vB Easy Archive - T-Mobile Sony-Ericsson TM506 Impressions

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T-Mobile Sony-Ericsson TM506 Impressions
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Posted by: Riverman

I picked up a green TM506 this afternoon and thought I'd post my first impressions of the phone.

Outside: The phone's all plastic, as most already know, but it feels like it's well made. There's very little wiggle in the flip when it's closed, and none when it's open. The spring to flip it open and closed is pretty powerful. The back is very slightly rubberized, sort of like a Motorola, but not quite as nice. The battery cover is very solid, but a little difficult to get off. Overall it's attractive in a minimalist way, but has somewhat of a hunchbacked look because the back is very squared off and a little high near the hinge, in my opinion. It's a little thicker than my KRZR K3, much wider, and shorter.

Inside: The screen is gorgeous. It's extremely bright, the colors are very well saturated, and it's bigger than the tiny 2" screens we usually see on SE phones. This one's about 2.2". The keypad has a very nice feel to it. The directional pad could have been a little bigger, but it's perfectly usable. The two soft keys should be raised more. They're too flush considering their small size. Backlighting is surprisingly even considering it's not Motorola-style electroluminescent, except for a couple of bright spots on the bottom row of keys.

Software: Standard Sony-Ericsson fare, but nice. Going through the icons is pretty speedy, but a couple of times there's been a slight lag. Nothing bad, though. There's a direct link to T-Zones, and a T-Mobile e-mail application, along with support for 3 IM services (AIM, Windows, Yahoo!). The e-mail application works very well and has presets for most major e-mail providers. It even polls the server on a regular basis and tells you when new e-mail comes in, sort of like a poor man's push service. The downside is that they charge you text message rates for actually reading an e-mail (the application warns you about this). The built-in browser is decent. I can't find anything that tells who makes it, though. The best thing I've found is that Java applications can use the internet through the cheap T-Zones plan!

Google Maps and Opera Mini work great. Things load reasonably fast on Seattle's EDGE network and the phone can scroll through large pages smoothly. This is a little better than what my K3 can muster. Despite what Sony-Ericsson's website says, I can't find an FM radio anywhere in this thing. The manual doesn't mention one, either.

Pack-Ins: Pretty basic. You get a charger, a monaural headset, and a whole bunch of paperwork. I'll be hitting the websites soon to get a proper stereo headset, another charger, a memory card, and a desktop cradle.

Overall I give this phone a thumbs up. It's not the most stylish or feature-packed phone out there, but it's well made, has a great screen, lets you use Java applications without purchasing a Blackberry plan, and eventually will be very fast on the web. Even at the full $160 price, it's a good deal. You can hardly buy a good quad-band EDGE phone unlocked with the same features for that price.

Posted by: baulz

excellent review. i like the different menu-layout options. have you checked to see if it'll support flash menus? yeah, i can't find the radio anywhere either. i wish i could change the directional pad up shortcut. do you happen to know the maximum memory card the phone will take? 4gb?

Posted by: Baldilocks

Very nice review. A similar phone will be released for AT&T soon (w780) and I might get one to play around with.

Posted by: bachviet

It doesn't support swf themes. I tried some last night and it showed a blank wallpaper.

Posted by: jasonshottness

Have you herd of the cect quad band touch screen moble phone? I just bought one from ebay it looks cool and its unlocked so it compatible but I don't know how the pics do so if you know anything let me know cause that phone you got is alot similar

Posted by: Wiscrown

If you need sheer internet (modem) speed for your laptop or browsing the web on the phone, then buy this phone, it's the first and only phone at the moment for T-Mobile that supports full 3g speeds.

If you're used to Nokia phones (operating system) and don't need the speed, then don't buy this phone, just wait for a full speed 3g (with HSDPA) Nokia phone to come out for T-Mobile.

I have a Nokia 5300 Xpress Music phone and was very satisfied with it except it doesn't support 3g. If you compare the OS's on the phones you'll see Nokia has more maturity in the phone market. Things I take for granted on my Xpress Music phone are not available on the Sony Ericsson TM506 such as:

There is no FM Radio
You cannot change the alert tone or sound level to a Task, so forget about using Task as an alarm clock, it will sound once on a Task and it's a very weak sound.. nothing you'll wake up to.

What you will have to do is set a Task with a reminder alert and it's low one alert sound and then set an Alarm for the exact same time where you can set your own sound and volume.

SO you can set the sound and volume on an Alarm but not for a Task, wtf, it would be no problem except you cannot attach a note to an Alarm, a Task has notes but you can't change the sound or volume on a Task thus there's no good Alarm for Task events.

