Jan 08, 2007 10:15 PM
4444 Views
This is one phone where features need to be listed in pages! Ever since I have started seeing P series in the market my eyes were always on Sony Ericsson PDA phones. Only thing that prevented me from buying this earlier was price but this time my waiting proved to be worth.
This phone is not for first timers nor for people who use phone just as phone. It is an advanced PDA phone with endless list of features. Only those who can understand, appreciate and use these features regularly can even think of going for this phone to understand its value. Others may find this one as an expensive toy and will not be able to utilize its value for money.
Those who are planning for Blackberry willing to shell out Rs 29, 000 for 8700g can definitely go for SE P990i instead without any second thought.
Design & Build Quality: Phone look is great though over all it is made of cheap plastics. I like its screen, new dual keypads, properly placed cameras and rotating dial type selection options. I would rate 3.5/5 when it comes to design. It may NOT be revolutionary yet modern enough. I would have been happier if the phone shows bit more metal feel; its main component is made of some metal.
Features: It has all features available in the market except EDGE capabilities. This one phone should be sufficient for any one who is travelling abroad because it can work in almost all networks across the world. On Features I would rate 4/5. For some reasons I am unable to group all the MP4 songs under a play-list.
Reliability: Initially, the phone was frequently hanging when I was trying to use camera option. But over the period of time it has been stabilized. I amnot sure whether this is due to the reason I am not trying many of its features or it has stabilized by itself! As far as Reliability & Robustness is concerned, I would rate 3/5.
Performance: the phone by itself is bit slower and my experience is similar across the board. The phone really needs some speed to match its features list. With this phone working on multiple applications may not be such a good idea. Over all I would give 2.5/5 on performance.
Display: Display is one area where this phone exceeds expectations but as many had mentioned in other reviews, during bright sun light the phone display is not visible at all. Its touch screen option is really useful. I would rate 4/5 on this. Unlike Nokia phones while setting the Wallpaper, this phone requires you to optimize the image for different settings. Nokia phones normally does this automatically.
Camera/Video: I have not tested its camera capabilities but I can say camera is not so great considering it is a 2 MP camera. Video quality is ordinary if not bad. For me these features are just adequate but not absolutely essential. I would rate 3/5.
Usability: This is one area I had few problems with this phone; I have been using Nokia for the past 3 years or so. Switching over to SE Symbion 6.0 UIQ interface was quite challenging. But over the period of time I have started learning some of the short-cuts available. Its dual keypads one is with numeric and the other one is with QWERTY style. Both options work fine and touch screen options along with dial type input selection you have exhaustive options to navigate the phone. I would rate 4/5.
Connectivity:I have connected this phone with BT, WiFi and it worked well with initial setup issues. It has strage connection issues with BT headsets (especially with SE HS970). It is able to synchronize desktop emails with phone. Its PDA functionalities in messaging quite helpful.In this I would rate 4/5 purely because it can synchronize my official emails with my mobile phone with total ease which was not possible with Nokia E61. I can give generous 3.5/5.
Music: It is a mobile walk-man phone and it has a reasonable speaker if not great. It supports MP4 format which is great but I am finding it difficult to group MP4 songs under a single playlist. I am not sure this has to do something with my understanding.
Software:It has tons of software available. I am able to work with emails, attachments like Powerpoint, MS Word, Adobe reader, Excel Worksheet etc...with total ease. I am even able to send messages with attachment to my PC over WireLess LAN.
Value For Money : When it comes to price most of the SE P Series phones lag behind its competitors. When I purchased this phone I had to shell out Rs 35K. Within days price has been dropped to Rs 30K and it has been revolving around that range. It would be foolish to go for this phone without understanding the purpose after spending almost Rs 30K. My suggestion is to map your requirements with specifications and see if your requirements meet atleast 40-50% of the features available in the phone.
