Hands on with the Sony Ericsson P1i

So again, what does the "i" stand for in a brand new model?

the "i" in Sony-Ericsson phones just means international, in contrast eg. to "c" for chinese markets

Man! I wish there would be an "a" model! :con?

Is the phone COMPLETELY usable without using the touchscreen (the 3 softkeys along the screen bottom excepted)?

Other Qs:

Is it possible to call up the task manager via a hardware key? That task manager icon looks very small...

Does the phone charge over USB?

Which ways can the screen be orientated? ie. for left and right handers.

Is there a speech to text app similar to the nokia reader? (useful for in-car listening)

As a premise, trading a few features for usability is good, I hope they've taken the time to finish the job this time (vs the P990).

You write that the video recording capacity of the phone is "good enough", but what exactly does that mean?
SE has robbed it's phones of good video recording features before. How does the camera compare with that of the k790i/k800i/k810i series of phones? Does it have bestpic?, how does the light compare with the xenon flash?, sub-par?

And what is the maximum video resolution/framerate? (this is the question I am most anxious to get answered!)

Being able to take accurate video notes during lectures or presentations would be a huge plus, particularly with a memory stick micro port allowing you to take a limitless amount of videonotes during a trip!
How about the wifi - will it be easy to set up and use in an environment requirring the use of a virtual private network client?

Its difficult to precise about camera and video performance because the phone is still some way from release.

I haven't tested in extensively, but I didn't see BestPic. I'd say the camera is better than the P990, maybe about the same as the K800 but without further testing... The LED flash isn't as good as the an Xeon flash. Not sure about video capture - I would assume its 320 x 240 like the P990.

There is a VPN client on the P1i, cant comment on usage.

The phone does charge over USB

The Task Manager can be set to activated by using the internet key on the right hand side of the phone.

I believe screen orientation is variable on application as I recall it defaults to right handers, but honestly it doesn't make much difference with this device (aside from the turning process), you can use the jog dial and back key just as easily from bottom as top.

I don't think there's a speech app on board out of the box.

Yes I agree features for improved usability is a good trade off. I think the P1i will be much much better than P990 out of the box in stability terms.

one thing i've noticed that SE is not willing to give a phone every thing
they increase an option and decrease another one
for example why the camera is not as inhanced as K800 and K810???
why no GPRS???

if they did that it would be a phone to kill for and kill all others
and who ever pays 4 that quality would love to pay a little bit more for the best

One list of specs I saw did show that it has GPRS on the GSM bands; I would surely hope that it would have both GPRS and EDGE support these days.

It does seem that SE always has some essential feature lacking, and in this model (which otherwise looks very tempting) it is: NO GSM 850 band!!! Being on T-Mobile USA, which has extensive GSM 850 roaming agreements in many areas (as well as their own 850 coverage being built from what I read), I could not even begin to justify purchasing such a device. Quad band GSM should be the very minimum offered at this point in time. Of course, Nokia did the same thing with the otherwise tempting E70...

It may make economic sense to offer low-end phones with only the appropriate bands for a particular region, but not high-end smartphones.

The use of a proprietary Memory Stick variant rather than a standard memory card format is another minus, but is obviously to be expected due to the Sony connection.

For now, the E61 remains king for me. An E90 will make a nice secondary phone when it becomes available.

Something else I found lacking on SE feature phones (some of which actually looked pretty nice) was profiles. Having never played with a UIQ device, does it offer profiles?

@n0k1a

no profiles available for UIQ3 devices, and no third-party option either at the moment

@unregistered

where does it say the P1i does not have GPRS?

Picture quality does not look too different to the K800i

A full list of video formats supported?

thx

I said thanks

How is one hand use? Does it support classical T9?
Harald Weedon-Fekjaer

Shame on SE for bringing this out and trying to pass it off as "the next P". Not only is this terribly outdated already - there's really nothing there to be excited about too!

WiFi? Why only 11b? Almost every other phone out there has 11g. Why is the video only 15fps? That's the same as the 2 year old k750! Why no HSDPA? Even the small samsungs have this. Why no EDGE? Does SE think that people are satisfied with the very very slow NET data speeds?

