Sony Ericsson P800 - The Smarter Smart Phone
Written: Mar 03 '04 (Updated Mar 03 '04)
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Pros: Design, Symbian OS 7.0, Camera, Quality, Keypad, Memory Stick Duo, Everything Else...
Cons: Symbian OS 7.0, Memory Stick Duo, No QWERTY Keyboard
The Bottom Line: The Sony Ericsson P800 proves itself to be a very smart phone... Two thumbs up!
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| soupcraze's Full Review: Sony Ericsson P800 GSM / EGSM Cellular Phone |
One of the hottest and most stylish Smart Phones on the market is the Sony Ericsson P800. This $500 device closely resembles a large beefed up attractive cell phone with the keypad in place. But thanks to its attractive design, the Sony Ericsson P800 offers more than what you might expect. It's a GSM based phone which means that you can use it with a variety of plans that use GSM phones such as AT&T Wireless, Cingular, T-Mobile, and other providers around the world. With this in mind, here's what you can expect with the Sony Ericsson P800.
-Price-
*The Sony Ericsson P800 is a very beautiful phone. I'm not the biggest fan of Sony Ericsson phones, but the P800 tickled my senses. It's cheaper than the more expensive P900, and can be found for around $500 on eBay. This isn't a cheap price to pay, but Smart Phones are quite expensive these days. With certain providers such as AT&T and T-Mobile, the Sony Ericsson P800 clashes with the Handspring Treo 600. I personally would take the Treo 600 since it runs on Palm OS 5.2.1 while the Sony Ericsson P800 runs on Symbian OS 7.0. But the Palm product lacks Blue Tooth, which this phone has. The future is Blue Tooth, and the Sony Ericsson P800 has got it. This is a very well-built and organized phone, and it works very well combined with Symbian OS 7.0. However, if you're looking for more versatility (Still, Symbian has a lot of 3rd party support), then you might want to go for a device powered by Palm OS or Windows Pocket PC. But with the Sony Ericsson P800, you can take multimedia, organization, and Blue Tooth to the next level. For what you pay for, the Sony Ericsson P800 gives you a lot, though you should look at other options available.
-Performance-
*Wow, the Sony Ericsson P800 sure smokes a lot of other devices out there. Sony really knows how to make a great product, and this phone is no exception.
PROCESSOR
*The Sony Ericsson P800 runs pretty fast. It uses Symbian OS 7.0 with a processor. You shouldn't suffer any lag when using this device. Sony did a pretty good job here with incorporating a fast chip with this device.
OPERATING SYSTEM
*Here's one thing that I don't particularily like. When I first thought of Sony making a Smart Phone, I thought of it using a Clie base. Well since Sony's phones are Sony Ericsson, then their Smart Phones were obviously also Sony Ericcson. So instead of using Palm OS like the Sony Clie PDA's use, the Sony Ericsson P800 runs on Symbian OS 7.0. This is a very attractive operating system that is quite popular. It looks so nice, and quite powerful too. It's a very easy to use operating system much like Palm OS. Navigating the Sony Ericsson P800 is absolutely no problem. Also, Symbian offers quite a bit of 3rd party software support. But for something so expensive, I'd rather take a more mainstream operating system such as Palm OS or Windows Pocket PC.
MEMORY
*The Sony Ericsson P800 comes with 12MB of internal memory. Ehhh... quite skimpy for something costing hundreds of dollars. But at least this phone comes with a 16MB memory stick. One complaint that some people might have is that the Sony Ericsson P800 has Sony proprietary external drives. It uses the Sony Memory Stick Duo system which allows for quite a bit of flash memory, but it only allows you to use the Sony memory sticks rather than the SD and MMC cards on the market. Sorry, the Sony Ericsson P800 doesn't have SD/MMC slots. The Palm Treo 600 on the other hand offers such a slot. But on the other hand, if you use a lot of Sony products or fail to use SD/MMC cards in other devices, you shouldn't have any problems with this device.
SCREEN
*Neato... The Sony Ericsson P800 has a very large color screen. This can be enlarged by removing the keypad which makes dialing phone numbers a breeze. The screen size is 208 x 320 pixels. This will allow you to view plenty of multimedia such as pictures and stuff with this phone. Also, there's a camera with this device which makes it all the much more fun. The large colorful screen also allows for great navigation with Symbian. If you want a phone where you can enlarge the screen which is great for multimedia, then this will prove to be a great choice.
