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At last! a 3G email phone without a camera! - Sony Ericsson M600 draws praise

This is a phone aimed at the business user; and already, business users are saying "we can't wait!" - because it does have email, it does have a big screen, and it does have 3G wireless, but it does not have a camera. Nor does it have WiFi.

Comments include "very cool" from I4UNews, and "a Blackberry killer" from Wireless News Factor and even "sexiest" from "lad's magazine" Stuff. Well - they would say that, wouldn't they.

Stuff did, at least, manage to explain the keyboard: "While each button can be pressed squarely to dial numbers, it can also be pushed on either horizontal edge since the buttons are concave. So the number 1 key can also serve as 'Q' if pressed on its left edge or 'W' if pushed on its right side."

Not everybody was as enthusiastic about "yet another keyboard trick".

Pricing is better than the old P910 series, which is now seen as the "Professional" - that is, if you have to ask the price, you aren't the sort of person who would want one - while this M series is Mid-range.

"This device is going to have to be competitively priced to get anywhere in the mid-tier market," said the AllAboutSymbian team. "With the Pxxx devices, you knew that these were going to be snapped up by businesses, but not with the M600i."

The reviewer added: "Price is going to be one of the key factors in the success or otherwise of this UIQ device – you have to hope the networks pick this smartphone up and take it to market with a good subsidy. It’s a good bet the networks will do this – the Sony Ericsson K700i has been a hugely popular phone, and if this can be pitched as a ‘replacement with more oomph’ then there should be smiles all round."

Weirdly, although this isn't a Walkman brand phone, it does include an MP3 player. Is that a business requirement? And where Nokia has announced that WiFi will be a major part of its 2006 portfolio, this doesn't have it. Hm, the reviewers will think.

And is it really an email killer? Sony Ericsson has joined the Microsoft party, by adding support for Exchange Server 2003. That's the service which Microsoft's Windows Mobile 2005 launched into the teeth of a lawsuit with Visto.

Tags: push email, Visto,  Blackberry, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Symbian and UIQ .