Thursday March 6 2003 at 01:33 GMT
People have actually been asking me where my P800 review is, so I thought I'd better get on and get something posted. This is a long article!
I picked up my phone a week last Friday, and I've given it a good workout since then. I really think SE did the right thing in not rushing this phone to market before the software was ready for it. The only time I have managed to confuse the OS was when I installed eDoom, and didn't place some files in the correct location. Apart from that, it's been solid as a rock, jumping from one application to another with no problems.
It is a phone first and foremost, and it performs this function well. Sound quality from the earpiece has a nice solid tone to it, and the microphone appears to pick up voice well (Wildfire on Orange UK has started working noticeably better). I've even started using the handsfree 'kit', which lets me listen to MP3 as I'm marching along, then beeps me when a call comes in.
One of the positives I've found is the synchronisation with Oulook 2000 (on Windows 2000). With the T68, this was good, solid and reliable, even via infra red. The P800 has a cradle, that the charger can also plug into. It connects to my computer via USB - more on this later (IR sync also works well). The full range of information I hold in my Outlook contacts now appears on the phone, including address (home and work). My Nokia 7110 did this, but my T39 and T68 did not - it's good to have it back.
The sync tool worked well - first time I hooked up I was fully synchronised within a few minutes. Trying a full sync of 500+ contacts with IR on the T68 would normally have been a pretty long process. I have not tried the email sync as it would use way too much memory space, I have no wish to have my work mail on my phone (apart from the security risks) and anyway, I can't connect to my work mail server directly via the Internet.
It's cool to have speedials back and the picture popping up when someone calls is a nice touch, although I'm not sure how much I will use it, given the memory utilisation.
Voice dialling is good and works particularly well via the handsfree kit. I'm also rather enjoying saying 'answer' or 'busy' when someone calls - some of the looks I get are priceless, and I'm still getting used to chatting away to myself as I walk down the street.
For some reason, signal quality seems to be better on the P800. There were several areas I used to know I'd have no coverage. These are much fewer now.
The dialled/received/missed calls list is well done, with time now available for calls not made today (missing on T68).
Now, the annoying points... SE have got rid of profiles. These used to work very well - when I got to work, I quickly popped to silent, which meant no ringing, but my phone would vibrate and the screen flash. Now when I select silent from the volume menu, the phone flases once and vibrates. If it's on the cradle, it doesn't even vibrate. There is no customisation of 'silent' either and I can't make another profile to beep once.
The ringtones are not that great either. Well, they are - they sound absolutely fantastic, in a quiet environment. As soon as there is any noise, my phone goes unheard. At least I can download a replacement ringtone.
At the moment, line 2 (having a second number on the same SIM) is not supported, which is kind of surprising given all other Ericssons do. There are rumours of a firmware upgrade.
Visually, the interface looks great. It is nice and colourful, without being gawdy. It would be nice to change the colours etc etc, but that is apparently coming in UIQ 2.1. I would much prefer to have a solid and reliable phone than be able to change colours of the menu backgrounds.
I have to admit that many of the features on the phone are just like my T68 - Bluetooth, calendar, tasks, contacts, camera, WAP, games - but with a nicer interface. I almost take them for granted, so I'll focus on the differences.
Straight off, the handwriting recognition has to get a mention. It is simply wonderful. Unlike the Palm, there is no special graffiti to learn - you just write. Without exception, everyone who has tried it has been hugely impressed. Composing emails and SMS is easy, which is lucky as SE have provided no T9 (or similar) support. This can be a touch annoying when composing shorter messages and I've actually found myself making way more short calls than I used to, which I think I prefer. Much more sensible phone usage!
Going quickly through each of the standard applications:
Battery life - I was pretty concerned the battery would not last too long, especially after the SPV's poor performance. Not so - I ran the following test over a 24 hour period: I charged the battery to 100% until Saturday night at 8pm. I then used just over an hour of MP3 playback (handsfree), about 10 SMS, about 50 minutes of talking (hansdfree), 10 minutes of GPRS WAP/Web surfing, an incremental synchronisation with my laptop, taking a few pictures and running a demo of the phone (quick video, audio, game, handwriting, camera etc). At the end of this, I had 24% battery left, and this was when I first had the phone. I expect the battery to condition nicely!
