12. Sony Ericsson PC Suite (K700i)

Sony Ericsson's K700i is a good example of a popular multifunctional business phone. Equipped with a 40 MB memory and a very good display, the phone can hold a considerable amount of data. It comes with the Sony Ericsson PC suite, which is available for Windows 2000 and XP. It is compatible with the latest Outlook and Outlook Express versions.

Unfortunately, installation takes unreasonably long. Furthermore, the components are installed without any kind of status information. The user is completely left out of the installation process, except for the confirmation of entries on the start menu and the taskbar. Not until completion of the installation you will find out that the Sony Ericsson Suite consists of SyncStation, File Manager, Mobile Networking Wizard, Sound & Image editor and Mobile Phone Manager.

From this point on, things did not go very well. First the Sony Ericsson software was unable to detect the K700i. By calling customer support we found out that the Windows Bluetooth stack (coming with Service Pack 2) combined with old drivers would prevent the Sony software from working properly. Sony didn't mind numerous customer inquiries regarding software updates, but it rather referred to a workaround that is described in an article in the German magazine "c't". This article shows you how to get around the Windows Bluetooth Stack. As part of the workaround we determined that we had to enable several deactivated COM-ports. It was not until then that the phone was finally recognized.

One note for IR users: The phone does not accept high IR data rates, so you have to set the IrDA connection speed to 115.200 bps in the control panel ("configuration > wireless connection > hardware") manually.

During the installation process, certain COM-ports will be used for communication. Please make sure that these ports are activated in the Phone Monitor.

The phone memory connects to Windows Explorer via the File Manager. This way you can transfer phone data manually.