Small phones are normally expensive phones, except in the case of the T100, which matches miniturisation with a low price tag. Read our Australian review of this tiny phone.
The first thing you notice about the Sony Ericsson T100 is its size. It's small. It measures 99 x 43.5 x 17.7 mm and weighs 75gm, so it's not the smallest phone in the world, but it is the smallest we've seen for quite a while.
The layout of the phone is fairly standard, with a number pad, soft keys, clear, and the yes/answer no/reject keys. We found the keys a little hard to use easily with one hand. This is probably a result of their relatively small size and the fact that they don't protrude much from the phone.The menu system utilises the standard Sony Ericsson menu with folders, but not having up and down keys means you have to select a folder by pressing 'yes', which converts the left/right softkeys into up/down.
Despite the small size and low price (the recommended retail price is AU$275) the T100 packs in a lot of features which are popular amongst today's users. The phone allows you to set different ringtones and pictures to the numbers of up to 10 different callers. One feature we particularly liked was the ability to use question marks as wildcards in the number. As an example, if you set 9999 ???? as your number, you could get a specific ringtone or picture whenever called by anyoen with a 9999 prefix.
The phone gives you the ability to create your own melody, but we found it quite difficult to use. The main problem with melodies is that they play way too quickly. Even using the longest notes we could, the tune went about three times faster than we wanted it to. You can also edit the pictures in the phone, but once again - and in common with most other picture editors - an unbelievable amount of patience and skill is required to create anything worthwhile.
The messaging system is fairly standard, with the exception that the text input method can't be changed from the messaging menu. We had to go in through the settings folder, choosing language and then T9 to change the input method to predictive text. It's not a large problem, but it is an annoying quirk.
However, you can change the text style to bold, italics, strikethrough and underline, and set the alignment to right and centre as well. The 'Add symbol' menu also houses a collection of similes (real ones, not ASCII), which is cool. The only drawback is that the T100's smilies and formatting can't be seen on other non-T100 phones.
The T100 can hold up to 100 phone numbers, and e-mail addresses can be entered as well. There are also some security features, such as fixed call dialling and the ability to restrict certain types of calls at certain times.
The phone includes WAP and enhanced messaging, but doesn't support GPRS or multi-media messaging. Since this is in the ultra-low end range of the market, that is hardly surprising.
There are five games on the phone, and they cover a wide variety of styles. The games include Ballpop, a combination of Bust-a-Move and Breakout, a solitaire variant called Yukon Struggle, , Q and Wuziqi, a couple of puzzle games, and our personal favourite Naval Fleet, a mobile version of Battleship.
The phone lasted from 9 am Friday morning to 7.20 pm Monday night, effectively 106 hours of normal use. This is pretty average for a mobile these days.
All in all, we think the T100 will be popular amongst parents eager to provide mobile phones to their children in the interest of safety. The low cost and security features make it ideal for this function. Plus, the small fingers of children may be able to navigate the phone more nimbly than our adult sized ones.
Sony Ericsson T100
Company: Sony Ericsson
Price: AU$275
Distributor: Sony Ericsson
Phone: 1300 650 050
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It's been great having this phone... It's very light and it's not bulky when you insert it in your pocket. I really love this phone!!!