There's other glaring issues and it's always the same. With Nokia OS's you get more control and with Sony Ericsson OS's you get less. Bottom line that's it.

I need the speed so I'm going with the SONY ERICSSON TM506 for now but will move to Nokia T-Mobile 3g as soon as possible and sell the TM506 and it's Sony only gear.

A story for another time.

Posted by: Wiscrown

Quote:

Originally Posted by baulz

excellent review. i like the different menu-layout options. have you checked to see if it'll support flash menus? yeah, i can't find the radio anywhere either. i wish i could change the directional pad up shortcut. do you happen to know the maximum memory card the phone will take? 4gb?

You can change the directional pad shortcuts, click: menu, settings, shortcuts.

I don't know the maximum memory but the TM506 can use an 8gb Sony/Sandisk M2 card. I have one in my TM506 with over four gb in it.

But get this, while transferring files, the phone goes off line so you will not be able to receive or make calls.

Wiscrown

Posted by: Platano Ranger

I just purchased two of these-for my wife and I- for $79 each. They seem to have packed alot of stuff into this little phone.

Posted by: baulz

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiscrown

i'll have to get myself a bigger gb memory card.
yeah, i know you can change the directional, i meant the "up" but i've gotten used to not pressing it (i used to have it set for inbox on my other phones).

Posted by: audai

great thanks for all

Posted by: nayna

Nice review. Now i have to plan to get rid the old one set and plan for this one. lol

Posted by: BernieLomax

I just got this phone too. Do you know if you can customize the "T-zone" shortcut. I never use T-zone and I'd love to remove it from the main display.

Posted by: Platano Ranger

This is my backup to my BB (work) phone. It is blindingly fast.
I am getting 2676kps (using the iPhone speedtest through Opera Mini) in the city and 2200 to 2500kps in Monroe NY. The only caveat I have is that Google Maps (an older version) doesn't work as seamlessly as I would like. Apart from that the TM506 has been feature packed device.

Posted by: S2kDriver

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiscrown

If you need sheer internet (modem) speed for your laptop or browsing the web on the phone, then buy this phone, it's the first and only phone at the moment for T-Mobile that supports full 3g speeds.

If you're used to Nokia phones (operating system) and don't need the speed, then don't buy this phone, just wait for a full speed 3g (with HSDPA) Nokia phone to come out for T-Mobile.

I have a Nokia 5300 Xpress Music phone and was very satisfied with it except it doesn't support 3g. If you compare the OS's on the phones you'll see Nokia has more maturity in the phone market. Things I take for granted on my Xpress Music phone are not available on the Sony Ericsson TM506 such as:

There is no FM Radio
You cannot change the alert tone or sound level to a Task, so forget about using Task as an alarm clock, it will sound once on a Task and it's a very weak sound.. nothing you'll wake up to.

What you will have to do is set a Task with a reminder alert and it's low one alert sound and then set an Alarm for the exact same time where you can set your own sound and volume.

SO you can set the sound and volume on an Alarm but not for a Task, wtf, it would be no problem except you cannot attach a note to an Alarm, a Task has notes but you can't change the sound or volume on a Task thus there's no good Alarm for Task events.

There's other glaring issues and it's always the same. With Nokia OS's you get more control and with Sony Ericsson OS's you get less. Bottom line that's it.

I need the speed so I'm going with the SONY ERICSSON TM506 for now but will move to Nokia T-Mobile 3g as soon as possible and sell the TM506 and it's Sony only gear.

A story for another time.

I was considering waiting a bit for other HSDPA phones to start rolling out, but from what I've read in these forums, it may be possible that T-Mobile may disable tethering on future 3G models from the factory to curtail network hoarding. So I went ahead and picked up the TM506. Still within my 14-day remorse period, so I'll wait it out until the very end to make a decision.

What are your thoughts on this people?

Posted by: IonNuke

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiscrown

But get this, while transferring files, the phone goes off line so you will not be able to receive or make calls.

Wiscrown

^^^ I rather have the phone go offline when I'm transferring major gobs of data to the phone. Then again this has been in Sony Ericsson phones for some time now. I think it was since the K800i series they started to do this.

But even earlier before K800i when you plug the phone to the computer it doesn't go into offline and you can still SMS and do stuff while there is data being loaded or removed from the phone.

Posted by: brainstorm79

does any one know if it's possible to change the clock to an analog one? i don't like this one and i just want to pick up my own clock. any ideas?

Posted by: Mike J

Great review. The FM radio is there but thank T-Mobile for locking it away from us. Right in line with more corporate silliness. If you buy one and can't tether, after thanking T-Mobile again, check the T-Mobile forum here for a way to get to the firmware that will bring DUN back.