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Sony Ericsson T300 Author:Daniel Topler Date Posted: February 19th, 2003
SLRating:
Bottom Line: The Sony Ericsson T300 Cell Phone is inexpensive, its small, has lots of features including color screen, GPRS and plays polyphonic ringtones. Is it a bargain? Read on to find out in our official review....
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Sony Ericsson T300 Author:Daniel Topler Date Posted: February 19th, 2003
SLRating:
Bottom Line: The Sony Ericsson T300 Cell Phone is inexpensive, its small, has lots of features including color screen, GPRS and plays polyphonic ringtones. Is it a bargain? Read on to find out in our official review....
Most people think of a cellular phone
just being a communications tool. But then there are the other people, people
like me, who think that just about exactly the opposite. In my opinion, a cell
phone is a gadget to play games, surf the internet, and show off with, as well
as the occasional phone call or two.
I've been through three different cell
phones before I met up with the Sony Ericsson T300. I started out with a
Motorola Startac, but I quickly threw it out after it broke in half. I then
bought myself a Motorola v120c. I had no big problems with that one, but the
lack of cool features such as games turned me off. I then switched to T-Mobile
from Verizon Wireless, because T-Mobile offered a World Plan, letting me use my
phone all around the world. When starting my plan, I chose the business-like
Samsung Q105. Too bad that phone had almost no features. The only thing that
really stood out with this phone was the included data cable to sync my phone
with a PC. Otherwise, it was very bland.
About six months into owning the Q105, I
got fed up with it and sold it on eBay for $75. With that money, I bought a Sony
Ericsson T300, also on eBay, brand new for just $145. It was money well spent.
This is the first phone I've owned with
such an extensive feature list. Of course, the most noticeable thing about this
phone is the color screen, and in my opinion, the most useful and fun one too.
But, there are plenty of other things that makes this phone worth writing about.
Features
Color Display
Contacts
E-mail (POP3 and IMAP4)
Mobile Chat
Picture Messaging
Picture Phonebook
Predictive Text Input
Polyphonic ring signals
Start-up/Shutdown shows
Vibrating alert
Wallpaper downloads
High-speed data
MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)
Triple Band GSM (900/1800/1900)
Downloadable games
Exchangeable covers
Network Features
Code memo
Enhanced messaging service
GPRS
SIM Application Toolkit
SMS long messages
This phone weighs just 109 grams and is
106x48x21mm, making it a pretty small and light phone, perfect for carrying
around. But does it perform well, and are the features useful? Read on to find
out.
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Sony Ericsson T300 Author:Daniel Topler Date Posted: February 19th, 2003
SLRating:
Bottom Line: The Sony Ericsson T300 Cell Phone is inexpensive, its small, has lots of features including color screen, GPRS and plays polyphonic ringtones. Is it a bargain? Read on to find out in our official review....
This phone is considered the T68’s little brother. It is
based on the same “operating system” and has many of the same features. It is
slightly bigger, and doesn’t have some of the advanced features the T68 has such
as Bluetooth, but it also costs around $150 less. One thing that is noticeably
different between the two phones is the design. Let’s take a detailed look into
the design of the T300.
There are three different colors available for the T300; Icy Blue, Midnight
Red, and Mystical Green. My phone came with Mystical Green, but it looked so
much like black unless the phone was under direct light, I decided to two more
faceplates, red and blue (not the Sony Ericsson faceplates, but T-Mobile
faceplates, different from the Sony Ericsson colors). This improved the overall
look of the phone a great deal.
This is the blue faceplate I got from T-Mobile. It does
not come with the phone.
Here's a picture of the phone without any faceplate.
The phone itself has a very interesting look to it,
and I personally like it. However, a lot of my friends don't like the design,
making it really up to you. Like the T68, the T300 has a rubbery back to it,
making it comfortable to hold. It's also the perfect size for an average
person's hand, making it very convenient.
A feature on the T300 that most cell phones don't have these days is a
joystick. The joystick is essentially the navigation tool for the cell phone
menu's, and was very well designed. In my opinion, it had the perfect
sensitivity, but was a bit hard to push the joystick down, and occasionally I
would press it at an angle instead of straight down.
On the top right, there's a small infrared port to connect the cell phone to
a computer wirelessly, as long as they have a infrared port. Most desktops don't
have one, but many laptops do. If you don't, but you want to use the infrared
feature, you can buy a infrared USB adapter for around $15 online.
On the top left, there's a small button that goes up or down, and can be used
to scroll through menus or websites, and to change the volume of a phone conversation
or ring signal.
The only problem that I found with the
design were the keys. They are fairly hard to press, and that can get annoying.
Nothing too serious, but something Sony Ericsson could improve.
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Sony Ericsson T300 Author:Daniel Topler Date Posted: February 19th, 2003
SLRating:
Bottom Line: The Sony Ericsson T300 Cell Phone is inexpensive, its small, has lots of features including color screen, GPRS and plays polyphonic ringtones. Is it a bargain? Read on to find out in our official review....
