Who’s the smartest?
HTC and Sony Ericsson’s new QWERTY smart phones get ready to rumble.
Blackberries are not the only fruit. These nifty 3G-ers from HTC and Sony Ericsson both offer push email, PDA-style organizational features and QWERTY keyboards. They take very different approaches to styling, but both want a slice of that BlackBerry pie.
Designs of the times
The slim, light M600i is undeniably the better looking of the two handsets, but then Sony Ericsson has always gone for uncluttercd minimalism. HTC’s handset, meanwhile, may have a Motorola- style name, but it sure doesn’t have Motorola style. The TyTN (ouch!) is rotund and anonymous: more a PDA than a mobile.
Neither phone has a traditional number pad. Sony spreads its letters over a quirky pad of 15 keys, each with two characters. It’s smaller than a BlackBerry keyboard, but it’s slower than the TyTN’s sliding keyboard.
Both also offer virtual keyboards and handwriting recognition via bright, crisp touchscreens, and both have jog dials. The TyTN also has a four-way menu pad. The M600i does not, and you’ll miss it.
The TyTN’s Windows Mobile 5.0 interface benefits from being more familiar than the M600i’s Symbian system, but both are swift and straightforward for messaging and push email.
The HTC is groaning with business software, from MS Office Mobile suite to Pocket MSN, while the M600i has the less impressive Quickoffice, RSS feeds, and a PDF reader. Both also have Web browsers that struggle even with simple HTML sites and are crushed like grapes by the Nokia N80’s excellent browser.
Frame it up (or not)
TyTN’s two-megapixel camera is OK for holiday snaps or close-up portraits and there are creative options galore, plus a front-facing camera for video calls. Sony Ericsson has sworn off cameras completely here, which is odd given they’re traditionally one of its strengths.
The TyTN triumphs on connectivity, too, trumping their and Bluetooth on the Sony with power-efficient Wi-Fi access. The M600i has a 64MB MS Micro card, while the TyTN’s TransFlash slot is empty but it does have 60MB internal memory.
The TyTN struggles when it comes to actually making phone calls. Its virtual number-pad is slow and clumsy, and it’s too easy to hang up with your ear. The M600i’s 7.5-hour battery life trounces HTC’s 4.5 hours, although that advantage all but evaporates if you use 3G.
The TyTN knows what it is: an executive toy with bags of extras. The M600i is less sure of itself, but in truth, neither pushes all the right business buttons, and as for consumer use.., forget it. As a result, neither really kicks BlackBerry’s butt.
