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Handhelds Hardware Technology

Sony Ericsson P800 Reviewed (Again) 156

Posted by CowboyNeal from the fones-with-the-most dept.
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.
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Sony Ericsson P800 Reviewed (Again) More

Sony Ericsson P800 Reviewed (Again)

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  • Doom sort of... (Score:5, Informative)

    by e8johan ( 605347 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @05:30AM (#5535300) Homepage Journal

    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!

  • What's this??? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by arvindn ( 542080 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @05:31AM (#5535306) Homepage Journal
    Sony Ericsson P800 Reviewed (Again)
    Everyone gets careless and posts a dupe once in a while, but intentionally? This is too much!!! ;-)
    • You don't have one! Muhahaahaha!!!

      Just in case we didn't realize that last time..

      What other mischief could the editors of /. be up to today? (-;

    • Insightful? Insightful?? For the zillionth time something I said in obvious jest has got modded up +5 insightful. Puhleeeeeeeese I'll take a -1 troll, offtopic, anything just spare me the insightful mod. This time I even put the smiley there at the end to make sure no one can mistake it... *sniff* Who the hell is moderating, anyway, Bots? sheesh.
  • Once C-net makes a front-page post on slashdot, the end of the world must be near. Come on! There are more qualified reviewers than the hams (and cash takers) at Cnet that you could link to. Besides, this phone isn't anything to hem and haw about: It's ugly (YES IT IS), and, by golly, the camera is crap. C'mon! /. fans should want more and demand the best out of their gadgets and their news. this is just plain lame.

    • Re:are you sure? (Score:2, Informative)

      by jkrise ( 535370 )
      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.

      http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0, 10 738,2895473,00.html

      Where is Slashdot heading??
    • guess they'd be happy if it was a text-mode phone with command line, or what?

      i'd sure buy it! :)

  • compared to Nokia Communicator? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dionysus ( 12737 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @05:36AM (#5535316) Homepage
    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? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Fishd ( 114843 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @06:30AM (#5535428)
      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!)

      • Re:compared to Nokia Communicator? (Score:5, Informative)

        by jtrascap ( 526135 ) <[ln.azalpaidem] [ta] [tekcubtib]> on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @06:38AM (#5535441)
        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 have had P800 about 2 month and I love it.
        Good thing I use often are:
        + It has good browser and email read possibilities for checking news etc while you are sitting in the train for example
        + Good Synchronization with Lotus Notes (email, calendrar, contacts)
        + Both J2ME 1.0 and Personal Java (I hope they will update J2ME support to 2.0 with bluetooth API in the future and Personal Java to CVM)
        + Free games, like Mame Emulator
        + I was able to get Symbian Toolkit to work
        Linux for crossc
    • 9210 doesn't do GPRS which kind of makes it pretty useless for mobile data: although there is a native telnet client. synch on the p800 is great: better than WinCE/Palm, anyway.

  • Sweet! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by a8f11t18 ( 614700 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @05:37AM (#5535319)
    Not only do you get to own a seriously sexy and functional "phone", you also get to be the envy of both jock and nerd. Oh, and it also runs one of the coolest browsers out there, Opera! [opera.com]!

  • First impressions last... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tigress ( 48157 ) <rot13.fcnzgenc03@8in.net> on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @05:40AM (#5535323)
    ...and to be quite honest, it looks UGLEEE!

    Apparently, a 14 year old girl recently asked the Ericsson board why their phones didn't look as cool as Nokia's. I've asked myself that question a lot of times.

    Being Swedish, I'd love to have an Ericsson. They've got plenty of features that I want in a phone. Unfortunately, the only ones that have all the features I'm looking for are the ones that are ugly as heck. And they wonder why they're not selling as well as Nokia.

    In the end, I actually went with the German alternative. My Siemens S55 does all I want it to do. Bluetooth and IR connectivity, which allows me to connect my laptop to the net via GPRS. It's got neat features such as a color screen and MIDI ringtones. It's designed to make PHONECALLS on (why, imagine that!) and, it actually looks pretty darn good too.

