Ben
5th April 2003, 04:35 AM
Phone: NEC e606
Network: Three (http://www.three.co.uk)
The NEC e606 is the first phone available in the UK with Video Calling. Part of a 3-phone range, the NEC e606 is the flagship phone for the launch of new Video-Calling-Enabled "Third Generation (3G)" network Three.
Though far from small and sexy, I'd go as far as saying the e606 is Big and Beautiful. It has a large, excellent quality colour screen, firm clamshell folding action, and comes with two chargers and two batteries. The internal speaker is loud, and the phone also has a vibrate function.
Charging and headphone ports are covered by rubber tabs, which can be fiddly, but do keep the dirt out. A USB cable is supplied for connection to your PC, with all the software you need to back up your phones files and load on the latest ringtones for free. The e606 can play the latest high quality polyphonic ringtones.
The screen-half of the phone features a multi-colour light on the outside which illuminates different colours depending on what you are doing, including Orange, Purple, and Blue. The inside keypad is well illuminated and flashes when you receive a call. The screen is brightly lit and easily read in all conditions.
Other features of this phone include T9 text message input, MMS, downloadable Java applications, and Bluetooth.
On the phone, there is a button with a strange triangle shape on. This button connects you to Three's services, which are what this handset is all about. For example, you can select Bulletins and download a video with sound that is several minutes long, and then play it on your phone, giving you a TV-class news summary in the palm of your hand. Furthermore, you can download ringtones, maps, games, and a wealth of other things via this area. Be warned, however, that at the time of writing there does not seem to be any way of accessing the outside web - so you're stuck paying Three's prices for what you want to download. Luckily, on "Kit", my priceplan, there are 50 such downloads included for free every month.
When you enter a number, one of the "soft keys" (like the keys on Nokias directly under the screen, so the writing above each button changes from click to click) has "Video" written above it. Pressing this instead of the normal green Call button initiates a Video call. The first thing you'll notice is the excellent video quality. The second thing you'll notice is the terrible ultra-quiet sound quality. There may well be ways round this, but at the moment it is something that I certainly am having problems with. The phone does, however, have TWO cameras, one on the inside, and one on the outside. You can switch between them in a call so you can show someone around where you are while still watching them on the screen - cool :)
Earlier I mentioned connectivity, and the fact that even though the e606 is on a superfast 3G network, you can only download content from Three and not the rest of the web, like on WAP. Well, Dial Up Networking over Bluetooth is supported by this phone, but to date does not appear to actually work, despite the cable and software being included with the phone. It might just be that I use Winodws XP and the drivers are not compatible, but I'm not convinced. If you plan to use this phone as a fast dial-up modem for Bluetooth or USB internet access, don't buy it just yet. GPRS is more expensive I know but at least it works.
Any content you download from Three gets stored on your phone, which seems to have plenty of memory - maybe 30-60megs? It's hard to tell. You can then back what you download up onto your computer, should you want to, but you'll probably just delete it when youre finished as old news is just that!
A 1.3 meg video news bulletin took about 40 seconds to download, giving a download rate of about 30kbytes/sec. That's like having a 240kbps internet connection - and even if I'm hugely wrong it's still better than the 3kbytes/sec and 40kbps(ish) speeds of GPRS. Again, I remind you, that at this time no connectivity options to make use of this speed seem to be available, but it's great for downloading Three's videos and ringtones.
The battery life on this phone is really 12 hours tops with light usage. You do get a spare battery and charger, but you can only charge a battery while it is attached to the phone - so it's totally pointless. If you could charge one battery and use the other it would make sense.
I'm really happy that I bought this phone - it's amazing to see what mobile phones of the future are going to be like. However, it feels very much like a future-concept. Three's support staff are unorganised to the extent that if you call up they have to find your details by searching their computers for your name, rather than using your mobile number like any other network. They also can't yet tell how many minutes you have remaining, if you're on contract that is. For the large majority of people who aren't bothered about being the first to try this new technology, I'd recommend waiting for the more refined handsets. If you're looking for mobile connectivity and were hoping this high speed phone with bluetooth was the answer, then I'm sorry, it's not. It will work, one day, but I doubt any time soon.
Finally, my price plan is Kit. It costs £59.99 a month, but includes an absolute shed load of stuff - making it better value than any current GSM network. For example, 1000 minutes of calls to all networks, 100 minutes video calls, 50 downloads, and numerous MMS and other service access. Double that amount is available on "Caboodle" for £99ish, and Pay as you Go and Annual plans are available as well. You can get 50% off your handset price, making it around £200, if you buy before the end of the month.
If anyone is considering buying a phone on Three and would like some friendly advice, just let me know.
