Sony Ericsson T610 Cell Phone

I bought my Sony Ericsson T610 directly from my mobile carrier, T-mobile in the summer of 2004. I had it for two years, and the only reason I upgraded is because I wanted a PDA with a touch screen. I still have phone (it still works) and I keep it as a back up in case I need an emergency phone. I paid 200 dollars for it at the time.

This phone was WAY ahead of its time when it came out. It had BLUETOOTH (now pretty much standard, but was rare back then), infrared data port, and a color screen with a digital camera. It was the only phone that I could find that had all those features, plus one more very important thing. I lived in a house with other people, and I didn't have my own internet connection. I had a computer, but little money, and the people I lived with didn't have (or want) internet access. Since it wasn't my house, and I lived rent free, I couldn't have a phone jack or cable line installed in my room. I wanted to have internet access! This phone has the ability to be used as a modem. I bought a Bluetooth adaptor for my computer and connected the phone to the computer via that adaptor. I then had a wireless modem! I used that phone for my only communications device for two years.

This phone is what is called a candy bar style phone. That means that it doesn't have any moving parts like flip, swivel, or slide phones. I like that style best, because there aren't as many moving parts to break and all parts of the phone (screen and controls) are always easily accessible. That is a bad thing sometimes, because accidental key presses and screen scratches are more likely. I once called my ex at 4 in the morning and sang his voicemail an entire song because of accidental key presses in my pocket while I was driving to work!

This phone actually has a music making program and a PAINT program. I've yet to find another cell phone with that feature! It was a lot of fun and very similar to the Windows paint application. However, one is not able to save what they created in the paint program. The phone also has a game similar to tetris that I enjoyed.

The black plastic and silver aluminum casing on this phone look REALLY sharp. And, they do a great job protecting the phone! I've dropped this phone so many times, I can't even remember! It received a few battle scars (scratches/dents), but it never cracked or stopped working! Once, between classes at school, I was putting the phone away and missed my pocket. The thing tumbled down two flights of stairs, and still worked perfectly! I've had other phones that I've dropped on carpet and they broke all to pieces. Very durable, this phone!

Navigating the menus in this phone does take a little getting used to. That is because, instead of utilizing an arrow key pad like most phones, the T610 uses a mini-joystick. Very much like a computer joystick, only made for the thumb! The user can move up, down, left, or right with the joystick. To select, just press the joystick straight in. Even though I didn't like this feature at first, I ended up falling in love with it during the course of my relationship with phone. I almost went through joystick withdrawals when I "upgraded" to the T-mobile MDA.

The rest of the controls are very simple. Beside the joystick, the keypad is equipped with the number keys 1-9 and 0, left and right soft keys, and clear, and back keys. On the left side of the phone (if the screen is facing the user) is the camera key and very handy volume up down keys. The volume keys also serve to silence the ringer quickly, if necessary. The power switch is on the top of the phone, and that took some getting used to. I did grow to like it because it was out of the way, and it prepared me for my MDA which also has the switch in that location. There is another button on the right side of the phone near the top that is not labeled. That one, when pressed, brings up information about the phone (the phone number and a few other various details).

Speaker and microphone volumes are both satisfactory.

Graphics are great. Very clear. The camera is only 1.3 mega pixel, but it takes better pictures than my current MDA that I paid twice the price for (also 1.3 mega pixel)!

The screen saver automatically defaults to a clock display with rather large numbers (as did my previous Nokia), which was great for me since my cell phone was/is my only watch. With my current phone, I have to tap the power key to "wake" it up to see the time. I do miss the my T610 for that feature and many others that I've listed here.

I loved the small overall size of the phone and the solid feel most of all.

The battery lasted a very long time. I charged the phone every other day, and that is with constant use (at least 2 hours a day, though not incessant) for voice calls, text messaging, and reading news and other things via Tzones. The battery indicator is in a weird place on this phone, and that also took come getting used to. Instead of being on bottom right side of the screen, it's on the top right.

The signal indicator is really neat! Most phones have the typical bars that indicate how good a signal is. This one is no exception. However, on the T610, the bars also CHANGE COLOR! Depending on signal strength, the bars would be green in color (strong signal), yellow in color (weaker signal, or red in color (better string two cans together). Wonderful visual que to quickly let the user know how strong a signal the phone is receiving.

The phone had OK reception. It did have an internal antenna at a time when quite a few phones still had the pull out kind. I would not call it excellent like my previous Nokia was, but it was fair. Probably depends more on the network and area. I will note that both my previous Nokia and my current T-mobile MDA (HTC Wizard) work(ed) in places the T610 didn't.

The T610 does use a SIM card, so transferring from an old or to a new phone is very simple.

The text messaging application was very intuitive as was the T9 predictive text input.

I loved the small overall size of the phone and the solid feel most of all.

If someone FORCED me to say some bad things about this phone, it would be difficult. I will list my very minor complaints here.

The keys on the phone are very small. Sometimes, I'd press two of them simultaneously with my thumb due to their small size. Also, they are VERY low on the phone (due to the rather large screen), so during one handed text operations, the phone felt a little top heavy. There's not a whole lot to hold onto the phone with below the keys. I dropped it a few times due to this issue (though it survived unscathed, thank heavens I wasn't by a pool or ocean).

This phone does not have a speaker phone. I dislike speaker phones immensely, and only use mine if I'm on hold with an automated computer system waiting for a live agent or something like that. Very rare.

Charger (and wired headset) removal is rather "unique" to say the least. Pushing it in is just like any other phone. Pulling it out, however, is not. Instead of pulling the cord straight out of the phone socket, the user must bend it down (or up) and kind of roll it out. It almost feels like holding a twig in two hands and breaking it in half. They do this so the cord can't be pulled out accidentally. I *guess* that's a good thing, but definitely takes some getting used to.

This phone also has no MP3 player. Part of the reason I upgraded is because I wanted that in my next phone. Now that I have it, I don't use it at all!

This phone does not have a memory card slot. The user is stuck with the memory that the phone comes with. I don't know how much it is, but it worked well for me! Much like the MP3 player issue, my new phone has a spot for a memory card and I've never needed it.

I did have a technical issue with my first phone. After about a year of use (11 months actually), a few of the pixels on the screen died. There was a yellow diagonal line across half the screen and it was stuck there. No matter what I did (restart the phone, change applications) those pixels remained yellow. I called T-mobile and they sent a replacement very quickly. The replacement was perfect until I upgraded to the MDA.


This phone taught me that different isn't always bad. This is a great phone and even though they are old now, I'd say to anyone considering one to get it. You will not be sorry!