    And the best part is, it has no stinking camera! =D
    • Blah.. nokia phones are by far the most popular phones here in scandinavia, and well, I'm tired of both the brand and their design. And frankly, some of the nokia designs are simply lame. I prefer clean and simple, and on that regard both siemens and sonyericsson are better than nokia. My opinion anyway.. and I think the p800 looks very cool. Oh, and being Norwegian, jeg hadde også likt å eie en svensk telefon =) For english speakers, if you really try hard you should be able to understand that.
    • It looks a lot uglier in pics than in real life, the blue color tends to turn into a "my-first-sony-look" in pics. The flip is *ugly*, but that comes off, I've had mine since before christmas, and the flip has been off since the first day, and is never coming back.

      Overall I love it, Opera rocks for browsing, putty works for ssh, email works nicely, there is an irc-client for it, what more could you ask for.
    • ...and this [infosync.no] is what is supposed to look "pretty darn good" with its 101x80 pixel screen and a 256 color palette.

      Yep taste can be questioned...

  • posted from p800 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jpc ( 33615 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @05:40AM (#5535324) Homepage
    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...
  • Not the flash button, the web plugin?

    Cause if not, then you can't play this. [lostbrain.com]

    tcd004

    • Re:Flash support (Score:2, Interesting)

      by jtrascap ( 526135 )
      It's coming soon, to a P800 near you... Flash MX support is being done 3rd-party for SE/Macromedia by an english group whose name escapes me - I saw a press release in the past month discussing exactly this.

  • Expensive (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tomgarcher ( 604260 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @05:45AM (#5535334)
    The p800 is pretty expensive here in the UK. I had a look the other week and it was about £280. I am with Orange and despite spending about $45/£30 a month on my phone they won't give me any discount on it at all. The phone companies need to wise up and discount these new handsets, otherwise people like me are going to stick to normal phone calls and texts and the phone companies won't be able to make any money from picture messages or data calls and those hugely expensive 3G licenses will have gone to waste!

    • Re:Expensive (Score:2, Informative)

      by matthew.thompson ( 44814 )
      Take a look at www.freedom-mobiles.co.uk [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.
    • Isn't thjat already the discount price? I thought they were £400 new.

    • It IS DISCOUNTED! (Score:4, Informative)

      by RMH101 ( 636144 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @07:18AM (#5535515)
      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?

  • Hell no! (Score:2, Funny)

    by fluxrad ( 125130 )
    I refuse to buy a product from a company that codes their website so that when you hit the "back" button, it just refreshes the site.

    of course it's St. Patricks day and I'm lit. Maybe I just confused the refresh and back buttons (they both haef arrrowz dnot tehy?)

  • MemoryStick (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PastaAnta ( 513349 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @05:48AM (#5535340)
    Now if only they would make variant with a MMC/SD slot - I would buy one instantly!

    No, I am not trolling. I would just love to have that phone with a non-Sony specific memory card interface.
    • if only they would make variant with a MMC/SD slot

      Check out the SPV [orange.com], which runs the same OS platform as the P800. I've got one, very cool toy. MSN Messenger on a mobile phone, great idea.

      There's various software being put together for it, some emulators and divx players (had "Attack of the Clones" on my phone for a while) are already up and running, plus several decent games.

      Discussion of these Smartphones mostly takes place at Modaco [modaco.com]

      • Re:MemoryStick (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Lowla ( 618272 )
        Actually I'm afraid this isn't correct. The SPV runs on Micro$oft's Smartphone OS, a variant of Windows CE 3.0 (the same OS that runs PocketPC on the iPAQ etc); the P800 runs on Symbian OS 7.0 (essentially the same as the OS that runs the Nokia 9210 and 7650).

        One can argue about whether the M$ or the Symbian solution is better, and certainly their feature sets are not dissimilar, but they're very clearly different platforms. They can't run the same software, and have important technical differences.

        For

    • What you're looking for is the Nokia 3650, I have one sitting here now and its pretty cool, has all the features the P800 has plus it looks pretty nice too.
      Plus java support, and MMC slot (and I can play doom on the bus =D )
  • I know 3d product views are a bit 1998 but this is actually not bad.
    http://shop.orange.co.uk/holomatix/se_p800.h tml
  • Does it run Linux?
    • Nope. It runs Symbian 7 with UIQ interface.

      For a Linux based smartphone, see Motorola A760.

