P900 Sony Ericson Mobile Phone..

[kylie]

Anyone been using one for a while? Am about to part with some cold hard cash for one. I want something thats lasts and does what its says in the advertising.

Other things are the pictures you can record - any good?
Video recording quality and websurfing any good?
Pitfalls if any?

Cheers
Kylie

[Don]

I'm thinking of one of these, too. Either that or the XDAII - which has Windows CE 2003 as well as a mobile phone in it...

I hope someone knowing more than us posts, Kylie...

[fatsteve]

Hi,

Interesting dilmema, I went for the XDA II because I've previously had a string of iPaqs (fantastic machines) and liked to stay with PocketPC (familiarity-wise and so that all my apps would port across - ie sat nav etc).

The way I see it, they are both very diferent machines (which might help on your purchase)

The XDA II is a PDA with a phone built in. The P900 is a phone with PDA functions. My rationale for the XDA was:

Pros
1. Better screen (bigger, sharper)
2. Better compatibility (although the Symbian OS on the P900 is cracking and some would argue more stable than PocketPC.
3. The XDA II uses SD cards for expansion like most other "decent" electronics. The P900 uses Sony's poxy memory cards which are expensive and are not availble in the high end of storage (ie > 256Mb).
4. Software availability, couldn't get TomTom navigator for P800 (plus I'd have to fork out for a different OS version)

Cons
1. XDA is bigger and I would argue a bit more fragile. The P900 is more robust (I guess being based on a phone it's designed to take the knocks more).
2. Battery life not as good
3. The bluetooth implementation is not that good (particularly for transfering files across from one PDA to another)

Enjoy...

Steve

[fatsteve]

kylie said:

Anyone been using one for a while? Am about to part with some cold hard cash for one. I want something thats lasts and does what its says in the advertising. Other things are the pictures you can record - any good? Video recording quality and websurfing any good? Pitfalls if any? Cheers Kylie

Kylie, the P900 (and XDA II for that matter) are both equipped with GPRS which is a faster data transfer system than normal GSM. Whilst GPRS is quicker, you will need the patience of a saint to surf (especially graphics intensive sites - although you can opt to turn off the graphics). Surfing the net on a phone or PDA sounds great but in reality it's a bit taxing. It's great for checking email and MSN messenger though.

The other alternative (which I don't think the P900 can do) is to use wifi hotspots. I've got a wifi card for the XDA II and you can surf the net considerably quicker with wifi, you just have to be near a hotspot (plus it costs extra).

>> Edited by fatsteve on Thursday 27th May 08:51

[fatsteve]

last post before I hoon up to Brum to see if Noble or TVR can liberate some money from me!!

There's a couple of guys in PH that have the P900 so, hopefully they'll chip in.

Mail me offline if you like

Cheers

Steve

[judas]

Been using a P900 for a few months now and I'm very happy with it. Before I got it I was using an SPV and an Ipaq, but wanted to replace them with a single item as my Ipaq was knackered and the SPV was too awkward to use as a full-time PDA. Did consider the XDA2, but decided against it in the end simply as it was too big and I wanted to stay with Orange. The Treo 600 was another option, but quickly discounted.

What I would say is that the P900's picture quality ain't great and having only 16mb of memory is a pain, and they only supply a 32mb memory stick with it.

[kylie]

fatsteve said:

last post before I hoon up to Brum to see if Noble or TVR can liberate some money from me!! There's a couple of guys in PH that have the P900 so, hopefully they'll chip in. Mail me offline if you like Cheers Steve

Thanks heaps Steve, all comments appreciated, just out of interest how much do they retail over there in the UK? They are ripping us for $1400.00 NZD, but I have a friend in Singapore who may be able to get me one half the price.

[Stig]

I've got one after ditching my iPaq. It saves me carrying a PDA/Phone and camera which I used to do a lot.

Good phone and fairly robust. I broke the screen on the first one but only because I dropped it onto a concrete floor once too many times!

Picture/video quality is passable but it's a phone not a digi camera at the end of the day.

Use it for email and web and with GPRS it's pretty good.

Now just waiting for TomTom to cmoe out for Symbian OS so that I can have Bluetooth Navi on the phone too

As said above, I considered the XDAII but it's too big. Incidently, a 256Mb Memory stick duo gives me over 2 hours of video recording time!!!

[julianhj]

I've had mine for about 4 months now - love it. I haven't got round to using all the features yet, but it's great.

[kylie]

Ace guys its nice to know that it delivers on most of the features. I am hanging out for it now. Am not tight with my money, but when you are invloved in the retail business and have contacts, knowbody pays full retail, its just not the done thing esp when you know their margins makes me sick thinking about it

[gixxer1000]

Kylie, you didn't mention what you actually think you want to use it for. That makes a big difference.

