Review: Sony Ericsson T68i

Sony Ericsson T68i Review

Phone rating:

A ground-breaking phone when first released, the Sony Ericsson T68i now looks extremely dated. Whilst it was one of the very first phones to offer a colour screen and digital camera, the quality of both is now very poor compared with the current generation of mobile phones. Even features such as Bluetooth™ wireless technology and High-Speed Data cannot hide the fact that this phone is now virtually an antique. A long list of faults reported by users of the phone mean that it will be remembered, but not missed!

Features of the Sony Ericsson T68i include:

• WAP 2.0 (GPRS), email
• High Speed Data (HSCSD)
• MMS and EMS messaging
• Mobile chat
• Bluetooth™ wireless technology
• Ringtone composer
• Predictive text input
• Infrared modem
• Picture phone book, including email addresses
• Speed dialling
• Voice dialling
• Joystick
• Game
• Background picture & screensaver
• Colour calendar and task list
• Clock & calculator
• Size: 100 x 48 x 20 mm
• Weight: 84g
• Battery standby: 390 hours
• Battery talktime: 12 hours
• Vibration alert
• Triple band

Sony Ericsson T68i Consumer Reviews

Average rating from 100 reviews:

Please, do not submit any more reviews of the Sony Ericsson T68i - 100 reviews is enough!

Reviewed by Dave from England on 29th Nov 2003
This has probably already all been said on this site, but I cannot believe anyone rates this thing above 1 star. Ever. Slow beyond belief (1+ seconds response per key click). Many, many dropped calls since new - this is the worst phone I've ever owned. My 1989 car-mounted Motorola was waaaaaaay better than this, so where's the progress in 14 years? I don't care about texts, colour screens, cameras - dear marketing people, THIS IS A PHONE!!!! GETIIT???? Worse than the lousy overpriced and oversold product is Sony's (and Orange's) attitude to service - the first guy at I talked to Orange had the same phone and told me he couldn't wait for the contract to expire because it was garbage and "everyone knows it's junk". Then he refused to solve the problem because I was supposed to take it to Sony. I did, and they offered a completely unacceptable warranty 2-week turnaround on a repair, for which they also said I'd probably get an invoice (user damage - untrue.) Bottom line - it's apparently OK for big manufacturers to rush out inferior incomplete and undeveloped products, and also OK for Orange blatantly to break UK contract law by trying to pass the warranty liability on to the manufacturer even though the end supplier of the goods is legally liable. I'm an engineer - I understand the hardware in detail - but it appears to me that as "technology" moves on, Sony et al have lost sight of everything but profit; Real service and useability goes down the toilet, costs to the consumer spiral out of control, and monster corporations become so arrogant that they can easily afford to tell their customers to take a hike. Very sad. All I wanted to do was make phone calls, but even that's too complex it seems. After the terrible customer service experience I had last week from Sony I will purposefully never buy another of their products whatsoever, and I would support anyone else who takes the same angle. Please do not buy this pheon, it's close to useless and will drive you nuts, like it did me.
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Reviewed by Ash from England on 26th Nov 2003
Well For All You People Rating This Little Beauty 2 Or Under, Obviously Don't Have A Clue About Any Mobile Phone, I Mean Come On, This Phone Is The Best One Ive Ever Had, All You People Who Are Putting This Phone Down, Should Get A Life And Get Away From The Same Old Boring Nokia. You Complain Alot About The Reception, Well Where I Live, My Reception For Phones Have Always Been Bad, But The t68i Seems To Be Handling The Reception Problems Pretty Darn Well..I Really Do Recommend You To Buy This Phone, Its Really Good..
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Reviewed by Stefan from England on 20th Nov 2003
Clearly the worst mobile telephone of the century. Good night.
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Reviewed by Alan from England on 19th Nov 2003
Calling the T68i a phone is one of the most comical things I've ever heard. It can go for days without any reception whilst my now 4 year old Ericsson A1018s (a brick with an aerial) has full reception. If your going to get T68i get some 1st class stamps instead as it will be quicker to post your message to some one even with the postal strikes on.
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Reviewed by Lorna from Scotland on 17th Nov 2003
Yes, it's that "No Access" fault again. Phone number 2 has now developed it - eerily just about 3 months after getting it as a replacement for phone 1 which developed the same fault after 3 months. Anyone who has not had this problem with the T68i is just a jammy get. I have spoken to Orange Customer Care - "it's a common fault with that handset" yes, I know. Carphone Warehouse Customer "Care" - "we can send it for repair" great! 7 - 10 days without my phone. And Sony Ericcson Customer "Care" - "it is not a generic fault so we didn't recall the handset - I have one and it works fine" That's probably your 10th handset and you get free replacements cos you work for the company! I can get a replacment from CW, but it is exactly the same handset again which I don't want. I am hoping Watchdog may take up the challenge to get them to admit that they should not be selling a faulty product and deal with their dissatisfied customers, but I will have to wait and see. Will neve r buy anything from Sony or SE ever again. Customer "Care" was absolutely disgraceful.
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Reviewed by Alistair Johnston from UK on 17th Nov 2003
Undoubtedly the worst phone I ever owned. Slow menus, very unreliable, message alert so quiet, always missed important texts. Had 3 of them through Orange, same problem with all, No Access messages, trying to make calls, three bleeps then nothing. The last one only lasted 24 hours!! After a major row with Orange which took 1 hour in one of their shops and talking on a shop mobile to customer services, they eventually relented and replaced it with a good old trusty Nokia.
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Reviewed by MAX from ENGLAND on 13th Nov 2003
its not even worth 1 star the cr~ppest fone on da planet. too slow, txt C#Ap and it take ages to wait for the loading. low recpetion not worth buying at all waste of money.
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Reviewed by Yashin from England on 11th Nov 2003
i giv all those people who are looking for a fone with wicked features, do NOT go for the t68i! it is the SH!T35T fone ever!!!! dont bother with it. its well slow. takes the P!55 with reception!! and it takes so long to load up things like menu options. takes sooo long to make a fonecall (if u ever get reception) dont buy it!! if u already have the so called phone, Sell it whilst you can!! u might as well get a Nokia,siemens or a samsung! a brick with a note tied around it would do a better job!!!
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Reviewed by Jo from UK on 10th Nov 2003
This phone is unbelievably unreliable! I'm now onto my 4th replacement in 6 months. I keep getting the same problem - where the signal just appears to die. It looks completely normal sometimes (ie the 3-4 bars), but when you try to make a call, it never gets through to the "Connecting" phase, and then skips back to the main screen - and you lose all network coverage completely. This can go on for days. Sometimes when you turn the phone on, instead of selecting the network (ie T Mobile), it comes up with "No Access". I've been back to Carphone Warehouse each time and after a number of battles, have managed to get replacments, but no one seems to want to take responsibility for a phone that doesn't do what it should - ie make and receive calls and texts!! T Mobile were willing to concede that they do have a lot of problems with this phone, but there was no way that they would replace it.
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Reviewed by kiki from UK on 6th Nov 2003
ye the phones gr8 BUT the keys r scratchin off n it gets awl mucky
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Reviewed by Kent from UK on 6th Nov 2003
This is the poorest appliance of any kind I have ever purchased. It does not function properly as a telephone; from the start I have been unable to get a signal in most parts of central London in places where my old "brick" phone had no problems. I bought it from Carphone Warehouse and took it there to fix this. I could see 7 of the 9 people in the repair queue had the T68 and it was initially explained to me that this is a well known fault. When I returned to collect it the managers told me I had "customer damaged" the phone and it was a shame I hadn't bought their (very lucrative) insurance. I explained this was not an insurance matter but a warranty matter, and the the phone was faulty from day one. I suspect this is how they have decided to deal with the T68i problem. To get my money back I guess I will have to sue. Plainly somebody should. Apart from not functioning as a phone the T68i represents everything that is problematic in the modern appliance; it is way too high spec for the memory it has, it has loads of useless gimmicks, it is too slow and generally the basics are poorly thought out. Of course it looks great and you won't discover all this until you buy one. Don't.
