Considering a P990i; coming from PalmOS

Well you seem to have been ignored for a while, which is a shame, so I'll wade in and give you my opinion... I should say that I don't own and haven't used a P990, but I have been using an M600 since October (based on the very same OS), and I had both a P910 and P800 before that.

There are, unquestionably, shortcomings in the P990 - firstly the firmware has been quite bug-ridden until fairly recently, which has driven many people away, and resulted in some bad reviews. The good news here is that Sony Ericsson have released a number of updates since the phone was released, and the more recent versions have cured a number of problems. They have also backtracked just recently on a decision to withdraw support, and promised that there will be at least one further update to settle a few remaining issues. These updates can be downloaded and applied at home using Sony Ericsson's update service.

The second, less fixable shortcoming is memory. Although the P990 has enough internal memory for many applications to be stored on the phone (and yes they can be stored, and executed, from the memory stick as well), it is sadly lacking in available RAM for applications to run in. This limits its ability to multitask, as opening too many of the larger apps (such as the web browser, email client etc) can eventually cause other apps to close down. This is exacerbated slightly by a memory "leak" which can, over time, reduce the memory available still further - until the phone is rebooted. This, again, has been improved through successive firmwares and it's rumoured to be further improved in the forthcoming release, but of course the RAM itself cannot be changed, even if the leak does get fixed.

Mind you, if you were to use the phone as you would a Palm OS device, and never have more than one app running at once, you're very unlikely to ever experience any memory problems!

On the good news front (and there is plenty) it's a solid multimedia device, with good video and camera, and a very capable music player that's probably more advanced than your Clie. It can support up to 4GB (some say 8GB) M2 memory sticks, meaning Ipod-nano class storage, and it plays most formats quite happily. It's also a very capable phone, naturally, and a lot more portable than any Clie/handset combination.

As you say, the desktop software only allows you to sync with other apps (such as Outlook, Notes etc) but it does have a separate backup function to keep all your data safe.

Considering the lower than expected initial price of the P1, you might wanna consider that...

Just a view from a ten-month p990 user with no Palm experience:

:icon14: The feature-set is arguably awesome, and each one generally works well or adequately. Logic bugs are generally not deal-breakers, except maybe for two: failure of the space-bar to start the phone app and crashing of the messaging app when creating an email exceeding ~200 characters. It's widely expected that SE will fix these in a promised August 2007 firmware upgrade. The convenience of a functional organizer, camera, music player and videophone all in one hand is undeniable.

:icon13: Now, the flip-side:
That August firmware upgrade may well be the last, and might prove inadequate. SE had announced ceasing support with the latest mid-June release. They only agreed to the "extra" August release after a consumer hue and cry. SE's firmware upgrades are not reversible, and the latest release reportedly introduced the "space-bar bug" and other niggles.

The crucial issue is RAM-shortage vs multi-tasking, compounded by memory-leaking software. If you're not going to need several apps together, such as RSS feeds, push or pop email, music player, web, messaging and contacts, then you may be OK. If you need this kind of capability, maybe to email an extract from a web page while listening to music, run for the hills (or N95 or whatever).

SE's programming-style and stingy 64 MB RAM (about 16 MB free after boot) just can't seem to fill the bill. In any case, expect the device to intermittently "restart to improve performance" (That's what the onscreen message says), sometimes in mid-call.

:con? About some of your specific questions:

• Music Player is adequate, as expected from "the home of Walkman", but mono only AFAIK.

  EDIT: I've rechecked, and found :icon14: it's[SIZE="5"] STEREO [/SIZE]all around :icon14:

  It's reportedly improved in the June firmware. (I haven't tried it.) Plays through rear speaker or bundled earphone, don't know about 3rd-party headphones. Supports 3gpp, aac+ mp3 and more.

• There's a file manager, so you can store anything on a memory stick, even arbitrary files from your pc. Several apps allow working directly with memory stick files.
• Program installers can run from download, memory stick, internal storage or computer (via usb or bluetooth). They can install to either internal storage or stick, and the installer deleted. In any case they must be loaded into RAM for execution. Even ROM routines must be run from RAM, adding to the demands on the 64 MB. So installing apps to stick does not affect RAM usage.
• The product includes extensive pc (not mac) software for file transfer, Outlook synchronization, program installs, etc.
• You can try http://www.sonyericsson.com/webguide/p990i/pc/en/ for an indexed searchable Web Guide.

Yet, the initial reviews I've read of the P990i don't seem to complain all that much?

Summary: It's a beautiful concept, shabbily implemented. :icon4: Caveat emptor.

Sorry for the long post, but you seem to be seriously interested, and the picture is complex.

koolezt wrote:Music Player is adequate, as expected from "the home of Walkman", but mono only AFAIK.

No no no - I can't let that one go! The P990's player is stereo, just like the P910 before it, the P900 before that, and the P800 before that. Sony Ericsson have never made a mono music phone...

Hey everyone, thanks so much for all the comments!

In the end, I got a P990i...

The RAM shortage is an annoyance - usually unable to run the Web Browser with anything else at the same time. (Unless I'm viewing small pages).

However, I've been finding the phone itself to be fairly stable. I've only had it lock up a couple times due to trying to connect to a WPA-protected access point whose PSK I wasn't too sure of. Otherwise, I've never seen the "restart to impove performance."

Overall it's a fairly nice phone.

I can also confirm with boinng that the audio is stereo (tried listening to an MP3 with distinct left and right channels, and they both came out of the left and right earbuds respectively and exclusively.

The only thing I notice about the MP3 player though, is that I am experiencing a little bit of background static noticeable when I listen to music at very low volumes (1 or 2 bars on the volume meter). Also, I'm not 100% fond of having to use the FastPort connector for headphones (All later Clies always had standard 3.5mm jacks, which was very convenient).

