PDA/CELLPHONE REVIEW

Sony Ericsson P800 Smartphone

RATINGS Quality Geekness

The Sony Ericsson P800 has been "coming soon" for so long that it was in danger of becoming one of those things people thought existed but were never seen--you know, Elvis, Santa, the Tooth Fairy, Area 51 ... that stuff.

Well, you can officially scratch the P800 from that list. It's finally here, and your Symbian Adviser has got his hands on the über-phone of 2003.

If you’ve been paying attention, Symbian phones are finally (!) being released in some number. The first one to make U.S. shores was the Nokia 9290, a Symbian 6.0 keyboard-based phone based on the Symbian "Crystal" reference design (now named "Series 80" by Nokia). The 9290 is an okay phone, but hobbled by a lousy keyboard, no GPRS ability ,and somewhat flaky software behavior compared to the more bulletproof Psions, of which the 9290 is the direct descendant. Nokia again was next with the cool camera-enabled 7650, which is knocking them dead in Europe, but for which we're still awaiting a US version of. The 7650 and its soon-to-be-introduced little brother, the 3650, is based on the Pearl (phone-centric, no keyboard or stylus) reference design. And more should be coming from Siemens, Samsung, and others.

And, at last, the P800. We’ve been teased with arrival of this phone for damn near two years now since it appeared as a prototype in 2000 having a sexy but hulky profile ...

... and looking much more like a PDA than a phone.

The P800 runs Symbian 7.0, with a user interface called UIQ, which was developed by Symbian’s Ronneby shop. UIQ looks rather Palm-like (not a bad thing), but has the un-Palm like advantage of the underlying software running on ARM chips, i.e., true multitasking. (Yes, I know Palm OS 5.0 runs on ARM now, but, despite the huge number of programs available, it's not as well integrated or as solid as UIQ is.)

Was the P800 worth the wait? Let's see.

The phone,

compared to, well, regular mobile phones, is a bit on the tubby side, but it's light and certainly pocketable--as good as the Treo, I think.

(OK, so photography is perhaps not my strongest suit.)

In other words, you can walk down the street and talk on this thing without people thinking you're speaking into a brick like the Nokia 9290.

The left side of the device has the Sony trademark jog dial for menu navigation, an IR port, power button, and headphone/handsfree jack (not the standard 3.5 mm jack, unfortunately--time to get another adapter.) The bottom of the device takes the standard Ericsson accessories, so, thankfully, I was able to use the charger for my wife's T28. Good thing, too, since if you don't use the backlight judiciously your P800 and its charger will be quite intimate with each other. You can get about a day and a half of talk and work, but that's about it. This is sadly becoming the norm for these devices. Get yourself a second wall or car charger, kids. (Ah, I remember getting two weeks out of a pair of AAs in my Psion Series 5 ... but I digress.)

The right-hand side has a dedicated button for the built-in CommuniCam digital camera, a "browser" button, and a cheesy-looking but surprisingly good stylus, which covers and protects the memory expansion slot. I do like the stylus, but expect to dip into the supply of extras (three) supplied with the phone. And it can double as a coffee stirrer!

The P800 comes with 12 MB of memory on-board, and 16 MB in a Memory Stick Duo card. Yet another proprietary memory format. Sheesh--what is so hard about agreeing on one type of storage card, guys? Anyway, 16 MB is not a bad size. You can get lots of data and program storage on here, so you can free up your main memory for browsing, etc.

The phone is a very elegant and much improved implementation of the Ericsson design for the old R380 phone (see our review),

for which the P800 is a way more than adequate replacement. The real objection to PDA phones--dialing on the screen, which really is terrible--is obviated by a cool flip which dials very well. The flip has no electronics at all, but rather the keys have tiny plungers on the obverse of the flip which dial numbers on the lower part of the touch screen. (The upper part of the touch screen is inactivated when the flip is closed, i.e., in flip closed--surprise!--mode.) It may sound kludgy, but it works perfectly. All of the phone functions are accessible using the keypad and the jog dial, and it can be operated one-handed, the way it should. The most important PIM functions--Calendar, Task, and Contact lookup--can also be checked in "flip closed" mode.

With the flip open in--yes--"flip open" mode, the entire screen is available for viewing and data entry. The flip can also be removed permanently and replaced with a small cover. In this mode the P800 is more like a PDA, but much less convenient in my opinion. It also renders the touch screen a lot more vulnerable to scratches, greasy skin stuff, and latte foam.

The screen is gorgeous. It takes a little while to get used to the smaller screen size compared to conventional PDAs, but I found it to be just right for the intended purpose.

The screen layout has handy shortcut "tabs" at the top, 5 of which can be customized, and a status bar at the bottom. There's good sound feedback for all actions (which can be turned off if you want), and Sony Ericsson has done a nice job of picking pleasing default sounds for everything--alarms, etc. You can add your own sounds and polyphonic ringtones.

The rightmost tab is the Applications tab, analogous to the "home" screen in Palm OS. Applications can be organized into folders for convenient access. There is unfortunately no task switcher, but this omission will certainly be filled by a third-party app soon. You can switch quickly between apps by using the Applications tab anyway.

