Well, my little blag worked – although I’m not completely convinced that the phone bloke’s spiel was very genuine – but cheers Godfrey!
First impressions: its bigger than I thought! If you read the specsheet, its not too dissimilar to those of the N620, my previous phone (see the last entry for links – I’m short of time today!). It is slightly shorter than the 620, especially when you consider the Samsung’s external aerial, but it feels wider than the 4mm difference (or so) the specs state. Why? Because the N620 is a very tapered design so the widest part is about 3/4 of the way up the phone, curving inward above and below. The T310 is quite rectangular, so feels much wider in the hand.
The same tapering effect also makes the 620 feel less deep – even though the T310 is actually smaller in this dimension. A good indicator of the difference the shape makes: the N620 would fit into the key/change pocket of every pair of trousers I have that sports one – the T310 I suspect will not (it doesn’t fit into the cords I’m wearing today). Its not all bad though – the phone feels more comfortable in use, and less like holding a pencil to your ear or some such.
The menu system seems fairly straightforward – although quirks will only make themselves evident as I use the phone – it took some time before I noticed the 620’s awkward text-message handling.
Ringtones are suitably entertaining, and the comical Sony feature I remember from the CMD-Z5/7 has returned – you can record sounds and use them inplace of standard tunes. Hmmm. The addressbook is also similar to the older Sony phone – each entry can have 3 numbers assigned (with one as default), email addresses, pictures, personal ringtones, and entries can be classified into groups.
More soon…