Sony Ericsson

Well, that title should be good for a few Google hits in a couple of days. Thankfully, at least on this occasion it’s relevant.

So, some thoughts on SE phones. I’ve just upgraded to a K700i, and I have to say that on 24 hours use I’m well pleased with it, although (ah, come on, you wouldn’t expect anything else from me) there’s a couple of little niggles with it. Given a week I probably won’t notice or care about them, but moving from Nokia to SE they’re something I’m aware right now.

First of all – and this is such a minor one, it’s almost odd to write it down – the SE doesn’t show when it’s got a GPRS connection. The Nokia did. It was only a little G on the display, not intrusive at all, but when it came to knowing I could get a data connection, it was useful. The K700 doesn’t seem to have that – I’ve got the GPRS set up, no worries (One very nice function is that you can link to the Sony Ericsson site and get the settings sent directly to your phone for whichever call provider you’re using – a lot of time saved for very little effort indeed) but there’s no display to say so. Irritating.

The other one – and I suspect it’s a standard niggle – is that the predictive text key layout is different. Now, I know this is more about useability and so on, but T9 is a standard for the predictive text, and that’s fine – but if it’s a standard then the key layouts should match too. It’s a pain in the arse remembering that what was the space key is now just a zero, and what was the “Shift” to get a capital letter is now the space key. I’ll get used to it – I semi-regularly swap phone makers, rather than just models, and in a week’s time I’ll be back to texting without looking at the keys, but for now it’s a niggle.

One of my colleagues in the office (yes, the twunty manager, before anyone asks) also has an SE phone, but in his case it’s the P910i. And he can’t/won’t change the fucking ringtones, nor take it with him when he leaves the office. The call ringtone is one of the most annoying on the planet – yes, even worse than The Nokia Tone *spit*. SE in their wisdom have come up with what they call a “corporate” ringtone known imaginatively as “Ring, Ring, Ring”. I won’t be cruel and include a soundfile of it, because it’d drive you crackers – but it’s a woman’s voice ‘singing’ “Ring, Ring, Ring, wooo-hooo-oooooo, Ring Ring Ring”. Loudly, warbly, and just slightly out of tune. It’s incredibly annoying, and the twat won’t change it.

I’ve threatened to change it for him (although this may involve dropping it from a very great height) and this didn’t go down well. The twunt says he likes it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this were true, but equally I wouldn’t be surprised if the full sentence were “I like it because I can’t change it, and thus have to tolerate it”.

So – decent phone, but with some fuck-awful ringtones. Luckily mine’s already been changed. I did that first of all. Hmmm, I wonder if The Twunt understands Polish, if I change languages on his phone?