Considering how many other P900 users are in this forum, it will be interesting to see the reactions to this review.

My desire for gagets is pretty much insatiable and for some reason I had decided to get a smartphone. Maybe it’s just that I’m not thrilled with the idea of carrying 4 pieces of equipment around. Maybe I just don’t like money. After the MPx220 didn’t pan out, I started to look closely at the P900 and decided to take the plunge!

Unlike the toyish P800, the P900 is slick, stylish and business-like. It truly looks like the T610’s older brother. As you can see from the pics below, the P900 is quite a bit bigger, over half an inch taller and over half an inch wider. Without the flip, the P900 is only a little thicker than the T610, but with it, it’s close to an inch thick. That’s almost exactly the size of my iRiver MP3 player ! Fitting it’s high price tag, this phone doesn’t squeak or flex and the flip doesn’t move around at all when it’s closed. The phone feels very light compared to the T610 (for its size) due mostly to its plastic construction. As you can see from the pics below, the P900’s silver plastic is a great match for the magnesium shell of the TR.

On the left side of the phone is a headphone/handsfree jack, although in a Sony touch, it’s not a standard 3.5 mm mini-DIN jack. It’s 2.5mm. You’ll need to get an adaptor to use another set of earphones. Below that is the 5-way jog wheel, which will allow one-handed operation in flip up mode and in flip down mode. Next down is the IR port and the power button. Interestingly, when you press the power button, the phone asks you whether you want to shut it off or put it in airplane mode (no BT or radio, but access to PDA functions). On the right side is the camera program/shutter button, the WAP browser button and the MS Duo slot. Happily there is a nice rubber plug covering the MS slot. Unhappily, while the slot itself can reportedly support higher-capacity MS Duo Pro cards, the P900 OS can’t. I hope for a patch at some point, but this is SE we’re talking about here.  :? On the top is the stylus slot. Unlike my poor NZ90, which is constantly shedding styli, the P900 stylus is very well-secured into its slot—some would say too well secured. If you buy this phone make sure you have usable fingernails. There is a VGA camera on the back, with its own self-portrait mirror just below it on the off chance you will want to take a picture of yourself. The screen itself is reasonably bright, but it won’t compete with the brilliant transreflective screens on recent Sony Clies, Palms or iPaqs. The digitizer screen is definitely a step back and feels spongy, like the side-lit reflective TFTs on the early iPaqs.

Also included in the package were a headphones/handsfree kit (with 2.5mm plug), a strange UFO-shaped dock station, a power adaptor (the same one as every other Ericsson phone I’ve owned), a spare stylus, a 32MB MS Duo, an MS Duo to MS adaptor and a cleaning cloth. It’s not that the phone picks up fingerprints like the T610. It’s the screen. The flip only protects the bottom 1/3 of the screen, so if you don’t have a dedicated case for this sucker, you are going to smudge and scratch the upper part of the screen.

Like all “convergence devices”, the designers had to start with one product and work towards the other. In this case, the P900 is definitely phone-based. With the flip up, the P900 acts like just about any phone, with Contacts, Calendar, Messages (email, SMS, MMS), Call List and many other basic programs are easily available and usable from the phone mode. Oddly, some functionality is reduced. For example, I can’t add a contact with the flip up. I can only do it in flip down mode. Why not? T9 works just fine for input. As a phone it’s great. It feels better to hold to my head than the small T-series phones. The reception is slightly better than my T616 and it seems to pick up a new signal after being in a tunnel faster. It’s still nowhere near Nokia quality though. The call ringtone is nice and loud. Battery life is in the PDA class, not the phone class. I’m down to about half a battery over the course of a day-and-a-half of moderate usage.

Once the flip id down, it becomes another beast entirely. UIQ is pen-based like Palm and Windows Mobile, but can be used for the most part with just the 5-way jog dial if need be. If you know either Palm or WM/PPC, you can navigate around easily. Symbian works like WM/PPC in that launching an app is kind of slow, but once it’s in memory, it’s running and quick to return to. It’s internal structure is arranged like WM as well, with heirarchical directories and drives: the P900’s internal memory is the C drive and the MSD is D. Unfortunately all of this is hidden completely from the advanced user. The only generally accessable folders are the equivalent of the “My Documents” folders on the device and the memory card. Everything else is hidden, even from the file manager program. I don’t mind that they hide the inner workings from the masses, but we advanced usres deserve a little juice! Luckily there are a few programs out there like sman (great program!) and the qFileManager from the Ericsson developer site to remedy these problems. There are some strange software UI quirks as well. I tried to find how to turn on vibrating alerts on the phone (because I have headphones on most of the time) and couldn’t find the option anywhere in the control panel. According to the manual, the only place that option is found is by tapping on the speaker icon in the notification bar. Text input is made using either Jot, which takes a dedicated Grafiti user some time to adjust to, or a stylus-driven soft keyboard.

