The P990i comes with a 2-megapixel camera, a wealth of productivity apps, built-in Wi-Fi and a teeny, tiny QWERTY keypad. Philip Berne gives this would-be Treo killer the once-over.
Review summary of the Sony Ericsson P990i:
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 More than a year old already, the Sony Ericsson P990i seems like last year's idea of what a smartphone might eventually look like. Advanced features like Wi-Fi and 3G support are welcome, and we were impressed by the handset's robust multimedia capabilities, but the P990i's interface is so different compared to other smartphones we've seen that it almost requires a secret handshake for accessibility. Meanwhile, the phone's sub-par productivity apps and sluggish performance are sure to disappoint hard-core business road warriors. Release: August 2006. Price: $650.
Pros: 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth for plenty of connection options. Phone sounds fantastic. Remarkable still camera. Video-call capable. Good multimedia support.
Cons: Interface has a steep learning curve and is counterintuitive at times. Productivity apps are hobbled by poor interface and necessary use of stylus for navigation. Sluggish performance.
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Full Sony Ericsson P990i Review:
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Design
The Sony Ericsson P990i carries over the signature design of the P900 series, the flip-down keypad, and the keys themselves are far smaller than those on other smartphones we've tested. In practice, if you are using any advanced applications beyond regular calling, you'll need to open the flip, and closing the flip stops your application in its tracks and takes you back to the home screen. If the flip isn't your thing, Sony Ericsson has included -- no kidding -- a screwdriver and faceplate so you can remove it. The phone sports both a five-way button and a scrollwheel, but the OS often forces you to use the touch screen, so keep that stylus handy. The phone's UIQ (a.k.a. User Interface Quartz) interface was frustratingly oblique, and the P990i's sluggish performance made for slow, tedious navigation.
Messaging - Good
The messaging capabilities of the Sony Ericsson P990i are a mixed bag. Though it supports myriad e-mail protocols, notably BlackBerry Connect, Exchange, POP3, and IMAP4, the messaging application itself is hardly capable. Reading long messages caused the P990i to stall, resulting in jerky scrolling, and selecting text from within a message requires drilling through two levels of menus. Typing messages on the phone's tiny keys was a frustrating experience, to say the least. With careful pecking, typos will be infrequent, but one-handed typing or typing on the go (say, while crossing the street) is out of the question, as the keys require your undivided attention. We were also annoyed that while creating messages, the phone attempts to auto-complete as you type into the "To:" line, using plain English instead of names from your contact list.
Laptop sidekick - Good
The Sony Ericsson P990i should offer road warriors plenty of connectivity options, whether or not you feel like breaking out your laptop. Though we could not test the phone's performance on a UMTS network, it does offer tethered modem support for 3G access for your PC. The phone can act as a modem over a Bluetooth network, or find a Wi-Fi network on its own with its 802.11b capabilities. We applaud the inclusion of Wi-Fi on the phone, but the slower 802.11b protocol does keep the speed down a bit, especially compared to the 802.11g standard you'll find on Nokia's Wi-Fi-enabled phones. The included USB cable also charges the phone. If you prefer a clean aesthetic to your desktop, Sony Ericsson includes a dock with ports for the charger, USB cable, and headphones.
Multimedia - Very good
Multimedia is clearly the P990i's strong suit. The phone uses the Opera Web browser, a capable browser that still pales next to the Symbian browser found on Nokia's S60 phones. The phone opened the New York Times homepage effortlessly, though scrolling about the large window required a lot of thumbwheeling. The phone handles music files well, playing most popular non-DRM formats (and, thankfully, not limiting you to Sony's ATRAC files). Stereo Bluetooth support is included, as is an FM radio with RDS functionality. The included wired stereo headset is required for FM radio use, as it acts as an antenna. A couple of extra applications handle streaming audio and video, as well as RSS feeds. The camera has a 2-megapixel sensor, and is among the best we've used, with real auto-focus capabilities and clean images that reveal flaws only when you zoom in closely.
Scheduling - Good
Though the Sony Ericsson P990i contains a robust calendar setup, poor implementation makes it a hassle to use. There is no daily view; instead, today's appointments are shown in the bottom half of the window of the monthly view, with no timeline. The weekly view, which shows a set of seven squares at once instead of five or seven columns, is difficult to read quickly, and comparing days chronologically with each other is impossible. Synchronization is handled by Sony's buggy PC Studio software. All too often, our sync attempts failed even though the PC studio indicated a connection with the phone. Working properly, however, the software can synchronize with Outlook, and works fairly quickly over the USB and Bluetooth connections.
Productivity - Mediocre
The phone supports all Office document formats as well as PDF files, though viewing and editing these documents can be an arduous experience. Few editing functions are available, with a lack of advanced formulas in Excel spreadsheets or form support in PDF files. Additionally, navigating documents on the P990i is among the worst experiences we've had on a business phone. The scrollwheel only moves the viewer up and down, which is annoying in Word documents, but absurd in Excel spreadsheets. Using the stylus to drag the scroll bars produced mixed results. Occasionally, the phone would only scroll to the end of a cell in a spreadsheet, or would jump about the document. Stylus input overall seems somewhat inaccurate, though we calibrated our phone before testing. Highlighting text required pinpoint accuracy, as any near-miss was interpreted as a handwritten strike, an action that the phone reads as "delete."
Calling - Good
Phone calls on the Sony Ericsson P990i sound great, among the best we've heard, but placing a call can be needlessly difficult. Though you can dial from within the contact list, you cannot type a contact into the number pad. Additionally, the contact list is not a top-level option; instead, you must drill into the puzzling icons to find it. The search function in the contact list is remarkably dimwitted. It will only search for names as typed -- last name first -- so if you type a first name into the search field, you're out of luck. The phone's "business card scanner" function piqued our interest: you simply take a picture of a business card, and the phone uses optical character recognition to create a contact for it. Unfortunately, fields such as company name were often missing, and proper names tended to gain or lose a character, rendering the card reader more of a novelty than a useful business application.
Related phone: Thumbboard-equipped smartphones
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Palm Treo 700p
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Score: 60% When: May 2006 Worth: $250 - $650 Carrier: Sprint, Verizon Wireless
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The 700p brings speedy 3G data access to the Palm OS line of Treos, along with wireless modem capabilities, Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and even live TV. Ben Patterson gives this long-anticipated smartphone the once-over.
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Read » Gallery » Features » Side-by-side »
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Price and availability
The Sony Ericsson P990i will start selling for $650 to $750 () in August 2006.
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