The cell phone interface is very similar
to the T68. It's very easy to use and I had no problems with it. I'll go
through the menu of the phone, as well as describe each thing in the menus to
give you a better understanding of the features of the phone.
In my opinion, the main screen was very
well done. On the
bottom left is the signal strength. The bottom center displays the time, and the
bottom right displays battery life. The top displays the cell phone carrier’s
name, and in my case, it’s VoiceStream. When Infrared is activated, a little
infrared icon shows up in the center right of the screen. The background image can be selected to whatever you want.
There is 52 options pre-selected on the phone, but you can add more via optional
CommuniCam Camera, Infrared, or using WAP.
You can also activate a screensaver, but it’s pretty much
pointless. It’s basically an image that shows up on the screen after a button
has not been pressed for 25 seconds. About 3 seconds after that picture is
displayed, a digital clock turns on, saving battery life. There is no way to turn off the clock, making the
screensaver pretty much pointless.
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Sony Ericsson T300 Author:Daniel Topler Date Posted: February 19th, 2003
SLRating:
Bottom Line: The Sony Ericsson T300 Cell Phone is inexpensive, its small, has lots of features including color screen, GPRS and plays polyphonic ringtones. Is it a bargain? Read on to find out in our official review....
When the joystick key is pressed, the main menu opens up,
which consists of nine different icons. The first one up is the phone book,
which is pretty self explanatory. Here, you can add contacts, edit contacts,
set-up personal rings and pictures, as well as call people from your address
book. My favorite thing about the Phone Book is the personal pictures. With this
feature, you can either use the optional CommuniCam camera for the phone or use
WAP (you can upload your own images to a special Sony Ericsson account and
retrieve them on your phone, but more on this later) to put special images for
each person in your phone book. For example, if “Friend X” calls, a picture of
“Friend X” will show up on the screen.
Messages
Next up is “Messages.” Here, you can check your voicemail,
POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail, read and send SMS/MMS messages, and chat online. Probably
the coolest feature in this section is MMS, which is Multimedia Messaging
Service. Instead of sending SMS messages, you can send pictures and animations
to other cell phones. The only problem is that not too many phones support this
just yet.
Calls
The next section is the “Calls” section. Here, you can look
at your Missed Calls list, all calls made and received, Manage Calls, which
includes setting up Call Forwarding, and Call Waiting, and finally, your call
timers, which lets you see how many minutes you’ve used, as well as WAP data
counters.
Fun and Games
The best section is the next one, the “Fun and Games”
section. This was the primary reason for me to buy this phone, and it was worth
it! The section has 7 sections, Games, My Pictures, My Sounds, Themes, Composer,
Sound Recorder, and CommuniCam. I’ll go through each one one by one.
The games section is pretty self explanatory. The phone
comes with five games, and are as follows: Erix, Alien Scum, Black Deal, Minigolf, and
Ace of Spades. All of the games were pretty fun, my favorites
being Erix, Black Deal and Minigolf.
My pictures include all of the pictures on the phone. My
phone came with 54 installed pictures, two of them installed by T-Mobile, my
cell phone provider. You can use these pictures as wallpaper or screensavers, as
well as using them as images for a picture phonebook. If you have the CommuniCam
Camera, any picture you take will show up here.
My sounds are pretty much like My pictures. It consists of
all the sounds on your phone, which include polyphonic rings, standard rings,
and any sound recorded message you may have made. You can use any of these rings
(except for the sound recorded ones) as your ringtone or customized phonebook
ring.
One of the cooler things on the phone is the Themes
section. Here, you can set the theme of the phone, which changes pretty much
everything, including the wallpaper, screensaver, ringtone, menu backgrounds
etc. to a specific theme, and when the phone ships, it comes with five of them.
Classical is the boring one, which is basically all white. The rest are all
based on seasons, and are self explanatory. They are: Summer, Spring, Winter and
Fall. They all look good and are all great for customizing your phone. You can
also download and create new themes from the internet either using WAP or an
infrared connection.
Next up is the Composer. This one is cool, but pretty much
pointless. You can make your own polyphonic rings here, but it’s pretty hard to
make a good one. Nevertheless, its fun to play around with.
Number six is Sound Recorder, where you can record memos to
yourself. In my opinion, it’s another useless feature.
The last one is the CommuniCam feature, where you can take
pictures from an optional CommuniCam Camera. Unfortunately, I did not get a
camera, so I was unable to use this feature.
Settings
Like in most phones, there is a setup section in the T300
menu. One thing that’s great about this setup menu is the profiles feature.
Here, you can set up different profiles that have different settings, such as
ringtones and wallpapers. You can also setup display settings, time and date,
keypad and PIN locks, handsfree settings, the language (English, French or
Spanish), and do a master reset. There’s nothing too special in this section,
but it’s very useful.
