Sony Ericsson M600

[zeem35]

M600 slim, compact and stylish UMTS messaging phone puts secure e-mail and Internet at your fingertips
06 February 2006

London, 6th Feb 2006 – Sony Ericsson today announces the M600 phone and messaging device. This is a fully-specified email tool and mobile phone rolled into an extremely stylish, slim device featuring a touch screen and handwriting recognition. M600 is the second Symbian OS 9.1 and UIQ 3.0 enabled phone in the Sony Ericsson portfolio offering users great customisation opportunities and the ability to buy personal productivity and other applications from the Sony Ericsson Application Shop. New push email applications, remote synchronisation and expandable memory give owners a UMTS phone and email connectivity in a device that easily fits in their pocket - at just 15mm thick, it is one of the slimmest business UMTS devices of its kind available.

“Estimates show that there are approximately 650 million business email users* around the globe, and the demand for true mobile email is growing rapidly,” says Jan Wäreby, Corporate Executive Vice President, Head of Sales and Marketing, Sony Ericsson. “While there are some standalone email messaging devices available, many people will welcome fast and easy messaging tools integrated into their mobile phone. “

The software platform and user interface, make multitasking – for example browsing the Internet whilst making a voice call - a reality. M600 also takes full advantage of its UMTS capabilities with fast and easy email handling (even with large attachments) and high bandwidth multimedia downloads. Document handling offers and PowerPoint, Word and Excel editors and an Adobe PDF viewer.

The ergonomic design of the M600 makes it easy to operate with one hand or two and gives versatile options on how to perform messaging tasks. For example the large dual function keyboard makes for easy messaging input and is also the keypad for number buttons. Reading emails and viewing high quality video and graphics content is made easy with the 3-way Jog Dial and a 2.6” QVGA screen, capable of handling 262K colours.

range of standard and proprietary push email applications enabled for operator customisation are being developed in conjunction with a number of partners. These are:

AlteXia
Ericsson Mobile Office (EMO) (Try and Buy)
iAnywhere OneBridge
Intellisync
Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
RIM - BlackBerry Connect
Seven
Visto
Standard Email - IMAP IDLE working on all standards compliant servers

These companies are developing a range of email solutions to enable access any time, anywhere to private or corporate email accounts.

With so many connectivity possibilities, Sony Ericsson has taken great care to ensure mobile security. McAfee, the powerful anti-virus & firewall software for cellular applications and Pointsec encryption are offered as Try & Buy packages and Certicom VPN client for secure access to corporate networks is offered free of charge.

For such a slim device the M600 has an impressive 80MB onboard memory for storing email attachments and multimedia content. An additional 64MB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™), which is a new ultra-small recording media designed for highly compact mobile devices, is provided in the box. The M600 is the first Sony Ericsson product to feature this new memory card.

The M600 is available in Granite Black and Crystal White and starts shipping during Q2 2006. The different regional variations of the M600 are:

M600i - Dual Mode UMTS 2100 MHz, GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz for Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas

M600c - Dual Mode UMTS 2100 MHz, GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz for Mainland China (Launch for mainland China dependent on availability of 3G services.)

M600 will be available in 4 hardware keyboard variants: QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY and Russian

* Source: In September 2004 Radicati predicted there would be over 6 million global mobile mailboxes by the end of 2005. There is enormous potential for push email services going forward as the current penetration equates to less than 1% of total business email users.

M600 – Features at a glance:

Imaging & Messaging

* QVGA 2.6’’ display
* 262K colours TFT
* Video playback 30 fps
* Online picture sharing
* SMS, MMS, POP3 e-mail
* Push e-mail
* Dual function keyboard
* Typing corrections and word completion
* Handwriting Recognition
* Touch screen

Entertainment

* Media Player (support for MP3, AAC, ACC+, E-AAC+ and m4a)
* OMA DRM phase 1
* Streaming Audio/Video
* Audio out over system connector
* 3D games, Java MIDP 2.0
* 40 Polyphonic ring tones

Connectivity

* Dual Mode UMTS 2100 MHz, triple band GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz
* Symbian 9.1 and UIQ 3.0
* Stereo Bluetooth™ support
* Infrared SIR
* 80 MB internal user memory
* Expandable Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)
* Full HTML browser Opera 8
* RSS feeds
* Flight mode
* PC Tools & Software
* PC Synchronization
* USB 2.0 Mass storage, Full speed (12 Mbps)
* USB charging
* External antenna connector
* Stereo Portable Handsfree and USB cable in box

Business

* VPN clients (for free)
* Encryption (try & buy apps)
* Virus Protection/Firewall ( try & buy apps)
* Onboard application shop
* Speakerphone
* PowerPoint, Word and Excel editors
* Adobe PDF viewer

[zeem35]

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/4535/sem600front9ig.jpg

Press Release
http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=global&lc=en&ver=4001&template=pc3_1_1&zone=pc&lm=pc3_1&prid=4639

Press Images
http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=global&lc=en&ver=4001&template=pc3_2_3_1&zone=pc&lm=pc3_2&pid=10385&esi=true

[difenbaker]

Nice features!!

