It's interesting. With all this talk about upgrades, and I'm starting to think there're are also more than one hardware version running around. Here's why.
I had an opportunity for a couple of days of dealing with 2 P800 at the same time. One with the R1B Firmware which I had been using for a week and a half; and the other one with R1D and RiF organizer and CDA.
Well, much to my surprise the R1B had better spaeaker volume and a much more stable platform. One the 2 weeks I had it I had to reboot only once. And that's with a LOT of use and downloads. Opera, File manager, iZip, games Mp3 tests MP4 e.t.c It did however have some trouble with some of the special signs such as :, ;, {} e.t.c when using stylus. Mutlytap function was working fine, for a P800 that is. Camera was making fair pictures but a little fuzzy on interior shots. One annoying bug was regarding touchtones. Sometimes it would not send touchtones on either flip open or close mode. Or it would send 2 diggits on touchtones and the rest silent. This was annoying when I wanted to check my home answering machine, or buy movietickets on moviefone.
The new P800 I got with the new software was actually a little (very little) smaller. The Jog was a little further in and so was the ON/OFF button. I actually like this, specially the Jog because the old wan would stick out a little beyond it's protective plastic and it would be brushed when entering and exiting a case or pocket; on the downside it doesn't scroll quite as fast. (almost, but not AS) The buttons on the flip where smoother. not quite as primitive feeling as the original. They would be pressed evenly and smoothly instead of giving the mechanical impression of being, oh well, plastic buttons.
Regarding software. stylus writing was improved, it would access all signs cleanly and seem to recognize writing better. Don't get me wrong, the first P8 I had recognized my writing on a flash, the second one was just a little cleaner, and yes, I calibrated both, so It's not that. Web Browser and Opera where much faster. R1F organizer is recommended for Opera and now I know why. Specially WAP pages through the SE browser are light speed. And I mean light speed. Google WAP actually workes faster on my WAP P800 than on my DSL desktop.
Speaker is great on Videoclips and ringtones, but on speakerphone mode it's very low. The R1B version was 1/3 louder at least on all functions. Normal phone volume, outgoing and receiving where improoved on R1D though. Go figure!.
Contacts and Organizer function are a little better. When writing SMS and MMS the R1D phone would only give me as options those contacts with mobile phones and emails, and not the other 700 numbers I had. Multitap is inconsistent. Touchtone bug is fixed, but sometimes the phone kinda flips on me for a moment. Specially if I don't give it a minute or two after turning it on. This is normal, but the R1B did not need it.
Platform is not as stable. Image viewer (downloaded full screen, not SE)keeps running out of memory even though I have & megs on phone and about 9 en Mem card. I actually erased it because it's not usefull this way. I had to reboot a coulple of times either because the phone demanded this or because it was not functioning cleanly. When shutting down or powering up sometimes funny signs would show along with the SE firework effect. Once the P800 froze while playing HEXIX. and this game is about as simple as it gets. I don't really enjoy MIB II and all those super games so I can't tell about those. But I did try them on r1B and had absolutelly no problems. Also, I found myself having to reenter data; such as time and date, alrm times e.t.c I don't understand why the phone would ignore me. I would set time, hit done and go back to main screen only to find out the time was not set. After a couple of times it would react. First I thought it was me being clumpsy, but then the same startied to happen entering specs for internet, or BT or setting an alarm or speacieally when setting speed dial numbers. This never happened with the R1B so.. either it's a bug, or the phone needs to be upgraded again more carefully, or it's just nothing, because other times it works fine.
Camera works better. Pictures are about the same if not a little better on R1D, but if you hold one phone next to the other one the viewer is more clear on the R1D.
So there. My suggestion is don't obsses (as I did) over firmware upgrades too much. If the phone is working fine leave it as it is for a few months until a final, more stable version comes out. My bet is this will not happen until we all start using the 128 Mg plus memory cards and more app. come out such as Word and Excell editors that really require a stable platform. Then, a few months from now, I should think an upgrade will really be an upgrade. Remember what happened to the T68 & T68i, by now all T68I function the same way.
I hope this helps.