The sync stand is odd. It’s frisbee-shaped with rubber pads and weights so that it doesn’t move on the desk and has the familiar SE and E/// connectors for power and data on the top. It’s a little tricky to get the device onto the stand. I can’t really call it a cradle because the only part of the stand that the P900 touches is this data connector, so you have to guide the phone onto the studs by sight rather than feel. The phone looks like it’s floating above that large divet in the middle of the stand. It’s reasonably secure, but doesn’t look it. Syncing isn’t as unified as Palm’s Hotsync/Palm Desktop combo or WM’s ActiveSync app, as there are half a dozen separate apps for synchronizing, backing up and software installation. The PC suite also installs a P900 icon on the desktop to allow you to browse the P900 ... or at least just the documents directories. When installing an application, you are given the opportinity to install it in either c() or d(). Since their real names are hidden from the user most of the time (called “Internal” and “External - Media”) the non-techie user has no clue what that means when presented with the question. I haven’t been able to get BT syncing working yet, but operations on the stand seem to work well, if incredibly slowly. I was even able to update the firmware from the SE site, which is a first for me with an SE phone. Normally you have to send it to a service center.

The installed software is pretty decent. CommuniCorder is the P900’s all-in-one picture-taking app. It takes crappy videos or crappy photos, your choice. I don’t MMS, so if I want to send a pic, on my T616, I could email a pic without saving it. On the P900, you can only MMS a pic directly. Now I have to save the pic and open up the messaging app. :| You can change the resolution and a few lighting effects as well. It’s got the usual PDA Contacts, Schedule, Calculator as well as apps for listening to music, watching videos and viewing pictures. More interesting is the Viewer application. It can open Excel, Word and PDF files, but is unable to modify them. For that, you’ll need to go aftermarket. Jotter is also kind of cool. It’s a freehand Post-it note sort of program. Lastly, Solitaire (not the familiar Klondike, oddly) and Chess are included. It should be mentioned that the ringtones can be MP3s. SE dutifully included two of the most annoying ringtones ever.

I’m really a minimal PDA guy: I just use the things because I can’t remember phone numbers. I’m really a data guy. The P900 comes with two browsers, a WAP browser called Internet (WHY???) and Opera 3.6. Opera’s main advancement in terms of PDA browsers is that it can open up multiple windows. Beyond that, it’s not a great browser. Here’s a screenshot of this forum on Opera. As you can see, it doesn’t respect tables at all and is very hard to read. It does handle frames reasonably well, allowing you to chose the frame displayed. Another annoyance is that the browser string doesn’t have either “pocket” or “palm” in it, so many sites that have PDA-friendly pages, often give the phone the full-sized page. I’d love to use this as my main mobile pop-and-go browser, but PocketID on WM and both WebPro and especially NetFront on the Palm blow it away. Yes, I realize that 320x480 is MUCH bigger than 208x320. The comparative paucity of software out there for UIQ vs Palm is an issue as well. There is no real equivalent to AvantGo for example, one of my must-have apps for when I am underground.

Was it worth it? As a phone, it’s a definite upgrade. It’s a much better phone overall than the T616, which is no slouch. As a PDA, it’s not up to par with a Palm Tungsten3 or an HP iPaq, but as a basic PDA with good expandability. I’d say it’s one of the most powerful true smartphones on the planet. Size-wise it’s not quite big enough to be a good PDA and a little too bulky to compete with most phones, but does well against the 3650s of the world. In short, it’s a compromise—but it’s the best compromise in the smartphone world. Unfortunately, I’m a best-of-breed sort of guy, so this won’t replace my NZ90. I’d say it’s not worth $800. I’d say it’s fairer to be closer to $500-600 w/o contract.

Am I disappointed? Yes. I was hoping UIQ and Opera could give Palm and Sony a run for their money. IMO it wasn’t worth the money spent. Am I selling it? No! :D For the first few months I was convinced that my Clie was inferior to my old PPC. In many wasy it was, I just got many apps and enough knowledge on the device to the point at which it became indespensable. This phone has similar potential and a much smaller form factor. Let’s see what happens.

Here are some pics:
The P900, T616, Nokia 3650
The thicknesses of the P900, T616, Nokia 3650
P900 and the TR1A
P900 and the TR1A
P900 and the iRiver iHP-140 (compare to my iHP review to see the size comparison to the iPod)
P900 and Space Station Freedom
P900 and it’s strange cradle a standard MS and Clie stylus are provided for size comparison
P900 in it’s ugly horizontal belt case
My office taken at 640x480, medium compression
UIQ’s app launcher Looks very much like Palm and WM. The 5 app icons at the top are configurable and there is an icon view. I just like the list view better.