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Reviewed by Alex from UK on 2nd Nov 2003
you have to take into acunt that this is an old phone now so isnt going to have all the features of something new. The things I like about it....quite small, fits in to my pocket without too much of a suspicious bulge!...the Erix game is quite amusing, but the others are crap. I have had no problems with reagrd to reception, if anything I would say it is better than many other phones. Its really simple to transfer images to use as a background etc. Thi things that bug me is for a start the texting takes a long time to get used to...I am now used to it, and is quite fast, but give it to a reguar Nokia owner and they will be quite confused! It doesn't seem to store many messages either...and when u do run out of space it takes forever to delete them as it seems u have to to them 1-by-1 when they are stored on the phones memory? It doesnt generally go slow....but as soon as the memory is half full it goes like an old dog. I will give it 2 stars as i dont think it is good enough to be "good " as there are quite a few niggling things and they should be resolved before a phone is put into production....but not bad enough to be bad as this is one of the few phones that I havnt needed to be repaired in some way and is small and light enough.
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Reviewed by alison from england on 30th Oct 2003
Very frustrated with the T68i now. I've had two new phones basically with the same problem - the reception/signal keeps cutting out. Apparently it's a very common problem with this model.
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Reviewed by sarah from Uk on 30th Oct 2003
i think those that have given this phone a bad rating dont remeber that this phone was released aaaggeessss ago and at that time this was way ahead of its time, obviously it cannot compete with the phones on the market now.. i mean it would be better if it had a better picture quality, faster processorpolyphonic ringtones and so on but i mean thsi phone is quite cheap i bought mine for 60 pounds (incl. data cable) second hand, but it works like its brand new. also another falut i have found is the fact you cannot create folders for text msges like you would for an 8310 but its not a major fault. this phone is good, not the best obviously but for its age i think its fantastic...
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Reviewed by Matt from USA on 30th Oct 2003
I first bought the phone in november of 2002, since then i have gone through 3 of them. The screen of the first one broke within 3 days due to the rigerous torture of walking around a book store. AT&T took it back and gave me a new one this one lasted till around summer of 03. Signal quality had reduced to nothing over the coarse of a month. Something had come dislodged and sometimes by shaking or hitting the phone on your hand it would reward you with a fleeting signal. This time I sent my phone back to AT&T, and it was replaced promptly with my third and current phone which is now exhibiting the same issues as the second phone after only 2-3 months of use. I am thourogly disappointed with the phone and would not recomend it to anyone.
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Reviewed by Chris from UK on 30th Oct 2003
I've had the T68i for just over a year on Orange. In that time I've had it replaced 3 times for exactly the same fault, and a few days ago my latest replacement (1 month old) also died. My brother also bought a T68i and in the last 12 months he's had it replaced 6 times!! Every time its the same problem - the phone starts to miss incoming calls, outgoing calls go "Connecting" then beep-beep-beep and drop the call. SMSes can't be sent. The phone tends to work intermittently for a week or so, then eventually stops working altogether. When I called Orange Care last time I asked them if they had lots of trouble with this phone.. the guy replied yes, they're beginning to realise they are, and he warned me that they were going to stop selling them so any replacement I got would be someone elses return. 2 weeks later my local Orange shop pulled the T68is off the shelf. Something is seriously wrong with the reliability of this phone.
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Reviewed by Ash from UK on 29th Oct 2003
The design is good, the functions are outstanding and the phone is lightweight. I have not encountered one single problem with it and the signal is excellent. The battery is durable and the keypad is very impressive. People say this phone is slow, however, mine fails to show this and is quite rapid. This is a very good phone and is quite cheap. BUY IT!
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Reviewed by Vincent Hindriksen from Netherlands on 28th Oct 2003
A mobile phone has to be a good working phone in the first place. Second come the features. It looks like SE have put all their energy on the features (because those sell?). And that makes my conclusion: the only advantages are the features: bluetooth, infrared, tripleband, GPRS and colorscreen. Furthermore the ordening of phonenumbers (home, mobile, work) I really like. A missing feature is java, but if you want it, just pick another phone. The disadvantages are: - Too slow: it can take till half a second to react (in the menus). animations are to laugh about after I had seen the same animation on a Siemens S55. - Press buttons till you drop: You need to press at least 12(!) buttons to send an sms(1 less with a "shortcut"). Try to say "no" eith this phone: 14 button pushes. - Not logical: (I) Inlock the keypad has the same keycombination as "delete and confirm". When the screensaver starts, not always the keylock is put on. So I often delete the first phonenumber, which now is "aaaaah!" (because that's what I screamed when I deleted the number). You have to think it's slow, so you only see the message "phonenumber deleted". (II) The menu after pressing the c-button 1 second only contains the first 2 items under the options-menu. - Batterylife indicator is wrong: 50h of callingtime means: load batteries now and don't try to call (or get called). The battery can only give 15 minutes of callingtime and then ends it, abdruptly. Second - Antenna is poor. SonyEricsson said so itself (helpdesk). - unreliable: Sometimes after dialing a number the phone gives three beeps and stops dialing. There's no way to call, except a "hard reboot". I hope I never really need my phone, like when I need to dial 911!!! :cry: I hear more people having the same problem. This "don't want to make a connection" happens once a month lately and thus making it a woman. - no warning leds or whatsoever: I don't know if I have a sms, because the leds don't warn me. I have to turn off the keylock, then see if there are messages or not and then turn on the keylock again. - Hard to configure: it takes a lot of time to find out where the options are. To configure GPRS I first needed to make a WAP-account and then make it a GPRS account in a totally different place. This is my 3rd phone. I like the features (connecting my palm V via IR to GPRS, which is very cheap via my provider), but it's really the worst phone I ever had if I look at the user interface and the speed. I had Sagem and Siemens, which I both liked and had for years. SE really has to publish a firmware-upgrade. Meanwhile buy another phone. Mine is for sale.
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Reviewed by DR WILSON from UK on 21st Oct 2003
NIGHTMARE PHONE
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Reviewed by Nicholas from uk on 18th Oct 2003
This phone is almost brilliant . i have had it for seven months it has never created any problems for me nor has it died on me. Battery life is brilliant. The disadvantage of it in my opinion is that the graphics of it are a little bit poor. In general i think it is a fantastic phone for the eeryday user
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Reviewed by dave from england on 17th Oct 2003
this fone is okay. it does have some cool feature on it, and it HAD really good reception on it, i found the keypad really easy to use and at the time the picyure display was amazing! i was really impressed when i first got it. anyway after about 4months i got my first problems with it, it kept on turning itself off every couple of hours, i would ring sum1 and i couldnthear anything, coloured blotches appeared on the screen and parts of the fone fell off. however i must admit it is a durable fone as for me it has survived being dropped in beer for a night, being run over and been dropped down the stairs! (all these happend AFTER the problems began!) anyway, its a cool fone as long as it works! but with the technology updates now your better off spending your money on somthing else! see ya!
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Reviewed by Stephen from UK on 15th Oct 2003
The only bad thing about this phone is the reception, its terrible. I took it back after 2 days for a refund. I found my old T10 was getting a far better signal.
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Reviewed by Toby from UK on 14th Oct 2003
Absolute sh*te, I go at least a month between signals. At present I've not had a signal since August, it's not October!
