Introduction

It's finally here! The much awaited Sony Ericsson T610. There has been much chatter about this phone among the cellular phone community. Since its prerelease notice, everyone has been awaiting the launch of Sony Ericsson's flagship phone.

Sony Ericsson boasted a phone with 65,000 colors, 32 instrument polyphonic ring tones, MMS, a build-in digital camera, and Bluetooth technology. Many cellular phone enthusiasts were praising it as the perfect phone, even before they had a chance to hold it.

But with tough competition coming from the Nokia 7250, Samsung V205, and Panasonic GU87, Sony Ericsson will have to work hard to stand out. All these phones have great color screens, polyphonic ring tones, and built-in cameras. If you're one of the gadget loving consumers that cellular phone manufacturers are drooling to court, then you might be wondering if the T610 is the phone for you.

Don't worry, we have tested the phone and bring you all the pros and cons about the successor to the hugely popular T68i. Everything from the design, to menu, and reception. So proceed forward and find out why everyone is waiting for this phone to debut.

Design

The Sony Ericsson T610 was much anticipated. Being the successor of the hugely popular T68i is a tough shoe to fit. But Sony Ericsson has improved and added features to make the T610 the flagship model to compete against the top cellular phone contenders such as the Samsung V205, Nokia 7250, and Panasonic GU87. Considered the cream of the crop of cell phones, these high end phones have 4,096 and 65,000 color screens, beautiful polyphonic ring tones, MMS, and built-in digital cameras.

From a design standpoint, the T610 has very traditional lines and curves. It currently comes in 3 colors: Aluminum Haze, Abyss Blue, and Volcanic Red. The T610 is made from aluminum with plastic around the screen, so the phone feels much sturdier. However, the new materials attract fingerprints, so if you care about the appearance of your phones, you might be wiping the T610 excessively. Good thing it comes with a cleaning cloth.

The T610 is just as impressive in multimedia. Starting with its 65,000 color 128 x 160 pixel STN screen, Sony Ericsson has also added 32 instruments to its polyphonic ring tones. But what really stands out is Sony Ericsson's reputation for versatility. What the T610 has that the others don't is the ability to change practically everything about your phone to your tastes. If you've owned a T68i you know how fun it is to create your own themes. The T610 has increased the customizability. Now you can change everything from desktop pictures, to toolbars, text, and practically everything else you can dream of. Nokia and Samsung have something called color schemes, but they pale in comparison.

A digital camera is also built into the back of the T610. The camera takes pictures at resolutions of 120 x 160 and 288 x 352 pixels. In addition, there is a self timer, and 3 effects: black and white, negative, and sepia. In normal and outdoor lighting the T610 camera performed well. However dim lighting made the pictures very dull and lifeless. Compared to the Nokia 7250, the image quality was very similar, which is decent for a camera phone. Overall cameras on phones are meant more as a novelty item for taking pictures of your friends to put as their caller ID. Don't expect to be printing out photo quality pictures from this camera.

The software of the T610 is much improved on since the T68i. Many people had problems with the slow menu of the T68i. You'll be happy to know that the T610 has a much faster menu with minimal delay. The T610 has added picture and music editors too. Now you can make minor change to your pictures. One of the problems with polyphonic ring tones was that you couldn't make them on your phone. Well Sony Ericsson has solved that problem with its Music DJ. Now you can create polyphonic ring tones by overlaying up to 4 tracks from 128 samples.

If there was a weakness in the T610 it would have to be in the memory. The phone comes with only 2MB of internal memory and no way of upgrading. That means you'll be doing a lot of deleting and memory management. If you plan on taking frequent pictures with the camera phone you might need a computer near by to empty out the phone.

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