Sony Ericsson T608

The Sony Ericsson T608 has one of the most remarkable release cycles in cell phone history. Created as the re-birth of Sony Ericsson's North American CDMA division, its release was nearly canceled due to SEMC Europe leadership's intention to halt CDMA products in North America. SEMC and Sprint agreed, due to pressure from consumer advocates and customers fueled by Sprint's commitment to release the device, to sell 10,000 units in limited offerings. Because of its limited supply, and being the first 3G phone in the United States with built-in Bluetooth, the Sony Ericsson T608 is a device that set standards for many future devices and changed corporate views as to the interest in consumer Bluetooth products.

Sprint promotional image, created for a limited release product page that was never completed...

Errata (Content Released by PhoneNews.com)
T608 Themes Section
T608 Accessory Compatibility
T608 Recovery Kit (ZIP) Restores In-Memory Content Erased With Full Reset
Sony Ericsson Unreleased T608 Content (ZIP)

Downloads/Links
User Guide (PDF) - Older User Guide (PDF)
$100 Rebate (for T608s purchased through 12/31/2003) (PDF)
High-Quality T608 Image (Zipped TIFF)
Verified T608 AT Command List (Excel Worksheet)
BlueNotes - Mac OS X program that generates proper Sony Ericsson Note format files that can be sent to the T608

Codes
To enter these codes, dial them just like a phone number, then press the Preferences key (the one that looks like a computer menu), and chose Add Number...

• ##786 - (RTN) - Provides details on usage, and if the phone is refurbished, pressing the Preferences key provides even more detailed menus and service screens
• ##3282 - (DATA) - Vision provisioning details and gateway info
• ##MSL - (Replace MSL with your actual MSL Code) - Main programming for voice calls

Enable Additional Menu Options

Dial ##8786368 (##TSTMENU). Then press the Menu key, and select Add Number. The following menu items are now enabled.

Menu->9Settings->4Display->5Display Sleep
Menu->9Settings->7Other->2Time & Date->3Set Time
->4Set Date
->5TimeZone
->6Daylight Savings
->7Auto Time Zone

Hacks/Tips/Tricks

Service Menu - Dial *#06# or
Dial ##786 > Menu/Preference Key > Add Number > Menu Softkey or
Press the joystick and dial the following from the standby screen: (Right Joystick)(Star)(Left Joystick)(Left Joystick)(Star)(Left Joystick)(Star)

Display Size
Format pictures to 128x128 pixels to use them as background pictures

Picture Caller ID - Cut your pictures down to a resolution of 113x87 pixels in order to use them as caller ID photos, otherwise they will be cut off

Use the Speakerphone (yes, it is hard to find) - when a call has been taken/placed press the Preferences/Menu key and then chose option one to activate/disable the Speakerphone

BitPim - The phone does work with BitPim quite well, but you must use the SonyEricsson DRS-11 serial cable in order to access it. Bluetooth or "T28 Flash" serial connections will not work. Set BitPim to "Other CDMA Phone" and chose the serial port you connect the cable to.

Issues
(Note: Sprint nor Sony Ericsson considers these as known issues to the public, and has not said they will fix them)

1) MCA-25 CommuniCam camera shows digital viewfinder as black. Camera will still take the picture properly, but viewfinder shouldn't be black.
Workaround: Connect the MCA-25, press the button on the camera to display the main camera menu. From there, dial *###, which will bring up the hidden Viewfinder Quality menu. Switch the setting to 8 BPP. This will make the viewfinder work, though at a lower quality. It does not affect the quality that pictures are taken with.

2) MCA-25 CommuniCam camera gives error when attempting to view pictures from in-camera memory (Workaround: Move pictures to the phone's internal memory to view them).

Note: Though Sony Ericsson says that the MCA-25 is compatible, and does not list the MCA-30 as compatible, the MCA-30 works much better with the T608 than the MCA-25, both problems listed above are corrected in the MCA-30.

3) Slow Menus - Yes, the menus on the phone are slow. This is a combination of the T608 running on a file system other than it was originally intended to and, development that was halted before the phone was fully functional. The phone does remember your key presses, so the best solution is to just remember common pathways to the options you chose frequently.

4) Defective AT Commands - Prototypes of the T608 worked fine with displaying menus from a third-party source (via programs like Salling Clicker), however the final release of the T608 has a bug in it that prevents it from properly working with these menus. Intense work has been put into getting around this issue, the phone has no problems will following out or sending commands, it just will not display the menus necessary to access these commands. Sony Ericsson appears reluctant to address this issue, like all other outstanding issues.

Troubleshooting

Phone Not Seeing Camera? - Go to Menu > Connect > Data/Modem > Modem Speed then select "Up to 19200 bps". This may or may not be the optimal setting for all options (tethering, synchronization), but it will enable the phone to see the camera.

General Tip - Keep at least 100 KB available at all times, if you fill the memory with downloads beyond that the phone will start to crash much more frequently, and act slower

Low Battery Life? - The batteries that come with the T608 are stale from sitting in a warehouse far too long. Sony Ericsson will replace the battery if you call them at (866) 766-9374 and explain the problem. Tell them that you have attempted to recondition the battery (which does not revive the battery to its original state).

Routine Maintenance - Resetting the settings of the phone to their defaults will often fix common problems with the phone. To do this go to Menu > Settings > Security > Phonelock Code (default is last four digits of phone number, or 0000) > Reset Settings

(Advanced) Routine Maintenance - The Reset Settings option will fix many common issues with the T608, but not all. The best way of clearing out as many software issues as possible is by doing a Master Reset. This will erase everything in the phone except for a couple of ringtones and images. After performing a Master Reset you will probably want to restore some of the content that came with the phone using our T608 Recovery Kit.

To do a Master Reset, dial ##786 > Menu/Preference Key > Add Number > Menu Softkey > Reset Defaults
You will need to then enter your MSL, which can only be obtained from Sprint (or by using BitPim).