On edit: Wow, that’s a hell of a 300th post.

Sweet smartphone although the $800 is mind boggleing.

thanks for the review, i was thinking to get the UX50, but then like many people, i don’t want to be carrying a lot of gadgets in my pocket, so i’m thinking to go with a smartphone - P900, but after reading your review…

dang, what should i do… :unsure:

I almost bought this phone.  My research came up similar to your review.  Too much money and it is a jack of all trades, but a master of none.  I will defer until Sony starts to bridge the gap between the PDA and the Ultraportable.  I have a feeling that phones are best used on their own, otherwise you compromise too much.  So I have to agree with you Drachen on your comment about being a “best-of-breed sort of guy”.

I am waiting for Sony to make something between the UX50 and the TR.  It must have a full OS.  I can live with a slightly smaller screen than the TR, barely.  Once the flash memory in the 1GB range gets really cheap I could probably ditch the optical drive (for mobility sake).  I guess what I want is a slightly bigger PDA with a full OS and a lot of ports.  I’m not asking for much, but then again us geeks are never happy :wink:

Just a few corrections I’d like to make. The inbuilt browser is not just a WAP browser but is also capable of browsing full webpages. Just it’s not as good as Opera on a full site.

The screenshot of Opera is with it running in Fit To Page mode. This changes the layout of the pages, it really depends on the site. Sometimes it’s really useful and sometimes it is quite confussing but it’s still a useful feature when you consider the phone is quite small to be browsing full websites. With this option off the site should display exactly as it would on a PC, only you’ll be doing an awful lot of scrolling.

Now my 2 cents. If you buy a smartphone and expect it to be as good as a full PDA then your making a mistake. They won’t be but most people don’t push a full PDA but are a light PDA user. This I think is where the Smartphones are aiming for. For this I think the P900 does a really good job. It’s got IM clients, IRC, FTP, Telnet, Zip, etc etc as well which you can add to it. For me it more than meets my PDA needs.

Now I am probably going to get an O2 XDA 2 as well to run in my car with a bluetooth GPS so I can run Tom Tom Navigator or something similar. My reasons for getting an XDA 2 are it’s a pretty good spec and on a contract is subsidised by the mobile operator. Despite driving everyday for work I’ve never got a GPS Nav system, go figure. Hehe. My actually reason is more I want it to show me where all the speed cameras are in the UK for purely informational purposes of course. Well nah, I’ve got a speeding ticket recently and was just a mistake, missed the sign for the limit drop down as I was looking for a turning and got caught. :(

I don’t feel Wayfinder is quite good enough and at present it’s the only GPS option for the P900 which is why I choose this route. But I couldn’t use the XDA 2 as my main mobile because it’s just too big for a normal phone. Also the P900 does all my PDA needs quite nicely and the OS integrates between phone and PDA features really well compared to what I’ve heard of Windows Mobile 2003 where it’s a PDA first with phone features just tacked on.

Don’t let Dracken’s post put you off, I think mainly he was dissapointed because he expected more for the price. If it was cheaper than he’d have been more happy with it. In the UK however if you go on a contract you can get the P900 at quite a reasonable price (I got mine SIM free and imported from Germany before it hit the UK for around 500 pounds but should be cheaper now).

Hope this helps. If anyone wants a picture of some app running or something then I’d be more than happy to take them for you and put them up.

[quote author=“FastLaneJB”]Just a few corrections I’d like to make. The inbuilt browser is not just a WAP browser but is also capable of browsing full webpages. Just it’s not as good as Opera on a full site.

The screenshot of Opera is with it running in Fit To Page mode. This changes the layout of the pages, it really depends on the site. Sometimes it’s really useful and sometimes it is quite confussing but it’s still a useful feature when you consider the phone is quite small to be browsing full websites. With this option off the site should display exactly as it would on a PC, only you’ll be doing an awful lot of scrolling.

Both good points. I only really started playing around with Internet in earnest over the past few days and I discovered its HTML capabilities. Of all the WAP browsers I’ve used, I like this one the best so far. I am truly impressed by Opera’s HTML rendering in non-fit-to-screen mode, but I didn’t review that for two reasons: firstly Opera’s big selling point is its fit-to-screen technology and I don’t think most people will browse in the full mode. Like you said, there’s way too much side-scrolling involved. My real concern was readability. I’ve seen much better fit-to-page implementations that could have worked on 208x320.

Looking back over my review and the experices I’ve had with the phone subsequently, I think it’s an absolutely incredible business tool. The business user can get rid of their PDA forever. My review is entirely from the enthusiast perspective.

Anyway, what software do you have on your P900 that you find useful? The one I really find indispensable at the moment is sman .

