P990i - big disapponitment

See my answers ** below...

After a long Time (1 Year!!) the phone was finally released and I bought it right away. But BIG DISAPPOINTMENT, the phone is crap!
** I totally disagree. I think it's fab and solves most, if not all the issues I had with the P910i

First of all, the progress from P900 to P990 is very small. The applications (such as Camera) look a bit fancier, the Organizer has a better weekly view and that' s about it.
** I think there's much more than that.

The Set up of MMS, WWW etc. is very difficult and does not work with Configuration SMS from your Mobile Provider (for me, www does still not work).
** Mine does - MMS, www and configuration

Synchronisation does not work properly, for Instance, Notes are not transferred from the PC to the Phone (very bad, if you had a P900 and would like to transfer your data via synchronisation).
** Synchronisation works perfectly for me. Notes are indeed synchronised; look under "Office"

The Phone crashes all the time and has to be re-booted.
** Mine crashed too but doesn't now. It stopped after I used the SEUS (Sony Ericsson Update Service)

The Speakerphone is totally stupid. Instead of being able to set to speakerphone while your phone ist dialling you have to wait until the other party picks up the phone.
** No. I can put the phone on speakerphone as soon as it is ringing

This way you have to leave the phone on your ear while driving unless you have a connection. Then you have to push several buttons
** No, just one
to set to speakerphone. And if you want to set it back to "handel"-Mode, the phone crashes and you have to reboot it!
** See my answer above (SEUS)

The Applications are not very intuitv to use. For someone who has used a PXXX Device before, it ist very strange.
** It is different, I grant you, but not very different. I find it quite intuitive, certainly no less so than the P910i

The Camera is a dissapointment. The 2 megapixles seem to be attractive. But I don't know what kind of lese they have built in the phone. The Pictures are not a big excitement at all. A little bit better than with my P900.
** The P910i pictures were appalling. The P990 is a total transformation

The Joystick to navigate is very sensible and you often navigate wrong because it reacts so easily.
** I disagree. Again it's different and takes some getting used to.

the Battery-Life is very poor. If I forget to charge it at night, I will be out of Power by Noon next Day.
** No arguments here. I am finding the battery life poor, but it is getting better. I'm up to about two days now. Having said that, as with all new phones, I'm using it a lot, trying WLAN everywhere and listening to the Radio 4!!! I believe longer-life batteries are to be made available soon.

The Keyboard is very good and easy to use. A big Improovement from P910! Also the Screen is very sharp and Bright.
** Agreed

I do not recomment to switch from a P900 or 910 to the P990. It is not a big Improovment. And the two old devices run much more stable.
** I recommend the switch. It is streets ahead of the P910i AND I can charge it without having to wrestle with the charger plug to make it connect

For someone who wants to get Into the Smartphone World, I would Suggest to wait until the Software Update Service and the Online Help from SE are online.
** These are available and operational

BASICALLY, with any new phone, there is a period of accustomisation. With a phone as complex and feature-rich as the P990, this will take longer. I have to say, I have found the P990 a joy and although it IS different to the P800, P900 and P910i, it is better in every way except battery life. I think Sony Ericsson have yet to put up proper help files, but the SEUS Sony Ericsson Update Service works perfectly and has stopped the one-or-two (infrequent) crashes.

I largely agree, but how did you get SEUS to work? I've just had a look at their [SE] site, and the 990 is not listed. Did you just start the software anyway and tell it to go look?

Mine hasn't crashed yet at all. Ohh, radio 4. 5 live. TMS. Blimey!

Hello

I am happy for you, that you have such a good experience with your P990. I wonder how you do certain things. Would you please help me with a couple of questions (marked under your answers with ***). Thanks!

Synchronisation does not work properly, for Instance, Notes are not transferred from the PC to the Phone (very bad, if you had a P900 and would like to transfer your data via synchronisation).
** Synchronisation works perfectly for me. Notes are indeed synchronised; look under "Office"

***I look under Office. But the only thing that happens with notes ist that new notes made on the phone are transferred to Outlook. Existing notes from my old P900 that were stored on Outlook are not transferred. Any hints?

The Phone crashes all the time and has to be re-booted.
** Mine crashed too but doesn't now. It stopped after I used the SEUS (Sony Ericsson Update Service)

*** OK now it is online also for switzerland. The application is actually working great! I remember the hassle for the P900...

The Speakerphone is totally stupid. Instead of being able to set to speakerphone while your phone ist dialling you have to wait until the other party picks up the phone.
** No. I can put the phone on speakerphone as soon as it is ringing
*** Now i really wonder how you do this? There is no software Option while it is ringing. Neither with the Flap open or closed. The only Menu point you get is to hang up...

