Unboxing the Sony Ericsson P1i and First Impressions
Published by Steve Litchfield at 10:15 BST, July 27th 2007
It's here at last, read on for Steve Litchfield's first impressions, ahead of Rafe's big P1i review. Almost 80MB of free RAM, a mature software interface (generally) and a super camera make for a good start for this make-or-break device for Sony Ericsson.
Neatly stylised box.... [nothing to see here... move on - Rafe]
Nice to see the P1i come with screen, camera and logo protectors.....
The full package includes: device, mains charger, PC Suite CD, 60 page mini-manual, velvety slip case, desk cradle, proprietary headset, spare stylus, USB lead and 512MB M2 data card
A first look at the P1i with M600-style rocker keyboard...
Booted up and with most of the 10 extra home page shortcuts assigned. Although this was a much requested feature, UIQ 3 has slipped into the S60-like trap of having two completely different ways of launching applications. Is more better? Comments welcome and contrast with how the Apple iPhone handles this. etc.
AAS rendered fairly well on the small screen using the built-in Opera, but I somehow managed to invoke the Litchfield effect and the P1i locked up on me after a couple of minutes. Maybe it was too much to hope for that there would be no bugs at all because the UIQ 3 implementation was mature.... Watch this space. Rafe will give it a more thorough workout next week.
Yeah. If they'd shipped the P990 with even half this much RAM, they'd have a whole different device success story on their hands....
That keyboard, up close and personal. It's well formed and works quite well, although, like the Apple iPhone, you have to go fast and 'trust' it, stabbing at the right area and the right thing usually happens.
And now up close with the back-of-unit 3.2 megapixel camera. There's a double-strength flash, which is good. But the focussing is a little suspect, several times it claimed it had 'locked' when it clearly hadn't. More early firmware teeting troubles? Still, it's clearly a high quality camera, with just the right degree of noise/removal/sharpening. See Rafe's review next week for more samples. Video capture is at QVGA at 15fps, as with the P990.
Sample photo, click to enlarge to full size. Photo is (obviously) of one of the P1i's closest competitors, the Nokia E61i.
Steve Litchfield, AllAboutSymbian, 27 July 2007
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Categories: Hardware, Editorial Thoughts
Platforms: UIQ 3
News Discussion
stuclark
Does the flash actually work now? (pre-production ones crashed every time you tried to activate the flash)
slitchfield
Yes, the flash works fine, though I still hate the camera interface with a vengeance...... some text is horizontal, some is vertical, icons aren't obvious, it's a mess....
malerocks
A thought... we all use screen protectors to make sure that the screens are scratch free for as long as possible. Instead, can't the screens be made of such a material that its resists scratches, doing away with the need of putting on a screen protector in the 1st place? Its something that everyone needs.
okubax
Quote:
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If they'd shipped the P990 with even half this much RAM, they'd have a whole different device success story on their hands
|
I am not so sure about that steve, the p990 will still come with loads of bugs that will ruin the fun, but still the RAM would have been somewhat advatageous.
Just have one question for you steve, would you recomment a P990i owner to upgrade to a P1i ? seriously ?
slitchfield
Probably not, as long as you're on the latest P990 firmware. The extra RAM makes a difference, but probably not an extra £300 difference, unless you've got cash to burn....
Not that this will stop P990 power users upgrading. If you like the design then you're always going to want the latest iteration of it, etc.
Steve
dgduris
C'mon SE! How about a little 850 GSM love for us Yanks!
Sergey Zak
- 15 fps? SE is crippling its phones not to hurt their camcorder sales.
- 2 ways of launching? While some may like it, I do not. I think it's an accessibility feature for people with bad eyesight, etc. In UIQ2 the top strip with app shortcuts was always there, giving you real UI consistency, like the Application Menu strip in the Mactintosh. Now here the shortcuts disappear as soon as you click on them.
- the browser still sub-par? enough of "kid's internet", already! iPhone will lead the pack then.
chairstacker
this would have been the phone to upgrade to.
But I just couldn't stand the horribly dysfunctional P990 any more and switched to the E61i. Back to Nokia after P800, P900, P910i - none of which deserved the P990 as their successor!
Macboy
This phone is nothing compared to iPhone. And for whoever mentioned scratch resistant screen, get yourself an iPhone. As Steve himself said it, he has seen the future, and it looks like an iPhone. Enough said.
Unregistered
"As Steve himself said it, he has seen the future, and it looks like an iPhone."