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Reviewed by Daniel from England on 13th Oct 2003
It was about 3 days the phone where the phone worked well. I had it for Christmas last year as an upgrade and after having a number of different phones, Nokia's, Sony J5, all sorts I was willing to have something special for a change. The T68i is certainly 'special' but not in the way I wanted. It constantly crashes, always gets stuck on the main menu screen, the buttons work and then for no reason they don't. I am on Orange, my friends on the same network can have full signal whilst the 'good old T68i' is searching for one. The signal level fluctuates all the time even if the phone is sitting still and even when I have full reception people can hardly hear me ont he phone. The scroller has now stuck on the inside so the phone is constantly scrolling through menus and any other screen it can. It also dials the answerphone on its own.!!?!? I don't care what has been said about the phone being older. A product such as this is desgined for an everyday useage and should therefore be able to cope with it. The phone has been for repair twice now, costing me £45.00 a go. Currently the phone is in my top drawer where it will stay until i can finally upgrade in March 04. I have gone back to using my Nokia 7110. It might not be the most 'flash' phone around but it always works and is reliable. Out of most of the reviews I have read about this phone most of them have commented about the poor quality and I agree. I only wish I had read them before i thought of buying this somewhat poor excuse.
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Reviewed by Erwin from South Africa on 7th Oct 2003
I decided to go for this phone even though I had had a Nokia phone since the inception of mobile phones. in the begining I was pleasantly supprised with all the gadgets and various functions this phone could offer. But, in the long term, this turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life! 1) the reception is so poor its not even funny! 2) the time it takes to boot up some times, is so long that I could make a cup of coffee and come back and it would still be trying to access the address book! 3) we use SMS banking here in south africa. it took me 14 days to register for the service. Subsequently we used a nokia phone and it took less than 5 minutes!! Overall, I would say that if you are looking for a phone to keep for say 2 days, then get the Ericsson. If however you want to get a real phone that can get the job done, go for the Nokia!
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Reviewed by Glen from UK on 4th Oct 2003
I have had the SE T68i for about 8 months now and have absolutly no problem at all with it. Excellent phone as far as i am concerned for reliability, considering its 8 months old the battery is still lasting a full week before needing afull recharge. The only thing thats annoying me is that on the keypad on a cople of the keys the silver paint is peeling off and makes it look untidy. and apart from a few cosmetic reasons its a cool phone. No offence to Sony Ericsson but next time i dont think i will be buying one of there phones. My next ones a Samsung S300! :-)
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Reviewed by Jason from UK on 3rd Oct 2003
Appallingly badly designed software. I don't want games, wallpaper, take photos, my mates' mugs when they call, polywotsit ring tones... I'm 36 so I bought this phone to make calls and send TXTs and not to impress girls/mates in the pub. I don't care what it looks like. If you need a PHONE to be your social ambassador you'd be better off spending the money on therapy. It's abysmally slow in all respects. SMSing is a real chore. It takes, on average, 18 clicks to send the damn thing (yes I counted; yes I'm sad). And that CALL TIMER! Who wants to know how long they just spent on the line? And it takes ages to clear the screen, stopping me from making my next call. There are so many false options on this phone by so few real functions. And I agree, Annie - you must work for Sony. Shame on you.
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Reviewed by Mike Young from UK on 2nd Oct 2003
DO NOT GET THIS PHONE. I am now on a replacment after the original suffered the connection problems described by other people. The second one has now hit the two month lifespan and has become very unreliable. It shows 4 or 5 bars of signal yet I cannot make a call on it. To those people who gave this 4 or 5 stars, you are either lucky or you haven't got to the two month limit yet. I don't want another replacement, I am going to buy a different make of phone.
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Reviewed by BARRY from USA on 1st Oct 2003
I have had many cellphones before and this is the most cheaply made phone i ever had. i switched to cingular and got this phone and it never worked properly. no reception, dropped calls and if you dialed out you would have to turn the phone on and off to dial out. receiving calls was just as horrible. the only thing this phone did well was play games. i even sent it back to sony and they told me that they would not honor the warranty. i finally could not take anymore and replaced it with a motorola v60i through insurance. it works great and it turns out it was never cingular that was the problem and of course cingular could have just checked the phone out but we all know how wireless telepone companies. do not purchase this or any related product.
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Reviewed by Jason from UK on 27th Sep 2003
Terrible, awful, couldn't ask for a worse phone! I live in Central London and 3/4 of the time can't get a signal-I presume the antenna is broken but because of some bad deal between The Link and T-Mobile, I can't get anyone to take responsibility for repairing the damn thing! Don't go anywhere near this phone -in fact stay away from T-Mobile and The Link as well!
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Reviewed by Carol from England on 25th Sep 2003
I love this phone it looks good is really light weight and a great size to just slip in your pocket. The only complaint i have is like most others and that is the texting is slow but if you persist then the rest of the phone outweighs the slowness! Cam is a little shite but Wap is better than the nokia i had before and its pretty easy to use. I have had it over a year now even though my contract is up and im gonna hang on to it!
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Reviewed by paul from england on 25th Sep 2003
Very mixed opinions on the web - very mixed people write them. The complainers would complain at anything they bought. The ravers would rave at anything they bought. I consider myself neither. If i make a purchase, especially for 12 month contracts, I have to make myself happy with my decision. If I complain after buying, then I am calling my decision crap. I never call myself crap, do you? Just accept what you've bought. My experience with the t68i, well, had it for 12 months and i'm only changing it for a new, cheaper deal. I would even consider keeping my t68i. One thing for sure, I certainly would not be calling myself cr#p after I make the decision to purchase.
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Reviewed by Joe from Switzerland on 24th Sep 2003
I think this phone is pretty good, I mean I've had it for a year and i think that the menus are simple to use and the screen is not that bad( even if it's a 256 color screen i still think it's brighter and clearer than the screen in the Nokia 3510i for example).The design is outstanding and the connectivity is excellent.The battery life is also good.But there are also a lot of drawbacks, like not having polyphonic ringtones or java games, but this phone is like really old anyways.The memory size is kind of small specially if you plan on downloading stuff from the internet.The Joystick is TERRIBLE!!!! After a few months it's almost unuseable!! it gets stuck! and the NO button doesn't respond sometimes... Another drawback is the responsde time... The ^menus are as slow as a plant trying to move... Texting is also sooo slow.Also i've been getting a lot of NO Acces and beep-beep-beeps lately , which i think are unresonable since all my friends get a signal when i don't.The dust a lso gets into the screen which isn't that practical...So If you're planning to buy this phone DON'T!! It was a pretty good buy a year ago but now you should get another model like the t610 or a nokia or a samsung or something...
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Reviewed by Laura Przylipiak from UK on 24th Sep 2003
I think this phone leaves something to be desired. Texting is slow and the b*stard thing won't stop crashing on me. When it crashes you have to take the battery out and wait ages for it to loads again. Also it takes far too long to read the sim. I have to wait till feb 04 to get my upgrade, but I've booked the one I've got now in for repair next week. What a load of f-ing pants!!! Laura/18/Manchester
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Reviewed by lee kimber from on 22nd Sep 2003
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Reviewed by Gary Fisher from England on 22nd Sep 2003
The T68i looks very nice, it does not however live up to the features that it's advertised for. The colour is awful, only 256 - big problem especially for the camera. The camera is the biggest rip off i've ever heard of-the pictures are awful. The menu is slow and the texting is so slow a nokia could have written and sent 4 in the space of 1 for the T68i. Games are also rubbish. I'd reccomend the phone if we were 2 years back, but were bot solook elsewhere.
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Reviewed by zoxxx from montenegro on 21st Sep 2003
i am going to buy t68i god help me!!!
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Reviewed by Jerry from New Zealand on 20th Sep 2003
Just to clarify my points before about the picture quality from the MCA-20 plug-in camera. I was referring to viewing them on a computer rather than the phone because the 256 colour screen does leave a bit to be desired. When emailed, or beamed (bluetooth/IR) to a computer & viewed, the picture quality is exceptional (for a phone camera) though as one would expect, will not be as good as a dedicated digital camera. Thanks.
