Sony Ericsson V600i Review

Overall Rating

Lots of features Br>AWESOME battery life
Matches my new laptop
It cost me nothing, hence take the high "value for money" rating with a pinch of salt

Built to a budget
Annoying slidey camera shutter thing, ARGH!
An exercise in mediocrity.

The Sony Ericsson V600i mobile phone is my first foray away from the warm bosom of "The big N" (i.e. Nokia), and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. On one hand, I'm a bit if a Sony fanboy (PlayStation/mini disc player/pc monitor etc. etc. ad nauseum). But I'm also a bit of a sucker for Nokia mobile handsets (at least I WAS, my forthcoming 6230 review will reveal all ). So it was with some intrigue that I accepted this handset as a "please don't leave us" offering from Vodafone customer services. Who, incidentally, seem to have talked me into accepting an 18 month contract. Hmm

Out of the box, things started well. It looks the part - shiny, modern, glossy, sleek in a curiously angular sort of way, reassuringly weighty and generally pleasant to behold and, indeed, hold. This handset has all the usual features one has come to expect, of particular note is the quality of the 1.3MP camera. Lots of [Sony] imaging options coupled with the relatively high resolution, make this closer to a "real" digital camera than I've ever experienced in a phone before, meaning I've used this feature far more than I thought I would. However, the rather small (32Mb) internal memory and lack of memory card slot(!) makes it necessary to download pictures via the supplied USB lead rather too often. Also, the slidey lens cover on the back of the phone is excruciating, as it opens itself when carrying the phone in my pocket, this turns the camera on and wastes all my battery.

There are further annoyances. For example:

The Vodafone live button on the side of the phone is all too easily pressed when simply holding the phone, thus initiating a painfully slow loading process that is equally painful to quit from.

Small fiddly keypad buttons make texting a chore. Although I have to admit, I'm starting to get used to them now.

No call timers. This seemingly minor flaw is amplified when it impossible to tell, at a glance, how many of my "free minutes" I have used. This has led to a couple of unexpectedly VAST phone bills (n.b. This never happened back in my Nokia days).

The inability to simply set reminders on the calendar, everything has to be set as a "meeting" of a fixed time length. Very annoying!

3G? What really is the point? It takes an eternity to load anything, it's quicker to call people. It IS a phone after all

But there are at least some saving graces - i.e. the spectacularly good battery life (4-5 days in standby). It also, rather unexpectedly, perfectly matches my brand new HP Pavilion laptop!

In conclusion then, this phone is fine and dandy for every day use (and actually calling people!), but is let down by some glaring omissions, and the general pointlessness of 3G. Also, this Vodafone only handset has clearly been built to a depressingly tight budget (no memory card slot, irritating shutter, poor ergonomics and a general lack of thought in the design process). Having caressed and gazed longingly at other, frankly amazing, Sony Ericsson handsets, I fear that the V600i may be the runt of the litter of this generation of Sony Ericsson handsets.

A bit disappointing. It's going to be a long 18 months

Members' Comments ongunner3's Review

• amanda06 on 26th Jan 2006

  I have this phone and I love it! Apart from the annoying slider camera shutter I couldn't fault it!