Slashdot Mirror
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!
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.
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?
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.