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Reviewed by Jerry from New Zealand on 20th Sep 2003
Based on the number of negative reviews for the T68i, I can come to only one conclusion...either the reviewers do not have a handset with the latest firmware version or they are diehard Nokia user who refuse to move away from the bland, boring featureless phones that Nokia make & have made for years. They're all the same boring menu system. Also in response to the review: "Reviewed by Adam from Australia on 13th Aug 2003"...the bit about not being able to edit a contact without going to "phonebook", "manager contact", "edit contact" etc is false. This is one way to do it, the other is just click the joystick down, find the contact you want (same as if you were going to make a call to them), then click the options button & select edit so you can in fact, just edit a contact very easily. I have had this phone for a year & with the latest firmware version, it is faultless. Yes, it would be better if there were other notification alerts for SMS, MMS etc & polyphonic ringtones for the price, but hey, this phone has been in the market for 2 years + and was way ahead of it's time when launched. The chap who reviewed it and blamed it for problems with not receiving SMS's for over 2 hours must have no idea of how cellphones work because the phone will notify you when a message is received, simple as that. What it cannot do is regulate when the network will actually deliver the message. It cannot notify you of a SMS until it actually gets sent it. So trying to blame the phone for lack of message notifications is narrow minded to say the least. If you don't get an alert, it's because the network has not sent it. Lastly, I read bad comments about the plug-in camera. Again, when this phone was launched, it was one of the first, if not THE first to include a digital camera. Sure, the camera for it has been left behind with current technology, but it still (in daylight) takes better photos than the GX-10i, T610, GD88 and several others quality-wise. Don't complain that it does not take photos in anything other than daylight, this is all it was designed to do originally. Over the last 2 years, the cameras have improved so yes, they will not outperform in low light. I have used the camera for the last year & found it exceptional for a phone camera, great for taking photos of the kids. Having a plug-in is a pain & now they come inbuilt into the phones, it is much better. Overall, the T68i was way ahead of it's time when it came on the market with one of the first (aside from it's T68 predecessor) colour screens, but it has been left behind with it's 256 colour screen. This is to be expected nowdays as phones change every 3-6 months and a 1 year old phone is a dinosaur now. Cheers all.
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Reviewed by paul from uk on 19th Sep 2003
Had nothing but trouble with it, been in repair 3 times in 3 months, utter c**p, wouldnt wish it on my worst enemy
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Reviewed by Mat from England on 19th Sep 2003
What a load of rubbish. Sure, it looks good, it's light and fits in your pocket nicely, but as I'm now on my third phone in 4 months (which I am about to return to the shop) it obviously leaves something to be desired in the reliability department. Phone no. 1: After a few weeks the phone decided it'd be fun to randomly scroll through menus for no apparent reason. Exchanged it for another one. Phone no. 2: Within minutes of turning it on, it died -- the screen went blank apart from the battery indicator, and none of the keys would respond. Another exchange! Phone no. 3: About a week ago the phone started displaying "No access" instead of "Orange", failing to connect when I made a call, not sending an SMS until about the fifth attempt (and re-sending a message requires god knows how many clicks); the signal strength meter shows full, but the phone won't connect, and the battery seems to now be lasting less than 24 hours as a result. So, off to the shop I go, and I'm not leaving until they give me a completely different phone!
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Reviewed by Birju from England on 18th Sep 2003
I have had this t68i for 2 months and i have no problems with this phone. everybody told me this phone is a very slow but my one is fast and i have so many pictures and screensavers. i would recommend this phone to anybody. the only downside is that it only has 1.5mb. other then that it is an excellent phone.
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Reviewed by PaM from uk on 15th Sep 2003
i would not recomend this phone to anyone it is PANTS!! every thing is slow,if u txt alot then this is no gud..it takes ages to catch up and it doesnt put the letter or symbol etc what u tell it to..the t9 dic is rubbish very hard to imput what u want..the menu is slow..ringtones are all rubbish..the best feature is that u can select a colour wallpaper to show with a name that rings u.. i found it very hard to use i do still have it but cannot wait to get shut..i am very soon gettin the samsung v200 as my dad as got one and they are fantastic well worth the money.... i dnt know what i will do with this when i get a new one as i wouldnt want to inflict it on any one.. i have add very many fones mainly nokia just recently add a nokia 7210 which they are ok just need to get used to the keypad..then a 3510i which they are ok also..i exchanged the 3510i for this as it broke and they didnt have any more in stock i wish i had got a credit note or paid the difference for some thing else..
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Reviewed by Simon Chung from Canada on 13th Sep 2003
Summary: As a phone, the T68i is a decent performer. If you don't need the Bluetooth connectivity, I recommend looking elsewhere. However, the PC connectionivity (one of the main reasons I bought it for) leaves something to be desired. Pros: -Reception is clear and I did not have much trouble navigating its menu structure. The size is absolutely small - perhaps too small - that it is a bit awkward to hold it and dial your # in one hand. Design is simple and sophisticated. I like the look of it a lot more than the look of my new phone. The web browser seemed OK..no troubles there. -Buttons are nicely lit with a blue backlight. It feels good, too. The joystick is also good. Cons: -While the menu structure is intuitive to navigate, it has too many levels. SE needs to revise this so that it doesn't require so many joystick and/or button presses to get to where you want. The look of the menus is bland, compared to Nokia's. -The screen is only 256 colours and is smaller and of lower resolution than competing Nokias. -Pricey. I guess most of it went into the Bluetooth technology. At least give us polyphonic rings for this price! -I had much trouble installing the Phone Monitor software. It just did not install on WinXP. I downloaded the latest version off the SE website and no difference. Also, the installation of the syncrhonization and phone monitor software requires that Outlook be running. I don't use Outlook because it has more security holes than Swiss cheese. This was the kiss of death. I returned it after a week's use for the Nokia 5100. It's not as good looking as the T68i but the menu navigation and PC software installs and works terrifically on WinXP.
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Reviewed by AL from England on 13th Sep 2003
It's c**p... never had a phone that has given me so many problems.... it's that bad I've binned it!
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Reviewed by adi from UK on 13th Sep 2003
THIS PHONE IS THE BIGGEST PILE OF PANTS I HAVE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO ENCOUNTER ! Okay it looks quit nice.. but stop there. The menu system is ana absolute joke. The atrociously slow access to the menus is appaling. I can remove my finger off the phone after scrolling through the phonebook and it is still trying to catch up two or three seconds later. I get sick of 'Please wait' messages appearing. The T9 and text system took ages to learn due to its appaling input structure. The one good thing i can say about this phone is that UNFORTUNATELY its built very well. I tried to kill mine (albeit accidentally) in a 50 minute wash cycle with my t-shirts and smalls. It survived... and i hate it for it.
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Reviewed by _BlOnDiE from england on 13th Sep 2003
i have had many phones and this one (ericsson t68) i cannot get used to before this i had a nokia 3510i which i didnt like either,then a nokia 7210 which was the best of the three. the ericsson t68 is ok for people who dont send sms i send loads and it is very slow..it cant catch up with you and u keep avin to clear letters as its stopped on the wrong 1 because it cant catch u up.. the colour screen is ok..easy to get wallpaper off wap..but its not poly toned which is bit naff when uve experienced poly tones then to go banck to mono.. so very soon i am going to get the samsung V200 as i have wanted it since i saw it and read lots of very good reviews bout it..it as everything u could want in a phone..stylish.colour.poly tones.games.animated wallpaper,voice dial.camera.and much much more by far a fantastic fone... so the sooner i get rid of this ericsson t68 the better..my daughter who is ten as a nokia 8210 and even she doesnt want the ericsson t68 she doesnt like it so thats sayin summat.. course it does av good features like voice dial,colour.this is all i av found good with it so far i av only ad it a day..it is by far the worst £130 i av spent..i have neva ad ericsson b4..mainly nokia so,,but it will do till i get samsung v200...
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Reviewed by J Newbury from England on 11th Sep 2003
I have had this phone nearly a year now and I have had nothing but bother with the phone. I am on about phone number 8 already. The phone has caused bother from the very start. The volume button on the side fell off. Then the next few phones every time I tried to call someone it would bleep and cut it self off. Then the next phone I got would not charge. I would not recommend this phone to any one and I would certainly not buy another sony ericsson phone again.