Network: Three (http://www.three.co.uk)
The NEC e606 is the first phone available in the UK with Video Calling. Part of a 3-phone range, the NEC e606 is the flagship phone for the launch of new Video-Calling-Enabled "Third Generation (3G)" network Three.
Though far from small and sexy, I'd go as far as saying the e606 is Big and Beautiful. It has a large, excellent quality colour screen, firm clamshell folding action, and comes with two chargers and two batteries. The internal speaker is loud, and the phone also has a vibrate function.
Charging and headphone ports are covered by rubber tabs, which can be fiddly, but do keep the dirt out. A USB cable is supplied for connection to your PC, with all the software you need to back up your phones files and load on the latest ringtones for free. The e606 can play the latest high quality polyphonic ringtones.
The screen-half of the phone features a multi-colour light on the outside which illuminates different colours depending on what you are doing, including Orange, Purple, and Blue. The inside keypad is well illuminated and flashes when you receive a call. The screen is brightly lit and easily read in all conditions.
Other features of this phone include T9 text message input, MMS, downloadable Java applications, and Bluetooth.
On the phone, there is a button with a strange triangle shape on. This button connects you to Three's services, which are what this handset is all about. For example, you can select Bulletins and download a video with sound that is several minutes long, and then play it on your phone, giving you a TV-class news summary in the palm of your hand. Furthermore, you can download ringtones, maps, games, and a wealth of other things via this area. Be warned, however, that at the time of writing there does not seem to be any way of accessing the outside web - so you're stuck paying Three's prices for what you want to download. Luckily, on "Kit", my priceplan, there are 50 such downloads included for free every month.
When you enter a number, one of the "soft keys" (like the keys on Nokias directly under the screen, so the writing above each button changes from click to click) has "Video" written above it. Pressing this instead of the normal green Call button initiates a Video call. The first thing you'll notice is the excellent video quality. The second thing you'll notice is the terrible ultra-quiet sound quality. There may well be ways round this, but at the moment it is something that I certainly am having problems with. The phone does, however, have TWO cameras, one on the inside, and one on the outside. You can switch between them in a call so you can show someone around where you are while still watching them on the screen - cool :)
Earlier I mentioned connectivity, and the fact that even though the e606 is on a superfast 3G network, you can only download content from Three and not the rest of the web, like on WAP. Well, Dial Up Networking over Bluetooth is supported by this phone, but to date does not appear to actually work, despite the cable and software being included with the phone. It might just be that I use Winodws XP and the drivers are not compatible, but I'm not convinced. If you plan to use this phone as a fast dial-up modem for Bluetooth or USB internet access, don't buy it just yet. GPRS is more expensive I know but at least it works.
Any content you download from Three gets stored on your phone, which seems to have plenty of memory - maybe 30-60megs? It's hard to tell. You can then back what you download up onto your computer, should you want to, but you'll probably just delete it when youre finished as old news is just that!
A 1.3 meg video news bulletin took about 40 seconds to download, giving a download rate of about 30kbytes/sec. That's like having a 240kbps internet connection - and even if I'm hugely wrong it's still better than the 3kbytes/sec and 40kbps(ish) speeds of GPRS. Again, I remind you, that at this time no connectivity options to make use of this speed seem to be available, but it's great for downloading Three's videos and ringtones.
The battery life on this phone is really 12 hours tops with light usage. You do get a spare battery and charger, but you can only charge a battery while it is attached to the phone - so it's totally pointless. If you could charge one battery and use the other it would make sense.
I'm really happy that I bought this phone - it's amazing to see what mobile phones of the future are going to be like. However, it feels very much like a future-concept. Three's support staff are unorganised to the extent that if you call up they have to find your details by searching their computers for your name, rather than using your mobile number like any other network. They also can't yet tell how many minutes you have remaining, if you're on contract that is. For the large majority of people who aren't bothered about being the first to try this new technology, I'd recommend waiting for the more refined handsets. If you're looking for mobile connectivity and were hoping this high speed phone with bluetooth was the answer, then I'm sorry, it's not. It will work, one day, but I doubt any time soon.
Finally, my price plan is Kit. It costs £59.99 a month, but includes an absolute shed load of stuff - making it better value than any current GSM network. For example, 1000 minutes of calls to all networks, 100 minutes video calls, 50 downloads, and numerous MMS and other service access. Double that amount is available on "Caboodle" for £99ish, and Pay as you Go and Annual plans are available as well. You can get 50% off your handset price, making it around £200, if you buy before the end of the month.
If anyone is considering buying a phone on Three and would like some friendly advice, just let me know.