Display brightness - currently can't be controlled, so it is BRIGHT when the screen is on (screen is very nice and clear) - firmware update rumoured. I am missing my screen saver showing the time, though. Still need to check if I can get that rectified.
Jog wheel - Sony's famous jog wheel thing is present. Haven't had much use for it really.
Handsfree wires - the wire that goes behind my neck just doesn't seem long enough. I'm unable to turn my head without the left earpiece falling out. A volume control on there would be great, too. The supplied soft case is pretty nice and doesn't look too bad, yet has one huge failing - there is no hole for the earpiece! I keep meaning to get my drill out and fix that.
Moving files - moving file to the P800 is a pretty slow business. The USB cradle is not fast, unfortunately. I suppose it was the best standard they could find, seeing as firewire is not yet widespread.
Installing applications - this really is a straightforward. Good work for that.
Flip on/off - I've found that removing the flip makes the phone look much better. Screen damage is a concern, though. I've ordered a Brando screen protector as recommended by many on All About Symbian. I have always been careful with what I have in a pocket with my phone, so this is not too much of an issue for me.
Flight mode - like the Nokia Communicator, the P800 can be used in flight mode. Effectively this turns off the phone functionality. I shall be trying it shortly when I head to Berlin. A few people needed reassuring when I used my Communicator on a plane a while ago.
Size and shape - I nearly forgot! The phone is quite a bit bigger and heavier than my T68. I'm not obsessed with having a tiny phone, but once the same functionality is available in a smaller package, I'll be even more pleased!
MemoryStick Duo - why oh why have SE gone with such a useless standard??? I struggle to believe there is not enough space in the phone for a full size MS, or better still a compact flash card at half the cost and four times the capacity. This is the only real hindrance I have found.
Overall I am a very happy customer! The phone is a very nice piece of kit, and once I get on to a more sensible GPRS tarrif and get the 128MB MemoryStick I will be even happier. It is definitely not for everybody, but no phone is. The connectivity aspect is great, and once I get the Web connection going via Bluetooth over my ADSL connection when I'm in my house sorted, it will become even better.
If rumours of the substantial firmware upgrades are right (they have come from reasonably good sources) then this phone will just get better! Already there are a host of applications being made available and I expect that number to steadily increase as time goes on.
SonyEricsson have done a great job with the phone. Again, respect to them for holding off releasing it until things were right.
If you're reading this and you're thinking "but what about X???" or "that's not right", then please check the following forums or else drop me a line:
A complete gallery of screen shots is here and I must thank this guy for the cool screen capture app.
Where to start in all of this
I picked up my phone a week last Friday, and I've given it a good workout since then. I really think SE did the right thing in not rushing this phone to market before the software was ready for it. The only time I have managed to confuse the OS was when I installed eDoom, and didn't place some files in the correct location. Apart from that, it's been solid as a rock, jumping from one application to another with no problems.
Phone
It is a phone first and foremost, and it performs this function well. Sound quality from the earpiece has a nice solid tone to it, and the microphone appears to pick up voice well (Wildfire on Orange UK has started working noticeably better). I've even started using the handsfree 'kit', which lets me listen to MP3 as I'm marching along, then beeps me when a call comes in.
One of the positives I've found is the synchronisation with Oulook 2000 (on Windows 2000). With the T68, this was good, solid and reliable, even via infra red. The P800 has a cradle, that the charger can also plug into. It connects to my computer via USB - more on this later (IR sync also works well). The full range of information I hold in my Outlook contacts now appears on the phone, including address (home and work). My Nokia 7110 did this, but my T39 and T68 did not - it's good to have it back.The sync tool worked well - first time I hooked up I was fully synchronised within a few minutes. Trying a full sync of 500+ contacts with IR on the T68 would normally have been a pretty long process. I have not tried the email sync as it would use way too much memory space, I have no wish to have my work mail on my phone (apart from the security risks) and anyway, I can't connect to my work mail server directly via the Internet.
