14 DAY TRIAL // Hisense recently launched its latest mobile phone, the T68, which comes to work on China's new and not yet fully developed 3G / TD-SCDMA network. The device was showcased at the Chinese HI-TECH 2008 fair and it's the second handset to come with support for TD-SCDMA frequencies, after Samsung's SGH-L288, unveiled about two weeks ago.
The T68 is a candybar that somehow resembles a Nokia phone, so it doesn't look bad but neither great. In addition to the 3G compatibility, Hisense T68 also offers dual-band GSM connectivity with GPRS, a 2.4 TFT touchscreen display with 260K colors, 240 x 320 pixels and handwriting recognition, Music player, Video player (MP4 and 3GP supported), a1.3 Megapixel camera with video recording, WAP 2.0, Java MIDP 2.0, microSD card support, handsfree, electronic dictionary, alarm clock, calendar and other similar basic features.
Measuring 115 ? 52 ? 17.2 millimeters, the new Hisense T68 isn't among the smallest handsets currently on the market, but I suppose that's not its purpose anyway. The battery included in the phone is a 1300 mAh one that should keep it functional for up to 7.5 hours in talk-time mode and up to 270 hours in stand-by mode.
Hisense T68 has a retail price of 1,800 yuan, meaning about $260 or 165 Euros, so it's quite on the affordable side, considering the fact that it's a touchscreen phone. For the moment, it seems that the device is available only across China, and there's no word about a future release on other markets.
With a history of almost 40 years, Hisense is one of the top electronics manufacturers in China. The company produces, besides TVs, computers and other equipment, about 4 million mobile phones per year, so we could soon see Hisense handsets spreading across Europe and even North America.