Why no 850 band? Why did they make the screen smaller? Why are they still using the 3 year old 208mhz processor?? An N70, which is already old, has a 220mhz processor. The N95 has a 330mhz processor - yet they're comparing this to that? What a farse.

Not only is this old and outdated technology being rehashed in a new casing - it is downright boring to look at. Shame on SE! The P-series was one of the most innovative and cutting edge phones - now they've literally KILLED it with this P1.

does it have a 3.5mm headphone jack ?

I've got a P990i (sympathy please) but am otherwise pleased with SE compared to Nokia (they've gone too strange and niche market for me).

Ideally I want a phone that'll also display my e-books (Symbian UIQ or Windows Mobile), play my MP3s (with a 3.5mm jack for preference) and replace my digital camera (3.2MP mimimum. Would trade megapixels for a damn fine processor to eliminate noise).

If it also plays games like Tetris so much the better.

I've just about got my P990i working the way I want it (still a couple of glitches...) and I'm nervous about buying another SE phone.

Do SE listen to their long term buyers? Do they put these things out for beta testing? I don't want to have to have a computer degree to set the thing up and use it.

As has been asked before, does the p1i support genuine one handed use - and can you do everything without using the touch screen (apart from the 3 bottom buttons)?
ie. if I want to reply to a text in the pub with a pint in my hand, can I read a text, write a reply and send with one hand? 😊

Also, as has already been asked, does it support traditional t9 input using the numeric keys only?
I'm guessing not, as the numeric keys only have the 2 letters (for the rocker) printed on them, not the standard abc, def, etc labels.....

It just seems like a renewed M600i to me... It has all the features that the M600I should have had! (Cam, WIFI, more mem, etc..)

I'll definately be replacing my M600I with it!

😊

Just my 2 cents

I'll trade some answers for one more question.

Yes, the task manager can be assigned to the hardware key. I did this with my M600, and it's extremely handy; between the task manager key and the scroll/click wheel (thumb and forefinger), I can navigate between applications using one (either) hand faster than I can hit alt-tab on my laptop.

Yes, it can charge over USB. However there are two USB modes -- either the device is set up as a USB memory device (in which case it charges) or set up as a multi-function phone device (in which case it does not charge). I imagine this might be a problem for those who want to use it as a tethered GPRS modem for more than two or three hours at a time, but it's never been a problem for me. It's about three taps on the screen to change modes.

Screen orientation doesn't change except for applications that specifically support it (video, etc). I'm ambidextrous, and have no trouble using the device in either hand.

No speech-to-text application in UIQ 3.0 that I know of. Google is your friend.

The Keyboard is not a feature trade-off. The rocker-key keyboard on the M600 easily beats the P990, Treo, and others in terms of speed and accuracy. The two-letter keyboard on the Blackberry Pearl is an embarrassment next to the M600, and the P1 is even better. I didn't believe it could be this nice until I tried it for myself and discovered that typing on the key edges provides *very* nice tactile feedback even for big fingers. Bravo, SE, this keyboard is awesome! Only the E70 provides a faster and better typing experience, and that's with a giant fold-out thing.

GPRS and WCDMA, no EDGE. No 850. Same as the M600. This is a serious traveler's phone, with an eye for int'l use. That said, I travel a ton all over the US, and I've *never* had a problem with coverage because of the missing 850 band. 850 is sufficiently UNimportant that I am happy to have the addition of an FM radio in the P1 (which the M600 does not have). Combined with a nice set of speakers like the MDS-60, the P1 is an all-in-one traveler's entertainment and communications center.

As for the complaints about 802.11b versus 11g... Give me a ------- break. 99% of the time people connect 11g equipment to a 512K or 2meg DSL line at home or a coffee shop, or to an office network that provides a maximum of 5-6MB of a shared 10 or 100Mbit network (and maybe a 3-5Mbit internet connection. *All* of these are less than the 11mbit provided by 802.11b. Unless you're configuring WPA2 on the phone (which some 11b hw does not support), then 11g gives a roaming user *no* advantage. Otoh, many of the 11b chipsets are sufficiently mature that they give very nice power conservation AND good reception -- much better than the latest 11g chipsets. Ach. Some people.

