Sony Ericsson P1i Performance

Joe D'Arcy

Thinking of getting a SE P1i. Interested in hearing from anyone who has one. Currently use a Nokia E61. I will be using the phone on the Vodafone Network and want to run GMail on it.

quintron

Its UIQ v's S60 really. Same type of phone with regard to spec (connectivity etc) except a there is the touchscreen and more execution ram on the P1i which puts it in front for multitasking.
I'd try out the keyboard first on the P1i as its a love/hate thing having 2 letters on one rocker key. I messed with one last week for a while and it was easier than I thought but still a little cumbersome without the necessary time to aquaint myself with it. It has predictive text on entering (a la iphone) so it makes it faster than the E61 once you get used to it.
Browser on P1i is Opera based (the whole UI is opera based actually) which puts it well in front with regard to your existing E61 which runs a Safari based browser.
The Gmail client is Java so it will run on any phone.
You are on Vodafone network so get a data plan or that 50MB per day thing to check your gmail account. I think it costs max 99c per day or €15 for the month.

Joe D'Arcy

Thanks quintron. I had a play with an M600 last year - friend had one in the UK - and I think that I will get used to the 2 letters per key. It will allow to operate one handed which I struggle with on the E61 because of the width of the phone. You seem well informed so a couple of questions:
How does UIQ compare to S60 with regard to available applications?
Would you recommend any other phone. I want something smaller than the E61. Other than voice I mainly use the phone for email (using GMail), web browsing and music when I can't be bothered to carry an iPod. Will need a good hands free kit in the car with the ability to charge the phone in a cradle. I've never really used a camera on a phone put I am a keen amatuer photographer and might use it if the quality is good. Up until the E61, I was mostly Ericsson/SE and preferred them to Nokia

quintron

There aren't as many applications available for UIQ as it is seen as a business class device. S60 has a far broader range of applications available. Having said that I have never owned a UIQ device and am just going on the reviews of the unit and the test device I was playing with last week. The general consensus is that the P1i is what the P990i should have been but wasn't. The web browser is good as I mentioned already. YOu can use the built in email client to collect your pop gmail automatically or just use gmails java client. It has a nice music player also.
In S60 land you could always go for an E65 for one handed input, no qwerty though. Or the N95 8GB which has a great camera, bigger screen, more memory, demand paging, more ram and overall better build quality than the regular N95. Both are smaller width wise than E61 and designed for one handed operation. Expect to pay for the latter though. The N95 8GB is a better multimedia phone with great camera and music player as well as the new OVI interface that includes a portal to NOkias new wireless music store..
At the other end you could go for an E90 which has traditional keypad layout on front for one handed texting etc and a qwerty keyboard inside with a really nice internal screen. Super bulky though!
I use an E90 and love it, but tastes will differ!
You could get a "sidegrade" to the E61i. Minor improvements to the E61 and the addition of a camera.
Hope that helps!
Q

Tree

as the proud and delighted owner of an m600. the keyboard is great for writing long things like emails and texts (i dont believe in txt spk). Not a whole load of free/cheap applications out there for the phone though yet, have a couple of nice games and applications but theres more i want and cant get till someone makes them. Not a business user, just a tech head. Would love a p1 though with the extra camera/wifi, but being a poor studentytype i cant afford to change phones again anytmie soon.

Joe D'Arcy

Thanks again quintron for the excellent summary of the options. I had a Communicator a long time ago and while the E90 is smaller, it's too bulky for what I want. On balance I think I will give the P1i a try. It looks to have everything I want, the reviews say that the audio quality is excellent, the camera seems perfectly adequate for snaps and the battery life is far superior to N95. As Tree has agreed with most of the comment in reviews and other forums that the keyboard is at least as fast as an E61/palm/Blackberry, if not faster when you get used to it, it will be more than capable of meeting my email needs.
Next task is to persuade my boss that I need a new phone and to get the IT people to agree to taking a SIM free model.

Alancillhill

Hello boyos,
I am about to buy a p1i too. Just to point out if u install a sony head unit with bluetooth - the p1i has A2dp (Think that's what its called) so you can just hop in car and start receiving tunes from the phone. When u get a call it then acts as a hands-free. I got a unit on Komplett on offer for €150 a few months ago..
N