Sony Ericsson K600i sets baseline for 3G handsets
By Jesse D. Lewin 
posted February 14th 2005 5:08AM
posted February 14th 2005 5:08AM
Now we start getting to the meat of things, as Sony Ericsson has made three announcements this morning at 3GSM, the first of which is the K600i. While not the sexiest cellphone in Cannes (that award thus far goes to Motorola's SLVR V8), the K600i is a purist's design. UMTS/GPRS, a 1.3 megapixel camera, a 1.8 inch display, and USB round out the expected features, while FM radio and full track music downloads fit in with Sony Ericsson's 2005 strategy announced earlier this week. The K600i should prove to become the 3G equivalent of the T68 of years gone by.
Hmm, no mention of Bluetooth -- I can't imagine that they would have missed it out. This could well be my next phone sinze I lost my K700 -- my P910 is just too chunky for non-work related usage. Having seen prototype photos of the 'K750', which includes a MS Duo slot, the options from SE are certainly not limited. The 'K750' is certainly a lot more ugly than the K600 though... I wondcer if there'll be any announcement on it later from SE?
I have a k700 at the moment and this looks like an ideal upgrade if i start using 3G networks. But i would like to know if it has bluetooth and how much memory it comes with (and whether or not that can be expanded).
According to mobile gazette it does have bluetooth. Unfortunately, it only has 37mb memory (the k700 has 42mb) and there's no expansion slot either :-(
http://www.mobilegazette.com/sony-ericsson-k600.htm
Frankly I think Mobile Gazette are making up the inclusion of Bluetooth. However much I would like it to be true... Not even the SE press release mentions Bluetooth. Plus, tellingly, the SE photo archive shows a K600 being used with a laptop and a USB cable. I suspect we'll have to wait until the K750 (Clara) turns up for BT:
http://www.clubsonyericsson.com/forum/index.php/topic,2601.msg12870.html#msg12870
Read the Sony Ericsson website if you really want to know. Don't speculate. It does have bluetooth. http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=gb&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pp1_1_1&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10238
Beautiful! Clean Design!
The T610 was one of the two best looking phones I have ever had (the other being my chrome NOK 8860 with the sliding key cover). And it did everything I needed at the time.
K600: What a great way for SE to grab the low-end of the 3G handset market.
I hope it is as big a success on the revenue side as the T610-616-630-637 has been.
Beautiful phone!
The K600i indeed looks very "classic & modern"..
Does it really have just 37MB memory!? I think it's a bit low, especially if you compare this with the Samsung D500. (96MB I believe).
Ps.: Maybe a stupid question, but does it also has a integrated flashlight, like the other Sony-Ericsson phones!?
Greetz,
Rodner.
I believe sony did a bad move not including a MC slot in such a perfect phone. The FM radio made me very, very happy, since it was missing in new phones and it is a must to me. Does anyone know if there is going to be a successor with FM and Memory Card? Carrying your mp3 and photos everywhere is great!
Yet another phone which isn't immediately MAC compatible. booooo, hiss to Sony for this oversight... Apple is working on getting suitable software out for the K600i... but the responsibility is on the developer.. the world is not only PC!
I just bought the K600i. It does have a flashlight and it does have bluetooth. So far I'm very happy with it. It's true that it was a bit stupid of Sony Ericsson not to put a memory card slot, but Memorysticks are relatively expensive anyway. Do you really want to put $50 for a 128mb Memory stick when a 512 MP3 player goes for about the same price?
You can put about 10 songs on the telephone. That's enough for me because I have an MP3 player.
I read on several sites that the flat buttons are hard to use-- I have big fat fingers and it's one of the best keypads I've used.
I want to add a comment to my posting (just above). I hadn't realized the price of Memory Sticks had come down so much. Given that a 512MB costs about $50, it really was stupid of Sony not to put a memory card slot on this phone. But, I still think because using the phone as an MP3 player will drain the battery so much, it's better to get a dedicated MP3 player.
Also, the K600i is really easy to use. I gave my father-in-law a Siemens S65 today--what a nightmare to navigate through the menus and to set up the phone.
So, even if it's not perfect, this Sony is a darned good phone.