P990i as MP3 player or use separate? — Sony Ericsson P990

TheJoker 25 Jul 2006, 09:53

Guys,

As SonyEricsson looks to finally be releasing the P990i and there's a Bluetooth Stereo Headset available and it's compatible I'm wondering about the music capacities of the P990i.
On the P800 I wouldn't have used the MP3 player as more than a "Put it to play and be ready to use both hands if something needed changing"-player. Not as a "true" MP3 player which you can keep in your pocket and stick your hand in there and skip forward or up/down the volume.

The P990i is much more refined as I assume it's gotten a dash of the Walkman capabilities from the other W-series phones. It's also got the advanced Bluetooth Profiles which allows you to use the HBH-DS970 headset.
http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=gb&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pp4_1_1&zone=pp&lm=pp4_1&pid=10394

Here's what I'd like to use my "music player" for; Commuting on the train and tube into London. Almost 4h per day in total. I'd also like to use it on my motorbike. I go for long rides, sometimes 8h or more. This means that my phone, if turned on, would be roaming between countries and so forth.

My choice is basically to either use the P990i + Stereo BT headset and use it for everything. Or use the P990i less, and get a separate small MP3 player.

I've been thinking about the Samsung YP-U2QB
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000ES002Q/026-9017677-4876408?v=glance&n=560798

The benefit of using a separate MP3 player is that I won't kill the battery on the P990i whilst listening to music.

The benefit of using a BT headset with the P990i is that I can get all the sound out of the P990i... and any other BT device that's capable - maybe a future laptop? I could get on the train listening to music, then turn the music off, switch to watching a movie on the laptop without taking the headphones out.. 😊 There's also a slim chance the microphone would actually allow me to answer a phone call whilst riding the motorbike. I could definitely stop and make a phone call without taking my helmet off.

I guess it largely comes down to the batterylife of the P990i (and the BT headset - the MP3 player has got 13h battery life!)

At the moment I'm leaning towards a separate MP3 player...

Any thoughts?!

jah 26 Jul 2006, 20:57

The M600 plus DS970 make a wonderful package so I assume the same will be true of the P990. Will give you 4 hrs and probably more of music listening. The DS970 is great for trains etc and the sound quality is truly amazing for a wireless device. But yes it does kill the M600 battery (after 2 hrs I still get a full business day of useage from my battery).

TheJoker 02 Aug 2006, 10:24

Jah,

Thanks for that reply! 😊 I've decided to go for a separate MP3 player - mainly because of battery concerns. 4h play time from the stereo headset isn't really enough for me.

Thanks very much for your input! 😊

kingrob 04 Aug 2006, 14:50

I hope SE has improved the bluetooth capabilities of the P990, because my
P910 sucks battery power when connected to my SE bluetooth carkit.

I get max one day out of the battery, but I do a lot of driving during the day and bluetooth is always on.

A bluetooth stereo headset = major battery drain...

*I bought myself the Creative MuVo TX 512MB to listen to music on the train, with Sony 'earbuds', you get fantastic sound. Also has built-in FM radio and storage capacity goes up to 1GB, might be more. Very cool.

omowest 13 Jan 2008, 22:21

I use my P990 for both calls and music. As a matter of fact I have been leaving my ipod at home ever since I found the sonorix C3 stereo bluetooth device which has support for both A2DP & AVRCP. This allows me to listen to my music and take calls as the come. Actually the music experience was much enhanced since I got a 4gb card for the P990. And did I say the C3 stereo device had built-in caller id too. Anyways I picked it up at http://www.BlueCrests.com I think with a high capacity drive and stereo caller id, your experience can be great.

rajeshk4u 02 Apr 2008, 18:09

Yes, I use my phone as an MP3 player too - it is very good! Also, use it in the car!

I also use it in the car using an FM transmitter. I had to buy two things (i) An adaptor cable that provides a 3.5mm jack and (ii) FM transmitter

I got the adator cable for �4, you can get is cheaply.....

Though the only suggestion is to get an FM transmitter that runs on batteries rather then Car Charger. As I only have one 12v socket, so I want to use that to power the phone rather the FM transmitter.