Speed? This thing is fast. Compared to the Orange SPV, the P800 blows the doors off it in task switching, program opening, and even surfing (on the same network.) No hourglasses here!

The P800 is a GSM phone, which means in the US it will work on the AT&T, T-Mobile, and Cingular networks. It is, of course, GPRS- ("high-speed" data) enabled, meaning you can surf and check your e-mail at quite reasonable speeds. Data transfer comes nowhere near 802.11 or T1 speeds, of course, but in my use of the P800, e-mail sending and retrieval and surfing was more than acceptable. And I'm a speed freak.

The CommuniCam is easy and fun to use, as long as you remember that it's not a substitute for a proper digicam. That is, don't expect a flash, zoom, or any of that other stuff. At the same time, you can't zap a photo from your digicam to another (MMS-enabled) phone or to an e-mailbox seconds after the snap, either. This feature makes the P800 a real fun device. You won't use it all the time--if you do, you may need more of a life--but when the opportunity arises it's a gas.

Synchronization
Historically, Symbian and Psion devices have been ... how shall I say ... simply horrible at synchronization with desktop PIMS, e.g., Outlook. The old software programs missed entries, handled repeating entries what I can only describe as "creatively," and mangled more of my Contact entries than I care to admit. Only Intellisync saved me from PsiWin hell.

That's all in the past, folks. While synchronization speed could be better (there is still nothing faster than Palm HotSync), Symbian got it right this time. Selected deletions of repeating entries on one side showed up on the other side, every change I made was captured properly, and nothing got garbled. There are some added bonuses, too. Task alarms synchronize, and to the correct time (take note, Palm and Microsoft). Calendar entries have a Location field which is implemented like its Outlook analog, and Jotter entries sync for the first time in the Symbian world.

One little disappointment is that backup of the device, while convenient, doesn't allow selective backup, one of the things I really loved about the Psion. It's an all or nothing proposition--restore the whole device image or not. Backup is still more convenient than ActiveSync on the PocketPC--but what isn't?

Connection-wise, I had no trouble whatsoever connecting to the two Windows computers I used, whether via infrared, USB cable, or Bluetooth. (There's no support in Apple's iSync yet, though you can connect and exchange entries via Bluetooth.) Walt Mossberg at The Wall Street Journal had trouble connecting via Bluetooth, but I had no trouble at all. I wonder how hard he tried ... I got my hands on a D-Link USB "dongle" Bluetooth adapter, plugged it in, downloaded and installed the drivers, and boom! I was up and running. The only thing that I found curious was that I had to manually "switch on" the BT serial port each time I wanted to connect to synchronize. For some reason I thought that would happen automatically, although the P800 was recognized prior to that. Bluetooth is just awesome; it's really nice to just lay it on a nearby table and have everything happen. I just wish I had the cool Jabra Freespeak Bluetooth headset (see our review) to try out, though--they're hard to find right now.

The Applications
I could spend all day telling you what's in here. Out of the box you get (deep breath) a serviceable world clock, picture and video viewers, document viewer (Word, Excel, PDF, and more), audio player, Web browser, Personal Information Manager (PIM) functions (Calendar, Contacts, Task List, Jotter (notes), calculator, and a couple of games. It's probably best to describe all the P800 does by breaking things down into groups: PIM stuff; Messaging and Browsing; and Other Applications, including games.

PIM stuff
One thing that Psion users will note right off the bat is that all the core PIM applications have been stripped of some of their richness (e.g., font selection in Calendar and Jotter, repeating task entries). This is not necessarily a bad thing. The core Psion apps were feature-rich to the point of distraction to casual users (but not me, of course), and the scaling down of the form factor from a PDA to a small phone necessitated some slimming. It's mostly a success.

The Calendar application gives you just the facts you need, and entries can have alarms, repeat, and have notes attached. Longtime users will sadly note the disappearance of Anniversaries--another business opportunity for third-party developers. However, the lack of same in the Calendar is just one less thing to clutter the screen.

(Screen caps courtesy of the Screen Capture utility from those clever coders at PsiNT.)

If you’ve used a Palm or Pocket PC--or not--you'll know exactly how to use this calendar in no time. One of the really nice things is the time entry field, which works like one of those old flip-number digital clocks. Very easy, convenient, and the quickest I've used.

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Text and data entry is via an onscreen keyboard--not bad, but I'd kill for Fitaly--or by a Jot implementation which works well. This thing screams out for a good snap-on keyboard or the Stowaway keyboard. One of things which puzzled me more than anything was that the not-bad and inexpensive Ericsson Chatboard would be an instant solution to this problem--it plugs into the bottom of the P800, after all--but it doesn't work! I can't imagine why there's no built-in Chatboard driver. Someone at S-E should fix this one pronto.

The Jotter has been retooled to be more like Notes in Outlook

and FINALLY, it syncs perfectly to Outlook. You can create freehand and text Jotter entries. One of the little touches that makes Symbian so perfect for phone use is that any text which looks like a phone number is "hyperlinked" so you can tap on it and dial the number, just like clicking on a hyperlink takes you to that page (and that works in UIQ, too).

