With the W880i it can be argued that Sony Ericsson came up with one of the best music-phones on the market as it covered all of the major bases required. With the T650i we have its big brother and whilst not a direct replacement for the W880i, (the W890i will be) the similarities cannot be ignored.
At only 12.5mm thick, the T650i isn't the smallest handset on the market, but it is compact enough to be comfortable. A sleek metallic casing is seen on the entirety of the outside and to top it off you also have a mineral-glass finish on the screen to prevent scratches. This is a welcome addition as we have seen too many phones of late where the screens are far too fragile. Underneath the rest of the body is plastic, but by keeping the top-layer metallic, you have an extra degree of strength whilst not compromising on weight, as the T650i comes in at a respectable 95 grams.
Thankfully, Sony Ericsson are moving away from the use of a joystick as a navigation option and replacing it with a much more conventional flat D-pad, which is a far more suitable solution.
Around this, you still see the usual left & right soft keys situated under the screen and the 'back' and 'cancel' key which Sony Ericssons are well-known for.
The aforementioned mineral-glass layer over the screen proved to be an ideal solution to a common problem. To make this even better, the quality of the display itself is very-good by Sony Ericsson standards. Although Nokia do currently maintain a slight advantage over the rest of the pack, it seems that others are starting to catch up a little.
The keypad will seem familiar to anyone who's seen the W880i. Though the keys are very small, in practise they prove to be very responsive and have enough space in-between each-other to make typos a rare occurrence.
As the physical construction of the unit is of such a high-standard, the technical specifications and features will need to be equally competent to make it a competitive product and it doesn't disappoint. For data transfers and video calls, you get 3G technology (though not HSDPA) in conjunction with the standard GPRS format. Also included is Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and a USB port making sure there are plenty of options for home PC data transfers.
Worth mentioning as well is the quality of the camera. Being a non Cyber-Shot handset it can't be realistically expected to compete with the K800 or K810i, but impressively it comes mighty close. You still get autofocus and flash meaning that while it may not be top-of the 3MP cameraphones, it is certainly above-average.
While the T650i doesn't score many points for major innovation or unique features, it proves itself to be a very capable performer that has covered enough bases to be able to please many different fan-bases. The T650i is built-to last, has a wealth of features and at the same time manages to be intuitive and fun to use. Though there are better phones out there, you'd struggle to find anything that covers quite as much ground as well as the T650i.
The is cuirrently available to purchase on and .
