P1i Blog

The Sony Ericsson P1i has hit the market with a moderate splash and in the few days since release has received good press but nothing that will make the majority of potential purchasers running down the street to buy one. Part of this may be because the operating system implemented is UIQ and that is not the most popular of mobile systems on the market today- it is seen by some as purely a corporate system and the third party software range is limited in comparison to Palm and Windows Mobile and even when compared to Symbian S60.

I will not be detailing every last specification of the P1i or showing screenshots of every menu because I don’t have the time and I want to talk about how the device performs in the real world. In particular I want to show how it feels to use this phone if you are used to Palm or Windows Mobile. If you want full technical reviews and expert commentary on UIQ keep an eye on All About Symbian who are the masters in this territory.

What’s in the box?

The box is silver and very corporate which may put some off but it is a minimalist yet beautiful design that starts the whole unpacking process off well. Inside you will find the following-

Sony Ericsson P1i
Desktop cradle
AC Adaptor
USB sync cable
Stereo portable handsfree (headphones)
Cloth pouch
512MB Memory Stick
Spare stylus
User manual
CD including PC Suite
P1 VIP support card

The entire set is impressive and the inclusion of a desktop cradle and memory stick are welcome because I for one feel that all smartphones should have these two items bundled as standard. A 1GB expansion card costs a tiny amount these days and thus it costs little to include and a desktop cradle is incredibly useful and in this case, an attractive addition to an attractive phone. All in all the entire package feels well made and this is the best ‘bundle’ I have seen in a long time.

First Impressions (hardware)

In the photos I had seen the P1i did not look too good because the black keyboard and black screen surround appeared to contrast too much with the silver outer edge. In reality it works rather well with small touches creating a consistent and appealing look that is neither ultra fashionable or too bland to be considered corporate only. The screen is one of the best I have seen to date and displays surprisingly well in sunlight for a touch screen model. Considering the size of the phone, which is comparable to standard mobiles, the screen is well proportioned and larger than my current phone (HTC S620). Obviously you may expect the keyboard to become the victim of a small phone / large screen scenario but the P1i keyboard performs much better than the m600i one did. The idea of splitting one key into two letters sounds like a backward step but for a phone that is not wide it is one of the only options open to Sony Ericsson. The keys feel softer and more responsive that the m600i set up and I found myself typing pretty quickly with 30 minutes use- I have little doubt that this keyboard will become much more intuitive that the S620 one I am currently battling with.

At the top there is an on/off button, a port for the stylus to be removed and a wireless opening. On the right we have a camera button, ‘@’ button for web browsing and the memory stick slot. Finally, on the left there is a jog dial (hooray!) and a back button just below it, both of which will bring back pleasant memories to past Clie users. Strangely there is a lanyard holder above the jog dial which protrudes more than it needs to- it is hard to decide if it is a good addition or not because it does look very good yet I would personally prefer it to be slightly further away from the jog. All of the input mechanisms are placed well, although the stylus should be on the right, and the stylus is better than expected at almost the same length as the P1i itself.

Front and back facing cameras are good to have and the 3.2MP camera was the first hardware feature that impressed me the most. I’m not going to post lots of photos and example videos to show the exact quality of output but if you are used to the cameras on Palm and Windows Mobile devices this one is light years ahead. Pictures are fairly sharp and easily good enough for printing and the videos also impressed me a lot, even though I have read negative reviews of this particular feature. This camera will not seem so impressive to users of certain phones (i.e. N95 etc.) but for Palm and WM users the story is different.

So, that’s the hardware apart from the communication features and processor, memory etc. and that will be looked at in detail tomorrow along with the operating system and my overall thoughts on usage. This is likely to be a three part review but my first impressions are extremely positive- it feels like a smartphone yet has all of the quality and sophistication you expect in a standard phone from S.E.

Available from Clove for GBP370.12. Thanks to Clove for the loan.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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