Review: New Cellphone - Nokia 6820 vs Sony-Ericsson T637


Our fellow IGM writers have conspired to take a vacation at the same time, so I get to pull myself from whatever it is that takes up my time and do a little writing. Today I'd like to share my new cell phone experience. Through the wonders of number portability, I decided to change my cell phone provider from T-Mobile to AT&T. I won't open that can of cell phone service worms today, but I will share my experiences with my new cellphone(s).

I was tickled pink with my Sony-Ericsson (SE) T68i back when the "Steve Jobs phone" was the all the rage. While looking to change my cell phone service options I decided it might also be time to change my phone. The old T68i was showing its age with the biggest problem being the connector for handsfree headsets was no longer working well.

Over all, T68i was a pretty cool phone, but still had its limitations and critics. I enjoyed the tiny size, cool formfactor, long battery life and of course Apple's iSync compatibility. iSync and Bluetooth is what brought me to the T68i in the first place. With this benchmark I began my journey for a new phone.

I've read a lot of problems with SE phones, namely the reception. For this reason, I decided to go elsewhere for my next cellphone. The geek in me would love to have a newer generation smart phone, but not only are they expensive, they're also too big to comfortably carry in my pants. Also, I decided to stick with a GSM provider and not go with Verizon. Verizon has a great network, but could not find a phone to not make me regret leaving the T68i behind. To date, Verizon doesn't even have a phone with bluetooth, something other providers have had for years.

First stop for a new phone was the Nokia 6600 from T-Mobile. It had all the features, but lacked battery life and was a little odd looking. Going to something larger, not to mention a bit expensive, wasn't what I was really looking for, so that one stayed on the shelf. Next up with the Motorola v600. It's a very sleek, cool looking phone, something very important for those who maintain a personal relationship with their mobile phone. One strike though is the address book and menus were less than desirable. Plus, there was no iSync compatibility. This brought me to what I thought was my phone of choice, the Nokia 6820 from AT&T.

Nokia 6820

This was pretty cool phone that features a flip-out full keyboard. It was very cool to be able to send text messages, enter in info, etc. without messing with standard keypad entry. In fact, I was told a 6820i version is expected from T-Mobile that has Blackberry software built in. The 6820 was small, light and had pretty good battery life. The keyboard was pretty cool, especially on something this small. One other big feature I enjoyed was the speakerphone, something the T68i lacked. Speakerphone is kind of important to me because I'm one to never remember my handsfree equipment in the car. Plus after years with Nextel, I got kind of hooked. The 6820 had a pretty good address book, which included physical addresses too, something the SE phones lacked. It had a nice calendar also, and I was starting to think I could say goodbye to the Palm for good. Yes, I was looking for a camera phone, but this is a minor feature. As dorky as it sounds, it's fun to share a moment with someone via cellphone.

For all its coolness and assurances of being the coolest phone available, I was left undecided. The 6820 is not supported by Apple's iSync. I thought I could manage without iSync and I did for a few days. I figured the flip-out keyboard would make it less necessary to synchronize with my Mac, and I was also a little hopeful that a solution to sync would someday appear. Until then, I just dragged vcards from Apple's Address Book via Bluetooth and that worked out OK. The phone has a pretty nice calendar, but I couldn't find a way to get dates from iCal into the phone. Also, I found the screen lacking, especially compared to the V600. Finally, the speakerphone wasn't that great. I found it pretty quiet and hard to use when on the highway. Despite this, the real issue I had with the phone was I could not get it to work with AT&T's Mmode online service. I spent hours on the phone and a good deal of time at the AT&T shop trying to get it to work. I finally started to think about other options.

I started looking at the v600 again, but the address book was just not workable in my opinion. That's pretty important when you keep everyone you know in your phone! I started thinking about going back to T-Mobile and looking at the Nokia 6600 again. AT&T didn't know when they'd be getting that model in. A little backstory, AT&T uses a particular tri-band on its GSM system, which includes the 850 and 1900 MHz frequency. Most European services uses 800, 1800 and 1900. T-Mobile uses only the 1900 MHz frequency, which lets you use any GSM phone if you can find it unlocked on eBay. So with AT&T, if you want to make full use of their GSM network, especially with the Cingular merger, you need a phone equipped to run at 850, not 800 MHz. Conflicted, the AT&T guy brought out a new SE phone they just got in, the T637. At first I was indifferent to its blocky black and silver design. As I held it and played with it though, I warmed up to it.

T637

The T637 has a great screen with 65K colors. Once I started playing around with it, I re-appreciated the interface I learned to like with the T68i. Compared to the Nokia and T68i, the T637 screen made navigation a good deal easier. It's pretty easy to see in sunlight and has a pretty sharp picture. I was just about sold, but still held off. I left my Nokia with the service tech to play with and went online looking for reviews. The T637 is actually a revision of the fairly popular T630 from Europe. From what I gather the primary difference is the modification to support the 850 MHz band. The clincher was when I took my SIM chip from the Nokia and put it in the T637 and Mmode worked just fine. Not sure what the deal there was, but Mmode would not work on two different 6820 phones. So I took that as a sign and took home the T637.

When I got the phone home I got a nice warm fuzzy feeling after hooking up with iSync. iSync is truly a wondrous program that can't be fully appreciated until it's gone. Other cool stuff with the T637... The keys are kind of nice. They're of course super small, but they raised like a bubble and actually make for pretty easy finding. The side of the phone features a one-touch button for the camera. This is very handy to catch quick moments that would otherwise be missed fumbling through menus. I even enjoy the little things like having the time and date in the corners of the display. The reception is pretty good on this phone, despite SE's reputation. The question of reception and the glaring lack of a speaker phone is what made me hesitant of the T637.

As far as service goes, I'm finding in the Mid-Michigan area AT&T to have better coverage than T-Mobile. Their new GSM network seems to offer pretty good coverage without roaming. Unfortunately I can't really give much of a review of the T637 reception. The T637/ATT setup is certainly better than the T68i/TMOBILE, but that doesn't necessarily say anything about the phones. I can probably say though that the T637 is comparable to the 6820 on ATT's network, which should be a good endorsement of the T637.

Links:
10/02 IGM T68i Review
T637 Specs
6820 Specs
T68i Specs