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Sony Ericsson P800 Reviewed (Again)
Big Mike writes "c|net just published their review of the Sony Ericsson P800. They deem it the 'Maserati of smart phones'. Built- in camera, speakerphone, 16MB Memory Stick Duo, Bluetooth and IR connectivity, wireless e-mail, MP3 audio and MPEG-4 video capable, and more. Sounds good to me..." Of course, it looks pretty slick too. Infosync looked at this phone last month, and more praise is heaped on this time around too.
A friend of mine has got one. It has a DOOM-like game (1st person shooter) where one shoots and aims by tapping the pen. Real fun!
Cnet and objectivity. Nice point. I remember David Coursey, the chief Microsoft Apologist at Anchordesk wrote up a review of the Smartphone, days after the product launched in the UK. And he'd claimed he loved a product he hadn't even seen, much less experienced.
, 10 738,2895473,00.html
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0
Where is Slashdot heading??
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
And I was pretty impressed. Especially I was impressed by the handwriting program - it was very close at 100% correctly detecting my handwriting. I have previously had the Motorola Accompli 008 and it *sucks*. I have also had various Palms (III, V and Vx versions) and while Grafitti is pretty cool, I found this to be better.
Whether it is ugly or not - that's a matter of taste. I think it looks pretty okay.
Take a look at www.freedom-mobiles.co.uk - I just ordered one for £39.99 on a £50 a month tarrif - only caveat is that you need to stay on that tarrif for 4 months - after than you can switch down.
Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
Gotta love the hugeness of the thing, the total lack of T9 predictive text input, overpriced MemoryStick Duo's, SonyEricssons's track record with the attrocious T68...
/.
Yeah, gotta get me one quick...
Seriously though, I really wanted to love this phone, but after 15 minutes of playing with it, I just couldn't bring myself to like it. I really wanted one too.
Me things SE is sponsering
Spoke to the SE people this weekend at CEBIT:
* Word, Excel or PPT editing is a "3rd party opportunity" (read - in the pipeline)
* Same with video recording, which makes sense, given the MPEG4 licencing issues
* Fax software also 3rd party, and within a few months, as well as several GPS mapping solutions.
Also, there's a beta running around out there of new software for the P800 that addresses many of the sync/mail/addressbook issues (full SyncML compatibility) due in April.
For anyone AT CeBIT with a P800, go directly to the service desk at the back and haev them flash your phone with the latest patches. They're doing 4 phones at a time, all day long, so it can take 20-30 minutes to upgrade but the camera performance is every bit as good as the Nokia now. MUCH better low-light quality and hardly any running (it IS CMOS, of course)
I was one of the P800's early adopters. Back in January, I ordered the P800 SDK from Metrowerks at a premium price of $1200 (hey it came with a free t-shirt).
:(...
First let me say that I freaking love this phone. I have it set to display pictures of the callers when they call me (forget distinctive ringtones!)... The bluetooth headset I got with it is amazingly kewl. I get to look like I'm szicho talking to myself 30 feet away from the phone... and the camera in there is at least good enough that I don't bother to take my old cannon digicam with me anywhere anymore.
Last but not least, I get to use Opera on this thing with GRPS Internet. T-Mobile's Internet service is kinda flakey, but when its working, well, its nice to be able to use a real web browser on my phone and go to real websites.
Downsides? Plenty of 'em
First off, the thing crashes often. That might be because I'm using pre-release software, but the phone crashes at least 3-4 times per week.
Second, the handwriting recognition is, uh, different. If you are used to grafiti or whatever iPAQ uses, get ready to learn something completely different.
Third, the built in storage space is kinda low if you load the thing up with MP3 ringtones and use the cam often. Fortunately you can use sony memory sticks to expand the memory, but you have to tell every application in the phone to specifically use it.
Fourth... My P800 inexplicably died last week. As they aren't being officially sold yet in the USA, they also aren't being officially repaired in the USA. After 3 days of calling Sony-Ericsson and Metrowerks repeatedly, they finally told me that I'd have to mail my phone to DENMARK of all places, at my expense. I sent it 4 days ago... Nothing yet. Sigh.