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Reviewed by Scott from UK on 9th Sep 2003
I'm on phone number 4 now. The first three had software bugs and my provider decided it was better to replace the phone rather than firmware upgrade. But phone 4 has been fine. The newer software has much faster response time in menus and when texting and they have fixed all of the bugs I was aware of. The only real gripe I have is that the SMS alert tone is a choice between a single beep and a double beep. Neither which are particularly easy to hear. I have had a few random problems with calls not being received and the GPRS falling offline but these are by no means common and may have nothing to do with the phone. I own a proper camera so haven't bothered trying out the (bound to be rubbish) phone accessory but pictures I have uploaded to the phone as backgrounds don't look too bad.
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Reviewed by Jenny from UK Birmingham on 9th Sep 2003
Like many other users in the first few months it worked fine. Now (9 months later) it stuggles to get a reception, constantly switches its self off for no apparent reason and is forever cuting off during a phonecall. As for the camera it is an absolute joke! I have tried to take a picture in all sorts of light and it still just comes out as a dark shadow. To the reviewer who said it must be down to carelessness, I think there is far to many of us with the same complaints to be down to neglect, although I am very pleased that yours has the design fault that actually means the phone is in full working order!!! Luckily I got this phone through an upgrade so I only paid £30 for the phone and the camera but if I had paid the full RRP at the time of £200 I would be slightly p*ssed off to say the least! I am trying to make a fair review so I have managed to collect a few and I mean a few bonuses to the phone. There is a good amount of games on there, I think the colour quality is good and it also looks very stylish but hey if it doesnt work whats the point! The only reason I have stuck with the phone is because im due a free upgrade in December but my only advice would be to everyone DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE!!!
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Reviewed by Mark from UK on 9th Sep 2003
While the T68i features are good, the signal is not. I had my phone replaced under warranty a few months ago because it kept on losing its signal. Now I find my new one is doing the same thing. Texts not being sent, calls not connecting. This is pretty unacceptable by todays standards . I'm going to take it back and hopefully swap it for a Nokia. I'm a fan of Sony products but maybe they should ditch this model or ditch their partnetship with Ericsson. A phone can have all the cool features in the world but its useless if the signal keeps on being lost.
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Reviewed by fredo from UK on 8th Sep 2003
"NO ACCESS" Getting very used to seeing this now together with "Beep Beep Beep- Nothing" when trying to make a call. This is my third replacement phone in 8 months all with the same fault. There is obviously something seriously wrong with this phone, I am managing to get just over a month of use and then it fails.I will be going back to Nokia which is a shame as the ergonomics of the Sony are quite good, as far as recommending this phone - forget it and look elsewhere.
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Reviewed by S.E. from england on 8th Sep 2003
I had the phone 2 weeks and nothing but problems with it!It never had a signal wherever I went when others on the same network had,I couldnt receive calls or sms and I couldnt call or send sms.The stupid black screensaver doesnt tell u when u have a message so my friends thought I was ignoring them, calls came through on voicemail several hrs later so I missed very important calls,it is very slow in every way,not very reliable as a phone!The looks of it wasnt bad but what good is that when it doesnt work in emergencys!? So if u want a toy,maybe,but if u need a reliable phone its a big NO NO!! ps: I was lucky to take it back and get a new nokia, now I am happy
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Reviewed by Kaushik from UK on 5th Sep 2003
I bought this phone as an upgrade to my Sony-Z5 on T-Mobile in June'03. It's a feture rich phone with all the "things" I wanted in a phone. Worked very nicely for the first 2 months and I started having reception problems after that (in good reception area). I can't make or receive calls many times randomly. I think it's not the reception but someting else inside the phone that freezes the phone randomly. Now most of the time when I want to make an important call, the phone tries to make a call and then after few seconds stops calling with 3 bips. So not reliable atall as a "phone". It seems Sony-Ericsson missed something important in "Basics" for this phone. If the flashy features is what u r looking for then I would say the picture quality of the color screen is poor, although u will get basic 256 color screen. Using a camara with this phone is a joke. Most impressive is the Sync feature using IR and Bluetooth. Also liked the calling card feature where I can store my callin g card details for making international calls, which saves a load of keystrokes. Games are also not bad. But as many other users said correctly, only now I understand that if u cant make a call when it's most needed, it's not useful or reliable as a PHONE. CONCLUSION : If Sony-Ericsson does some magic to 1. Remove the phone-freezing "bug" that most users are experiencing, and 2. Improve the color screen quality then I would definitely recommed this phone. But for the current model - Not a good choice...
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Reviewed by dean from England on 5th Sep 2003
Had the phone for a year and will be sad to see it go when I upgrade. Its small compact and unlike most of its rivals easy to use. The only thing I find hard is the picture quality but with newer phones coming out the only option is to upgrade.
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Reviewed by jhei from philippines on 5th Sep 2003
for all of you who rated the phone suck!well your making a stupid joke!maybe the phone shows some defects because of the owners carelessness!so for everyone who rated it as a poor phone YOU SUCK!
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Reviewed by Marios from Cyprus on 5th Sep 2003
The best!
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Reviewed by Nik from Greece on 3rd Sep 2003
Navigation is great, pictures when taken in light (like in a sunny country(!):-)) are great.All the features are cool apart from the lack of polyphonic ringtones and the text messaging alert. The good thing is that this can be changed through software so if someone is interested he can write another OS for it which gives you the ability to change the alert. I wish I could put recordings for alerts.
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Reviewed by Tony from England on 2nd Sep 2003
Having read other peoples reviews I feel that some of them must be reviewing a different phone because this phone is simply outstanding. It does everything you could want a phone to do and more, its able to do some things that even the most recent phones can't do, e.g. Nokia 7210 can't send pics over IR, T68i can. I find that the reception is great, my only problem with the phone is that after about a year the volume control slider broke and now my volume is set to reasonably low (which is a problem outside) Also I wish the screens resolution could be higher.
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Reviewed by Mark from Australia on 1st Sep 2003
I bought the phone 3 months ago and I think its simply great. Its not fast but you cant have the speed of apple G5 in the phone, its fast enough. Its very reliable, looks great, very light, user friendly...Very nice phone
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Reviewed by Dom from UK on 1st Sep 2003
absolute rubbish. how can a reputable company like Sony be associated with something that patently doesn't work? I've just got mine back from it's second "repair" and it's no better than when I sent it back, despite it "working to specification". If your specification requires a phone that won't pick up a signal for more than 10 seconds, turns itself off for no reason, says "no access" 50% of the time and refuses to send text messages then I'd highly recommend this phone. Not to mention the appaling menu design and general slowness of the whole thing. Why have 1 click features when you can make the user click 10 times? If you want a phone that you can make and recieve calls on and send text messages from then buy something else.
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Reviewed by Frank from UK on 1st Sep 2003
Started off well. Got the T68i last Oct 02 and it was very good. Decent text messaging, decent menus and calendar features. But now, 9 months on, I've experienced signal dying and hard to find again. Worse is sending/receiving text messages. Started gradually about 2 months ago and just assumed I was in bad signal areas. Now, it sometimes takes 10-15 attempts to send one SMS!!! Sometimes, text messages take 2+ hrs to arrive, sometimes not till next morning! Hugely annoying if u r expecting important msgs. Also, the ringtones are rubbish and the text alert sound is useless. Just a quiet beep beep beep and that's it! Nokia's rule for text alert. If u r in a different room, u wont be able to hear text messages arrive. That said, I like how u can attach pics to phone numbers so that your friends faces appear when they ring is cool. Well, I'm going to Nokia next. Good try Sony, but not good enough to keep my business for another year.
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Reviewed by Nick from UK on 29th Aug 2003
Bought this phone after wanting the nokia 3650 but i didnt really wanna pay £270 for a fone, what a big mistake i made, after the 2nd week of owning it, i was loosing reception left right and centre, whenever i pressed a button it took 10 years to respond the lag is awful, and my most recent problem is it wont always send messages, i also had a camera that was rubbish took a picture of my gf and it was like it was taken in the dark, so theres a lesson to b learnt here folks its true what they say, u pay for what u get!