So... my question: Anyone tried the iSync plugin for the P1i? Does it work? What are your thoughts?

thanks
Jon

i am not able to connect GPRS through P1i. I have SEP900 through which i could connect to net. Why not through P1i. Will anybody explain how to do it?

It all sounds pretty cool..but why ditch the LED?? one of the best things about the p990i is bein able to see that u have a missed call or text without havin to pick up the phone 😞 it probably costs SE about 5p to put in the LED.

Hi folks,

Appreciate advise. I am not able to push email into the phone after configuring this to directions of my corporate IT.

Took this to the service center - they re-loaded the software and still the same. They have taken it back for testing.

The company uses its own email server - not exchange and Blackberry routing.

I have used pushmail extensively with Windows 3 and Palm both. for Windows it downloads its own client.

Not sure why Symbian does not work. The message is either 'connecting' or 'timed out' or 'completed download' - but no email.

Thanks in advance.

Hello,

To my dismay my P1i heats up quite a lot when I use it as a phone. It usually starts heating up if have been talking for about 10 min on the phone and if this stretches to 20 minutes the phone becomes uncomfortably hot next to one's ear.
Is this a known issue with this phone? If yes, is there a fix to this problem?

Thanks in advance

.The phone does indicate thru a long lighting strip at the bottom if you have missed calls or messages. it flashes red too for certain things but I'm not sure. I love the phone. I can type long emails without a problem, and documents.

the camera isn't as great cos it has a greenish tint on the right side of images. I personally don't care that the phone only has wifi 11b. It's actually a good thing cos the 11b spec has more range than the 11g. Also haven't had a heat issue yet, it runs smooth and great.

it doesn't have a call recorder and no flashlight, two features I loved on my old and trusty K750i.

Video features are limited. the camera only records at 15fps. And it doesn't do well playing videos online cos a lot of codecs are missing. but you don't buy this phone just for video. I would appreciate however if sony fixes the video issue without me having to purchase additional software.

Love the keyboard. in fact I'm typing all this on the phone and I've gotten pretty quick at it.

P1i is an interesting phone, BUT it has some weak points: no EDGE, quite slow processor to work with Symbian at only 208 MHz (new Nokia models run at 369 MHz, and other smartphones at 520 MHz), and only basic 3G (other actual models support HSDPA at 1.8 or 3.5 Mb/s).

Sorry, but looking for something else.

My main problem is that the P1i seems to connect fine with my wireless router, yet when I use the web application a message comes up saying 'could not locate remote server'. Seeing as I bought a wireless router specifically to use with the phone I'm a bit mad that it doesnt work. Can anybody help me out cos at the moment its really frustrating! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Adam Fry

I am a faithful SE phone user and bought the P1i mainly because it featured WiFi. I have used the phone for about 3 weeks an finally given up with it. Most of my issues with it relate usability;

1. It's a Symbian phone and therefore sloooooooow
2. The qwerty keyboard with dual use keys is difficult to use if you have large fingers. I would have preferred a standard keyboard and used predictive text
3. The handwriting recognistion works mostly but typing on the keyboard is often faster
4. There's no correlation with the P1i UI with other SE phones so regular users of feature phones like me will struggle to navigate round the P1i
5. The phone always falls of the WiFi access point. This maybe because power management kicks in after a period of idle time to switch off the radio and conserve power. Whatever, this means that using a VoIP client is pointless as it will either generally be disconnected or running up the WiFi thereby draining the battery
6. Probably not an SE issue but Fring and OptiMobile client always crashes
7. Battery performance is poor what can you expect from an OS driven phone with a large and bright screen.

I've gone back to using my old K800i ...

😞

Well im getting this phone soon i think that many of this things could be true or lie i dont know yeat but i will let U guys know what i thing as soon as i get the phone and place all the features that i have ready for him, so we will see us soon i hope.