Ericsson T68

The T68 is one of the first of a new wave of colour data mobiles, but there's a lot more to it than a pretty display. It supports both GPRS and HSCSD high-speed data transfers, together with Bluetooth connectivity.

There's also a Wap browser and an infra-red port. POP3 email and worldwide triple-band support make the phone a good choice for travellers. The T68 is petite, measuring a mere 101 x 48 x 19mm (h x w x d) and tips the scales at 85g.

GPRS has the benefit of being 'always-on'. The T68 has a theoretical maximum download throughput of 64.2Kbits/sec. In reality you're likely to achieve download speeds of between 18 and 50Kbits/sec.

New to this model is a miniature four-way joystick. This can also be pressed inwards to select items in menus. It works exceptionally well except for one minor irritation: we found it a bit tricky to press in the joystick without accidentally moving away from the menu item we wanted to select.

The colour screen, which measures 31 x 28mm (w x h), has an impressive resolution of 101 x 80dpi and can display eight lines of text using 256 colours. It's bright, and the text is very easy to read.

Ericsson's menu system also gets a polish. Click the joystick left and you're into a menu listing nine icons that lead you into the phone's various features. Some of the menus can be a touch slow to appear but, on the whole, it's very intuitive.

We were worried about the battery life of a phone with a colour screen, but the T68 performs well. In use we found the handset would quite easily operate for around three days of normal use from a single charge.

However, if you make heavy usage of GPRS, battery life will be curtailed due to the extra transmission power needed to cope with the additional time slots.

Prices: £500 (£425.53 ex VAT) without contract; £179.99 (£153.18 ex VAT) with contract on BT Cellnet or Vodafone.

Contact: Ericsson 0990 237 237
www.sonyericssonmobile.com/uk