The First Symbian OS v9.1 With UIQ 3

The M600i could easily be thought of as a scaled down version of the upcoming P990 QWERTY smartphone, with which it shares many features and internal workings. While the P990 looks to cram modern day specs like a 2 megapixel camera and WiFi into the same basic P series form factor as the older models, the M600 instead tries to offer the core functionality in a smaller and more conveniently sized device. It lacks WiFi and a camera of any sort, but supports the same GSM and UMTS bands and touch-screen while shedding 40g (1.4oz) and being far smaller. Quite possibly the ideal size for a business phone, the Sony Ericsson M600i is but a hair’s width from scoring full marks in the messaging, productivity and browsing departments, hampered only by the smaller-than-the-competition sizes of its otherwise excellent touch screen and thumbboard. It also delivers a solid impression in every other department, with the near-sole disappointment being its lack of a bundled USB cable and USB charging support. Add good battery life and nice touches such as a scroll wheel, stereo Bluetooth audio and a clever, agenda-style standby screen, and what emerges is a winning recipe.

Call audio quality was good in general, though the squelch/noise reduction system seemed to be a bit agressive at times, almost clipping off the very start of word sometimes. The speakerphone’s audio qualities seemed pretty good. The M600 has no real profile support, but does have a silent mode that can be quickly turned on by long-pressing the # key, and an airplane mode that can be enabled when powering on of off the device with the power button.

The Sony Ericsson M600 works pretty well as a regular, day to day phone thanks to decent battery life, good reception, and a “normal” form factor. It managed 6 hours of talk time in our 1900MHz GSM tests that had a voice track playing continually to keep any power saving functions from kicking in. That’s pretty respectable. Sony Ericsson claims over 14 days of standby time for the M600, which seems hugely optimistic. That is not to say that I was not pleased with its standby battery life, because that is certainly not the case. I think people can easily expect to get a few days of calls and standby out of a full charge, which is pretty good. In addition to the 1900MHz GSM band that we tested on, the M600i also supports the 900 and 1800MHz GSM bands as well as the 2100MHz UMTS 3G band.