Everything works together so well. It would have been nice to sort the entries by date or alphabetically, though.

Tasks are much easier to enter than in the Psion, and gosh, you can actually tick them off when they're done!

But, maddeningly, there is still no filter to at least show only those tasks due today, nor is there an easy way to advance the due date like in the Palm OS. Grr! And worst of all, your Outlook categories--in any of the PIM application--do not sync at all (did Symbian think people don't want to use any of their Outlook categories?). At least the task alarms sync both ways to and from Outlook, and sync is spot-on.

Contacts is a spectacular improvement, and is the center of this communications-centric device.

(And, yes, I have more contacts than that! All of my 700 (!) contacts synced over without a peep.)

Everything--phone, e-mail, SMS, MMS--depends on the Contacts app. Fortunately, it will contain just about all of your essential Outlook information and keep it handy.

It all transfers over, as opposed to the native Palm OS app, and you can dedicate ringtones or record magic words to dial that contact. You can also attach a picture of your contacts so that when you call them or they call you their picture is displayed. The only thing it's missing--a real omission--is a quick find function like on the Treo or the MS SmartPhone, where you write or type and corresponding hits appear.

Messaging and Browsing
Once I got the nice folks at T-Mobile to give me the settings for GPRS, MMS (for picture messaging), and configuring a POP mailbox (you can do IMAP, too)--it's no harder than setting one up on a PC--I was surfing and sending and receiving e-mail effortlessly.

The e-mail client can be set to check for e-mail either at up to three different times a day or in as little as 15 minute intervals.

Not quite e-mail on demand, but the P800 happily checked my inbox all day in the cradle and in my pocket. You can set a signature and automatically attach a vCard to your e-mails.

The e-mail client is text only--no HTML. You can define a number of accounts and check them all.

E-mail attachments, like Excel, PDF, and Word documents, can be opened (but not edited) with their native formatting.

Browsing, for me, is the killer app for this device. The P800 comes with a very nice browser, but I immediately downloaded the Opera browser from the Sony Ericsson website to see what all the buzz is about its vaunted "Small-Screen Rendering technology" ability. It's really, really good. You get actual HTML and nothing I found was crunched, lost, or mangled. Even on a screen as small as the P800's (compared to a Pocket PC, for example) every page is entirely readable and convenient to access.

Downloading speed was very good over GPRS, and even faster with image download turned off. I suspect that most people will surf this way, not just because it's quicker, but because T-Mobile and AT&T charge for GPRS data by the megabyte. (I'm not looking forward to my T-Mobile statement this month!) Until the US carriers start offering "all you can eat" GPRS plans, you may want to do "text-only" surfing.

When I got the P800 I was disappointed that there was no AvantGo client (yet), since I love it on the Treo. Yet I found I could get the same information from my favorite websites, many of which have low-bandwidth versions (like The Onion), and wound up not missing AvantGo at all. Surfing on the P800 is that good.

Other apps/third-party apps
There are lots of other applications, some of which you may use, some not. Video clips can be played--big whoop on a 1.5 x 1.5 inch screen. Audio is a better deal. MP3 quality is excellent, but don't expect to store a lot of songs on a 16 MB Memory Stick. Just the one clip below I loaded sucked up most of my free space. You'll have to use clips at low sampling rates. And (right now) there's no way I found to set up playlists, randomize playback, etc. Again, the audio player is nice, but it won't make anyone forget the iPod.

The voice memo feature cries out for a mini-app that will take one of the external buttons (not on the keypad) and instantly access and record a new voice note. This is a feature that can and will be useful, but not right out of the box.

Conclusions/Ratings Defense
I came into this wanting to like the P800, honestly. From the feature set what's not to drool about? But I've reviewed lots of stuff before--the Nokia 9290, for example--which were more sizzle than steak.

The P800 is the real deal. Whatever shortcomings I found with the device were mainly software-based and obvious "intentional" omissions, like the lack of a file manager and task switcher. As I write this both of those gaps have been filled by products from Epocware and Knowledge Intelligence AG. More are certain to be filled in the coming months once the word spreads on this fantastic device.

The basic hardware design is typical solid and functional Ericsson, but the Sony design influence is unmistakable, too, and really rounds it out. Just take a look at the difference between the Ericsson prototype and the finished product; the P800 is well-built and designed (but there better be a keyboard available real soon), and the software, with very few exceptions, is easy to use and rock-solid. 5 solid Geekheads for Quality.

Is this a gadget-head's device? Have you been reading at all? :) You can keep your calendar and tasks, surf, check your stocks (or what's left of them), and shop. You can keep up on all of your e-mail and text messages. You can listen to music. And you can take pictures whenever the moment strikes and send them off via e-mail or MMS instantly. This phone does it all, and does it with very few compromises. 5 Geekheads for Geekness.

The P800 is the coolest thing I've had the pleasure to use since the Apple iPod. Once the price drops--it ought to be priced around $399-$349 with a wireless service plan--this is the one to get. I give the P800 a very solid Geek.com Pick.

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