Of course, that's exactly what he said. ha ha !!!
Just keep taking the tablets Macboy.
Zuber
dgduris
chairstacker,
Could be worse: After my P910a finally gave up the ghost I had to switch to an E62, which - great format aside - was sooo slow and S60 Series inflexible (original UIQ sure spoiled us). I have left for the Dark Side (Windows Mobile 5). It is not bad, it IS less stable than Symbian, but mostly the community just isn't as coherent as is the Symbian community - so it is hard to get good - and the latest - information easily.
C'mon SE!
dgduris
OH! And I have to add that all those years of people complaining about the difficulties getting symbian to sync with Outlook - I must say that Windows is certainly no more reliable in that area. Yes, categories do sync, which is great, but half the time I have to reset my phone to get Active Sync to find it.
Unregistered
I thought I type allaboutsymbian.com but some how it seems I stumbled upon allaboutiphone.com
Unregistered
Looks like there is no all things to all people phone out there. Everything seems to be a compromise somewhere, one day somebody will hit a winner.
Macboy, it's not an iPhone. An iPhone is a brilliant user interface, but a very ordinary phone. I've tried, it's fun to play with for 5 minutes, then I need something useful with decent online speed and doesn't make me look like a geek poking one palm with the other hand (as UIQ also does). It's also larger than I like.
As this comment list contains a lot of discussion about P1i compared to older Sony UIQ devices like P990, P910 etc, I don't understand the comment 'I stumbled on.... iPhone is a new phone out and it's valid to compare.
Unregistered
I think MacBoy is not really an apple fanboy, but is probably a wannabe who is unable to afford an iPhone...
krisse
"This phone is nothing compared to iPhone. And for whoever mentioned scratch resistant screen, get yourself an iPhone. As Steve himself said it, he has seen the future, and it looks like an iPhone. Enough said."
Macboy, if that is you and not another troll, please stop posting here.
Why hang around a Symbian site doing nothing but telling people how rubbish Symbian is?
How would you like it if someone from here hung around an Apple site posting 100% anti-Apple posts?
The iPhone as it is costs $2000 in total including the phone and the compulsory 2 year contract. I don't personally want to lock myself into that kind of payment for any model of phone from any manufacturer, it's too much money to spend on ANY phone.
You also can't use any third party software, so they're not even direct competitors. Comparing the iPhone and a smartphone is like comparing a games console and a PC: there's a great deal of overlap but they don't do exactly the same things. A console is much easier to use than a PC, but a PC has far more features and is far more expandable.
"Looks like there is no all things to all people phone out there. Everything seems to be a compromise somewhere, one day somebody will hit a winner."
No one will ever invent a "perfect" phone because different people want totally different things from their phones. It would be like trying to find the perfect car, can a Rolls Royce and Land Rover and Skoda ever be combined?
Some people (perhaps most people?) don't want anything except calls, and regard all other features as a total waste of money, so they will actively avoid any phones with extras like video players, browsers etc. And if you make a phone with the maximum number of features, that will make it very expensive and more difficult to use. Say what you like about the iPhone being easy to use, but you couldn't possibly say it was feature packed, and that was probably a deliberate design decision by Apple.
To put all this simply: cheap, easy, maximum features - pick one (or sometimes two). You'll never get all three into a single phone, and by the time you do phone brands will be as dull as light bulb brands.
lz64
Steve,
For non outlook users, does the pc software that comes with the P1i allow you to import your settings (book marks, contacts, notes, agenda…) from a previous Pxx model (P900 in my case)? Also, will the previous Pxx software coexist with the P1i’s software on the same pc (XP)?
Thanks
LZ64 (waited a long time for a suitable upgrade to the P900)
malerocks
"Macboy, if that is you and not another troll, please stop posting here.
Why hang around a Symbian site doing nothing but telling people how rubbish Symbian is?"
I agree... iphone may be good, but the other phones shown on this site are pretty good too and good value in some way or the other. And as Krisse said, each will appeal to different people with different needs.
Macboy, if you such a iphone fan, hang out on sites dedicated to that. What are you planning to achieve by promoting the iphone so much and calling all others rubbish. Wait a few months, lets see how your iphone fares in the phone market...
Unregistered
Buyers who want to buy this phone and other electronic devices should contact our company's email address{mobilephone_ltd at yahoo}or the manager's email address {brakelynz at gmail} for emmediate ordering..
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