Last week Sony Ericsson gave me the opportunity to meet the new phones, take some pictures and play with what by all means are still early prototypes. Altough the status screen of the S600i unit showed an obvious “Model: K750i” label, many functions were malfunctioning and some just made the phone hang â€â€� just what we want! It’s always fun to rummage with early firmwares and find Easter eggs; both the S600 and Z520 prototypes had plenty. [...]

Despite that status screen, I found some differences in the S600 menus comparing to the K750, most of them related to the different form factor, the lack of Memory Stick slot, and the two buttons on top of the screen. These buttons look a bit odd in person, but not only do no good to the aesthetics, they are useless outside the gaming department. I really hope it’s an early firmware absence, but in this prototype there was no way to customize them to serve as shortcuts, as expected.

But let’s start talking about the design. As seen on other sites’ live photos, the S600 is a smaller device than the S700. Sadly, the screen/device size proportion isn’t as exciting as in the S700, while the thickness hasn’t been decreased by any milimeter. The result looks to me as some sort of Tamagotchi gadget. I’ve certainly seen no one raving about the S600’s design, but the “compact” feeling and original form factor makes it an eye-catcher. Once opened, the fact that the front “piece” doesn’t include the external antenna (which hides under the front piece) makes it look even smaller than the S700. If you look at the side pictures below, you’ll notice its ridiculously small camera shutter button. Even the “Music button” and each of the volume buttons are bigger. Did they design it this small to prevent accidental camera shots due to the lack of lens cap? Light excuse since the S600 keeps the ultra handy key lock slider all S700 fans loved.

Already seen on the J300, the material used in the covers of the S600 and Z520 has a really cool matt finish. It seems to retain less fingerprints but I wonder if it will get dirty with time: the unpolished surface doesn’t ease the cleaning of, say, food marks. But the look is super stylish. There’s another cool thing under the battery cover. Check the left photo below, notice the SIM card inserted in a slot to the right? Press it and it’s released all the memory card-style. The remaining blank flat surface under the battery can be used to jot down passwords and secret codes, stick some girlfriend’s photo or draw your favourite animal for additional customization. And yeah, it says “Ellen” in there .

Once the phone is on, there’s one thing that immediately surprised me. A sound is played when you open it. It can be customized from the Sounds & Effects menu and it sounds exactly in the moment the top part of the phone reaches the vertical position. I didn’t check the other possible sounds but I’m sure some people will find one that actually fits the “opened” action and makes a good effect/impression. A creaking old door may be. By the way, no, it can’t be rotated 360º round, just 180º to each side.

The screen, as you may already know, is the successful (but a bit claustrophobical for S700 ex-users like me) 1.8″ 176×220 pixel 262k color TFT with user-variable brightness. I felt a little bit of lack of intensity compared to the K750 but it must have been the theme or the fact that this prototype didn’t have the final commercial screen. If you see the next photo, you’ll see a difference between some phones when the screen is off. Some appear black, some lighter. This case reminds me of the P800 and P900 screen, but I can’t remember if this effect was caused by the P800 having frontlight and the P900 having variable backlight? Anyway it’s a detail few will care about and the fact is that it’s great that the S600 is the first mid-range phone with such a high definition screen.

A neat addition to the interface: press the on/off button just once and you get the new Shut Down menu with shortcuts to all your profiles and the turn on/off silent and lock keys options. Isn’t this a little bit N*kia? Well, so was the customizable SMS tone Also, each profile has an icon, which is shown in the top status bar in the main screen, instead of the old “profile other than Normal selected” icon that called you to check elsewhere which darn profile was it.

There’s some slight improvement to the MP3 player too. Since I use a K750, I’ve always wondered why I can’t enter a folder of songs and just listen to them anymore. “All music” and “New playlist” are the only options. Folders are gone in the K750, WTF? I didn’t check if they’re back in the S600, but its MP3 player application shows other more logical stuff: “Artists”, “Tracks” (the folders may be in there), and Playlists.

To continue the moaning, I’ll mention that the S600 camera interface is the same of the K750, which basically means annoying. Or, simply, worse-than-S700. You take a photo with the S600 or K750 and see the resulting shot. You can do nothing now. You can’t zoom in, you can’t go to a previous photo, and you can’t even hide the icons and labels around the screen by pressing the joystick (but by pressing “more” etc etc etc). This can be done in the S700. In the new phones, you have to press the back or shutter button to go to the viewfinder and THEN press “view” to perform any of the basic mentioned actions. It not only drives me mad, but the people around me who want to check a photo they’ve just done or whatever. Even in the S700 the “send” softkey led directly to a new MMS instead of giving you the more common Bluetooth, IrDa or email alternatives. Is this QuickShare?. I’ll never get tired of swearing that the growth of the popularity of a new phone depends strictly on the impressions of the friends and relatives of the owner of said phone. A megapixel camera that takes the best shots in the market is nothing if you can’t just give the phone to your girlfriend to let her take a shot or view the photos of yesterday’s party without worrying about her getting instantly confused. It doesn’t mater that I have learned the tricks to deal with such useability bugs, we really need a flat learning curve, Sony Ericsson! We know it’s easier for you to improve interfaces than to take backward steps, so please fix these issues before you totally abandon the imaging department development in favor of the music.

I didn’t mean to finish this preview so harshly. The S600 is a cool device with an interesting mix of high-end features and mid-range approach. The 256mb W600a, which initially will only be sold in America, will have to come to Europe by demand. Sony Ericsson broke the mould with the ever-charming S700 in all aspects and they’re having a difficult task to repeat the enthusiasm, but the S600 is also bound for setting a class of its own.

Ooops I almost forgot! I recorded a video of the S600 being used as a gamin console, with the horizontal position and the snowboard game. The music is horrible, but it sort of proves the good performance of the external MegaBass speakers. Click on the image below to download (QuickTime, 3.4mb).

Discuss this in the S600 forum thread