I think I really would have liked the P1i, but the current price of the P990i is already pushing my desired budget... so it would still be too expensive (also, I already bought the P990i haha..)

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts. They were some of the more informative posts I've read.

Just rechecked: :icon14: It's[SIZE="5"] STEREO [/SIZE]all around :icon14:. I stand corrected. I did say AFAIK, but now I know better. I'm editing the post accordingly, and apologies to SE:embarasse

@rcxAsh: All the best with your new "baby". I'm sure we'd all be keen on some more follow-up from an observant new user after continued usage.

If you reply, could you please post your P990's software versions: CDA and Organizer. With Flip Open, it's all in Main Menu > System Information.

Ok so I've had my P990i for over a week now. Overall, I'm quite pleased. Yes I would definitely appreciate more RAM and a slimmer form-factor, but over all, I'm quite satisfied.

My CDA was the World Generic 2 one, but I recently changed it to the Simplified Chinese Hong Kong version, in order to get Chinese read/write support. I am using the latest organizer firmware version, R6D23.

A couple comments. On the whole, multi-tasking isn't terrible. As long as I don't open huge webpages, I can still function and do other things at the same time.

However, I think it's important to reboot the phone at least every couple days to maintain this. On one occasion, the free RAM was so low to the point that neither the Messaging and MP3 player or the Web and MP3 player could co-exisit. It was very annoying. I was riding on the train and was hoping to check my email and surf the internet a bit while I listened to MP3s. In the end, I just had to settle for quickly reading my emails with no music, and then just switching fully to music.

After rebooting the phone later that day, I was able to do both. So the RAM had just simply not been released for user-space use anymore for some reason. Many people may attribute this to a memory leak. But it's hard to say if it's the design of the operating system or something else.

Compared to PalmOS 5, this is quite an advancement. The interface is much more appealing to the eye, and the integration of the internal applications is quite well done. On the non-Chinese versions of the firmware, the fonts are all anti-aliased, which is a very nice touch. I installed a utility called FanJuChi to get back the anti-aliased fonts, but it only affects applications run after FanJuChi has been started - so system menus and the like do not have smooth fonts.

However, I am still slightly disappointed at the fact that the MP3 player shuts down sometimes. On my Sony Clie, this never was the case. The Sony Audio Player application was very resource efficient and I could always listen to MP3s while surfing the internet without fail and without any performance hit. Granted, the same may not necessarily be said about other PalmOS devices, which required you to use third-party applications, but I can't honestly comment because I've only ever used Clies.

That being said though, I am impressed with the built-in MP3 player software's organization and usability. It is much more usable than the Sony Audio Player that came on the Sony Clies. The Sony Audio Player required all MP3 files to be in a specific directory, with no sub directories. You could create a maximum of one playlist, and there was no way to sort MP3s otherwise.

The P990i's MP3 player, on the other hand, is much better. As long as you have all your ID3 tags set properly, it's a joy to use. Similar to how my sister's iPod functions. I also like the support for album art - it makes the music player seem more interactive or something. I like it.

The device's connectivity is good and smart too. If I have WLAN on and am at home, it will automatically connect to my WiFi network and use that connection to perform online activities, rather than using expensive GPRS access. This is nice. On my PalmOS device, I always had to explicitly choose a connection in the Preferences panel, otherwise it would just connect using whatever connection was currently set (used last).

The quality of the phone is quite good too. The reception has been clear and the people I'm talking too sound very good, compared to my old phone (Samsung SGH-E730).

I'm a big fan of the jog-dial, having owned three Sony Clies in the past. However, I find that the back button is situated a little too low to be used comfortably (when compared to my experience with the Clie SJ20 and the Clie TG50).

On the Chinese firmwares, I really like having the Chinese-English dictionary. Truly a nice touch. I just wish it could display the PinYin for the characters. But no big deal, I didn't buy the phone to use as a Chinese-English dictionary anyway haha.

Alarms? I'm scared of the phone not waking me up in the morning... it's done that once or twice before due to an alarm bug. Hopefully this gets ironed out in the next firmware release.

Overall, once again, I think it's the best phone I could have gotten new with what I paid. As much as I would like the P1i, I just can't afford it.

I actually think that I would have liked the M600i, and I considered it, but it's lack of camera pushed me to the P990i. Also, I do like the Memory Stick Duo slot instead of the M2 slot - reason being that I already had 512MB and 2GB Duos from my last Sony Clie.

Thanks fort the thoughtful response, confirming that the individual functions are generally good to excellent. I'm happy for you that multi-tasking failures don't spoil your usage.

At least you paid "cut-price" (more realistic value than original MSRP?)

Haha, yah, I think I would have gone crazy if I paid the launch price for the P990i... the lack of RAM is really saddening. It was strange reading the initial P1i thoughts on this site, and seeing the status page say 73MB RAM free haha...

By the way, on average, how much free RAM do you have after about a day's use? I want to compare with what I'm seeing on my device.

I haven't kept a log, but right now Swiss Manager shows uptime = 1 d 23h 15 min, 4 tasks (not showing hidden tasks): activity menu, main menu, phone and connections mgr, free RAM = 7.5b MB.

Because I use Swiss Manager Pro (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED btw) to help manage the RAM, the amount free can vary widely. Sometimes it goes below 1 MB. At start it's about 15 MB.

I usually only use phone, messaging, PDA apps, RSS feeds, Web over wi-fi and S-Tris, with scheduled pop email downloads and Swiss Manager doing level 3 cleanup when idle.

The phone tends to "restart to improve performance" every few days. I've been a bit lax and am still on Organizer fw R4B03. Now that there seems to be a stable R6, I'll probably upgrade soon.