The good:
---------

The features of this thing don't stop! I bought it for it's combination
of speakerphone, bluetooth, video camera, storage, and outlook sync.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the camera's got a flash, and that
it does FM radio as well! The MP3 functionality is nice to have, too.

As a bonus, a bit of digging has revealed that the phone can be used as a
thumbdrive, to transport non-multimedia data.


The bad:
--------

- I've had MANY Problems installing the PC_Suite sync software. In addition, the MP3
transfer software, "Disc2phone" doesn't recognize when my phone is connected!
Thankfully, SE tech support was able to suggest workaround(s).

-Many disconnects while transferring music via PC_suite's "File manager".
Transferred files must be deleted in order to re-attempt the transfer.

It's shameful the amount of time I've wasted screwing around trying to get
the software installation and file-transfer methods to work.



The unnecessarily deficient (aka annoyances):
---------------------------------------------

- The phone is cluttered with all sorts of promotional crap, some of which I
can delete, and some of which I don't seem to be able to. Franz Ferdinand
keeps coming back from the dead.

- Shortcuts aren't flexible. Shortcuts, inexplicably, are only "allowed"
to about half of the phone's menus and functionality. If my choices were
so pre-defined, I'd have preferred a simple list of the choices I AM allowed
to make, instead of navigating around the menus to dead ends.

- Phone makes annoying beep when starting. I havn't found out how to disable
it without muting the whole phone.

- The provided sync program, "PC Suite", has munged some of my contacts when
syncing them from outlook to the device. As a result, Outlook now sees
them as new contacts, and has synced them back, resulting in multiple,
although very similar versions of the same entrie.

- I don't really like the way contacts are displayed. I really liked the
way that the T616 used icons to indicate if contact numbers were for home,
office, or mobile. On the W600i, this wonderful feature has been
emasculated by the use of too-tiny icons that are eclipsed by text-effects.
It's a step backwards from a good feature.


- Loss of at-a-touch mute button. On the T616, I used to be able to mute
by holding down the "C" button. Now the easiest way to mute the phone is
with the "#" key which can only be gotten to by jacknifing it. I don't
know why they moved it from the more accessible "C" button on the front.
The "C" button doesn't appear to have any other new functionality that
would justify this unnecessary relocation. Anther step backwards from a
good feature.

- The advertising about "Mp3 playlists" seemed promising at first, until I
realized they weren't referring to any standard portable format (m3u), but
some kind of convoluted way of categorizing your music on the phone. Yay.

-The loop on top looks stupid, and just creates a larger footprint.

- The FM radio won't activate unless you plug in the included antenna/mike.
I'm sure the antennae improves the reception, but I'd still like the option
to take my chances without it.


The conclusion: The W600i is wonderful, feature-filled phone that was rushed
to market. I recommend waiting until the first firmware bugfix is released
before buying one, unless you like being an unapaid beta tester.


YMMV.

--
..............................................................................

"In June 1967, we again had a choice: The Egyptian Army concentrations in
the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack
us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him"

-Menachem Begin

..............................................................................
[email protected] http://www.memeticcandiru.com



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