Customer Reviews

Sony Ericsson T616 Phone (AT&T)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Wow, the first review of this phone certainly doesn't sound like something I'd want to own. It also doesn't sound like the phone I do own.

I love my Sony Ericsson T616. It has the smartest and most computerlike interface I've seen yet on a cell. With this phone I've hopped on the Internet, emailed and text messaged friends, taken and sent pictures to others, played games (including Q*Bert), taken pictures of my friends and associated the pics with their numbers so that their picture pops up whenever they call, sent numbers back and forth via IR and Bluetooth, connected to my laptop via Bluetooth to backup my address book, pics, etc., as well as changed my "desktop" wallpaper, color themes and ringtones regularly. Heck! A friend of mine has actually used his SE T616 as a remote control for his laptop during a Powerpoint presentation!

Oh yeah ~ I've also used my phone to make a bunch of phone calls.

A full battery seems to have an unusally long life. Provided you don't over do it on the gabbing, gaming, IR or Bluetooth, you can go days before you have to recharge.

The only complaints I have would be:
1) VOLUME There's no separate volume control for the earpiece and voice mike. I will sometimes get complaints that my voice is coming through too loud but when I lower the volume, it's hard to hear them speak. This is only an occasional problem (usually outside, around traffic) and there's a nifty product that may or may not fix it (see below **).
2) SCREEN The screen is made of glass and touches your face. Gets a little greasy! The phone comes with a cloth with which to wipe the screen. Keep it handy!

Coolest accessory **
You can buy a wireless, Bluetooth headset that fits over your ear. This little baby (which I don't have yet - $100) may correct the volume issue and will definitely keep the screen aware from your face!

Hope this has been helpful!

This is quite a cute little phone. It's got some negatives, but overall it's a pretty solid piece of work.

Pros:
-Small, cute, compact, stylish
-Joystick is superior to arrow keys
-Wide variety of features
-Large screen
-Pretty simple interface
-Usually good calls

Cons:
-It has to be cleaned constantly
-Pictures aren't too sharp on the phone itself (but if you send them to a computer, they're pretty good)
-Pictures take a long time to snap, and it can sometimes create a blur-effect even when something isn't moving
-Sometimes the SIM chip will dislodge and you will have to remove the back to get it started up again (after you drop it, it happens, although once or twice it was just sitting there and it occured)

I have had my T616 for phone for a year and half with Cingular. For someone who needs a phone with solid and friendly features, this phone still tops the pack.
Call quality is good, and battery life is excellent. I also like this phone's date and time sync with network, so it's updated wherever you go.
I don't think my phone is locked, or at least overseas frequencies are not locked out. I often use it overseas (I normally buy a local SIM card when I need extended stay overseas, so it's a lot cheaper to make and receive calls, both for me and for my local clients and friends). I love this ability because all my contacts are on the phone and I don't need to do anything to use them. You can also edit the phone number before you call, and the change won't be saved, so I can take the country or area code off when I am calling an overseas number locally!
Another feature I love is to store and use calling card. For those who only use cell phone to call US numbers, you probably don't understand the beauty about this feature. Calling overseas directly with your cell phone's international service defiantly will break your bank. There are tons of cheap calling cards on the market (especially buy them online), and you can call U.K. for 3 cents/min or China for 2 cents/min (right, cheaper than domestic long distance). But dialing those access numbers and codes to get connected is a pain when I use landline phones. With this cell phone you can store 2 calling card numbers and codes. Then I just need to scroll to the international number (programmed as 011-country code-area code-number), press "more", choose "calling card call", you are connected!! If one card is not working, you can choose another one. Now I can call overseas any time, when I am driving or traveling or when I am laying on the beach. I make overseas calls several times a week, so this feature has defiantly become essential to me. I had other cell phones before, and still remember when I needed to use calling card, I had to write all the numbers and code on a piece of paper, then dial each one accordingly. What a pain!
Obviously this phone's camera is not worth using. But what's more important for a cell phone?
I surely love some of the newer models, especially SmartPhone with Windows OS. I am looking for upgrade but haven't seen other manufacturer making phones with the features I mentioned above, even some SE's newer high end models don't have these features. So I'll probably have to wait a little longer before I can use some newer gadget.

BEWARE OF BUYING THIS PHONE FROM AMAZON WITH CINGULAR.
I tried buying this phone from amazon.com with amazon.com as the seller. I finished the checkout process and then in 5 mins, I got an email from amazon.com saying, "Your order has been cancelled because cingular needed some additional information, which we cannot provide." A ridiculous reason, to put it mildly. Couldn't they have asked me for that information? I later tried for a customer service phone #, but couldn't find one. All I found was an email address and I emailed them and got a reply (after 2 days) saying that they cannot do anything!!!

Later I bought another Cingular phone at Letstalk.com and during the checkout process, they asked me a lot of questions ("additional information" according to Amazon.com) and I got the phone without any hassles. I even ported my old phone number.

Such a ridiculous service could be expected of Amazon.com only. I don't understand why they sell cellphones when they don't know how to do it!!!

If anyone wants to contact me, send me an email at rphanikanth@yahoo.com

This phone would be great IF it had a better antenna. This is my second Sony Ericsson phone on Cingular. Both phones drop calls and fail to pick up a signal when everyone else's phone does. I called Sony and they said that they were unaware of the problem. To demostrate the problem, I have taken my friend's Nokia 6010 and my phone inside a local Walmart. Her phone has a signal, mine says "No Network". Both phones are on Cingular. I used to think that Cingular was the problem, but it is actually the T616.

This phone is useless outside of a quiet room. Don't bother calling anywhere from a sidewalk -- especially if the wind's blowing. I can't tell you how many people have said, "it sounds like you're calling from behind an airplane," or "where are you? at a concert?". Oh, yeah, and the camera's weak, too.

The title says it all.
* Great package: Features, size, functionality
* Great battery life: Go 2-3 days on a charge, 500+ of talk time is easy
* Poor signal: I think the internal antenna, small size and miserly use of power makes it hard to get a signal. I get drop outs all the time.
If you do not mind the signal issues, this is a great and now VERY cheap phone.

My main problem with this phone is the "pocket dialing" nuisance. They could have made it easier to lock the keys so you dont end up redialing over and over again unknowingly.

Secondly, the camera picture quality, when compared to other models is poor. Even with the "low light" setting, it takes very poor photos.

And the most annoying is the volume. The ringer volume is good, but the receiver volume is poor. I wouldnt recommend this camera.

I have had this phone for a few months now, and I love it. It has a many features such as a built in camera, bluetooth technology, and it even has an infrared function, which can be used to send info to and from smartphones and pda's. it is very light weight, and has a wonderful design. The only problems it has is the camera is not the best, it only supports polyphonic ring tones, and it has too many different ways to get on the internet, wich can somewhat often get activated accidentally. overall this is a great phone, with a few minor corks in the design...

Pretty good phone, but if I had a choice in choosing I wouldn't pick it. Only because it's kind of small, elegant true, but the buttons are kind of hard to press and "squeaky" the joystick is alright but I prefer my Nokia N70, it's easy to use and has a large screen, also it's fun because it has features, I can make mini videos and the camera is excellent, There are better sony erricsson phones out there!