Hi-Mobile.net sent us over for a review the first ever phone that ships with UIQ 3.0: the Sony Ericsson M600i. This 3G SymbianOS 9.1 smartphone is one of the most popular this summer (selling at below 375 USD) and so we decided to give it a whirl too. Read on for more info, pictures, screenshots and a video of the device, the P990’s little brother.
The phone supports UMTS 3G, tri-band GSM, it sports a 2.55″ touchscreen 256k QVGA LCD, has a rocker-style qwerty keyboard and a scroll wheel, supports the new Memory Stick Micro (M2), has Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support (no EDR), SIR-based IrDA, a 900 mAh battery, 18 MBs of internal storage, USB 2.0 and it runs the newly released UIQ 3.0 on top of the Symbian OS 9.1. The phone came with a box that also included a 64MB M2 Card, a travel charger (european and US adapter), 1 stereo handsfree unit, a user manual, its driver CD and a USB data cable. We updated the device on its latest official firmware before we conducted the review which it proved extremely stable to us.
The first thing you will notice about this device is that it’s surprisingly small. In the pictures online it looked like a medium-sized device, mostly an optical illusion because of the full keyboard. But when you actually keep it in your hands for the first time, the device looks and feels extremely sleek, thin and not particularly big. While it has similar height measuraments with my QTek 9100, the M600i is significantly thinner and easier to hold steady with one hand. Overall, the M600i is just a tiny bit bigger than my iPod Mini and the smallest device in the market that sports a thumbkeyboard.
The second thing that will impress most users is the user interface. UIQ 3.0 has seen a complete overhaul and it looks way better and more modern than UIQ 2.1. There is anti-alias text now throughout the user interface, on-screen handwriting support, predictive text when using the keyboard or the virtual keyboard, support for a second language, and a choice between at least 20 more languages in the virtual keyboard. Writing using the hardware illuminated keyboard is a joy. It’s really fast to do so, especially with the help of the predictive text.
You can navigate throughout the UI either with your thumb, stylus or the wheel button on the side of the device. On the other side there is a “web” hardware button that you can modify it and make it carry over another function instead. Below the wheel button there is the “Back” button that minimizes the currently active application. Unfortunately, in order to completely shut down an application you have to bring up the Task Manager and “kill” the app from there. This is several clicks though, and it would have been easier if UIQ had implemented a “long press” for the “Back” button to shut down the app instead of just minimize it. Shutting down apps is important, because UIQ 3.0 is unusually memory hungry. When booting you will have only 19 MBs of RAM free out of 64 MBs of RAM (with UIQ 2.1 you had 15 MBs free out of 32 MBs of overall RAM). There is a need for a quick shutdown of apps on a regular basis, especially because after a bit of usage you will end up below 14 MBs of available RAM because of un-freed memory chunks and/or memory leaks.
Speed-wise there is no problem though. There is even good Java 3D support for games (the included 3D golf game runs adequately fast) and applications load quickly. The device somes with a lot of useful business applications: QuickOffice with World and Excel documents (Documents to Go also available for purchase now), PDF viewer, Email that supports Exchange ActiveSync, POP3/IMAP and Gmail, MMS/SMS, ability to make notes, voice recording messages, assign tasks with recurring alarms, speed dial, Calendaring, VPN PPTP support, a units converter, a simple calculator, time for two different timezones and more. In the “Today” front-screen of the device you can get a summary of emails, tasks, appointments, missed calls and five icon shortcuts (modifiable) to Contacts, Calendaring, Speed Dialing, Messaging and Main Menu. You can use SyncML to sync your phone with your Windows desktop, but there’s no support for Apple’s iSync just yet (it should arrive soon enough though). Finally, I was delighted to see a full-fledged File Manager on UIQ 3.0. This was an app that was truly missing on most UIQ 2.1 devices.
The M600i also comes with great multimedia support: a music and a video player. It supports AAC, MP4, MP3, 3GP and RM/RAM formats. Real Player streams can be saved as links and then played back via the “Online Player” application. Unfortunately this application does not support PLS files for online mp3 streaming. The music player is very good, it has EQ support and I found the sound quality of the included stereo headset extremely good (only problem is that they fall-off my ears as they are too wide). The video player was really good too, it can go fullscreen and do landscape. You can replace the 64 MB M2 flash storage stick with a 1 GB one and put more music and videos in it to watch when travelling (“flight mode” is supported on this phone).
We tried the M600i with our Anycom BSH-100 Bluetooth Stereo headphones (my review) which worked perfectly in all modes. We had no dropouts and audio quality was commentable in stereo mode. Listening to music or watching video without wires is truly one of the coolest things around. However, AVRCP is not supported in the M600i. When using the Bluetooth Obex File Exchange facility speed peaked at around 50 KB/sec, which is good performance.
