Sony Ericsson TM506 Cell Phone

The Sony Ericsson TM506 (available with T-Mobile) is a standard flip phone with a 2.0 megapixel camera, and a music & video player.  That's probably considered a "basic" phone these days.

I've used a phone with similar features for the past two years (LG VX8600), and have used the phone primarily for talking, but also used the other features (text, internet, media) on a regular basis.  So inevitably, I found myself making direct comparisons between these two phones while using them.

Design: Exterior

The phone itself is mostly black - with a glossy front, and a rubberized back, with color accents, which is available in two colors: green and amber.  (The amber phone is really silver, but the dialpad has an amber glow.)

The Sony Ericsson TM506 also has a slot for a micro-SD card, so you can store extra pictures, music, etc.

The dialpad layout is pretty standard, with a 4-way navigation and the "Enter" button in the center.  The "Send" and "End" buttons are on either side of the 4-way navigation, and there are two shortcut buttons above them.  All the buttons are flush with the surface, with the numbers being accented by a crescent glow of color (green or amber).

There is also a separate power button on the bottom of the keypad, and one volume control on the right side.

My only real quibble with the layout is that the "Send" and "End" buttons are very small, because their section is shared with another programmable shortcut button, and a "Clear" button.  Most people push these buttons more than any other button, so they really need to be bigger.  (For example, I often push "Send" to access my recent calls to see who I need to call back, so quite often, "Send" and "End" can be the only buttons I use in one session.)

And some people may not like the flush keypad, because it is impossible to dial by feel.

Speakerphone

I can confirm that the Sony Ericsson TM506 has a speakerphone function, and as the call is being dialed, gives you the option to use it.

But the phone itself does not have a dedicated speakerphone button, and as far as I can tell, if you don't use the soft key to access the speakerphone as you're dialing, you can't switch back and forth.  If there is a way (and I haven't found it), it requires a cumbersome button-pushing process that is not intuitive.

Design: Screen

The front screen is very basic black and white screen.  It's very basic, but it tells you all you need to know: signal strength, time, battery life, and bluetooth status.

The main screen is pretty fabulous - with great resolution and vibrant colors.

Design: Interface

One of the neatest features of the Sony Ericsson TM506 is the auto fill-in.

For example, if I start dialing an area code ("213") all the contacts that I've saved who have phone numbers that begin with "213" pop up.  Even the numbers from my call history that I haven't saved pop up, too.  And dialing more of the phone number narrows down the choices.

The potential problem with this is - the unsaved numbers pop up even after I've erased my call history!  This is a drawback in one case - I have a client who has a very private number, and she asks me to not keep it in my saved contact list.  I also erase her number from my call history to be safe.  But despite doing this, whenever I dial her area code, her number shows up as one of the choices.

I still think this is a neat and useful feature, but I think it you delete a number from the call history, it should no longer be available as a fill-in option.

My one other quibble with the call history is that it fills up much too quickly, and only a couple days' worth of history is available for me to look at.  I made and received approximately the same average amount of calls with my previous phone, but I was able to review the history for a much longer period.

Sound

This is a pretty important feature of a cell phone.  I've had to stop using some phones in the past due to a bad sound.

The Sony Ericsson TM506 has okay sound.  It's just a bit too softer and duller than I would like.

Using the Phone

For those who've used flip phones before, accessing the features is a snap.  I had no trouble with figuring out most of the functions right away.

However, one of the most frustrating things about this phone is its poor response time.  For example, after I dial a number, or select a contact, I push "Send."  But sometimes, the phone screen does not indicate that the call is being dialed and answered for several seconds!  In fact, these graphics often do not show up until the phone has been ringing for a bit, and the recipient answers the call.  So I have trouble figuring out if the call has even been placed.  As a result, I often re-push the "Send" button more than once.

It's the same with the "End" button.  When I hang up the phone, I should get a screen telling me that the call has been ended.  But after I finish a phone call, I often find myself pushing "End" several times, because I can't be sure if I hung up properly.  Basically, the phone just doesn't respond very fast.  Everything lags.

This is especially frustrating when I try to use the speakerphone.  Because the Sony Ericsson TM506 does not have a dedicated speakerphone button, and also because of the lag time, trying to access this feature is hit-or-miss.  Very annoying.

Another problem I had was that sometimes I would call someone, and nobody is there.  Or sometimes, people would call me, and I can't hear a thing.  So I would often have to hang up and call people back.  This happened quite often - perhaps up to 25% of all my phone calls!

I assume this is a problem with the T-Mobile network.  But it almost feels like it's the phone itself - as if the phone is taking its own sweet time to communicate with the network.  It certainly feels this way more because of the slow response time of the Sony Ericsson TM506 phone itself.  In either case, I just keep needing to dial and re-dial more than once to get through.

Conclusion:

The Sony Ericsson TM506 is a decent-looking cell phone that looks like it fits the needs of a basic flip phone user - someone who uses their cell phone most for talking, rather than media, text/e-mail, web surfing, or other uses.  (And that would be me.)  Based on the no-frills external display, it feels like the phone is supposed to have a very workman-like design.  The phone itself feels very tough and sturdy.  And cameras and music/video players are no longer considered fancy "bells and whistles" on a phone anymore, anyway.

The highlights of this phone are the visuals - the main screen looks very nice, and the 2.0 megapixel camera takes pretty good pictures.

I didn't expect to have any complaints about this phone.  But the big drawback of this phone is the slow response time.  When I push "Send" or "End," I need to know that the call is dialed or hung up, and the phone simply takes too long to let me know.  Coupled with the not-so-responsive T-Mobile network (I am *assuming* the network is the problem) with calls being missed to-and-fro, my overall experience using the Sony Ericsson TM506 was ... not that great, honestly.

I will say, though, that my previous phone was pretty fantastic.  It had a similar basic layout as with the Sony Ericsson TM506, so it's inevitable that I make a direct comparison as to how it feels in my hand, and how it performs.  That comparison is unfavorable to the Sony Ericsson TM506.

Do I recommend the Sony Ericsson TM506?  It's hard to say.  It's a perfectly functional phone, and maybe I just had some bad luck with it.  But I've used a couple of phones in recent years with a similar set of features, that performed and sounded better overall.  So unless you are limited by cost, need to use T-Mobile, or other constraints, I don't see a compelling need to pick this phone over many others that offer the same features.

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To give you an idea of what I look for in my cell phone, here is a list of cell phones I've used during the last eight years:

* LG TP1100 (Sprint)
* LG TP5200 (Sprint)
* Sanyo SCP-8100 (Sprint)
* Samsung SGH-d415 (T-Mobile)
* Sidekick II (T-Mobile)
* Motorola v180 (T-Mobile)
* Samsung SGH-x475 (T-Mobile)
* Motorola RAZR (T-Mobile)
* Samsung SGH-E635 (T-Mobile)
* Samsung SGH-c417 (Cingular)
* LG VX8600 (Verizon)