Sony Ericsson P1i - hands on preview
Published by Rafe Blandford at 14:38 BST, May 17th 2007
While at the recent London launch event Rafe took a hands on look at the new Sony Ericsson P1i smartphone.
Last week Sony Ericsson announced the latest in its smartphone line up - the Sony Ericsson P1i. The P1i is a UIQ 3 touchscreen smartphone with a 3.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900), UMTS (2100), and WiFi connectivity. It is the fifth in the venerable (for smartphones at least!) P series range of smartphones from Sony Ericsson. Predecessors include the P800 (the must have smartphone of 2003), the P900, the P910 (an update of the P900) and the P990 (the first UIQ 3 phone).
In its design, the P1i is a departure from the traditional P series form factor, being the first not to have a numeric flip keypad (and consequently also has no flip closed mode). Instead, the P1i takes its design cues from the Sony Ericsson M600i. Indeed the P1i can be best described as the M600 design and form factor combined with the feature set of the P990, along with some extra updates thrown in for good measure.
Beneath the 2.6 inch QVGA screen is a QWERTY keyboard with a twist. Rather than a key per letter as is the norm with thumb keyboards, the P1i has the same innovative design as the M600. Each key serves two letters, with the letter entered dictated by the side of the key you press; effectively two keys are merged into one. This allows the overall size of the keyboard to be slimmed down, while maintaining good sized keys and thus giving a more pocketable, narrower phone.
At first glance it might seem that this keyboard cannot compare with a full size thumb keyboard, but this is not really the case. Based on my M600i experience, I think that, with a few days usage, the average user will not notice much of a difference in terms of speed of input between an E61, a Treo or a M600/P1i. The keyboard on the P1i is slightly better than that on the M600. It gives better haptic feedback when the keys are pressed and this should translate into an extra few words per minute in typing speed terms. It is very similar to the improvements between the E61 and E61i.
The production keyboard is likely to have more bevelled keys, similar to the M600.
The familiar UIQ/Sony Ericsson hand writing recognition input option is present for those who do not want to use the keyboard. Both keyboard and pen input support the excellent predictive input software (provided by Zi Corporation) which can speed up input by about 20%.
The main consequence of the smaller form factor is a significant reduction in the overall size of the P1i; compared to its predecessors it is 25% smaller and, at 106 x 55 x 17 mm and 124g, a lot features have been packed into a small space. Most of the size reduction has been achieved by making the phone much slimmer. The P990 looked a bit podgy, in a direct comparison the P1i looks waif like, but in reality is a touch thicker than the M600i. There have also been some small styling changes too, the P1i has a more modern look, with greater use of metallic highlights.
The most welcome upgrade for the P1i is the addition of an extra 64 MB of RAM. The earlier UIQ 3 devices each had 64 MB of RAM, the P1i has 128 MB. The difference is further accentuated because the earlier UIQ 3 phones typically only had around 15MB or so free RAM available after boot up. This effectively means the P1i has four times the amount of available RAM than the earlier models.
The immediate consequence of this is to ease multi-tasking - fewer applications will shut down in the background due to low memory (RAM). I saw 15 applications running at the same time on the P1i - and I would assume it can handle more too. Consequently, both the state of applications will be preserved more often and switching between applications will be faster. Perhaps even more welcome will be an end to the 'out of memory' errors that occurred when running RAM hungry applications such as the Opera browser. The extra RAM also, on the initial evidence, seems to have speeded up general phone operation; moving through menus and application functions is faster, with many functions being instantaneous. Outside of the early firmware stability issues, which have since been largely solved, the low available memory was, and to an extent remains, the Achilles heel of the P990. It is very encouraging to see that Sony Ericsson has taken this onboard and rectified the situation for the P1i.
The P1i's 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera produces excellent results, comparable to any other smartphone on the market today. The onboard Camera application draws strongly on the influence of the UI of Sony's Cybershot digital camera range and is extremely ease to use. Performance, in terms of shutter and image processing time, is also good, especially considering the size of the images and in comparison to its competitors, such as the Nokia N95. The camera is good enough to replace basic digital cameras, even the performance in low light conditions is fairly reasonable thanks to the dual LED flash. As with other LED-based flashes, results do start to deteriorate when the subject is more than 3 or 4 metres away, but the P1i produces better results than many camera phones in this area. Video capabilities are also good and should be sufficient for most basic tasks and 'life recording'. The camera is used in one of the most innovative applications, the business card scanner which was first seen in the P990. I was skeptical at first, but with patience it does work as advertised.
The P1i has a dedicated camera capture button on its right hand side.
