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Sony Ericsson P800 Reviewed
Ch_Omega writes "For all those who have been waiting, there is now an in-depth and detailed review of one of the most anticipated connected handhelds of 2003, the Sony Ericsson P800, over at Infosync. Does it live up to the hype? According to the story, the answer is yes." I've been lusting after the t68i for awhile, but maybe I'll wait for this one. It just looks so cool!
It's a bit bigger than my last two cellphones, but it packs a lot of functionality. I've always had a handheld computer since I work in the embedded/telecom/handheld-industry, but I've never carried it with me. With the P800 I finally do - it's the perfect replacement for the cellphone/palm-combination.
Oh, and Symbian OS is the meanest, cleanest, leanest wonderful little operating system to run - and code for. Really.
it's in my head
According to my own experience with the T68i, the build quality and usability of that phone is significantly worse than that of the T68. Sure, you can bring them to the same level firmware-wise, but the T68 is just more sturdy than the 'i' model. I had one T68 and two T68i's, and the T68 works nicely still (it's the oldest and has had the roughest treatment), while the i's have both broken down, and been repaired four times altogether.
But I don't like any of them; they are just too damn slow. I mean come on - 2-3 seconds wait to open the address book? And what about typing SMS'es, by the time you wrote half the message you have to wait for the phone to catch up with you..
I really hope this new one is faster, sturdier and more usable. Then I'll perhaps check it out.
Love over Gold.
Taco - If you've been lusting over the T68i, you are going to be sadly disappointed. The reception sucks unless you are withing about 6 inches of a tower. The only plus it has is bluetooth. Do yourself a favor. Get the Samsung S105 if you can't wait.
To make sure you're one of the first to reserve one?
I've used this and it was okay - I don't really have any need for making constant phone calls so the dual purpose of the device isn't really of interest to me. What is troubling and why I wouldn't buy this is that the only memory expansion you can use is the Sony Memory Stick - a proprietary memory device. What this says to me is that Sony wants to control the price of any future add-ons for the phone and that, in all likelihood, they're going to consistently steal my money! In some instances, you're forced to deal with proprietary formats due to lack of other choices, but in this case, I'm sure I'll be able to find a PDA/phone that uses SD or MMC.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
Check to see if you have GSM service It is pretty spotty in the US right now
Free cell phone tracking
According to The Register you will be able to download Opera for the P800 on Monday. Sounds cool, but I wonder about how the web will look on such a small screen?
Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think. --Niels Bohr
Remeber the P800 is a completely different architecture and OS to the T68m/i
The screen is a bit larger than a postage stamp... It's resolution (when open) is 208x320 pixels, just a little lower than most PocketPCs (320x240) and much higher than the old-generation PalmOS PDAs (160x160).
When compared with a PalmOS pda, the screen is smaller (about 60% the area), but it's still 2.5 times the area of the screen on the t68i.
Devices like these have to make compromises.
Dupe posts are
Yeah, why not just carry a plastic replica if you want something that looks cool. Too small for a PDA, too large for a phone.
I've been using a wireless bluetooth headset for the last month or two, and this is a much better indicator of the future of mobile phones.
Split the headset from the phone, and you get something more practical: a larger box that can do more and that you do not have to lift to your ear like a small well-designed brick.
And... which you can actually write on with your stylus while you are making a call.
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The SDK in itself, with which you can compile for the P800, costs nothing - just download it from SonyEricsson.
it's in my head
This page has a bunch of Sony Ericsson forums and review links. Pretty good info about this.
Oh... I thought you said "TI 86"...
>
it's in my head
See screenshots here:
http://www.esato.com/reviews/opera.php
All I really want is a goddamn phone. I like my Palm just the way it is. And my camera.
... none of you, because then when the next-big-thing comes along, you couldn't change just that one piece. When surround sound came out, I bought a new receiver, and then slowly added more speakers. I just bought a new DTS receiver, and guess what ... my speakers, DVD player, VCR, CD player, and TV all work just fine with it. I looked at some of the all-in-one units and they stunk. They were all missing features that I could only get my buying the individual components.
.. I'll admit the cheap TV/DVD over the hot tub is kinda cool, but you only use it a couple of times a week and can live without all the neat features. You wouldn't watch The Matrix on it, would you??
