Cell Phones in Great Britain - K600i Trial on Orange

Author

K600i Trial on Orange

j.a.m.e.s@btinternet.com

2005-07-24, 2:03 pm

Orange have sent me one of these phones as part of their final user
acceptance testing before launch (supposedly less than one month away).

Seems to be the first decent 3G handset on Orange, though I've only
been using it for a day. Thankfully O have removed that dreadful menu
which cluttered the home screen on their Orange branded flexes.

If anyone would like to know anything about the phone, drop me a line
in this thread.

All the best,

James.

benlonguk@hotmail.com

2005-08-11, 5:48 pm

Hi,

It has been a couple of weeks since you posted this, so how did you get
on with the phone? I'm interested in the phone for mobile data access
from my PDA on 3G or GPRS, in particular in the car using GPS software
to download traffic data. Is it suitable for that?

thanks

Ben.

j.a.m.e.s@btinternet.com wrote:
> Orange have sent me one of these phones as part of their final user
> acceptance testing before launch (supposedly less than one month away).
>
> Seems to be the first decent 3G handset on Orange, though I've only
> been using it for a day. Thankfully O have removed that dreadful menu
> which cluttered the home screen on their Orange branded flexes.
>
> If anyone would like to know anything about the phone, drop me a line
> in this thread.
>
> All the best,
>
> James.

j.a.m.e.s@btinternet.com

2005-08-12, 11:48 pm

benlonguk@hotmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> It has been a couple of weeks since you posted this, so how did you get
> on with the phone?

On balance, I'm very pleased and is the first 3G phone I can recommend.
Here's a few points to note:

* Call clarity was excellent and 3G->2G handover worked every time for
me.
* RF performance in poor signal areas was at least as good as a Moto
V600 (that's impressive).
* 3G data (using the phone as a modem) worked well (366kbits/sec with
2bar signal)
* The settings for streaming video (e.g. Sky News) were broken on my
trial handset.
* You can select "GSM Only" or "3G/2G Mixed Mode". Sony Ericsson don't
support "3G Only" mode on the K600i.
* The standby time was around 4 days in an area with reasonable 3G
signal.
* The software provided to synchronise my contacts was very basic and
did not cope well with a simple transfer of ~90 contacts from the
Windows Address Book. There is an option to use sync.orange.net, though
I didn't test this.
* Camera quality is very good - in terms of light and resolution - but
there is no zoom.

> I'm interested in the phone for mobile data access
> from my PDA on 3G or GPRS, in particular in the car using GPS software
> to download traffic data. Is it suitable for that?

I should think so because the phone performed well when used as a
modem. If you like I can try the 'phone as modem over bluetooth' and
get back to you.

Hope this helps,

James.

benlonguk@hotmail.com

2005-08-14, 5:49 pm

Hi,

Thanks for review, I was on 3s friends and family trial a couple of
years back and handed that back when they wanted money for it. Since
then I have been 'making do' with GPRS while 3G phones have become
smaller and more reliable. I think this phone will make me get back in
to the game again, just have to wait a couple of weeks for my 12 months
contract to finish with Orange.

Thanks again for the great review.

Ben.

j.a.m.e.s@btinternet.com wrote:
> benlonguk@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> On balance, I'm very pleased and is the first 3G phone I can recommend.
> Here's a few points to note:
>
> * Call clarity was excellent and 3G->2G handover worked every time for
> me.
> * RF performance in poor signal areas was at least as good as a Moto
> V600 (that's impressive).
> * 3G data (using the phone as a modem) worked well (366kbits/sec with
> 2bar signal)
> * The settings for streaming video (e.g. Sky News) were broken on my
> trial handset.
> * You can select "GSM Only" or "3G/2G Mixed Mode". Sony Ericsson don't
> support "3G Only" mode on the K600i.
> * The standby time was around 4 days in an area with reasonable 3G
> signal.
> * The software provided to synchronise my contacts was very basic and
> did not cope well with a simple transfer of ~90 contacts from the
> Windows Address Book. There is an option to use sync.orange.net, though
> I didn't test this.
> * Camera quality is very good - in terms of light and resolution - but
> there is no zoom.
>
>
> I should think so because the phone performed well when used as a
> modem. If you like I can try the 'phone as modem over bluetooth' and
> get back to you.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> James.

benlonguk@hotmail.com

2005-08-30, 5:48 pm

Just an update for anyone who is interested.

I've used the K600i for a week now and think it is a great phone which
I would also recommend. There a few nice little refinements over other
Sony Ericsson phones and it works extremely well from my hx4700 getting
traffic updates for TomTom Navigator in seconds. Browsing and video
worked straight out of the box, so they fixed that since the demo set.

Cheers

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