It's cool to have speedials back and the picture popping up when someone calls is a nice touch, although I'm not sure how much I will use it, given the memory utilisation.
Voice dialling is good and works particularly well via the handsfree kit. I'm also rather enjoying saying 'answer' or 'busy' when someone calls - some of the looks I get are priceless, and I'm still getting used to chatting away to myself as I walk down the street.
For some reason, signal quality seems to be better on the P800. There were several areas I used to know I'd have no coverage. These are much fewer now.
The dialled/received/missed calls list is well done, with time now available for calls not made today (missing on T68).
Now, the annoying points... SE have got rid of profiles. These used to work very well - when I got to work, I quickly popped to silent, which meant no ringing, but my phone would vibrate and the screen flash. Now when I select silent from the volume menu, the phone flases once and vibrates. If it's on the cradle, it doesn't even vibrate. There is no customisation of 'silent' either and I can't make another profile to beep once.
The ringtones are not that great either. Well, they are - they sound absolutely fantastic, in a quiet environment. As soon as there is any noise, my phone goes unheard. At least I can download a replacement ringtone.
At the moment, line 2 (having a second number on the same SIM) is not supported, which is kind of surprising given all other Ericssons do. There are rumours of a firmware upgrade.
The Smart Part
Visually, the interface looks great. It is nice and colourful, without being gawdy. It would be nice to change the colours etc etc, but that is apparently coming in UIQ 2.1. I would much prefer to have a solid and reliable phone than be able to change colours of the menu backgrounds.
I have to admit that many of the features on the phone are just like my T68 - Bluetooth, calendar, tasks, contacts, camera, WAP, games - but with a nicer interface. I almost take them for granted, so I'll focus on the differences.
Straight off, the handwriting recognition has to get a mention. It is simply wonderful. Unlike the Palm, there is no special graffiti to learn - you just write. Without exception, everyone who has tried it has been hugely impressed. Composing emails and SMS is easy, which is lucky as SE have provided no T9 (or similar) support. This can be a touch annoying when composing shorter messages and I've actually found myself making way more short calls than I used to, which I think I prefer. Much more sensible phone usage!Going quickly through each of the standard applications:
- the camera is fine - still getting used to the different settings. Some examples are here, although they are not terribly good I'm afraid. I don't think this really reflects the quality of the camera. If someone would like to send me some better examples, I'd be happy to post them
- the pictures app is just like on a T68 - a small gallery where it is possible to select an image to view/send etc
- video - all I've got on here at the moment is the SE demo. I'm not sure how much I'll use this
audio - I had big hopes for this, but due to the unavailability of anything like a decent sized storage card - MemoryStick Duo is only available in 64MB and 128MB (April) is rumoured to be the maximum size - I'm not sure how good it will be. The application itself is very basic, and annoyingly, music does not restart after a phonecall has ended. Surely not such a complex piece of coding. There is no way of ordering music apart from basic name/date/filetype sorting. Someone must be writing a proper application already. Having said all that, even music at 96kb sounds good, however as I record all MP3 in my house at at least 192kb, I'm going to have to make seperate versions for home and mobile playback due to the MemoryStick sizing
the 'Internet' browser included as standard is reasonable. See later for the Opera review. The one thing that really did blow me away was watching live webcams, however that was horsing through the GPRS- messages - pretty standard stuff. SMS, MMS, email, etc etc. Read receipts are missing in action, though. Again, a firmware upgrade has been rumoured
- contacts, phone, calendar and tasks have been covered already
- jotter is a little tool for ... jotting. I've not used it yet, but I can imagine it being useful for sending a map via MMS or scribbling a quick diagram
- voice memo, calculator and time are all pretty self explanatory. The alarm clock under 'time' I've found a litle too easy to turn off instead of snoozing...