- symbian OS
- touchscreen
- 3G
- flightmode

If this is cheaper than a p990, it will give that phone a serious run for its money. This does not seem to have wifi, no edge, no fm radio, and it's not quadband.

For myself, it looks good though, I wont miss that annoying qwerty keypad of the p9 one bit.

It also doesn't have a camera... not a biggie for business users, but will count a lot for the general phone public.


cheers!

[zeem35]

it has M2 memory stick if i have not mistaken

[henrycharge2003]

whats the max capacity for m2 cards?

[zeem35]

@ dif

* Infrared SIR
* 80 MB internal user memory
* Expandable Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)
* Full HTML browser Opera 8

[difenbaker]

@ dif

* Infrared SIR
* 80 MB internal user memory
* Expandable Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)
* Full HTML browser Opera 8

yup, just saw that... edited my post a coupla seconds later... hehehe, thanks for the quick heads-up zeem.

(you already replied before I could correct it... )


cheers!

[zeem35]

whats the max capacity for m2 cards?

Apparently the format has a theoretical maximum of a whopping 32GB of storage capacity:eek:

@ dif
hehe no problem..
its Nokia E series Competitor so no camera :D
by the way it has UMTS..
so browse in 3G ;)

[zeem35]

im starting to like it but no camera rejects it..
i like the design better than P990 its more like K750..
if it had a 2Mp cam perfect anyways its target is Co-operate customers where people cant use camera

[TheZodiac]

Wow, a square phone with square buttons! How innovative. Next, thing you will tell me, it used a proprietary memory format for expansion. Aaah...

[brad]

Wow, a square phone with square buttons! How innovative. Next, thing you will tell me, it used a proprietary memory format for expansion. Aaah...
Zing!

[crazyze]

Wow, a square phone with square buttons! How innovative. Next, thing you will tell me, it used a proprietary memory format for expansion. Aaah...

LOL! It has to be boring because it is aimed at business, but at least it is small than the P990. I think the lack of WiFi is a shame, would be a perfect business phone and probably be better than some of the Nokia E-series phones.

[im92109210]

whats the box above the keyboard for ??? dont tell me a quickshare sticker again... if it is.. that wud be one of the worst places to put it !!!

[greenarcher]

no camera =(

[Moby]

How do you make calls/answer calls? There are no call buttons? Do you have to use the touch screen, or will it have softkeys? Will the screen work with a finger nail, or does the jog dial allow choosing options?

[oneclick]

I hope no one is offended.

But to me, it looks like a calculator! Why would they make everything so square?

And then there's no camera, wifi, and edge? Are businessmen limited to using "3G only"? (aside from gprs). How will this compete with the E61 which has all of those, plus a 16M screen?

tnx-1clk

[Viipottaja]

Oneclick, I guess the price has to be competitive (relative to Nokia E series)? However, I wonder if SE has the muscle to convince business to use them over Nokia (which I assume is aggressively marketing its devices directly to potential customers as well).

Moby, good point.. wonder how that's done..

I also wonder how easy the typing on the keyboard will be, looks like the keys are not very wide and it could potentially be hard to tap the right letter. RIM keyboards seem easier to use. Although, I am saying all this based on pics only. :)

Lack of WiFI must be a cost and battery saving issue, plus avoiding direct competition with 990? Lack of GPRS.. well, that sucks. Obviously will not be sold where 3G is not strong yet. And the proprietory memory stick.. Sony is getting too much say over Ericsson :P

Other than that, looks pretty ok to me, other specs are not bad.

[FullMetalKid]

Music to my ears.

