Sony Ericsson M600i puts secure e-mail, Internet at your fingertips

Sony Ericsson has announced the M600i phone and messaging device, a fully specified e-mail tool and mobile phone rolled into an extremely stylish, slim device featuring a touchscreen and handwriting recognition.

M600i is the second Symbian OS 9.1 and UIQ 3.0-enabled phone in the Sony Ericsson portfolio, offering users great customization opportunities and the ability to buy personal productivity and other applications from the Sony Ericsson Application Shop.

New push e-mail applications, remote synchronization and expandable memory give owners a UMTS phone and e-mail connectivity in a device that easily fits in their pocket – at 15mm thick, it is one of the slimmest business UMTS devices of its kind available.

"Estimates show that there are approximately 650 million business e-mail users around the globe, and the demand for true mobile e-mail is growing rapidly," said Jan Wareby, corporate executive vice president and head of sales and marketing of Sony Ericsson.

"While there are some standalone e-mail messaging devices available, many people will welcome fast and easy messaging tools integrated into their mobile phone," Wareby said.

The software platform and user interface, make multitasking – for example, browsing the Internet while making a voice call – a reality.

M600i also takes full advantage of its UMTS capabilities with fast and easy e-mail handling (even with large attachments) and high bandwidth multimedia downloads.

The ergonomic design of the M600i makes it easy to operate with one hand or two and gives versatile options on how to perform messaging tasks.

For example, the large dual-function keyboard makes for easy messaging input and is also the keypad for number buttons.

Reading e-mails and viewing high-quality video and graphics content is made easy with the three-way jog dial and a 2.6" QVGA screen capable of handling 262K colors.

A range of standard and proprietary push e-mail applications enabled for operator customization is being developed in conjunction with a number of partners.

These are: AlteXia, Ericsson Mobile Office (EMO) (Try and Buy), iAnywhere OneBridge, Intellisync, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, RIM-BlackBerry Connect, Seven, Visto and Standard Email-IMAP IDLE working on all standards compliant servers.

These companies are developing a range of e-mail solutions to enable access anytime, anywhere to private or corporate e-mail accounts.

With so many connectivity possibilities, Sony Ericsson has taken great care to ensure mobile security. McAfee, the powerful anti-virus and firewall software for cellular applications, and Pointsec encryption are offered as Try & Buy packages and Certicom VPN client for secure access to corporate networks is offered free of charge.

For such a slim device, the M600i has an impressive 80MB on-board memory for storing e-mail attachments and multimedia content.

An additional 64MB Memory Stick Micro (M2), which is a new ultra-small recording media designed for highly compact mobile devices, is provided in the box. The M600i is the first Sony Ericsson product to feature this new memory card.

The M600i is available in granite black and crystal white and starts shipping in the second quarter.