The Opera 8.60 web browser looks and renders fabulously! It can also do fullscreen and landscape rendering. I must comment Opera for the scrolling speed of their browser on this phone. Scrolling pages up and down was never been smoother, for almost any mobile device! Opera won’t use much RAM for small pages, but for complex and big pages like CNN.com it will require at least 11 MBs of RAM (leaving you with only 3-4 MBs of available RAM on the phone). The browser also supports tabs, which are very convenient. There is also an RSS companion application that worked perfectly with the OSNews and BBC newsfeeds we tried it with. Here is the user agent of the Opera browser:
SonyEricssonM600i/R100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Symbian OS; 276) Opera 8.60
I have also taken the time to install a number of third party native and Java applications. They all worked out of the box and without any problems: IM+, AgileMessenger, HandySafe, Chess, Finanz, WorldMate and of course GoogleMaps and Opera Mini. Currently there are only about 40-50 native UIQ 3.0 applications but more and more are getting ported, at a rate of about 10-15 per month.
Battery life is normal, but not exceptional. Especially after we disabled the 3G reception battery life came into more reasonable levels (the disabling feature is only available in the newer versions of the firmware). We managed 4 hours of talktime and we estimated over 5 days of standby time. Reception was so-so too, but audio quality was very good. Also, as there are no cameras in this phone, video-calls are supported one-way in 3G environments (sending a photo while receiving video). The touchscreen-based speed dial is very convenient too.
Where Sony Ericsson has truly failed us is in EDGE support. You see, 2100Mhz 3G does not work in USA and it doesn’t work fully in Europe either. In my homeland Greece for example, only a few towers support 3G. And when I think of this phone as a business device, I can’t stop think of my father-in-law, CEO of a very big company in France. Every other weekend he is visiting his vacation home in the mountains. He always has his phone with him to connect his laptop to the VPN/Internet and do some emailing. With the lack of 3G support in that mountain village he would be forced to download data at just 5 KB/sec wth GPRS, even if the towers there support EDGE (which usually peaks at around 22 KB/sec). And if he was to come to USA for a business trip, he would endanger his communications to no-coverage (especially in the East Coast) as the M600i is not a quad-band phone. Personally, from a business point of view, I would have prefered this phone to be Quadband/EDGE rather than 3G (even for Europeans).
Having WiFi support wouldn’t hurt either as it would allow users to use their company’s VoIP easier, it would make ActiveSync way easier/faster/cheaper and it would occasionally substitute for the (suggested) removal of 3G. I have a feeling that Sony Ericsson’s product managers internally had a long talk about the inclusion of WiFi on the M600i or not. The reason for this gut feeling is because the device supports Bluetooth PAN. This is the first non-PalmOS/WinMobile phone in the market that I have ever seen to support BT PAN. Basically, BT PAN supports connecting into a wireless LAN over Bluetooth instead of over 802.11b/g. The problem with this approach is that there are very few (and expensive, over $90) devices in the market that do Bluetooth Networking in dedicated hardware and that the phone can connect to them only up to 8 meters in plain sight. The second option is configuring your Windows XP or Linux laptop to behave as a BT router — which kinda defeats the point (additionally, MacOSX Tiger doesn’t support easy BT routing anymore). I am happy to see BT PAN support, but there is no substitute for true WiFi support I am afraid.
In conclusion, I think Sony Ericsson went a bit too cheap on the M600i. Instead of designing a device that has logical features for the business market it was after, they designed it with the mindset of “creating a cheap P990”. They removed everything they could remove and only left the 3G antenna and Qwerty keyboard in it as a honeypot to potential buyers. But this doesn’t mean that the M600i is a bad phone though. It is actually a very nice, sweet-looking PDA & smartphone. For the low pricepoint and overall feature-set I think that in fact is a great phone. If you are on a low budget and you require a good business phone, you should consider it. Or, you can consider the Nokia E61 which is even cheaper and with more features in it instead (sans A2DP & touchscreen).
Pros:
* Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and PAN
* Beautiful, bright screen
* Surprisingly usable keyboard
* Useful included and third party apps
* Attractive, modern user interface
* 3G support (outside USA)
* Great browser and RSS reader
Cons:
* No EDGE
* Not Quad-band
* No Wi-Fi
* No shortcut to shut down applications quickly
* Bluetooth file exchange ends up in Messaging
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
How can i know the version of software on my phone. What is the latest version no of the software on the moblile site. Also when you try and update the software , it says press the button c which is not there on the sony ericsson m600 i . what is the alternate button.
The latest version is the R3B01 (that’s the Organizer’s version). You can check yours from the main screen, on the “More” submenu and then click “Status”.
The M600i doesn’t have a C button, but you use its Power button instead (at the top of the device, next to the IrDA).
OT question: what happend to the osnews sister site which reported on new mobiles/PDAs??
Merged to osnews. I also write reviews for tuxtops.com though, mostly for small gadgets.
That UI looks plain awful.
It could be better (e.g. the menu system, task switching/closing and the virtual keyboard), but it is already pretty usable and worlds away better than UIQ 2.1. My personal beef is only the bluetooth files ending up on Messaging instead of in the normal file system. If you send via bluetooth a file that there is no app for it to deal with it (or if MIME types are not correctly configured), then you are screwed. You can’t do anything with that file. Same problem goes for S60 phones though so it’s not a UIQ-only problem.