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Reviewed by John Cold from UK on 26th Aug 2003
Having read about the T68i I thought this was the phone for me.Having read the manual I soon learned it was packed With loads of features, bluetooth, MMS etc,but as time went on I knew I made a mistake.The SMS alert tone is a joke you cannot hear it.Quite often my phone would be on but no one could get through to me as unknown to me it would go striaght to voicemail.Its hard to focus and take a picture with the camera and when you do it comes out poor quality.The screen is only 256 colours and again you lose quality of your pictures.Quite often my phone would lose its signal and I was unable to make calls.If you dont store your numbers on the phone memory it becomes harder to access them for calls SMS etc.These are only some of the problems I encountered with my T68i there were plenty more.After two months it gave up working altogether I did not even bother to get it fixed.
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Reviewed by Jon from England on 24th Aug 2003
I bought this phone to use with Apple's iSync software via Bluetooth. I have been incredibly pleased to have my phone numbers and appointments syncronised between my Mac, iPod and T68i, and there was virtually no setup required. It is all very easy and transparent. Other than that the phone isn't bad, quite small, reasonably easy to use, good battery life (I recharge every 7 days, and keep it switched on 24hrs a day and use about 60 minutes talk time per month). The main downfall is the sluggish software (there are delays from pressing any button before it actually does anything) and its annoying ability to turn itself off in my pocket even though I keep the key lock turned on. The highly impressive syncronisation abilities via Bluetooth mean that I wouldn't be without an iSync compatible phone in future. My next phone probably will be the T610. It would have been the SL55 if it had Bluetooth. I certainly don't ever want to have to enter 100+ phone numbers into a mobile phone again just because I've changed the handset (SIM's store too little information).
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Reviewed by Paul from UK on 22nd Aug 2003
Phone looks good and is portable. Sync software is now ok after 6 download versions! Reception is VERY dodgy, signal always dropped! Getting my third replacement next week. Now do I stick with Sony Ericcson after many years of Nokia usage? Is the P800 going to be just as poor? So much for Sony as a brand!
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Reviewed by Simon from UK on 22nd Aug 2003
The T68i on T-Mobile in the UK is a joke. It is known (and acknowledged by T-Mobile) that the phone fails repeatedly on T-Mobile. Please dont have the experience that i've had of more than seven failed repairs in two months. Buy somthing else
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Reviewed by john from england on 19th Aug 2003
the phone is good looking but lacks good games and features. i haye had the phone for 2 weeks and i am bored of it already. i much prefer nokias. good effort sony
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Reviewed by T Morgan from Uk on 17th Aug 2003
After owning a string of Nokias in the past, i was desporate to get a more interesting phone, and the T68i seemed to be the one. It has great looks, a good enough colour screen and some great features. But after owning one now for more that five months, I found out that it falls down on quite a few areas. the colour screen is great, but you can't see it in direct sunlight, the SMS alert is crap because you can't hear it, and the seporate camera is a joke! useless!! Battery life isn't that great either, and the fact you cant turn off that annoying clock that comes on when you're not using the phone is just plain silly. But comparing it to my previous phones, its still one of the best, good sound quality, and an easy to use interface make it a good choice.
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Reviewed by chris from england on 13th Aug 2003
The t68i looks great (which is why its got a 2 star rating) and has some great features, its a shame that it dosent really work as a phone. SonyEriccson should be selling the phone with a label stating that after a few months use it will stop making and recieving calls (which i thought was the idea of a phone)and they'll send you a new one when it breaks with excactly the same problem! Why oh why cant SonyEricsson send me a replacement phone with an antennae inside? This is now my 4th knackered phone since i bought the first one back in March. Having read many other reviews since my phone stopped working, it seems that the majority of people have the same problem. My advise would be if you want a reliable phone to make calls, then get a nokia, otherwise buy this just to play with and to look good.
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Reviewed by Adam from Australia on 13th Aug 2003
This phone appauling. The reception & reliability of the mobile phone is unacceptable. The features of the phone are technically impressive, but the implementation is extremely poor. The most important feature of a mobile phone is being able to talk on it, the reception on this phone doesn't allow this. It drops out randomly, goes from 4 or 5 bars to 0 or 1 for no reason. Also, the usability is really bad. It takes so long to do anything... The icons may look pretty, but it is extremely inefficient. For example, to edit a contact, you can't do it by simply going to the contact and selecting 'edit'. You have to go into 'address book', 'manage contacts', find the contact, then 'edit details', then choose the area you want to edit, etc. It's just appauling. Nokia obviously have experience in USABILITY, ericsson don't. I honestly think that any good ratings on this site are put here by new owners who are impressed with their flashy colourful new phone, but once they start to use it they will realise how pathetic it really is.
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Reviewed by nicki from england on 11th Aug 2003
I got this phone last October after swooning over it for ages in the shops. I was impressed with the cool colour display, miniature phone size and tiny weight. The ringtones I thought were a huge letdown - they could have made them polyphonic, and the text alert is awful. you can only pick from silent, click or tone, the tone setting is just a little beep which you can hardly hear in a silent room, let alone in a noisy shop or bus. the vibrate wasn't very strong either and at first i would look at my phone and find three/four texts that were sent hours ago but i simply hadnt heard the phone. the games are good though and you have a lot to choose from - more than other phones. The battery life isn't too good but i don't think any phones' battery life is good nowadays cos they all have colour/mega featues/cameras etc. i wouldn't recommend this phone now, as there are loads of newer, better phones out now. i am upgrading in september to the samsung v200 which has 65000 colour di aply instead of the 256 colours of the t68i!
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Reviewed by Robert from Sweden on 9th Aug 2003
I used to own an Ericsson T10, then I migrated to Nokia 3310. I now have an SE T68i and I glad the Nokia was stolen. This is the phone I have been looking for.
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Reviewed by Allen Pascual from Philippines on 9th Aug 2003
When I bought it, there is no camera!!! so i rated it 3 star!!! I dont know how to create a folder, because the phone is made in Malaysia. The instructions does not have english!!! I suggest that the phones that are distributed will have an english language.
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Reviewed by Mark-o from UK on 31st Jul 2003
I think the phones great. I've only had it for 1 month now but it does everything i need it to. I haven't bought the camera yet but i plan to, sooner or later. The only negative thing about the phones is the waiting time, i must say its a bit slow. Other than that, a great phone!
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Reviewed by Daniel from New Zealand on 31st Jul 2003
I think this phone is a hit and miss for most people. For me I got the phone half price so I'm quite happy with it. I f I paid full price it would be another story. The phone is not bad but I would not recommend it to people because of the crashing and slow software, although I've had it for a week and only had very minor problems with it. If Sony takes note of what people are saying than I can see this phone going very far...
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Reviewed by Mark from UK on 23rd Jul 2003
The T68i is a brilliant phone! The Bluetooth Technology is excellent when syncronising with your laptop. The Calender is way better than the T300 as you can add appointments easrier and better than the T300. My mate has a Sony Ericsson T68i and we send each other pictures very easily and effective vy the infer red port. The MMS is excelent. The phone is a brilliant buy. you can have a go of the phone on sony ericssons website where it says try the phone you will be amazed!
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Reviewed by Frederik Braem from Belgium on 18th Jul 2003
I bought my t68i last week and was quite curious to find out whether all I had heard about it, was true. I heard (and read) that it had poor reception, that the software often crashes and that it basically was a bad choice to buy. (While writing this, I wonder why on earth I even considered buying it!) BUT I must say, in my case, none of the above applied to my sweet little t68i... I was worried more than anything about the reception, since I live very close to the border with the Netherlands, and have struggled for many cellphones with a tiny signal. But guess what, reception-wise, everything worked out great! no signal-loss whatsoever, no interrupted calls and so on. I also can't say I've had any problems with the software... Everything works great, without the slightest flaw (nothing freezing up, no unexpected resets etc.) although I must say that it isn't the fastest phone in the world. The cool interface has a bad influence on how fluent everything works... But that's about the only negative aspect! This is a great phone that works great, is packed with fun stuff and useful gadgets and has an amazing autonomy (5 days without charging). This is, in my opinion, the phone to buy..
