operating system, plus the word "Problem". I bought the MS Bluetooth mouse/keyboard combo in order to have a Bluetooth transceiver to use with the phone. Installed XP SP1, followed all directions. The mouse/kb work, the computer sees the phone, but it turns out synchronization won't work because MS and XTNDConnect (Sony-Ericsson's connectivity software maker) don't agree on how to implement the Bluetooth serial protocol: this is the sort of disagreement that will NEVER be fixed, and now if I want to use mouse, keyboard and phone on the same computer, I need to buy a (third party) bluetooth transceiver. One hitch: nobody seems to make one that supports both devices!

This phone's getting sold on eBay as soon as possible.

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157 out of 225 people found this review helpful

Great Phone!!!

This was the second phone that I had bought and I found it to be amazing. My first phone, Nokia 8290, was a great phone but was nothing compared to the T68i. It had lots of great pictures that you can use as a background or have as a picture come up when somebody calls. It also had 8 games which included battleship, solitaire, etc. (the names are changed on the games but are still played the same). The T68i also has lots of different ringtone chooses from simple business rings to more fun and familiar rings. One thing that I did notice was that it would make an odd beeping noise about every 30 seconds when I was making a phone call. That could have been my phone, provider or several other factors. Overall I found it to be a great phone and would strongly recomend it to others.

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122 out of 179 people found this review helpful

Slow and unlogical

A mobile phone has to be a good working phone in the first place. Second come the features. It looks like SE have put all their energy on the features (because those sell?). And that makes my conclusion: the only advantages are the features: bluetooth, infrared, tripleband, GPRS and colorscreen. Furthermore the ordening of phonenumbers (home, mobile, work) I really like. A missing feature is java, but if you want it, just pick another phone.

The disadvantages are:
- Too slow: it can take till half a second to react (in the menus). animations are to laugh about after I had seen the same animation on a Siemens S55.
- Press buttons till you drop: You need to press at least 12(!) buttons to send an sms(1 less with a "shortcut"). Try to say "no" eith this phone: 14 button pushes.
- Not logical: (I) Inlock the keypad has the same keycombination as "delete and confirm". When the screensaver starts, not always the keylock is put on. So I often delete the first phonenumber, which now is "aaaaah!" (because that's what I screamed when I deleted the number). You have to think it's slow, so you only see the message "phonenumber deleted". (II) The menu after pressing the c-button 1 second only contains the first 2 items under the options-menu.
- Batterylife indicator is wrong: 50h of callingtime means: load batteries now and don't try to call (or get called). The battery can only give 15 minutes of callingtime and then ends it, abdruptly. Second
- Antenna is poor. SonyEricsson said so itself (helpdesk).
- unreliable: Sometimes after dialing a number the phone gives three beeps and stops dialing. There's no way to call, except a "hard reboot". I hope I never really need my phone, like when I need to dial 911!!! I hear more people having the same problem.
This "don't want to make a connection" happens once a month lately and thus making it a woman.
- no warning leds or whatsoever: I don't know if I have a sms, because the leds don't warn me. I have to turn off the keylock, then see if there are messages or not and then turn on the keylock again.
- Hard to configure: it takes a lot of time to find out where the options are. To configure GPRS I first needed to make a WAP-account and then make it a GPRS account in a totally different place.

SE really has to publish a firmware-upgrade. Meanwhile buy another phone. Mine is for sale.
This is my 3rd phone. I like the features (connecting my palm V via IR to GPRS, which is very cheap via my provider), but it's really the worst phone I ever had if I look at the user interface and the speed. I had Sagem and Siemens, which I both liked and had for years.

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77 out of 117 people found this review helpful