The Sony Ericsson M600i is a very sleek, good looking smartphone, featuring a QWERTY keyboard and glorious screen all wrapped up in a device no thicker than a Motorola RAZR (well, 2mm thicker, but who's counting?!). Inside, it's basically the same as the Sony Ericsson P990 smarpthone, but without a camera or the P990's WiFi suppport - and with, it has to be said, much better styling.

Sony Ericsson M600i Review

The Sony Ericsson M600i reviews across the web are largely very favourable, though tempered somewhat by what seems like a steep learning curve.

In particular, the QWERTY keyboard seems to be a like it or loathe it feature, as each key is pivoted in the middle, letting it input one of two characters.

The 'Q' key, for example, contains both the Q and W characters - rock the key to the left, and you input a Q; rock it to the right and you input a W. Eventually, this becomes easier to use, but it does require time to become familiar with it. Fortunately, the M600i also comes with a stylus for direct editing on the screen.
The user-interface can also be a bit confusing at times, but again is easy to adapt to, and is also configurable enough to work around any glitches that you might find annoying.

M600i smartphone applications

Once familiarity has been attained, the M600i becomes an extremely attractive proposition. It has a number of applications you'd expect on a smartphone, including the ability to view and edit Microsoft Office apps, various office productivity apps, and a good RSS reader (though the bundled Opera browser is non-too good, apparently).

Messaging and Connectivity

The M600i also scores highly with its messaging and connectivity features. It comes with nine different push-email solutions, plus support for POP and IMAP email protocols, ensuring you can connect to your email server using most services (thus pitching the M600i firmly at BlackBerry's market). As far as connectivity is concerned, the M600i supports UMTS 3G data, GPRS, Bluetooth 2.0 (including audio streaming), infrared, and USB 2.0, and can even charge from a USB connection.

M600i multimedia features

Being a smartphone, the M600i doesn't focus too heavily on multimedia. There's no camera, for example, but you can watch videos on the M600i's large (240×320) high-quality QVGA 262k colour screen. You can also play MP3 files using the M600i's media player, which apparently is easy to use, lets you create playlists very easy, and will even stream your files over a Bluetooth 2.0 connection to a suitably-compatible device.

Round-up of Sony Ericsson M600i reviews across the web

MobileBurn is largely positive, but tempered by the learning curve thrown up by the keyboard and confusing user interface. They conclude:

"I actually like the M600i now. Due to its bugs and various rough edges I can not, in good conscience, give it a top rating, but I can feel comfortable in recommending it to people that want full PDA functionality in a normally sized phone. As long as they realize that this is still very much a PDA in that it requires use of a stylus more often than one might hope."

TechDigest also liked the M600i when they reviewed it, but interestingly, had a better time using it than MobileBurn. TechDigest write:

"The phone is also a dream to use. The interface is obvious and not too cluttered and just like its sibling the Sony Ericsson P990 it can be used either via a scroll wheel or a small stylus...Overall this is a quality handset from Sony Ericsson. The QVGA 2.6-inch 262k color touch screen display is pretty impressive too. I am still not convinced by the keyboard, but for corporates looking for a light smartphone that’s stylish has a decent screen and yet includes push email the M600 is a very good bet."

Sony Ericsson M600i Specification

•      QVGA 2.6’’ display
•      262K colours TFT
•      Video playback 30 fps
•      Online picture sharing
•      SMS, MMS, POP3 e-mail
•      Push e-mail
•      Dual function keyboard
•      Typing corrections and word completion
•      Handwriting Recognition
•      Touch screen

•      Media Player (support for MP3, AAC, ACC+, E-AAC+ and m4a)
•      OMA DRM phase 1
•      Streaming Audio/Video
•      Audio out over system connector
•      3D games, Java MIDP 2.0
•      40 Polyphonic ring tones

•      Dual Mode UMTS 2100 MHz, triple band GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz
•      Symbian 9.1 and UIQ 3.0
•      Stereo Bluetooth™ support
•      Infrared SIR
•      80 MB internal user memory
•      Expandable Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)
•      Full HTML browser Opera 8
•      RSS feeds
•      Flight mode
•      PC Tools & Software
•      PC Synchronization
•      USB 2.0 Mass storage, Full speed (12 Mbps)
•      USB charging
•      External antenna connector
•      Stereo Portable Handsfree and USB cable in box

•      VPN clients (for free)
•      Encryption (try & buy apps)
•      Virus Protection/Firewall ( try & buy apps)
•      Onboard application shop
•      Speakerphone
•      PowerPoint, Word and Excel editors
•      Adobe PDF viewer
  

More Sony Ericsson M600i details

Read more details of the Sony Ericsson M600i from when it was first released.