Not Bad (not stellar either)

Sony Ericcson's T226 is the latest budget/entry level compact cell phone. I'm going to compare the T226 to it's cousin the T68i, which I've used before.

My father's T68i, while loaded with features, still didn't sound as clear as my T226. Although the size of the phone seems to make you feel like you are talking into your remote control for your home CD player.

A word about ergonomics:
While the T68i had a rounded shape, the T226 is curiously trapezoidal shaped. Huh? My medium sized hands seemed not to be able to hold the phone properly, since most human fingers tend to seek the flat sides to rest on while holding the phone. Let me try to explain. The face of the phone measures 1 11/16" wide. The back side measures 1 1/4" wide. which means the sides of the phone narrows from the 1 11/16" front to the 1 1/4" rear. Trapeziod. When you hold the phone to your ear, your four fingers are crushed to one side while the side of your thumb is pressed against the opposite side. What this means in the palm of your hand is not supporting or touching the back of the phone. Don't drop it! Strangely, my cousin's 5 year hold can hold the phone perfectly. Boy, this phone could corner the youth market.....except....

Ease of use (or lack thereof):
Intuitive use? Fuggetaboutit! I went from a Motorolla phone to this and am having a hard time. Admitedly, it's been a couple of months since I bought this phone and I still have problems remember the little quirks on the menu. A buddy of mine tried to enter his number into memory and gave up after about 6 tries. So while a 5 year old can hold this phone perfectly in his hand, my friend, a PhD in Electrical Engineering had a hard time trying to enter a number into memory! Also the T226 has another annoying feature. The navigation pad is decent sized, but the action key in the middle is horrible. In theory you move the highlight with the navagation pad and press the tiny silver button on the middle to activate your selection. However, the round rolly polly silver button tends to slip and slide around so you end up pressing the directional pad instead of selecting your choice....ARRRGGHH!!

Reception:
About the only good thing about this phone is the call quality and reception. I can receive calls sometimes in elevators. Perhaps this is a credit to Cigular's service network, but I'm sure it has something to do with the phone. The T68i my father has and my old Motorolla C332 didn't even get reception like this. Whatever they did, kudos.

Battery life:
I like the fact that you can top off the battery now and then with the car charger or the wall charger, but talk time seems somewhat limited on this phone. I went to a themepark with this phone and used it to keep in touch with friends and by mid day, the battery was almost dead. My advice is to not just top the battery off when you know you are going to need it for a full day away from a charger, but to fully charge it overnight. The battery gauge can be deceptive, just charge it all the way. Overall, I think total talk time would be close to an hour, is that good?

Assorted features:
Think of the T226 as the stripped down model of the T68i series. No blue tooth. No IR port. Wanna beam someone something? Buy another phone. The polyphonic ringtones are amusing, but better to record your own sounds, which this phone has the capability of doing. I recorded Howard Dean's blood curdling campaign scream as my ringtone. Few phones I've seen have this option. Don't buy the camera, its not worth it. I don't know anyone else who subscribes to the service where you can beam photos to each other. Why bother with a 640x480 image? I've not subscribed to the web service either so I cannot compliment on how good or bad it is. Would you web-surf on a postage stamp sized screen?

A word about T9 text entry:
One feature that you can take as a love it or leave it is the T9 text entry feature. It is a "predictive text" feature that is useful in text messaging. However, God help you if you are typing an word that isn't in the dictionary. A mixed blessing at best. How it works is you press the keys that correspond to the letters in the word and the phone will try to guess what you are trying to say. I've had decent results with it, but again, it is sheer torture entering a word that is not in the dictionary.