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.

Comments

compared to Nokia Communicator?

[Dionysus]

How does Sony-Ericson P800 compares to Nokia 9210i (Communicator)? Granted, the Nokia phone is somewhat older, but I was thinking about the PDA features they both have.

Re:compared to Nokia Communicator?

[Fishd]

Nokia 9210:
+Word & Excel Document Editing
+Fax capable
+Memory Cards available upto 256Mb and beyond
-Size
-Slow, can't run mp3's properly
-Limited Memory to run apps in
-No GPRS support
-No Bluetooth

P800:
+Size vs. functional display size
+Touchscreen & excellent HWR (even reads my scrawl!)
+Opera with Small Screen Rendering (This is FANTASTIC!)
+Excellent inbuilt speaker, mp3's sound good
+FAST!
+Better video support (mp4)
+GPRS
+Bluetooth
-No Word or Excel editing - can only view (and then some fonts are not supported)
-No fax!
-Sony (gosh-darn-em) Memory Stick DUO... currently only 64Mb sticks (128mb soon it seems) but EXPENSIVE! Plus specs states 256Mb MAX!
-Sync with Outlook misses a lot of features (anniversaries and birthdays not supported!)

posted from p800

[jpc]

i just got one and there are some quite good features. the best are Opera which can make pretty much any web page readable, next there is putty for ssh, and also there is a dev kit and no problem running your apps. battery life is not so good if you have the backlight on a lot.

but posting to slashdot while sitting on the toilet or googling from the bus (over GPRS) are good features...

Keys, keys, keys!!

[Wills]

For me, there is only one feature on a phone that really counts: the keys.

The best keypad I've used was on the Nokia 8310/8210 handsets: tough, precise, no wobble, consistent springiness, rectangular keytops.

The Sony Ericsson T65i and the P800 both have a really unpleasant set of wobbly keys, with inconsistently stiff springs. Similarly the latest Nokia handsets all have horrid keys.

Smart phones outdated with Bluetooth?

[Xenna]

I've been a long time Nokia smartphone user (9110 and 9210) and I'm beginning to think very hard about abandoning the smartphone concept (Nokia is taking so long to announce the successor of the 9210 that I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same).

I just broke my 9210 for the second time, and I'm not sure if I'm going to fork out the cash to get it fixed again.

I've really found it very useful. I've used the PIM functions, IMAP email and ssh client a lot, but there are disadvantages to the smartphone concept.

These phones are big and expensive. The P800 may be a bit smaller than the 9210 but it's still big for a phone and it has not-so-great battery life. For me the lack of a keyboard is a big problem, I can't see myself doing ssh with a stylus...

If you break it (easy cuz you find yourself lugging it along where you should have taken a smaller, simpler phone instead) it's an expensive bugger to get fixed. They break easily because of the weight.

The big advantage is of course that you can share the PIM functions with the phone dialer and that you can dial out quickly for network access.

The late arrival of serious bluetooth devices takes the point out of the smart phones IMHO. I'm looking at buying a Sony-Ericsson T68i (Tri-band, Bluetooth, GPRS) in combination with the Sony TG50 PDA (Palm style but w/kbd and Bluetooth support).

This package will cost me as much as the 9210 or P800 and offer me the same functionality. I also have the option of leaving the PDA at home when I want to travel light.

And the TG50 looks *much* better than the ugly P800!

Not a bad option I think...

Xenna