This way you have to leave the phone on your ear while driving unless you have a connection. Then you have to push several buttons
** No, just one
*** Also wondering how you do this? Either you have to open the flip and use the stylus to choose from a Menu (3 steps: opening, removing the stylus, and two clicks with the Stylus). Or you have to choose from a Context Menu with the flip closed (at least two steps). It was so great just to open the flip and being set to speakerphone with the P900. If you want for instance to make an appointment during the phonecall you have to first think of turning the speakerphone on. The old way was much more convenient. In order to use the Angenda you had to open the Flip and the phone was already on speaker mode.

Thank you for sharing your experience and your Tipps!

Judith

RB14, are you a SonyEricsson employee? 😊

I'm speaking for myself now, but I think for most of us that grew up with the P800, P900 & P910, the P990 is a disappointment.

I'm interested in the rumoured P970, reminds me of my Sony Z5, but long term I'm thinking Microsoft Mobile 5.0 - my own mini pc. :icon14:

No, I'm not a Sony Ericsson employee. I have been the happy owner of the P800, P900 (crushed under my truck) and P910i. I am, however, prepared to work at getting used to a phone that is quite clearly a huge step up from the P9xx series. I have tried Nokia's 9300 and 9500 smartphones and already I know the P990 is better for me.

I will say that I've only had the phone for a week. It may be that I grow to hate it, but so far, it's just getting better and better. Yes, there are weaknesses but nothing that can' be solved with a further firmware or two.

I will reply to the further questions hardeggerj has posed but, as I've mentioned elsewhere, it's bedtime.

**Edited to add bedtime sentence

Synchronisation!! I have the same old problems since the P800 phone and I don't why it still gets so complicate each time I upgraded to a newer P9xx phone.

It was a big step enhancement from P800 to P900. I've been so looking forward to this new P990 (I've been using my P900 for years and didn't buy the P910 phone because it's not much improvement from P900), but after years of waiting, it just makes me disappointed more.

axl wrote:Synchronisation!! I have the same old problems since the P800 phone and I don't why it still gets so complicate each time I upgraded to a newer P9xx phone.

Yes, I've taken 'Phone Connection Monitor' out of my Startup menu, I manually start it now if I want to sync - just have a look how much RAM it chows when it's running.

Maybe Sony should ask Microsoft how ActiveSync manages to use only 6-7MB of RAM?

Answers to some of the unanswered q's here :

http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=global&lc=en&ver=4001&template=ps1_1_4_1&zone=ps&lm=ps1_1&pid=10336#19

I used the global site not UK - handy for updates as UK one isnt up to speed yet.

Ohh and I think the phone is amazing but the keyboard a TOTAL waste of potential screen area as it is unusable with either stylus or mansize finger.

D

HI ppl some one plz help me. i have a p990i n i m gettin lots of problem after i update the software of the divice. my caller personal ringtone dose not work. and the display picture of the caller gets blur after some time plz some one help me out of this. im not hapy with p990i as i was when i had all other p-seris. plz some one help me.

Sounds like you are haviong a terrible time! May I suggest yopu start a new thread 'rringtone problems after update' [or similar] and give some more more facts ? Hope you get it sorted. D

@axl

The P990 has: 3G, wifi, BT2.0, FM radio, 8GB Duo card capable, 2MP camera, 320x240 screen...err these are significant changes. Have you ever used Opera and 3G its miles ahead of the P910i. The 2MP camera is as good as the K750. Video playback is the best fr any current Smartphone, better than TyTN.

jah wrote:@axl

The P990 has: 3G, wifi, BT2.0, FM radio, 8GB Duo card capable, 2MP camera, 320x240 screen...err these are significant changes. Have you ever used Opera and 3G its miles ahead of the P910i. The 2MP camera is as good as the K750. Video playback is the best fr any current Smartphone, better than TyTN.

Do you work @ the SonyEricsson office in Hammersmith?

axl wrote:Synchronisation!! I have the same old problems since the P800 phone and I don't why it still gets so complicate each time I upgraded to a newer P9xx phone.

It was a big step enhancement from P800 to P900. I've been so looking forward to this new P990 (I've been using my P900 for years and didn't buy the P910 phone because it's not much improvement from P900), but after years of waiting, it just makes me disappointed more.

I have had the P990 for over 2 months and I also have a P910 and if you just look at connectivity and speed of Opera than the P990 is in a different league to the P910 and therefore the P900.

jah wrote:I have had the P990 for over 2 months and I also have a P910 and if you just look at connectivity and speed of Opera than the P990 is in a different league to the P910 and therefore the P900.

I never had any connectivity problems with my P910 and the software is mature - can't remember if/when it actually has crashed?

But apparently 'Restarting to optimize performance' is a feature of the P990? :tongue:

kingrob wrote:I never had any connectivity problems with my P910 and the software is mature - can't remember if/when it actually has crashed?