  • Battery Life (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ergonal ( 609484 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @05:59AM (#5535368)
    Any idea whether all these extra features have any impact on the battery life? If they do, then where's the perfect balance between battery life efficiency, features, battery weight, etc?

    • Re:Battery Life (Score:3, Informative)

      by jtrascap ( 526135 )
      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 PHON

  • This is getting ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Schreck ( 137216 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @06:00AM (#5535372)
    In my opinion there are just as cool and wonderful phones offered by Ericsson's rivals Nokia, Siemens and Motorola (at least here in Europe). Yet Slashdot keeps posting this adulation crap about a single phone from Ericsson. Nokia, for example, released something like 12 new phones a week or two ago. Where's the story about those?

    At least make a section for the P800 so I can block it from the front page.

  • I've only tried it shortly (Score:5, Informative)

    by pointwood ( 14018 ) <{jramskov} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @06:01AM (#5535373) Homepage

    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.

    • It's also amazing to note that while the Sony P800 which runs the Symbian OS can perfectly sync up with Outlook, I'm still struggling to get a low-footprint app on my Linux box to do the same.

      Time for a Symbian distro maybe?

  • As the owner of a Maserati (Score:5, Funny)

    by kfg ( 145172 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @06:14AM (#5535402)
    And long time fan of the marque, I find it rather insulting that this ugly brick of an "everything including the kitchen sink" device should be compared with the single function honesty, beauty, simplicity and downright elegance that has always been the hallmark of the Maserati name.

    I think it would be far more appropriate to call it the "Arab Shiek's Gold Plated, Decked out, Winnebago" of smart phones.

    KFG

  • 1 major flaw... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by waz ( 89418 )
    It is a lovely phone, given the large screen and wealth of software you can get for it already, but you just can't play games with a stylus. It can run MAME, great, but try as I might I just can't play frogger, pac-man, etc with a pencil. May well go back to my 7650...

  • Hmmm... (Score:3, Informative)

    by muggy2 ( 174809 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @06:20AM (#5535414) Homepage
    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 /.

    • Re:Hmmm... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mosch ( 204 )
      The atrocious T68? How so? I currently have a T68i, and I'm extremely happy with it. It gets excellent reception, the battery life is extremely good, the bluetooth connectivity works wonderfully with my bluetooth earpiece, it syncs well, and was easy to set up as an internet gateway.

      I agree that the P800 looks like a clunker, but I really have no idea why you're saying the T68 series sucks.

      • the t68m or sometimes just plain t68 did suck. It was slow, buggy, and generally unpleasant. They came out w/ v2 of the OS and called it t68i. That was much better. The t68i is a decent phone. the t68 is horse manure.

        The _really_ crappy thing is that it was just a bios upgrade. apparently everywhere but the US you could get it flashed by the manufacturer, no problem (and, I think, no charge) No go here in the states though, they want you to buy a new phone. that just pissed me off. Release a crapp

    • T9. (Score:2)

      by juuri ( 7678 )
      Okay this has been grating on me for a long time.

      I have used T9. T9 is great when you ARE limited to having a phonepad only method of input.

      The P800 has text handwriting capability, WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU WANT TO GO BACK TO SOMETHING STUPID LIKE T9?!@#?!@

      I do a *lot* of SMS (girlfriend chat mostly) and with the P800 it is so simple and fast. While it used to take a minute or two to compose a verbose reply and my messages would be full of shortcut words ("u", etc...) since switching to the P800 all of my
      • I agree that the handwriting recognition on the P800 is nice. But i like one handed tapping. I SMS a lot. I SMS on the move. I SMS while using a mouse. I SMS while driving. Can't do that with handwriting recog.

        The P800 has a keypad for times like that. But no T9. What exactly were they thinking?

  • Keys, keys, keys!! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Wills ( 242929 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @06:56AM (#5535475)

    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.

    • The best keypad I've used was on the Nokia 8310/8210 handsets

      No idea which fool modded you off-topic, but you're right as far as I'm concerned.

      I used to own a Nokia 6210, and it had terrible build quality. Quite a while ago I also had an Eriksson with terrible build quality. I've settled on an 8210 as well. Software-wise it's behind the 6210, let alone this P800, but it's one of the few phones whose construction I've got confidence in.