But yeah, overall, the P800 is great. I'd buy it again in a minute.
in the UK all the networks massively discount the handsets already for pay-monthly customers on the grounds they'll get it out of you in monthly charges. you can buy a p800 from www.expansys.co.uk not connected to a network already. it's 450 UKP. orange sometimes discount if you threaten to leave: in this case they can't get the p800 in stock fast enough to supply demand. why would they discount it any further?
Most new cellphones use Symbian which is a completely open OS
Symbian is not open source.
At the moment Linux is simply unsuitable for putting on a cellphone
I think Motorola disagree.
yeah right. Some links:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/29800.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/64/28464.htm
etc
without the need for slow and inefficient java code
How about efficient java code? Incidently, Symbian phones like the P800 are open in the sense that you can program native apps (in c++). And the Symbian APIs are IMHO much better than the CE one
I suspect that most people's problems with the battery life stems from either of two things - the combination of the camera and (to a lesser degree) the multitasking OS.
For reference: Symbian apps run until the memory manager decides it needs more memory and kills one of the apps in the background. Apps rarely have a "CLOSE" or "QUIT" menu or button.
The nice part is that you can launch the notepad, jot a few notes down, jump to the phone and call someone and then jump back to the notepad WHILE IN THE PHONECALL to take more notes. Very cool and generally very energy efficient.
Except when one of the background apps is the camera.
I've run my phone actively for as much as 3 and a half days without having to recharge it, but if you leave the Communicam on in the background it will such the battery down in hours.
Owners of the P800 should look to a small app called Switcher which allows you to terminate any app. Kill the Communicam often and your battery will last like any modern phone.
i have with me for a few weeks now and i can say it is quite cool. i always wanted to buy a digital cam and want to get organized and of course the undispensable mobile phone. having all of that at the same time is not really a good idea. i think it is a good thing for se to release a phone. it is the 2nd generation from r380 for them to release a smart phone and i believe that they still do not have real competition along that segment. maybe we'll have a next release, probably i'll upgrade. :)
:) and tried edoom (the resolution is quite good, comparing to my old pc, i say the processor speed is around 486sx. putty so i can ssh devices from my phone. and probably i can get those remote access apps so i can remote my computer from the phone. other good things, see the feature list. and i am happy i am now more organized than before and i have one centralized repository of all info.
:) i hope it doesn't happen to you.
:)
:)
well good thing, i have loaded tons of apps and games in my phone. good thing there is opera.
given the new software, it doesn't seem to crash anymore. i think my old nokia hangs more often that this one.
downside, i had to replace the phone a couple of times because of dead pixels and camera problems. but still worth it (got it for a bargain at around 55% off the street price.)
well remove the keypad entirely because a friend of mine had problems with the keypad in his r380. a lesson to learn.
there is no themes on the phone so you'll practically have the same color and volume settings that you change manually. the sms alert cannot be changed (but i managed to hack into the phone and changed to alert to a beeping sound - the old traditional ericsson sms alerts.)
the battery doesn't last that long (2-3 days for me.) but you can charge it any time without affecting battery performance (as stated in the manual.)
the phone is quite heavier than the usual and a little bulky, but what the heck it is the around the same as the nokia 7650. so it is not that worse either. but i've got no complain because i love the big screen.
there is no predictive text input. i just find this odd because of such a high tech phone, it is not added (are they relying on third party for this?)
that's all i am able to think about. generally, i'll give it 9.5 of 10. quite impressive. it lived up to my expectations more than a year ago when i first found out se was going to release one. (i just hope it has some features of the new t610 - the 64k color screen and the 32 voice sound (it makes me awe that it can match my old sound blaster awe32.) buy it if you want to have features more than a phone. if you are still the old traditional person, then this is not the right one for you.
Live your life each day as if it was your last.