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Reviewed by - from - on 17th Jul 2003
This phone is not reliable and mobile phone suppose to be reliable. So when your life is in danger don't rely on it. I've 200mins of free calls left for this month but I can't make a single phone call because there is no reception. This is the third phone my first and second had the same problems sent it to Celestica (T-Mobile - Sony Ericsson repair company) to have it repaired they couldn't so they sent me a new phone. Now just after two months of use, it's the same old problem - reception bar oscillated from nil to 4 bars at random and I can't make or receive calls. Never mind the occasional crash but not being able to make or receive a call when you have your handset on your hand is crazy. I think the sony ericsson is not a mobile phone but a very expensive toy. It passes the test on good features, for example I've able to set up a backup Internet connection with my laptop infrared by just using windows 2000 network and dial-up connections. I could download the ISP list and open a pay as go account with virgin at 1p a minute with 10k per second speed connection. This phone fails on the basics - good and reliable phone reception. I'm surprised that phone operators are selling this phone despite of this well-known problem. Please be aware that if you have the same problem as me your service provider may not give you a replacement they say that "the problem with the phone is not their concern" at least this is what t-mobile told me.
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Reviewed by Daniel from Barcelona, Spain on 9th Jul 2003
This phone is great for me. I use it mainly as an organizer with phone book and I appreciate the fact that syncing with my Macs, using Dlink bluetooth adapter is very easy. Thanks Apple and Sony-Ericsson. Other people have commented that the main problems are RF reception and slow menu. I have experimented none of these. The speed is quite adequate for me. My children learnt how to access the games in no time. Also you can put your most used options in a shortcut menu. So no problem on this front. For RF issues, this phone is slightly better than my previous (and old fashioned) Ericsson. I have never tried a Nokia phone, so I cannot say the T68i RF reception is the best. But for me at the moment it is OK. The price is right now in Spain. You can buy a 'free' one (no contract) for less than 200 Euros and the bluetooth USB key costs less than 50 Euros. So this beat all those 'cheap' phones the network companies offer at around 100 Euros. The T68i is much better than all those. And as I don't need the useless digital camera they include with more expansive phones, and as I don't want to pay for the expansive MMS messages, the only thing I miss is better sound (it is quite easy to miss a ring).
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Reviewed by Johnny from Scotland on 9th Jul 2003
Small, light, long battery life, reasonable screen but absolutely rubbish operating system and the camera is a waste of time unless you transfer the pictures to your PC. Takes about 10 clicks/joystick operations to do anything and the screen is always lagging behind. Click..wait...click.....wait etc. Reception can be poor even if friends with same network but different phones have perfect reception when standing next to me. Can't wait for my contract to run out so I can upgrade.
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Reviewed by Alex from UK on 7th Jul 2003
Firstly, a bit of background about this phone and me to make the point that I know this phone quite well! I have had this phone on the Orange network since Aug 2002. I have used it in the U.S and India a few times, and have the camera and mp3 accessories. I have had 2 different handsets throughout the last 11 months. The Bad points firstly (there's quite a few) 1. It crashes about every 4-5 days, seems to crash more when it's left on it's own for about 12-14 hours, but it can crash instantly. When it has crashed, you don't actually realise that it has crashed until you try and make a call and the display says "calling 01354264334" and doesn't actually connect. Then, when you try and end the call, it won't end unless you take the battery off. The real pain with this is that when it has crashed, you don't receive any text messages or calls until you take the battery off. 2. The mp3 player accessory that goes onto the bottom of the phone falls off the bottom far far far too easily, and then you have to mess about reconnecting it. 3. The phone screen is pretty appalling for clarity, especially if you're trying to take pictures on it, it's a pixellated joke that ain't funny. 4. The volume button on the left hand side is quite fragile (the reason i claimed on the insurance) 5. The phone processor seems very slow, accessing the phone book or text messages gets very frustrating. 6. If you are in a weak reception area, this phone is not for you as the reception, unless very strong, is very poor. There seems to be little "middle ground" 7. The green flashing light will annoy you, especially at night when you're trying to sleep and it's likea bloody beacon - with no option to turn it off other than a bit of duct tape :( 8. Not polyphonic :( The good points 1. The mp3 player is amazing! well, not that amazing, but it's quite unique. I have had a 7650 and a motorola a830 (on 3) whilst having this phone, and none have been able to match the t68i with it's mp3 player. it has nice features like random playing on connect which is really handy if you just put a load of your favourite tunes on a card and listen to it every so often, rather than listening to a whole album at once. It also isn't very draining on the battery, and the sound quality is as good as a minidisc player easily. It also displays the trackname on the display when it is playing 2. It has the facility to get a radio adapter. i haven;t bothered seeing as I have the mp3 player, but it's a nice addition, especially for the low price of 20 quid (ebay) or 25 (most shops) 3. The battery life lasts for AGES. Currently, as i write this, i haven't charged my phone for 5 days, i've used it for about 20 -30 minutes for talking, about 20 mins for mp3 playing and it still isn;t on the red :) 4. It's small,lightweight, colour, and a nice design to look at. 5. It has infrared, bluetooth and so on.... which is always handy to have, even if you don;t think you'd ever use it. 6. It's relatively easy to download information to the phone using a infrared link or bluetooth, and there seems to be a lot of things on the web to use with it Ok, so finally... The phone is good compared to most, phones, but it can;t really stand up to the new wave of phones. Even though I want a new contract, I will not be getting one because no phone seems to have an SD slot and be quite small (or good) - with a long battery life. Someone design one, please :) (Sorry for all teh spelling mistakes, and bad grammar!)
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Reviewed by Martin from UK on 6th Jul 2003
I have had my T68i for about a year now, and switched to the Sony unit after several Nokias died of the same screen fault. The T68i is a reasonable handset although it does indeed have its drawbacks. The menu and keypad response is slow, and I find myself waiting for the phone to catch up with my texting. Another rather annoying "quirk" is the phone switching off in poor signal areas / when the keylock is active. This has resulted in quieter "stress free" days when I haven't noticed the phone is off, but can be a bind when you miss important customer calls. Both T68's that I have had have done this, and the line from my operators customer services is "It is a feature to save battery life when the phone is in a poor signal area".... Hmmmmmm I'm not sold !
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Reviewed by Dave from UK on 6th Jul 2003
It looks good - but it isn't. The reliability is very poor, the software slow, and on numerous times the phone crashes, cannot pick up a signal, or hangs for a minute or two (especially when it receives an SMS and you're in the middle of typing one). The GPRS is very flakey. It is desperately slow to connect and on many occasions cannot connect at all. Usually switching the phone off and on again works but not always. Put your SIM card in another phone (a decent Nokia for example) and I get a connection straight away - it's the phone not the mobile operator that's at fault. This is the sort of rubbish we've come to expect from Microsoft - not a reputable phone company. Plus points - good battery life, loaded with features (when they work), the bluetooth headset is fantastic (I have heard of reliability problems with it but so far haven't experienced any) and the other bluetooth features are good (connecting with my PDA). The main thing that lets it down is the GPRS connection. The resolution of the pictures is poor making the camera a waste of time. There's far better around. OK, It was pretty much one of the first of the MMS/GPRS/colour screen phones. However packing too much into it too quickly has made the software unreliable. Verdict - not good. If it's colour screens and photographs you're after there's far better around. If it's a good "workhorse" of a phone with GPRS and bluetooth get a Nokia.