[stars]

looks good and sounds good to me..

its quite surprising that this isnt blackberry capable. looks like its defintely able to beef any blackberrying thrown at it.

i do hope sony throws in a wifi . wifi is great .. every smartphone should have it. wifi is already predominant in almost everywhere, and wifi is backward compatible e.g if u have a G band , wi-max or something newer generation , you can always work it to be an older format like the B band where phones can run on that(IEEE 802.11b)

and if this phone were designed for business , imagine a manager running around with one of these within a office's wireless networks. how much productivity and new ways to do things that one can harness.

defintely a major thumbs down to it for not having wi-fi

[difenbaker]

whats the box above the keyboard for ??? dont tell me a quickshare sticker again... if it is.. that wud be one of the worst places to put it !!!

yup, from the way it looks in this pic... it's for the "quickshare" logo.
http://xs67.xs.to/pics/06061/060206_sonyericsson_m600_2.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs67&d=06061&f=060206_sonyericsson_m600_2.jpg)

[crazyze]

How do you make calls/answer calls? There are no call buttons? Do you have to use the touch screen, or will it have softkeys? Will the screen work with a finger nail, or does the jog dial allow choosing options?

Moby, it's probably a new fad SE are creating, you know the phone that doesn't make calls - I mean who needs to call eh in the world of SMS and email :cool:

[im92109210]

@difenbaker, and everyone, the sticker patch above the keyboard is not quickshare. its a sony ericsson writing, WHY have 2 sony ericsson labels on the front i duno. but check it out in the pics here: P990 Vs M600 Pics (http://www.se-community.com/album.php?album_id=434)
ONE more weird thing in those pics. the p990 for some reason is running symbian 8 :confused: :confused:

[brad]

its quite surprising that this isnt blackberry capable. looks like its defintely able to beef any blackberrying thrown at it.It is Blackberry compatible.

[brad]

How do you make calls/answer calls? There are no call buttons? Do you have to use the touch screen, or will it have softkeys? Will the screen work with a finger nail, or does the jog dial allow choosing options?
The jog allows selecting most options.

The small square will be for either a Quickshare logo or carrier branding depending on the situation, the shots in the album are from a prototype, which is why there is two SE logos.

[carcomptoy]

NO GPRS??? WHAT IN THE WORLD??:confused:

I remember when someone first showed a picture of the casing...'twas very interesting at the time. I actually like the boxiness, although like everyone else I think the keypad will be a problem...

[difenbaker]

@difenbaker, and everyone, the sticker patch above the keyboard is not quickshare. its a sony ericsson writing, WHY have 2 sony ericsson labels on the front i duno. but check it out in the pics here: P990 Vs M600 Pics (http://www.se-community.com/album.php?album_id=434)
ONE more weird thing in those pics. the p990 for some reason is running symbian 8 :confused: :confused:

I see.... thanks for the info. It's not "quickshare" after all, it's the "m600" label.

cheers!

[brad]

NO GPRS??? WHAT IN THE WORLD??:confused:
It has GPRS, just no EDGE.

[edeab220]

Is it me or are those keys similar to the 7105t's keys?

It has GPRS, just no EDGE.
That's just sad.

[carcomptoy]

Well, not like SE was always keen about putting EDGE in their phones...:rolleyes:

I was about to say though...how is it possible not to have even GPRS??

[brad]

Is it me or are those keys similar to the 7105t's keys?


That's just sad.
I said that in my article on the main site, it is very similar to the Blackberry 7100 series, but that isn't necessarly a bad thing.

[carcomptoy]

infosyncworld.com said it was like the Treo 700w's keyboard...I was like...NOOOO:cool:

[brad]

infosyncworld.com said it was like the Treo 700w's keyboard...I was like...NOOOO:cool:
The M600 keypad is nothing like the Treo's, the keys have a concave feel to them on the M600, whereas the Treo's are very bulbous.

[666joe]

It does look tasty and odd considering SEs slow entry into the corporate market...

So thats not Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, SE only Sagem and LG left to go ?

[stephanie]

yup, from the way it looks in this pic... it's for the "quickshare" logo.
http://xs67.xs.to/pics/06061/060206_sonyericsson_m600_2.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs67&d=06061&f=060206_sonyericsson_m600_2.jpg)

I dont like it - I find it too square for my taste.

[crazyze]

A bit square, but if it is cheap I may get this over the N80....

[Jose_R.A.M]

I like it. It's exterior I find is more appealing than the p990

This seems like a great device, and If I were some corporate executive type person and werent allowed a phone with a cam, Id snap this up in an instant.

[crazyze]

The pictures showing the M600 side by side with the P990 really does show how bulky the P990 is

[carcomptoy]

I like it. It's exterior I find is more appealing than the p990

This seems like a great device, and If I were some corporate executive type person and werent allowed a phone with a cam, Id snap this up in an instant.
I actually like the boxiness of it myself too...and like you if you I were some business exec who couldn't have a cameraphone I'd get this...or the E61:p