Both Nokia and Sony Ericsson are my top phone choice. I don’t see myself using other phone type except Siemens. This is because these trios manufacture highly functional and data-centric phones, starting from Nokia and then closely followed by Sony Ericsson. When I consider a phone, I look at it purely from the business function of it. Any other feature is an added advantage, but not necessarily a pre-requisite for purchasing the phone. I hardly use the digital camera on my phones. What for? If I need to take good pictures, I will make use of my 5 Megapixel HP camera. This is why a phone like Nokia 9300i will appeal more to me than Nokia N93 with its 3.15 Megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics.

The Nokia E61 and Sony Ericsson M600 Smartphones are by no means the best phones from their respective manufacturers. All the same, they are designed with the business end-users in mind, and that explains the absence of a camera. This is no issue if you are no camera aficionado or your work place permits no camera. Similar in function, the two phones differ a little in some areas. The chart below compares the two phones based on their specifications.

Comments
The Nokia E61 seems to have all the connectivity option (including WLAN) with the exception of HSCSD. For a truly business mobile phone, Wi-Fi connectivity is essential. The Sony Ericsson lacks Wi-Fi but has the HSCSD connectivity instead.

The Nokia E61 is bigger and heavier than the Sony Ericsson M600, but has a bigger screen area. This is great for documents or eBooks reading. The SE M600 is smaller and lighter. The smaller size of the SE M600 makes it the smallest Smartphone of the manufacturer. It is highly pocketable without creating a budge in the pocket.

Nokia E61 features a full QWERTY keyboard which makes it great for typing messages or editing documents. However, the QWERTY feature of the Sony Ericsson M600 is half-way, with a button sharing two characters of the alphabets. This by no means reduces the functionality of the keyboard, but it needs a little adapting to.

Finally
A choice between the two Smartphones depends on individual preference between a choice of Wi-Fi and a bigger screen or no Wi-Fi, but a smaller and pocketable Smartphone. Either choice, both phones are great business phones. That brings up the question at the back of my mind, “Can’t we get a perfect phone for once?”

Nokia E61 & Sony Ericsson M600

Sony Ericsson recently announced the addition of three handsets which ranges from the budget to midrange handsets. These are the Sony Ericsson T650, S500 and T250. The distinguishing features of these new handsets are charted below:

The Sony Ericsson S500 will be commercially available from the second quarter of 2007, while the Sony Ericsson T650 and T250 will be commercially available from the third quarter of 2007.

Sony Ericsson T650, S500 & T250 Handsets

Nokia recently announced some budget mobile phones purposely targeted at the lower end of the market. These are are Nokia 1200, 1208, 1650, 2660, 2630 and 2760. While still low end phones, there are a few innovations added to them. The distinguishing factors of the six phones are highlighted in the charts below.

Nokia 1200, 1208 & 1650 handsets

These new Nokia handsets will be commercially available from the second Quarter of 2007.

Nokia 2660, 2630 & 2760 handsets

Sony Ericsson has just unveiled what can be termed as the Ultimate Smartphone, the Sony Ericsson P1. The Sony Ericsson P1 is based on the Symbian 9.1 OS and runs with the UIQ 3.0 interface. It is the complete digital convergence device.

The P1 boasts of 208 MHZ processor and 128MB RAM. In addition, it has 160MB user memory. It is equipped with handwriting recognition system, MS Office documents viewer/editor and it has a business card scanner application.

Features of the Sony Ericsson P1 Smartphone include:
- 2.6″ 262K colour touchscreen with TFT display
- 3.2 Megapixels Camera with auto focus
- 3G support with video calls
- WLAN (WiFi)
- Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
- QWERTY keyboard
- Media Player (MP3, AAC)
- FM Stereo
- Memory Stick Micro M2 slot
- USB, GPRS Connectivity

The Sony Ericsson P1 will be commercially available from the Third Quarter, 2007.

Sony Ericsson P1 Smartphone

Blackberry has just announced the Blackberry 8830 World Edition device that supports both the GSM and CDMA networks. This means that you can now roam freely around the world in both GSM 900/1800MHZ as well as CDMA/EV-DO.

The Blackberry 8830 Smartphone has an integrated GPS receiver and a large 65K TFT color display with QVGA resolution. In addition to this, it has Bluetooth support and a microSD memory card slot. The Blackberry 8830 does not feature a camera though.

The Blackberry 8830 World Edition Smartphone is expected to be commercially available from May 2007.

Blackberry 8830 World Edition