      Cheers,
      Ian

    • Amen to that. I owned a Nokia several years back, but their designs totally fell behind everyone else. Now their entire phone design and construction scheme makes me wonder if their target customer group are the blind and deaf. Not only are their designs horrible, but the phone itself sucks when compared to others out there.
    • For me, there is only one feature on a phone that really counts: the keys.

      Use a separate keychain instead :->

      Sorry. But seriously, your point is valid - especially so with some Japanese products aimed at the teen market. However, the P800 phone has a STYLUS! So in this case keys play a much less important role.

      In fact, since the whole concept of twelve keys on a tiny device just sucks, a stylus phone is a pretty good thing, don't you think?

  • P800 still has some issues to work out... (Score:5, Informative)

    by jaredcat ( 223478 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @07:09AM (#5535499)
    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.

  • bleh (Score:2)

    by K. ( 10774 )
    I'd rather have a Motorola a760. Even if it is a penguin humper.
  • imagine a webserver on one of these :
    Prosit mobile webserver [my-symbian.com]
  • Favorite "Thumbs Down" User Comment:
    "My keypad has gone bad (the "4" button stopped working). I presume this due to a problem with the flimsy plastic film which covers the glass on the touch-screen"

    Hmmm... then remove the flimsy plastic film...
  • There must be others on the market that do more or less the same, surely.

  • Please buy some (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I always wonder, why - despite any "wanna havvveee one"-posts here on slashdot - all the "kewl" devices die.
    Ericsson has made very excellent mobiles for a while, they may have some "pecularities" in their usage, but they _are_ solid to use (I have an rather old R320sc which has a magnesium-back and is only 1.5cm thick and is damn rocksolid, not easy to scratch/smash/break!)
    But Ericsson/Sony does not sell very well and I personally think, it would be a shame, if they'll close their coop and give up their bus

    • Re:Please buy some/People are (Score:4, Interesting)

      by adzoox ( 615327 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @08:55AM (#5535659) Journal
      People can say what they want about Apple market share, but a heck of a lot of Mac User's have bought the t68i phone. The two remote control software addons for controlling iTunes, Keynote, DVD player and the mouse + a proximity sensor via Bluetooth on the phone are some the most innovative and useful features for any phone I have seen. I bought one (and I'm a mac user too) The authors of the software have a 16,500 + download total on the versiontracker counter. I don't know if that equates into 16,000 phones or not.

      I think with this phone (The P800) and the continued success of the T68i Ericcson will do quite well. The t68i phones have decent reception. Ericcson phones, in general, have great reception, simple design and really good batteries.

      I think the main reason Ericcson was struggling for a while is that they decided to do too many sponsorships and weren't really innovating on the phone side. (Charlotte Panthers Stadium, etc, etc)

      • So, as a Mac user, have you been able to use your phone as a GPRS modem via bluetooth on OS X?

        I'm about to buy the T86i (and switch to T-Mobile), but need to be have mobile data via whatever phone I buy. I have been using an old Kyocera/Qualcomm 2035a with a data cable and even at 14.4 speeds, I've been pretty happy with it...

        Will I do better with the T86i?

        Thanks for your input.
        • Yes and since Cingular offered me a free year of internet service (just goes against my minutes) and I have the unlimited everything plan - I use it exclusively - even as I type. Id be happy to discuss it with you.
  • Breaks down every 200 hours, unreliable electrics and ugly with it?

  • The new Maserati is not getting high marks (by both reviewers and potential buyers). It's technology is not up to speed, especially it's automatic (and clutchless manual) transmission which is way behind BMW's SMG.

    Maserati hasn't been king of the road for a long time and still is nowhere close... is that what they meant to say about this phone?

  • Promotional Rates? (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by PhxBlue ( 562201 )

    What's the going rate for having products advertised--err, reviewed--on Slashdot?

  • Am I the only one? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by John_Renne ( 176151 )
    Allthough it sounds realy neat to have one gadget combining the functions of a PDA, a cellphone and who knows what I see some major disadvantages. I for one like to check my calender while on the phone trying to plan something. Integrating the things doesn't make that a lot easier.