Staying with the multimedia department, there is a slight UI tweak to Music player (supporting MP3, AAC and AAC+), added support for TrackID (identifying the name of a music track from a few seconds sample), support for stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), improved video support (now includes updated H.264), an FM Radio, an in-box HPM-62 stereo headset, a 512MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card, to supplement the 160MB of internal memory and the standard Sony Ericsson port and cable for charging and syncing the phone over USB, with the accompanying PC software.
The P1i is a capable web and email platform; the Opera 8 web browser and basic but functional RSS feed reader are retained from the earlier models, as is the Certicom VPN Client and support for multiple email protocols (POP3 and IMAP4, including IMAP IDLE) and push email systems (AletXia, Ericsson mobile Office, Nokia Intellisync, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync [provided out of the box via DataViz's RoadSync], Blackberry, Seven, Sybase and Visto). The onboard attachment handling of office document remains strong, thanks to the inclusion of the excellent Quickoffice suite and Pdf+.
The P1i runs UIQ 3.0, which means the software interface is largely unchanged from the earlier P990. Power users might be disappointed that the P1i retains version 3.0 of UIQ rather than the more recent version 3.1. However, there is little real difference between the two versions, partly because one of 3.1's primary aims was adding better non-touchscreen support and partly because much of the functionality has been 'back ported'. The UIQ 3.0 interface that runs on the P1i is significantly updated compared to the UIQ 3.0 that ran on the early P990's; the inclusion of support for Bluetooth 2.0 (not originally in UIQ 3) is an example of this. There are some exceptions to this - there is no support for OMA Device Management for example, but on the whole the differences are very minor.
The P1i, P990 and W950i compared. The reduced size of the P1i compared to the P990 is clearly evident here.
Even with the same version of the software platform, there are a few cosmetic UI changes in the P1i. One of the most notable and most welcome in the addition of an extra 10 shortcut slots in the 'Home Screen'. These are accessed via a small on-screen 'up-arrow' which resides just above the current shortcut icons. With 15 shortcut icons now available there is quicker access to more applications, it is a small but very welcome touch. Another change of note is the inclusion of a 'More applications' shortcut as one of the five defaults. This leads to a web page where you can access the Sony Ericsson Application Shop, with a number of free and 'try and buy' applications and other content.
The P1i white paper indicates there will be a broad range of 'try and buy' applications shipping with the device. These include a Skype client, a VPN Manager, Google Mail and Google Blogger applications, an AudibleAir client, a number of Epocware 'Handy' applications, and a number of others. The placement of the shortcut icons should go some way to helping to educate new users as to the extensibility of their device, advertising that add-on applications are available. This playing up of the open platform nature of the phone is a clever move as it is a key feature of UIQ 3 and the P1i.
There's now room for 15 shortcut icons.
A number of extra applications may also ship pre-installed with the P1i. At the London launch, Sony Ericsson was showing off a DivX player and a VoIP client. The DivX player was able to play back impressive looking video in full screen mode. The VoIP client, UniPhone from OptiMobile, in one of its configurations is capable of roaming between WiFi and GSM networks, thanks to some back server handling. The exact form of the Uniphone software has not been finalised, and of course whether VoIP is available at all may depend on the decision of a user's operator.
The P990 did a lot of damage to the reputation of the P-series, especially amongst long-term loyal users who had upgraded from previous models, because of the instability and general poor experience of the flagship phone for the first 6 months of its life. However, I expect it to be a completely different story with the P1i, in the short time I had with the device I didn't experience any major problems. This is in sharp contrast to the early demo versions of the P990i, which were crash prone and buggy. Moreover the P1i has another few months development time to go before its public release. I am sure the P1i will attract a lot of fans and should go a long way to repairing the reputation of the P series.
For me the P series has always been about a synthesis between a PDA and a phone and I think the P1i is the best PDA/phone combination I've seen. It may not push the specification barrier in the same way as the N95, but it is an incredibly powerful device. By leaving the megapixel and convergence race to others (at least with the P1i), Sony Ericsson has created a mature, well rounded smartphone that will prove very attractive.
Rafe Blandford, AllAboutSymbian, 17 May 2007
Categories: Comment, Hardware
Platforms: General, UIQ 3
Feature Discussion
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).
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?
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.
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
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?
no profiles available for UIQ3 devices, and no third-party option either at the moment
where does it say the P1i does not have GPRS?
Picture quality does not look too different to the K800i
Harald Weedon-Fekjaer
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.
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.
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.....
I'll definately be replacing my M600I with it!
:-)
Just my 2 cents
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
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.
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 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.