T-Zones or WAP Services
Since I have T-Mobile, T-Mobile sets up the phone to be
customized for their company, making this category called T-Zones, which is
their internet service. On any other phone, the category will be called WAP
services. Here, you can load up and use the internet on your phone. It’s pretty
cool and different seeing everything in color if you’re moving from a B&W phone.
Organizer
Here you can somewhat organize your schedule, similar to a
Palm Pilot. In this section you’ll find an Event’s List, Alarms, Timer, Stopwatch
and a Calculator. You can add events to the Event’s List, much like a to-do
list. The rest of the features are pretty much self-explanatory. I don’t use
this section much, but it may be convenient for some people.
Connect
The 2nd to last icon is the connect icon, where
you can set up all of the network things with your cell phone, including the
Infrared port, the GSM network, and Data communications. The infrared port, like
I said earlier is a way to connect your cell phone to computers that have an
infrared port on it. My laptop does, but even after installing the
software/drivers from Sony Ericsson, the infrared feature failed to work. The
rest of the things in this menu are advanced, and I am not going to go into
them.
My Shortcuts
The final menu of this phone is the “My Shortcuts” menu.
Here you can setup shortcuts to programs on the phone that you may use a lot,
that may be deep down in the menus. It’s a pretty cool feature on the phone, but
I don’t use it much.
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Sony Ericsson T300 Author:Daniel Topler Date Posted: February 19th, 2003
SLRating:
Bottom Line: The Sony Ericsson T300 Cell Phone is inexpensive, its small, has lots of features including color screen, GPRS and plays polyphonic ringtones. Is it a bargain? Read on to find out in our official review....
As I said before, the keys on the phone are very hard to
press, and require a lot of force. On top of that, they are fairly small. Since
I have small hands that is not a issue for me, but for people with big hands,
this may be a serious problem.
Audio quality was excellent from both sides. I could hear
my party well, and they could hear me just fine, even in loud-noise situations,
such as a mall. My only concern is that, like the T68, the maximum volume on the
phone is just not loud enough, so it may be difficult for some people to hear.
Battery time was fairly good on this phone, and excellent
for any color phone, due to the digital clock screensaver. I got about 5 hours
of talk time, and around 6 days of standby time, and that is with a lot of
playing games and surfing the internet, about an hour’s worth.
As I said earlier, the phone features an infrared
connection to connect to your PC to install new things on your phone, as well as
to use as a modem for your laptop/PocketPC. Despite my attempts to connect my
phone to my laptop to add a wallpaper, I failed. My computer would not recognize
the T300. I did not test the phone for use as a modem, but if you are planning
to use this feature often, I recommend going with the T68/T68i with Bluetooth
connectivity.
Sony Ericsson throws in a free hands-free set, but I’m not
sure if this is only through T-Mobile, since the higher T68 model did not have
one included. Nevertheless, the hands free set performed very well, and I could
hear the party, and they could hear me. It also had a convenient button on it to
end calls.
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Sony Ericsson T300 Author:Daniel Topler Date Posted: February 19th, 2003
SLRating:
Bottom Line: The Sony Ericsson T300 Cell Phone is inexpensive, its small, has lots of features including color screen, GPRS and plays polyphonic ringtones. Is it a bargain? Read on to find out in our official review....
Includes a hands-free headset (Not sure if it is from
T-Mobile)
Cons
Infrared failed to work
No voice command
Small, hard to press keys
Conclusion
It’s pretty obvious here that I enjoyed using this phone,
and despite it’s minor issues, it’s a fun, feature-packed cell phone to have. On
top of that, its low price makes it appealing to almost everyone. The features
on the phone surpass features that I’ve seen on much more expensive cell phones,
such as my old Samsung Q105, which I bought for $200 with service activation.
T-Mobile is offering a special deal that if you active a new service plan, for
$100 you get the T300, as well as a free camera, that provides a great way to
customize your phone even more. The polyphonic rings are awesome, and the
wallpapers are pretty cool.
Although I never got the infrared feature to work, it
wasn’t a big deal for me, considering I wasn’t going to use it anyways. I was
surprised to see that there was no voice command to do completely hands-free
calling, but I’m happy with whatever keeps costs down. The small, hard to press
keys may be an issue for some people, but it didn’t affect me, so I can’t
complain too much.
There were no serious problems with this phone, making it a
great bet for anyone looking for a low-cost, feature packed color phone. This is
the cheapest color phone to date, and it look’s like Sony Ericsson is doing the
right thing.
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Sony Ericsson T300 Author:Daniel Topler Date Posted: February 19th, 2003
SLRating:
Bottom Line: The Sony Ericsson T300 Cell Phone is inexpensive, its small, has lots of features including color screen, GPRS and plays polyphonic ringtones. Is it a bargain? Read on to find out in our official review....