.. phone company...sell me a phone to make phone calls. I'll take care of finding the best for the rest.
Did you ever notice that most cell phone commercials now don't even talk about the PHONE!!!! All I really need from my cell phone I got in the cheapest one out there. Then I bought a serial cable so I can upload/download phone numbers a couple of times a month. Sure, USB or Bluetooth would be nice, but data really doesn't change that much.
What is with all this "Let's put everything into one device" anyway. How many of you geeks buy all-in-one entertainment systems? Or TVs w/VCRs and DVDs in them?
Answer
OK
So
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
I've only had my P800 for a week. It is the Swedish release model with the most currunt stable rom. Overall I find the phone to be everything expected and a bit more.
... whoa that was longer than I expected and now the Good:
.mod files to announce calls or alerts. ...!
First the bad:
* It is heavier than many of the current cellphones out and has larger dimensions. While it still fits in a pocket it feels like you are carrying a phone from '99.
* Because you can install any number of random apps from the world the stability can be suspect thanks to installing some garbage (there is a signing feature but I have yet to see any signed apps).
* The flip keypad actually just presses the screen. There are reports in the wild of people slapping the buttons hard and ruining their LCD screens.
* The preferences are in silly locations, go ahead try finding where you change the tone for message alerts.
* Doesn't seem to be a bluetooth networking protocol stack built in despite what some people have claimed.
* The vibration isn't impressive for a phone of this size. My pager can outshake it any day of the week.
* Reception is much better than the t68i but still seems prone to signal fade (then again maybe this is just something that happens extremely often with GPRS in tall cities).
* All of the buttons are very small.
* There doesn't seem to be a built in way to disable or reprogram the hard buttons on the right side of the unit (camera, internet).
* You can use the jog dial to select and go into things but there isn't a hard button to back out, you must use the LCD.
* Navigation of the phone without looking at it is nearly impossible.
* Limited size and proprietary nature of Sony memory expansion.
* Requires Outlook/Notes for address book sync.
* Expensive dev kit for creating native Symbian apps.
* Oh Jesus, it is damn sexy.
* Very powerful, one of the included games is a rather bland race car game that you can play networked. What is impressive about it is that it is all shaded polygons similiar to what one would see on the 1st gen of Atari Jaguar games. Nothing too special really but when it is in the palm of your hand, awesome.
* The camera is much better than any one inclued in any cellphone so far. The max resolution is 640x480, there is no flash, but the camera seems to take pretty decent pictures. Comparable to any of the $75-$100 digital cams one can currently purchase.
* You can use practically anything for a ringtone. In some strange conspiracy it seems to only not support using
* Syncing (if you have msoft products) works well. Just hook up the phone and go. Combine with an external sync program like trusync and syncing through outlook to your favourite web service is a breeze.
* Practically every midlet I have tried on it works.
* Ports of games like DOOM and the emulator MAME if you are into that sort of thing. While they work I've found MAME to be more of a showoff than usable to play games. The stylus just doesn't lend itself to old arcade games.
* The screen is bright and the clarity kicks ass.
* Phone comes with 12meg Internal and one 16Meg stick, that holds a lot of stuff if you aren't trying to fill it full of mp3s.
* Included headset (headphone/microphone) have suprisingly good sound.
* Handwriting recognition is fast, accurate and easy to get used to.
* Support for POP/IMAP. This is probably my favourite feature of the phone, there is something just damn cool about having the phone pulling your email for you every hour or so and replying wherever you are.
* SMS becomes insanely more easy when you can just write out your responses.
* Played with a beta of the Opera browser which comes out on Monday. It is a *real* browser in your hand.
* Bluetooth file transfers with laptops seem to work well as does moving files from phone to phone. I can not get bluetooth syncing to work.
* Did I mention it was sexy?
* Speakerphone quality is amazing (and very loud).
* In fact the phone is *very* loud. You can play an MP3 loud enough for an entire room to hear.
* Easy to assign pictures to any contact info.
* Quickdial screen features icons of pictures for your friends/family. Nothing like just touching someone's face to call them.
* IRDA works.
* Flight mode.
* Better than expected battery life for such a complex device.
* Great sound quality in calls.
*
Okay I am tired. Suffice to say even with the downsides this is by *far* the best integrated solution to come along.
--- I do not moderate.