Good Green Homes resource:
- Svelte, eye-catching clamshell phone in green and black compatible with T-Mobile’s 3G network (available in select markets)
- Compatible with T-Mobile’s MyFaves service–unlimited calling to your five most called contacts
- 2-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth for handsfree devices and stereo music; M2 expansion up to 4 GB; digital audio player
- Up to 9.5 hours of GSM talk time (3.5 hours on 3G networks), up to 250 hours (10+ days) of standby time
- Includes: handset, battery, travel charger, wired handsfree headset, quick start guide
Amazon.com Product Description
With an all around eye-catching design, the compact and stylish clamshell Sony Ericsson TM506 for T-Mobile keeps you connected to your closest friends and family members with T-Mobiles myFaves. It’s also Sony Ericsson’s first handset supporting T-Mobile’s HSDPA 3G network (in select markets), which provides fast web downloads and multimedia messaging. With built-in GPS and Telenav Navigator software, you can get turn-by-turn directions via voice and scr… More >>
Sony Ericsson TM506 Phone, Black/Green
Tags: Black/Green, Ericsson, Phone, Sony, TM506
People who are thinking of buying this product, don’t listen to the guy who gave it 3*s. This phone deserves 5*s.
Pro’s: It has GPS. A really nice camera. Sleek design. Media player. It works with any computer (I have a macbook and my old phone didn’t work with Itunes). Bluetooth is SO fast. Has 3g. Has plenty of memory (If you have the M2 stick). Fast texting, REALLY fast. No broken keys when you text. (Like the old Walkmen). Sturdy phone. (Dropped it 5 times and left it outside in the rain and it was still good). Camera is AMAZING. Fast email. It’s cool how you can control your computer with bluetooth. Speaker is good.
Cons: Huh? Why can’t you zoom in on 2 megapixel????? It cost money to look at email and send email. Fingerprint magnet. WHY CAN’T YOU GET THE BATTERY CASE OFF?? IT’S IMPOSSIBLE! Cost’s money for GPS. The part where you plug in to your phone to charge, is hard to pull out. Sound recording isn’t all that good.
Well, that’s all I can say about this AWESOME phone. I would recommend it to whoever is reading this review. Good phone, buy it if you can. (I bought this phone at the T-mobile store because it is only $20.00.
Rating: 5 / 5
T-Mobile offered us a free TM506 when, several months after our contract expired, I expressed a strong desire to cancel the T-Mobile service. It was actually really ‘free’ – no contract obligations whatsoever, only an incentive for us to keep staying as T-Mobile customers. That wasn’t good enough for me so T-Mobile then made me an offer I couldn’t refuse – the TM506 AND unlimited calls for half the monthly fee of their normal plan. Again, no contract commitment. Since my wife is a big talker, I took the offer. In fact, I even took a 2 year contract to prevent them from raising their fees for the next 2 years. The plan is called ‘loyalty reward’ or something like that. After a couple of months on it, we are very, very happy.
Now, the phone:
Surprisingly, this is a VERY good flip phone. And you can see the specs at the Amazon page. I see no reason to type a full or a partial list here. Since it is replacing a Razr, I would say that it takes the traditional classic Razr design one step farther to make a sleek, sexy and functional but not ostentatious ‘day-to-day’ phone. Something that’s a pleasure to use but you are not likely to mourn its loss if lost – our old Razr Stylus was literally eaten by our dogs and my wife was so attached to it, she couldn’t use another phone for several days.
Still, subjectively speaking, I like the very bright screen, the easy to navigate menus… well… after you take some time to learn them, the many options. Unlike some of the more sophisticated ‘phones’, this one is really a phone, in the sense that the things it does best are truly ‘phone ‘ functions. Yes, it has a camera and yes, you can play music or games on it but when you think of it you think of a phone with many enhancements rather than a computer or an email device you can speak into – did I mention that it takes voice notes?
For a phone, there are two things I don’t appreciate:
- the speaker volume is way too low
- the charger/earphones interface is proprietary
Making myself the devil’s advocate, I would say that the speaker’s low volume preserve the impressive battery time – and any bluetooth headset will work with it and that the proprietary interface reduces the need for two interfaces on the phone, one for the charger (USB?) and one for the earbuds but, still, I see how not everyone would appreciate this.
As for my rating, this is pretty much as good as it gets when it comes to free phones being offered without a contract to loyal customers. Those who wish more bells and whistles and are willing to pay for them, the TM506 won’t offer a lot but if all one wants is a phone with some added distractions, this is it.
It’s 4 stars mainly because a the low-volume speaker (a PHONE feature) and for the proprietary charger (a PHONE feature again). As far as the free phones go, it’s highly recommended.
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought this phone about when it came out, so now (8/10) it’s been a couple years. The first phone kept hanging up and turning off, so I had to get it replaced. The second phone, although good as far as user-friendliness is concerned (good voice quality, loud ringtones, good battery life. decent camera), became more and more finicky as time went on. It would lose signal randomly, drop calls (though my blackberry does too so I suspect a large part of this is t-mobile coverage), and the worst was that it became more and more likely to just randomly freeze up. Then the buttons stopped working – as of now the center ‘menu’ button doesn’t work (no menu for me), nor does the red ‘hang up’ button (so I have to shut the phone to hang up). I’m calling it quits and getting a new phone, and I’m not getting another Sony Ericsson.
Rating: 3 / 5
I’ve had this phone for about a year now, and have been generally very pleased with it as a
talk/messaging phone. I don’t have a web/data plan, so can’t speak to how it does with web
browsing.
Pros:
* Very sturdy. These days, so many phones are made of flimsy plastic. This has a very solid, durable metal feel.
* Very good photos with camera, and easy to send or upload to My Album.
* Reception has been fine. Probably had only one or two dropped calls over the whole year in the Seattle area.
* Excellent sound quality.
* Nice sharp screen.
Cons:
* Speaker so quiet as to be barely useable.
* Can’t zoom when taking 2MB photos, only in VGA mode.
Rating: 4 / 5
I hate this phone and I’ll never buy another Sony Ericsson phone again. It shuts off completely randomly even in the middle of calls. I asked T-mobile about it and they didn’t have any advice for me. I’m counting down to my contract renewal so I can get rid of this piece of crap.
Rating: 1 / 5