- the file viewer does an admirable job - it will happily display Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and txt(!) files, with very good faith to the original
- remote sync and online services remain unused at the moment
- control panel does what it says on the tin - Bluetooth, IR, messaging accounts handled here
- the demo is a slow-paced walkthrough of phone functionality, soon to be deleted from this P800
- the GPRS log is a hugely inaccurate data counter (I'm hoping ;-). With opera installed, it is VERY easy to burn through a few MBs in a blink. Orange need to offer an SPV 10MB for GBP6 to really get us all hooked
- chess and solitaire are good games
- Opera. Now we are talking. SE have a deal with Opera to supply a fantastic little piece of coding. The browser will handle almost anything you can throw at it. This has already been covered in depth elsewhere, so I'll just point you to the start of this review. The only problem is the data usage. Looking at Web pages can quickly become an expensive experience!
The Other Stuff
Battery life - I was pretty concerned the battery would not last too long, especially after the SPV's poor performance. Not so - I ran the following test over a 24 hour period: I charged the battery to 100% until Saturday night at 8pm. I then used just over an hour of MP3 playback (handsfree), about 10 SMS, about 50 minutes of talking (hansdfree), 10 minutes of GPRS WAP/Web surfing, an incremental synchronisation with my laptop, taking a few pictures and running a demo of the phone (quick video, audio, game, handwriting, camera etc). At the end of this, I had 24% battery left, and this was when I first had the phone. I expect the battery to condition nicely!
Display brightness - currently can't be controlled, so it is BRIGHT when the screen is on (screen is very nice and clear) - firmware update rumoured. I am missing my screen saver showing the time, though. Still need to check if I can get that rectified.
Jog wheel - Sony's famous jog wheel thing is present. Haven't had much use for it really.
Handsfree wires - the wire that goes behind my neck just doesn't seem long enough. I'm unable to turn my head without the left earpiece falling out. A volume control on there would be great, too. The supplied soft case is pretty nice and doesn't look too bad, yet has one huge failing - there is no hole for the earpiece! I keep meaning to get my drill out and fix that.
Moving files - moving file to the P800 is a pretty slow business. The USB cradle is not fast, unfortunately. I suppose it was the best standard they could find, seeing as firewire is not yet widespread.
Installing applications - this really is a straightforward. Good work for that.
Flip on/off - I've found that removing the flip makes the phone look much better. Screen damage is a concern, though. I've ordered a Brando screen protector as recommended by many on All About Symbian. I have always been careful with what I have in a pocket with my phone, so this is not too much of an issue for me.Flight mode - like the Nokia Communicator, the P800 can be used in flight mode. Effectively this turns off the phone functionality. I shall be trying it shortly when I head to Berlin. A few people needed reassuring when I used my Communicator on a plane a while ago.
Size and shape - I nearly forgot! The phone is quite a bit bigger and heavier than my T68. I'm not obsessed with having a tiny phone, but once the same functionality is available in a smaller package, I'll be even more pleased!
MemoryStick Duo - why oh why have SE gone with such a useless standard??? I struggle to believe there is not enough space in the phone for a full size MS, or better still a compact flash card at half the cost and four times the capacity. This is the only real hindrance I have found.
Conclusion
Overall I am a very happy customer! The phone is a very nice piece of kit, and once I get on to a more sensible GPRS tarrif and get the 128MB MemoryStick I will be even happier. It is definitely not for everybody, but no phone is. The connectivity aspect is great, and once I get the Web connection going via Bluetooth over my ADSL connection when I'm in my house sorted, it will become even better.
If rumours of the substantial firmware upgrades are right (they have come from reasonably good sources) then this phone will just get better! Already there are a host of applications being made available and I expect that number to steadily increase as time goes on.
SonyEricsson have done a great job with the phone. Again, respect to them for holding off releasing it until things were right.
If you're reading this and you're thinking "but what about X???" or "that's not right", then please check the following forums or else drop me a line:
A complete gallery of screen shots is here and I must thank this guy for the cool screen capture app.
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