I had a P800 for 10 months and moved to the P900 about 5 months ago (got it free as an upgrade from Vodafone ). Before the P800 I used to buy mobiles purely on size and also operated an iPAQ, and like 99% of iPAQ users, I only used it to keep my diary, contacts, emails, notes etc synchronised with my desktop Outlook. The P900 does that admirably, so the iPAQ is totally redundant.

Earlier comparisons with the XDA are fine if you intend to use more of the capability of the machine and therefore need larger memory cards, more software etc etc. Now we all start out thinking we will, but inevitably most don't, so having a highly capably machine (the P900) that you can realistically carry around in your pocket (unlike the XDA) may well be the ticket.

The pic quality from the digi-camera on the P900 is poor, but it is the best I've seen on a mobile phone (that said, I have noticed a few phones coming out with 1 megapixel cameras). The video capture is not too bad (for a mobile phone), and it captures sound pretty well too.

Things I think are excellent about the P900:
* Operating system (never crashed once - the P800 crashed lots)
* Navigation and general usability (including the 5-way jog-dial which rocks)
* Music player (including using actual MP3 files as your ring and alarm tones)
* Outlook (or Lotus Notes) synchronisation
* Handwriting recognition software (better than the iPAQ!)
* Bluetooth capability
* Size (it's smaller and lighter that you think and easily fits into the back pocket of your jeans, for example)
* Screen quality (much improved on the P800)
* Photo editing software (crops and sizes any digital pic to display on your phone)
* Photo display software (enlarges to full screen size)

Things I think are ok about the P900:
* Web browsing
* Picture and Video capture

Things I would improve
* Add a spreadsheet application (I'm sure you can probably buy one)

Hope this helps.

Gixxer.

[catretriever]

I have been using the P800 for over a year now and it is simply excellent and I understand the P900 only improves on the package.
On the memory front...I bought a 128Mb memory Stick Duo for mine on ebay for around 50 notes 6 months ago and voila!.. My phone is now a more than capable MP3 player on top off everything else. The postage stamp size sticks are hot-swappable too, so the amount of storage is effectively limitless.

Visit www.handango.com to see all the software that is available (i recommend unreal player for MP3). I believe there is stuff to cover anything mentioned already in this thread (including Navigation!)

cheers

Matt

[kylie]

Hi Gixxer, I work full-time in my day job hence am away from my emails sent home for my artwork stuff, so would be nice to answer my home emails at work, also my sisters and friends been on at me to get PXT so they can send me funny pics of stuff. I want to be able to jot down notes when I am visiting people who want to buy some art and email my notes home, record small movies, be compact enough to slip into my pockets. Most of all using it for a phone and store all contacts and being able to receive other contacts from people.

Cheers
Kylie

[gixxer1000]

kylie said:

Hi Gixxer, I work full-time in my day job hence am away from my emails sent home for my artwork stuff, so would be nice to answer my home emails at work, also my sisters and friends been on at me to get PXT so they can send me funny pics of stuff. I want to be able to jot down notes when I am visiting people who want to buy some art and email my notes home, record small movies, be compact enough to slip into my pockets. Most of all using it for a phone and store all contacts and being able to receive other contacts from people. Cheers Kylie

In that case Kylie, the P900 will work very well for you. An XDA or equivalent will do it a little slicker, but will be a pain to carry around.

Good luck.
Gixxer

[kylie]

Hi my P900 should arrive in the mail soon, I can't wait to use it. Can you get leather protective cases for them?
Just that I work in a chemical Co and the regs are that all cell phone users must sign to say they are contained in a case, so that if its dropped the battery doesn't spark a fire.

Cheers
Kylie

[julianhj]

They come with a case/protective cover. It doesn't fully encase the phone but protects it from minor knocks & scratches. Quite nice actually, though i don't use mine - I use an old Oakley sunnies bag instead, because it takes up less space.

[kylie]

Excellent thanks

[alextgreen]

Stig - how on earth did you get a 256mb card? Duo only goes up to 128, 256 and above is Duo pro which the P900 doesn't support.

[kylie]

I have not long got my P900 and still trying to find my way around the thing. The only thing thats a little painful is writing text and the wrong letters keep popping up, so I have to train my letters properly. Otherwise has got everything I need. Can I just manually use the letters on the key pad for writing text messages etc?


Just edited to add I found the icon on the screen to get the keyboard up thx..

>> Edited by kylie on Wednesday 16th June 07:49

[catretriever]

You can use the keypad, or you might prefer the on-screen keyboard.

I'ts worth persevering with the hand-writing tho' as it's much much quicker once you get the hang of it