But apparently 'Restarting to optimize performance' is a feature of the P990? :tongue:

Please remember the P910 = the P800 with 3 years of development

My P990 is stable and does not crash as I have the latest fimrware. Once you've used 3G, wifi, A2DP, 2MP camera, superb video recording & playback and the built-in predictive text and flip closed apps you wouldn't want to go back to the P910. For those with a P900 the P990 is bit like what the P900 was when it was first launched - ie a bit light on RAM.

I would never use my P910 instead of my P990. And as we all know from P800 ownership, unlike M$ SE will continue to produce better and better firmware upgrades

After reading so many posts on different web sites, and people's problems with this phone - do you think it's right to release such a product on the market? I think SE lost a lot of loyal customers.

I mean, if I buy something that expensive, surely you want it to work 'out of the box', or is it unfair of me to expect that?

Also, I'm suspecting that the hardware of the P990i is outdated and not powerful enough to run the new OS + all new features.

Well my JasJar I bought this time last year did not fully out of the box. There were problems with 3G-2G swapping, crashing Messaging app, slow response, need to reset to clear-out RAM etc. And Push email did not arrive for a while and ActiveSync 3 was a bit flaky etc But 3 months later my XDA Exec with improved firmware was better (but BT was still poor).

No excuses for SE but SE are not the only ones who released unfinished products.

kingrob writes

I mean, if I buy something that expensive, surely you want it to work 'out of the box', or is it unfair of me to expect that?

jah responds

No excuses for SE

but SE are not the only ones who released unfinished products

:con? Any comments, anyone? Do we have a right to more for �400+?

Sorry for just stepping into the conversation out of the blue, but I had already created a topic on this on my-symbian.com :icon14:

Please go there and vote for yes/no (poll about customer satisfaction of current firmware) and read the topic, there are already some interesting opinions available.

http://my-symbian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=253382#253382

koolezt wrote:kingrob writesexactly.

jah respondsright on!
and continuesirrelevant.

The P990s we bought weren't made and promoted by the other ones, and there's no excuse for SE or for any of them. In fact, a case could be made that the P990 is unfit for purpose as advertised and sold (incapable of modest multi-tasking), and buyers are entitled to a fix or a refund.

Entitltled, not meant to wait, hope and pray for SEUS's goodness and "generosity". Maybe it's time we stopped begging and stood up for our rights.

Any comments, Jah?

@koolezt

"unfit for purpose" - well if does not work for you you should return it! In the UK and I think most European countries you have 7 to 14 days to return good if you are dissatisfied with them. Otherwise you could try to return it under warranty to say x,y & z applications and functions don't work.

I shall not be returning my P990 because it works adequately for me and I really like its ergonomics.

I now have a P990, M600 & W950. The W950 is the best and fastest of the three. Suffers less memory leaks than the P990. So this tells me firmware updates to the P990 will address many memory related issues.

Gooday All

I just received my p990 from HK - I was thinking fantastic!!!

My old faithful p800 just died and decided on a big jump thinking it would be a world of difference - geez I am SOOOOO annoyed. The p990 out the box is a mine of bugs!

- I've upgraded the software to the latest version, this is the 1st thing I always do and you know what it doesn't help...

On an average day the P990i

- Crashes/locks-up 4-5 times. The requires the removal of the battery
- When the phone rings (I get about 15 calls a day) from this 2-4 times the phone keeps ringing however it has locked up. The only answer; remove the battery. And yes I have gotten pretty damn good at getting it out quickly...
- The hand writting recognition is sooooo slow, compared to the p800 it should be lightning fast, why is it so slow?
- Battery life - this is pretty bad
- 1-2 weird crashes per day when trying to use the phone as a PDA should be used

If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear about them. I have to go back to using a $40 phone instead of a $700 phone - pretty damn poor!

The wifi and other features are good and work most of the time.

Unfortunately SE I have to say this is REALLY BAD. A phone should work out of the box. If I sold products like this I'd be out of business in a month. Why didn't you finish testing before release, this is just stupid.

I am now awaiting SE Hong Kong to help (I will post back how we go). BTW SE Australia say they don't carry the phone and wont help...

Jon

The obvious thing to do is format internal drive, then flash the phone to latest firmware (R3B03 organizer)...if you thing the update process didn´t work completly ok the first time, update again and do a master reset to iron out possible bad data

You right about the state of the first versions of P990 firmware, they were very bad and we should expect more from a phone that was delayed so much time

But right now, the phone reached a stable situation, and the issues you are reporting are not normal at all

Welcome to the club of the hopefuls, Jon. You might want to consider the advice of an experienced SE P-series owner.

jah wrote:"unfit for purpose" - well if does not work for you you should return it!

But there's a fix. It may well be worth your while so I suggest you try it. First, check your phone's Organizer and CDA firmware versions. http://uiq3.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/CDA/P990i has full details. Follow their links if you need to. You'll probably be glad you did.

Just one other idea. Some people have apparently got their SE Service Centre to do the job. They call it debranding. It seems you have to specifically ask for Generic World firmware. Good luck, friend.