Sony Ericsson T303

With the vast majority of mobile phone consumers looking to just make calls and text messages the budget mobile phone user still needs to be catered for - but still in style. This is where the Sony Ericsson T303 fits in. As mobile phones continue to develop into high level converged devices, certain sacrifices have to be made. If you want video playback, high level camera, quality music player, and a good web browsing experience, then you are going to lose in other areas. Most notably is size. You don’t want to be browsing the web on a 120 x 120 screen supporting just 16,000 colours.

To people like me, who love the advancements in technology, I am prepared to make the sacrifice. My phone is not small, but packs in all the latest features. However, I am part of the minority. How many times I talk to people and ask them what features they want in their phone and the response is so frequently “I want to make calls, send text messages”. This middle to low end of the market is so well populated by the larger numbers of the phone buying public, it would be silly of manufacturers to ignore them. But there is one more thing the people who buy phones for calls and text use only want, and that is style.

The Sony Ericsson T303 is a small, compact good looking handset, a perfect fit for the hand and pocket.  Measuring in at 83mm long, 47mm wide and a slim 14mm thin, the T303 will slip into a handbag or shirt pocket without making itself noticed. The basics are well covered, the T303 is a breeze to use for composing text messages, the keypad is of a flat, etched design, and despite the phone size they are large and easy to strike. The lithium polymer battery offers up to 400 hours of standby, and an amazing 9 hours talk time.

There is a camera on the phone, but you won’t be printing these pictures out. The handset has a 1.3 megapixel camera, and the snaps are going to be best viewed on the phone, and can be sent to friends via the MMS messaging facility. The screen on the phone supports up to 65,000 colours, and measures in at 128 x 160 pixels, in keeping with the compact dimensions of the handset.

Although the Sony Ericsson T303 offers a media player, with a measly 8MB memory on board you won’t be able to store more than a track or two before that is all used up. Fear not, music lovers, as the T303 includes and FM radio with RDS support, allowing you to keep tuned to the latest hits via your favourite FM radio station.  One feature the T303 does have that revolves around music is the excellent Track ID feature. I have been a big fan of this ever since Sony Ericsson started including it in their mobile phones. I’m sure it’s happened to most of us, we are listening to a track on the radio, and you just need to now the name of the tune. You know it, it’s on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t get it. With Track ID, simply start the program on the phone, place the phone next to the speaker, and a snippet of the song is recorded and loaded up to the internet. It is matched against a database of millions of songs and in next to no time the details of the song are sent to your phone, the name of the song, the artist, the album, and even a link to buy the track online. Simple and easy, the way all good features are.

Connectivity-wise, the T303 is a tri-band GSM handset, with data support for GPRS. There is also support for Bluetooth 2.0, and the SE handset has USB connectivity for connecting to a PC and charging.

All in all, the Sony Ericsson T303 is good at what it does, and has no pretentions to be more than what it offers. The size and styling should appeal to many users, and the colour options of silver and black are ideal for male or female phone users. The T303 would also make an excellent ‘going out’ phone, where you wouldn’t want to be weighed down with your normal phone when out and about on a Friday or Saturday night. This is a budget mobile phone and as you would expect there are some great prices on T303 contract deals and T303 pay as you go handsets.

Related Sony Ericsson T303 Links

• Compare the latest Sony Ericsson T303 contract deals
• Compare Sony Ericsson T303 pay as you go prices
• Read user Sony Ericsson T303 reviews