I think in general, we can divide these phone PDA hybrids into 2 major categories.  One is the Smartphone (Phone with PDA capability) and the second one is PDA Phone (PDA with the phone capability).

Sony Ericsson P900 in my opinion fall under the first category where more phone functionalities in it but with basic PDA in mind (I think you can argue the other way too as it is actually somewhere in between that 2 categories). 

As a smartphone category, I think P900 is superior compare to any other smartphones out there except for the stiff price.

If you are in this PDA/Phone hybrid market, take a look at these phones for comparison:
HandSpring Treo
O2 XDA II (a much better version than the first one)
Microsoft Smartphone 2nd Generation (with Bluetooth capability)

So far I still like the P900 better compare those I mention above.

The essential softwares that I use a lot with my P900:
Agile Messenger
Quicksheet
and of course all the built-in app such as MP3 player.

My 2 cents.

I bought the P800 several weeks ago, having had an ipaq, clie and all manner of palms for years; the idea was to bring it all together.

Now it does that, no problem, syncs with the pc, ms outlook etc, so diary on the move, it does the e-mail remote very well, I just download the headers, never really wanted the full text and attachments as it cost a fortune to download.

It functions fairly well as a PDA, not as good as standalone PDA.

As a phone, it does the job, but it’s not as easy to use as my old Nokia 6310i

Battery life, well if you use it as a PDA, its not going to last long, I had to buy a car charger very quickly, it’s the kind of device you plug in, when ever you have the opportunity.

Connects very well with other bluetooth devices including the TR, much better than the Nokia. In many ways I got the thing to use with the TR, so it does the job.

Also an excellent mp3 player, although I don’t have time to walk around with phones on, if I did I would not be happy at the 128 mb limit on the MS Duo.

As a digital camera its does the job, I am also very happy with the communicorder, it makes pretty good mp4’s. In my job I need to capture basic things from time to time, and its good for that.

It is a little slow as well.

It’s a mobile office and that’s what I was after, but I guess I was a little disappointed after getting to know the P900 for some weeks, its not the best PDA in the world, but makes a very above average phone. I would agree with Drachen, but I guess most of us on this forum and into tech and gadgets, and as such we pay over the odds for the latest stuff and keep Sony in business! Give it a few years and god knows what we will be debating!

Interestingly, my business gets me about a bit and all the of the Sony stuff I carry around always gets noticed and makes for good conversations, in actual fact it helps get me business!

Its early days for a device that does it all, but it’s a fair attempt, although I didn’t look to closely at the competition, perhaps I should have?

It’s funny that you mention the O2 XDA 2. I should be getting one of those next week and yes I already have a P900.

My reasons for getting the XDA 2 are because I’ve finally decided to get a GPS nav system. I’ve not got one earlier because I’ve always managed fine with maps so I didn’t really see the point. However on the odd occasions I do make a wrong turn, get going down a oneway street say then it can be a pain to workout a route back with a map which doesn’t show a one way system but either way, it’s a waste of my time.

My other reason is getting caught by a speed camera recently, I was doing 64 in what I thought was a 60 but because of road works it was actually a 50. Now in my opinion the tempory road works sign with speed limit had fallen over as I really don’t remember seeing it but there is zero point arguing anything like this with the law. I know I’d only end up with more points on my license and a bigger fine as I cannot prove this at all. It did however annoy me.

So my original goal was to get a speed camera detector, however the best ones are GPS driven and cost around 400 pounds with a yearly sub of around 50 quid to keep the database up to date. I’ve seen you can easily do this on a PDA so have ordered an XDA 2 for 119.99 pounds and a 149.99 Bluetooth GPS unit. Just not decided on the software yet but most likely will get Tom Tom and that brings me to around the 400 mark I imagine but with full nav as well as speed camera warnings.

I know you can get Wayfinder on the P900 and I would have used this only I feel it’s too basic for my needs. It’s a shame as now I will have another device but for the price I don’t feel it’s all that bad, the extra features that it offers is worth the extra price.

I’m not sure I want to have 2 smartphones with me at all times however until I get the XDA 2 I’m not sure I could use it as my phone. I mean I know it’ll work but it’s bigger, I’ll look like a nonse using it to my ear, no T9 or keypad and as jeo4long said. It’s one of the PDA first, phone second devices. The P900 is more a phone first, PDA second. Anyway we shall see and I’ll let you all know.

Oh as a side note, the Bluetooth GPS unit has already arrived, the XDA 2 was out of stock. It syncs just fine with my TR using Bluespace. Turn on the serial port mode and then connect to it with Autoroute and it maps my position correctly. Not important as I wasn’t planning to sync it with that, just heard that the Sony Serial port over Bluetooth had a lot of problems with some devices.