Edited 2006-07-28 08:10
I’ve seen some P910 users say they really like this UI. I must say I use a Series 60 device 6630 and I found the M600i’s UI a little tricky to use… but I guess that it just takes a bit of getting used to.
After using T9 for so long I found the qwerty kb odd with one hand…
it’s amazing what you get used to.
Edited 2006-07-28 08:16
My personal beef is only the bluetooth files ending up on Messaging instead of in the normal file system….
Same problem goes for S60 phones though so it’s not a UIQ-only problem.
Not really. On S60 phones you can use the freeware program FE explorer, which lets you open the inbox folder and copy/paste attachments anywhere you would like.
Not sure if there is a UIQ version tho.
The fact that the user has to hunt for a freeware-or-not program in order to find solution for something like this, is a brain-dead situation. The system should do the right thing.
As I have said in the past, sending BT files to Messaging is just a remnant of an older, simpler era of cellphones. This is something that must change on Symbian.
There is a way to save the files where you want them. Instead of choosing save in the dialog choose view, and the viewer is launched. From here you can choose save and get an MMFH dialog to save the file.
This way the file won’t end up in messaing, but rather where you want it. I thought it would be a good idea to let other M600i (P990i/W950i) users know if they read this review.
If the device needs memory it will shut down apps that are in the background automatically. There really isn’t much need to turn applications off, other than that “we” are used to it from desktop environments.
I am not sure I trust this system. You see, if I am on Opera and I need 11-14 MBs of RAM to render a complex page, I am not sure that the system will close down the right apps for me.
AFAIK (I heard stories from other developers): Symbian or UIQ maintains a list of critical apps that should not be terminated – things like phone dialler etc. A 3rd party app can add themselves to this list, but generally shouldn’t… anyway if it does shutdown apps it’ll shut down all but those on the list.
From your artical: “the device supports Bluetooth PAN. This is the first non-PalmOS/WinMobile phone in the market that I have ever seen to support BT PAN. Basically, BT PAN supports connecting into a wireless LAN over Bluetooth instead of over 802.11b/g. The problem with this approach is that there are very few (and expensive, over $90) devices in the market that do Bluetooth Networking in dedicated hardware and that the phone can connect to them only up to 8 meters in plain sight.”
PAN is a software protocol running over a bluetooth connection. BT is 10 meters and devices do not have to be in plain sight (direct line of sight), but given that it’s only 10 meters they usually are anyway.
I think some of the S60 devices have supported it, although I’m not 100% on that.
It’s good to see some reviews of Symbian phones! – it would be good to see a few more. I know they are not very common in the US, which is a shame – and probably explains the lack of reviews.
When I said “8 meters in plain sight” I said that because that’s how the phone performed. In THEORY is 10 meters, but no Class II device manages that, especially when there are walls involved.
Yes, walls do seem to limit BT generally, but on occasion not completely.. I guess it depends on the direction of the wind, and the phase of the moon. ๐
I’ve had a play with the M600i in the office here, but not had to really use it. – Have you seen the Nokia N80, E60, E61, and the E50? I need a new phone, and would like a Symbian one (as I’m a Symbian developer). In particular a device that can take more than one sim would be great. – I travel alot and switch sim cards to save paying roaming charges.
OT : most annoying thing ever, trying to send a debug file generated by one of your apps from your phone to the desktop. – You search for devices, it takes forever because everyone in the office has bluetooth switch on… and they’ve all got the same name…
Yes, I have already reviewed the E61:
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=14841
I suggest you wait a few more months (1-3 months) before you buy it so you can get it with the newest firmware. Currently, there are a few bugs and limitations (especially with VoIP) in the first versions of the S60 3rd Edition firmwares. The E61 has more features than the M600i, except the A2DP support, smaller size and the touchscreen. If you don’t care about these features, wait a bit and then get the E61. The E70 is interesting, but from what I heard typing on its opened-up keyboard is weird and the system takes up to 6 seconds to go from vertical to landscape each time you open the keyboard. A bit of a hassle IMHO.
No WiFi and no Quadband – no thanks ๐
despite the fact that it looks like a pretty cool phone
No wifi?
A whole paragraph is dedicated to it, and a line in the conclusion. No. No wifi.
Does the builtin IMAP client support subfolders?
Have not seen covered in the review.
My current phone’s (Nokia 6021, Series 40 OS) mail client does not support them. I wonder why, does not seem as a big problem to me…
I am not sure, as I don’t have any IMAP account to test… I mostly use my 2 POP3 accounts, yahoo, gmail and hotmail (subscribed user).
Fair enoguh. Maybe someone else will find out, sooner or later.
I only have IMAP accounts. Actually, all mail get forwarded to one of them, filtered and sorted. I like my mail accessible from wherever I am, whatever client I use.
The fact that the user has to hunt for a freeware-or-not program in order to find solution for something like this, is a brain-dead situation. The system should do the right thing.
Because users never have to hunt for freeware-or-not programs on any other platforms.
Oh, come on! It’s a different thing to hunt for ADDED functionality, rather than FIXING a default BAD behavior.