The Battle of Color - Sony Ericsson T68i vs Samsung SGH-T100 (1)
ngws 19th April 2002

Introduction

We are moving into an era where mobile phones are like an object of desire. Smooth curves, animated screen saver, polyphonic ring tones are fast becoming the norm within a few short months since the launch of Ericsson T68m. The mobile phone is not longer is a tool for just communication. It's a lifestyle package offering entertainment such as games, camera, MP3 player and to top it off, a color screen! Let's get on with it and meet our contenders.

Sony Ericsson T68i

Widely acclaimed as THE benchmark for functionality and features, the Sony Ericsson T68i is built to satisfy the hardcore user and silence the critic at the same time. It's also the world first MMS (Multimedia Message Service) enabled mobile phone which is capable of sending texts, sounds, pictures and short video clips to any MMS enabled handset. This is a huge leap over EMS which pales in comparison since it can only send and receive pictures of limited size (16x16, 32x32 pixels), simple animations and sounds. The T68i is a connectivity monster boosting Bluetooth, IR, GPRS and HSCSD (28.8 kbps) for those on the move. Feature-wise, the T68i is a Triband handset (GSM 900/1800/1900), has a 256 color STN (Super-Twisted Nematic) color screen (101x80 resolution), WAP 2.0 (supports XHTML and cookies), organizer, email (POP3, IMAP4), melody composer, picture editor, photo album and lastly T9 input. Sony Ericsson has a line of add-on peripherals (MP3 player, CommuniCam, Bluetooth Headset etc) to enrich your mobile experience. Whoa .... what a mouthful.

HPM-10 MP3 Handfree                                                           Sony Ericsson MCA-20 CommuniCam

MP3 Tracks Selection                                                                       CommuniCam Startup Screen

3COM USB Bluetooth Adaptor (File transfer/Internet access)                   Viewfinder With MCA-20 (Lag of 0.5-1 sec between refresh on viewfinder)

Clockwise Fr. Left (Resolution-File Size-Write Time): L(640x480-42KB-31 sec), M(320x240-14KB-13 sec), S(160x120-7KB-6 sec), MMS(80x60-4KB-3 sec) (Sample pics taken with the MCA-20)

Everything is positive so far but the T68i is not immune from other shortcomings. For instance, the interface is a tad confusing, at least to me. A friend of mine described it as intimidating! The lack of useful information in the manual often led to "trial and error' while exploring the options. Another issue that creeps up every single day is speed. Well, the response time on the T68i is an improvement over the original T68m but there is still a lag here and there especially in the area of SMS. At times, the phone will "hang" for no apparent reason (and white screen when playing Naval Fleet) and I believe that the software is still buggy. 

As requested by a reader, g2000, the new iMelody ringtone format on the T68i is definitely on par with the Nokia's. I uploaded the tune, Autumn in RTTTL (Nokia 8310) and .imy format (T68i) and couldn't heard any distinct difference. Anyway, an in-depth report on it and SMS speed within the next 2 days. 

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