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Small and sleek.
Pros
Small size, voice recognition, active flip, vibrating alert
Cons
Tricky menu structure, bad key design, aerial housing, battery problems
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
A year ago the T-18s was an excellent phone. Nowadays, it doesn't cut it against models such as the Nokia 8210 and the Ericsson T28.
I bought my Ericsson T18s as a replacement phone in the UK from high street retailer Carphone Warehouse. I'd previously been using a free Philips Diga pay as you go freebie phone from my bank as a student account offer, and whilst it had been handy, it wasn't exactly an easily carried phone. I was looking for a small, compact phone, with voice recognition and a vibrating alert: and I got all three in the Ericsson T18.
At just over 10.5cm tall, 5cm wide and 2.5cm deep, the T18s is only slightly larger than Ericsson's newest GSM phone, the T28. With dual-band GSM operation, the T18 operates in European and Asian countries implementing the GSM standard, provided you've set up your roaming agreements with your service provider.
The main features of the T18s are its voice recognition, its "active flip" and the vibrating alert. The voice recognition system allows for up to ten voice labels for your phone book entries, and works surprisingly well, even in noisy conditions. "Active flip" is quite simple and allows for answering and ending calls merely by opening up the flap on the phone. At the beginning, it seemed quite a flimsy mechanism, but after seven months of use, the flip mechanism seems to be bearing up well: no problems at all. The most useful feature to me has been the vibration alert--much more discreet than a ringtone, the T18s may be put in "quiet mode", where instead of ringing, the phone vibrates on the receipt of a SMS message or incoming call.
Usefully, the T18s comes with a screw-on belt clip that attaches to the rear of the phone--with a phone this size, it's incredibly convenient to just attach it to your belt, and after that don't worry about where your phone is. The slight problem with the belt clip is that it while it seems to be made out of metal, it's actually quite weak plastic, and can be easily bent out of shape--Ericssson don't supply spares or replacements either, which seems a shame for such a useful accessory.
A quick list of other features: Usefully, the phone also includes an alarm clock function--my phone has now supplanted my beside alarm clock now, and among a choice of pre-programmed ringtones, you are also able to enter your own.
The only problems that I have with the T18s are the aerial, the keypad design and the menu layouts. My aerial became dislodged after a particularly frenetic game of Ultimate Frisbee, when the phone fell out of my pocket and onto the ground: not only had the aerial been dislodged, but the back casing had cracked on impact. Luckily, my retailer arranged for the casing to be replaced under warranty--I'm not sure whether other people would be as fortunate.
One point: on repair of my T18s, I was loaned a phone from my retailer that didn't have a vibration alert feature and I realised how important to me the vibrate feature was: I didn't expect to become so dependent upon it, but any replacement phone I buy will have to have this feature as well.
The keypad, and to a lesser extent, the menu layout, let down an otherwise excellent phone. I find that the keys, capped with hard, smooth plastic, require too much effort to operate, making text entry a chore. The menu system could do with tidying up, as could navigating SMS messages.
Charge times are short, with talk times on the included battery rated at four hours and a standby time of one hundred hours. The Ericsson badged hands free kit works well, with a nice adjustable clip on the wire, and other accessories such as an infrared modem and chatboard are available as well.
With a price in the UK now of only #50 (translating to US$80), the T18s is an attractive phone for not only professionals but teenagers as well: the low cost is combined with an extremely up to date phone with a complete feature set.
UPDATED!
I've finally taken the plunge and moved on from my Ericsson T18 - after yet another bout of aerial problems (since getting a replacement aerial and housing, the aerial has fallen out again), I've upgraded to a Nokia 8210. The T18 does have its faults: my phone has been plagued with the aerial dropping out (and not just the replacement screw part, but the screw housing), and bizarre and inexplicable resets, where the phone turns itself off. Of most importance is perhaps the phone turning itself off: for people who rely on being in contact, this can become very irritating, very quickly.
At just over 10.5cm tall, 5cm wide and 2.5cm deep, the T18s is only slightly larger than Ericsson's newest GSM phone, the T28. With dual-band GSM operation, the T18 operates in European and Asian countries implementing the GSM standard, provided you've set up your roaming agreements with your service provider.
The main features of the T18s are its voice recognition, its "active flip" and the vibrating alert. The voice recognition system allows for up to ten voice labels for your phone book entries, and works surprisingly well, even in noisy conditions. "Active flip" is quite simple and allows for answering and ending calls merely by opening up the flap on the phone. At the beginning, it seemed quite a flimsy mechanism, but after seven months of use, the flip mechanism seems to be bearing up well: no problems at all. The most useful feature to me has been the vibration alert--much more discreet than a ringtone, the T18s may be put in "quiet mode", where instead of ringing, the phone vibrates on the receipt of a SMS message or incoming call.
Usefully, the T18s comes with a screw-on belt clip that attaches to the rear of the phone--with a phone this size, it's incredibly convenient to just attach it to your belt, and after that don't worry about where your phone is. The slight problem with the belt clip is that it while it seems to be made out of metal, it's actually quite weak plastic, and can be easily bent out of shape--Ericssson don't supply spares or replacements either, which seems a shame for such a useful accessory.
A quick list of other features: Usefully, the phone also includes an alarm clock function--my phone has now supplanted my beside alarm clock now, and among a choice of pre-programmed ringtones, you are also able to enter your own.
The only problems that I have with the T18s are the aerial, the keypad design and the menu layouts. My aerial became dislodged after a particularly frenetic game of Ultimate Frisbee, when the phone fell out of my pocket and onto the ground: not only had the aerial been dislodged, but the back casing had cracked on impact. Luckily, my retailer arranged for the casing to be replaced under warranty--I'm not sure whether other people would be as fortunate.
One point: on repair of my T18s, I was loaned a phone from my retailer that didn't have a vibration alert feature and I realised how important to me the vibrate feature was: I didn't expect to become so dependent upon it, but any replacement phone I buy will have to have this feature as well.
The keypad, and to a lesser extent, the menu layout, let down an otherwise excellent phone. I find that the keys, capped with hard, smooth plastic, require too much effort to operate, making text entry a chore. The menu system could do with tidying up, as could navigating SMS messages.
Charge times are short, with talk times on the included battery rated at four hours and a standby time of one hundred hours. The Ericsson badged hands free kit works well, with a nice adjustable clip on the wire, and other accessories such as an infrared modem and chatboard are available as well.
With a price in the UK now of only #50 (translating to US$80), the T18s is an attractive phone for not only professionals but teenagers as well: the low cost is combined with an extremely up to date phone with a complete feature set.
UPDATED!
I've finally taken the plunge and moved on from my Ericsson T18 - after yet another bout of aerial problems (since getting a replacement aerial and housing, the aerial has fallen out again), I've upgraded to a Nokia 8210. The T18 does have its faults: my phone has been plagued with the aerial dropping out (and not just the replacement screw part, but the screw housing), and bizarre and inexplicable resets, where the phone turns itself off. Of most importance is perhaps the phone turning itself off: for people who rely on being in contact, this can become very irritating, very quickly.
