Following the marriage of Sony and Ericsson, the T68i arrived in early 2002 as the first fruit of their union, though it’s essentially a refined, re-badged version of the original T68. The sleek, “Arctic Blue” finish is a significant aesthetic upgrade over the original’s gold-and-grey look, making it feel less like a piece of lab equipment and more like a premium lifestyle accessory. The big news here is the software; the T68i is the first to fully embrace MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) out of the box, allowing you to send photos and sound clips to your mates, assuming they also have a phone that cost as much as a small hatchback.
Under the hood, it’s still the same GPRS-enabled powerhouse with a 256-colour screen, but the firmware is much snappier, and the joystick feels slightly more robust. It includes a much-improved calendar and a sync-link for Outlook, making it the darling of the London executive set who need to manage their busy schedules while riding the Tube. The T68i also had its 15 minutes of fame in Die Another Day, being used by Bond himself, which basically guarantees it a 5-star “cool” rating in any British pub. It’s the phone that proved Sony’s design flair and Ericsson’s engineering might were a match made in heaven, setting the stage for the multimedia revolution.