    On the other hand I got a chance to play with one a short while and it's allmost the ultimate gadget. If it would just run linux I would have bought it instantly ;-)

    • Re:Am I the only one? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "I for one like to check my calender while on the phone"
      Then use a bluetooth headset. Needing to see and use the phone whilst making a call is going to be a common problem for future phones. Surely the separation of the audio input/output from the phone itself is the most elegant solution.

  • Smart phones outdated with Bluetooth? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Xenna ( 37238 ) on Tuesday March 18, 2003 @10:04AM (#5535984)
    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
  • Is that the thing is the size of a brick with the solidity of a a cheap playskool plastic knockoff.

    Seriously; I've had the thing in my hand, and the feel of it is remarkably fragile...the thing feels like it wouldn't survive a drop of even 30 cm.

    And the size! This truly is a (cheap plastic) brick...my IIIc with an integrated phone (same formfactor, speakers on the reverse side of the screeen [if only they came out with that!]) would be smaller and more userfriendly from a formfactor point of view.

    True, o
    • This seems to be the order of the day with mobile phones. The latest models from Samsung look and feel like a Fisher Price My First Cell Phone than something you'd actually want to carry around with you. A fellow I work with bought one, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it's looks and feels like the cheapest phone imaginable. My first comment was that he accidentally bought the non-working plastic display version.

      Currently, I'm using a Motorola v60 [motorola.com]. It's made of metal (anodized aluminum) and is extr

    • I own one and it is no bigger than nokia phones of just a few years ago. As far as strength of case it may surprise you, having dropped mine from a bathroom counter onto a hard tile floor and watching it slide a few feet days after getting mine and it coming out with only a slight scratch.
  • Nope - although the company I work for(Three) has just put our 3G phones on the market. You may not be able to play Doom, but you can have a live video call (at a decent 200k/sec bandwidth), download video clips and more! Have a look at www.three.co.uk.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Is anybody working on a phone optimized for people who just want to talk on their telephone? By that I mean, no camera, no colour screen, no games, etc, etc.

    I want a phone that is as small as you can make it while still having good reception. Plus get the battery life as long as you can (mostly by cutting out all the extras). Small, long battery life, good reception, that's all.

    Unfortunately, the telephones that skip all the extra crap tend to be the company's cheap models and tend to be very large.

  • a cool phone (Score:2, Informative)

    by john_uy ( 187459 )
    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. :)

    well go
  • ...out of city limits, you're more likely than not out of luck. Your PDA+camera+MMS+butler will be short on its cell phone feature, as it's GSM only.

    For me, a cell phone is *most* important when I'm driving between cities or flying around. It's when I'm in the bunies and my car breaks down that I need my phone the most. IE. The developers of this phone, forgot TDMA,analog, or a secondary alternative!

    Witold
    www.witold.org
  • i was lucky enough to get p800 on orange in the uk a few weeks ago.

    There are deffinately problems with this device, it's quite big, the lack of t9, the memory format and the lack of a keyboard (for me now writing text messages takes longer then on my sharp gx10).

    However, i can deffinately say that this is one of the most amazing bits of technology i have ever owned, not for really as it comes as standard but for what it can do with a few apps installed.

    Opera and it's small screen page rendering tech

  • This is the best size comparison for P800 I have seen so far. Compared with a Wrigley's chewing gum.

    cnet review page [cnet.com]
    just the image [tv.com]

    wish more review sites would do this, as opposed to specifying HxWxD in milli meters or inches.

    LinuxLover

  • my kyocera 6035 just died, so I am in need of a new phone+pda!

    - do any GSM providers discounting the phone (AT&T / T-mobile)

    - any comments on users of P800 in San Francisco Bay Area? (the article doesn't say much except calls were clear)

    - where can I buy an _UNLOCKED_ version in bay area?

    - is there a hard cover to protect the phone's exposed LCD? (A hard-clam-shell design would be perfect..oh well)

    thanks ./Linuxlover

  • Bluetooth is cool, but the security is not that good according to people that knows a lot more about that than I do :)
    I personally don't see it as a huge problem considering the limited range of Bluetooth and I own a Bluetooth headset - works nice :)

    Be aware though that Nokia and Bluetooth isn't exactly the best combination (although my Nokia 6310 + Jabra BT300 works perfectly), apparently Nokia isn't too keen on following the standard, in a way they are use the embrace and extend technic like MS. This

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