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Reviewed by Anuj from India on 24th Jun 2003
All of them which rate this phone below 4 are unaware of this phone completely.The t68i which was around launched about one year before is now to the best phone available in market in shape,size,feature and ofcourse price. just connect with MCA-20 and capture pictures far better that 7650 coz i have both the set .Just connect with buetooth handsfree and you are therein the world of chatters.I tell you that the phone should be given 7 stars(*******). I just love this phone and if you buy it you would have your best friend with you all times
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Reviewed by GR from Ireland on 12th Jun 2003
I think this is an excellent phone, being on the Vodafone IRL network and living in a remote part of Ireland I have never had any reception issues (it way out performs my previous - Nokia6210 - Phone) I think the Menu system is fine, it does take a little getting used to - but doesn't everything. Battery life is exceptional, sync features are an absolute joy via bluetooth or IR to my laptop as is the built in modem. The only issues I have with it are the slow response and screen which is hard to read in bright daylight (fortunately we don't get much bright daylight over here;) Highly recommended
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Reviewed by Alex from UK on 6th Jun 2003
If you are after a phone with good MMS / photo / camera etc.. capability then forget this one. The screen colour depth is nothing short of appalling and SE should be embarrassed about marketing this is a camera phone / MMS etc.. That said, if you couldn't care a less about pictures then this is the phone for you - looks great, sounds great and have had no reliability issues whatsoever.
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Reviewed by Owen from England on 30th May 2003
Whilst the call quality and reception were great on this phone I found a few problems. When choosing it I consulted numerous magazines and websites and all bar none rated the phone very highly. BUT if you are used to a NOKIA menu system you will notice that simple tasks such as using Text Messaging is a chore. Instead of a couple of button presses you have to enter the main menu, which using the joystick, is no an easy thing. It's just too sensitive ! You end up dialing the first or last entries in your phone book. Maybe I'm too fussy but I've just changed to a Nokia 6100. The Sony has loads of features like Bluetooth, voice dialing and it still looks cool even after 9 months but how many of us use these features. It is a good phone but until Sony Ericcson sort the menu system out I don't think they'll ever produce a phone that'll beat the rest.
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Reviewed by - from USA on 27th May 2003
Im now on my 4th phone and still havent given up. I love the features, but the poor reception is starting to takes it toll on my love affair. The Bluetooth headseat sometimes fails as well.
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Reviewed by sven from netherlands on 23rd May 2003
I like this phone a lot. Although it's feature packed, I was largely swayed by it's looks and the bluetooth capabilities when I bought it. I don't care much for WAP/email/games etc, and I'm not much of a texter either. In fact, thanks to bluetooth, I haven't typed a single word on the thing yet. I compose my contacts and calender on the computer, sync, done. Now that's convenience. The only drawback is indeed the somewhat slow menu, which can be annoying at times. I guess that's in part due to the STN screen which is slow to update. The upside is that these screens are more energy efficient, as opposed to TFT, which helps the already great battery life. I use the number keys to navigate anyway; it's far faster than the joystick. Also I wish the screen had more than 256 colors. Reception is good as well. Admittedly, not as good as my Nokia, but I haven't experienced any problems with it. Call quality is also good. All in all, for my needs, it's a great phone. I'm confident that it will serve me for a long time.
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Reviewed by mark from UK on 21st May 2003
Innovative in the same way as the Sinclair C5. ie Seemed a good idea at the time, but incapable of doing the most basic required tasks. Sure it has lots of added funtionality but why didn't Sony or Ericsson sort out the basics; it has appalling reception. Start up time is ridiculously slow, as is finding a telephone number. I often press the no key to cancel a task or clear a message and the phone rings 5 seconds later and the call is rejected because of the delay with the keys/ processor. The quality of the speech is dreadful. The menu system is unfathomable; On a positive note the battery life is amazing. However it's a bit like having a car with a full tank of petrol and no engine. Anyway only my opinion ! I am a bit old fashioned - I use my phone to make and receive calls and it doesn't cut the mustard. If you use your phone for other things such as a games console or whatever, maybe it is a good 'phone'
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Reviewed by Darren from UK on 19th May 2003
I had thought this phone was OK but for the very weak reception, which really became obvious when, I tried to use it in the US. Allowing for the fact that US phone networks aren't up to much the performance of the phone in the US was appalling and barely usable! I would also concur with the other reviewers that the software is very slow & synching with the PC for contacts is also a very hit & miss affair. I wouldn't really recommend this phone.
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Reviewed by Phil from UK on 13th May 2003
I have owned this phone for 5 months now and it has worked properly for about 2 of those months. This is a shame as it is a great phone when it works but Sony have a lot to answer for on the reliabilty front. I have now returned to a nokia 7250 which is a vast improvement on the T68i
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Reviewed by jokes4mobiles.com from uk on 14th Apr 2003
I agree with many of the reviews here. This usual with other Sony stuff I've had - Great features but poor reliability. The more unusual PDA type features such as task list and notes is a good idea on a phone and something I'd always wanted from my Nokia. Pitty they've taken Tetris of with the new software though. Problems I've had are:- + The joystick not responding (Twice - though 1st time might have been due to Tetris :-) ) + Crashing and locking up - Can be got around with a reboot. + Switching itself off when keypad locked. + Backlight not cancelling - Next thing you know the battery is flat. + Screen saver not switching on. + The software is very slow and I often find my self having to wait for the phone to catch up with my key presses. Thank god I've got insurance from Orange
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Reviewed by - from - on 9th Apr 2003
i was sick of this mobile phone, it s realy a slow mobile phone and the color screen is poor!! i have baught me a nokia 7250 and thas a really big diferents... i would not recomand thsi to anyone...
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Reviewed by kam from England on 1st Apr 2003
I agree with annie that the T68i is an outstanding phone in the past the nokia phones used to cause problems and are not very reliable but the T68i gives you high satisfaction and there are some specific features thet are exellent.I had mine for six months and it gave me outstanding results and there are no major faults with it. If you look after the T68i well then there shouldnt have no faults. I would highly recommend for people to have a T68i its a bundle of fun. :-)
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Reviewed by Joe from U.K. on 13th Mar 2003
Annie - Don't work for Sony by any chance ;-) Telephonic play ground indeed.
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Reviewed by Marshall from UK on 13th Mar 2003
Quite simply the worst piece of technology (for its time) I have had the dipleasure to own. The phone 'crashes' intermittently - a problem that can only be solved with the removal of the battery. The menu is slow, unresponsive and illogical. NO NO NO NO - avoid get a Nokia.
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Reviewed by Marshall from UK on 4th Mar 2003
Yes loaded with gadgets, and things to do. but I have had mine for 6 months and on my 5th one, 2 out of the 4 faults have been the same, unable to send messages or make calls, the port at the bottom failed and the volume slider at the side would only work one way so was unable to turn the volume down just up! moaning aside its a good phone, looking to change it now due to its reliability, wouldn't recommend it.
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Reviewed by Annie from United Kingdom on 28th Feb 2003
I cannot agree with 'Steven - U.K.'s review of this phone. Having possessed Nokia phones in the past (all of which presented me with the most annoying and frequent of faults) this phone is a breath of fresh air; reliable and forward thinking, it is always one step ahead of the user, and every day I'm finding and using more features. It's a positive 'telephonic playground'! Pair this phone with the Sony Ericsson headset, and it's impossible to put down - or rather you can put it down and walk well away whilst still holding a conversation. You can even send and receive texts whilst chatting. An absolute dream of a phone. I can't recommend it highly enough.
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Reviewed by Steven from UK on 17th Feb 2003
As a phone, the T68i for exceeds any limited expectations. It would indeed be foolish to criticise the phone, as much thought has been given tot he technology used. Unfortunatly, the phone lacks that 'something'. The phones internal motherboard often causes the system to freeze, and as a dedicated buyer of Ericsson models previously, and having tried five different phones of this model, i am unable to advise in the purchasing of this phone. Well done Ericsson, but not quiet to the expected standard.
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Sony Ericsson T68i Links