Sony Ericsson K610i

Status: 🟢 Fully functional

The first 3G terminal from Sony Ericsson on a proprietary platform, codenamed A100. It featured beautiful fonts, smoother animations, and most importantly, a multitasking Java machine. Finally, you could run ICQ and Opera Mini at the same time!

Small and elegant, with a very comfortable keyboard—that’s how I remember it. It was also phenomenally fast, and it still feels that way even today. Not a single lag in the menu.

Unfortunately, I had my reasons for avoiding Sony Ericsson devices. First, the Fast Port: the charging and sync connector would get dirty and required maintenance. Using headphones made the phone one and a half to two centimeters longer or wider, depending on the port’s location. Holding such a bulky setup wasn’t always comfortable, and I liked to listen to music while chatting. Second, Memory Stick cards. That meant I was locking myself into Sony Ericsson phones and wouldn’t be able to use the same memory cards if I decided to switch brands later. And finally, the lack of dedicated red and green call buttons felt awkward to me. Only later did I realize that this was just a minor quirk.