Style is not the shortcoming of the Sony Ericsson Z600 cell phone. More than style, however, it offers solid functionality and a very affordable price tag. This may sound as if I'm trying to sell a glitzy item that won't stand up to a hard stare, but that's not the case. In fact, the biggest complaint reviewers have is that the phone is so solid and unglitzy.

The Sony Ericsson Z600 in a Nutshell

In fact, when you compare the phone itself to the review I read, it's hard to believe the review is of the phone. Numbers don't lie, however, unless you want to embezzle, and that doesn't compute here. The dimensions of the Sony Ericsson Z600 are 90 by 48 by 27.9 millimeters, which converts to 3.5 by 1.9 by 1.1 inches. That might be a little thick in the waist, but scarcely massive.

A flip phone, also known as clamshell, the Sony Ericsson Z600 offers a 65,536-color TFD display. The advantage to TFD technology is that the display and the colors show well in sunlight. The built-in camera, Bluetooth wireless, PC synch, Java, multimedia messaging, and predictive text input are--it's amazing to say--almost standard on new phones. (I haven't gotten used to them, but there they are.) The hardcore selling feature in the United States, however, is the tri-band GSM unlocked capability.

It's the flip and the back that give this little phone its zing. Both have pop-off changeable shells. Whoever designed this had evidently been working in black and white for too long. Among the options I saw were a nifty multicolored stripe, a royal blue, a scarlet, and a positively fluorescent lemon-lime, as well as several flowered models. It's a fun little phone to look at and an easy one to use!