BATTERY LIFE
*The battery life on the Sony Ericsson P800 is superb. You can get many hours of talktime with this phone. You should be able to get around 10+ hours of talk-time and a very long standby time. This proves to be very effective if you're on the go a lot and don't have a charger by your side. I managed to talk for a few hours when I was using this phone, and I never received any low battery warnings. There was plenty of juice left after even 6 hours. This is just unbelievable! This is much better than what you'd find with a device such as the Handspring Treo 600. Once again, the Sony Ericsson P800 proved itself to be very worthy when it comes to battery life.
MULTIMEDIA
*The Sony Ericsson P800 has a built-in digital camera. It's pretty fine quality for a small device such as a PDA or a cell phone. I wouldn't ditch a digital camera for it, but it proves to be pretty satisfactory. It's good to have if you want to take a quick picture with your wireless device. With Symbian OS, you can easily view all your pictures and take pictures. Also, the Sony Ericsson P800 is Blue Tooth enabled. The Handspring Treo 600 completely lacks this feature which is a large drawback for something in its price range. Blue Tooth appears to be the future, and with the Sony Ericsson P800, you'll be going there.
INTERNET
*Also, one of the most important aspects of a Smart Phone is accessing the web. The Sony Ericsson P800 allows you to access HTML websites which is far better than the WAP sites that you access via most phones. This will give you the full function of the internet with an easy to use browser in the palm of your hand!
PHONE PERFORMANCE
*Afterall, the Sony Ericsson P800 is a phone after all! The version I used was using T-Mobile. Even though I'm not a fan of T-Mobile, the phone still performed very well. I got excellent clarity and experienced only a couple lost calls in blotchy areas. This isn't a device where everything is concentrated around the PDA functions. It still performs very well as a cell phone. The keypad also makes dialing numbers easier, better than using a QWERTY keyboard. Overall, the Sony Ericsson P800 is a very good phone when it comes to call quality.
*Overall, the Sony Ericsson P800 proved itself to be a very worthy performer. It doesn't have Palm OS or Windows Pocket PC, but it'll sure offer a great amount of power in your pocket.
-Ease of Use-
*Even for a device with such a high price, it's definitely a very user-friendly device. Most users shouldn't have any problems using this.
NAVIGATION
*The Sony Ericsson P800 is a very easy to use phone. First it offers Symbian OS 7.0 which is a very simple and well-made operating system. Navigating this phone by using the on-screen menu was a breeze. It also offers a jog-dial which allows for pretty simplistic single-hand operation. One thing that's neat is that it has the removable keypad. It's a phone keypad which makes dialing numbers simple... After all, this is a phone! Duh! It's a shame that a built-in QWERTY keyboard isn't offered. PalmOne/Handspring and RIM offer this, and with such an expensive device, couldn't they just include one? If you want a user-friendly device, then the Sony Ericsson P800 is what you're looking for. Also, don't forget that Palm OS is very easy to use, so be sure to check out a Treo too!
SYNC
*Well, the Sony Ericsson P800 comes with a cradle... But c'mon, for something this expensive, wouldn't you expect it? The Sony Ericsson P800 can easily be synchronized to a PC via a cradle (Personal preference). Also, you can use the infrared port for easy wireless data transfer between your PC or other wireless devices... But here comes the grand finale... Drum roll please! You can also synchronize the Sony Ericsson P800 to other devices by using Blue Tooth. It's a shame that a lot of other Smart Devices (Such as the all-expensive Treo 600) don't offer it. This allows you for easy data transfer between a Blue Tooth enabled PC or other wireless device. You can also take advantage of all the other cool things that Blue Tooth has to offer such as wireless headsets and other essentials.
*The Sony Ericsson P800 is a very easy to use phone. It has an excellent interface with a pretty good operating system. Also, considering the fact that it has Blue Tooth makes life all the better. Blue Tooth is the future, and Blue Tooth is also today. Go ahead and have fun by using the capabilities of Blue Tooth ;)
-So What's NOT Hot-
*The Sony Ericsson P800 is a very well-built phone, but then again it does have its drawbacks.
PROPRIETARY DATA STORAGE
*The Sony Ericsson P800 runs on the ever-so popular Sony Memory Stick system. It uses Memory Stick Duo which allows for large-capacity but costly data storage. Other Sony products also use the Memory Stick system. I like it since I use a lot of Sony products. But this isn't so hot for someone who doesn't use other Sony products. The Sony Ericsson P800 doesn't offer an SD/MMC slot which allows for large-capacity universal (And cheaper) data storage. You should weigh this out before buying the product. Just about every other product out there offers SD/MMC slots.
SYMBIAN OS 7.0
*While Symbian OS 7.0 is a great operating system that offers plenty of 3rd party support, many people still might want Palm OS or Windows Pocket PC over this operating system. When I heard of a Smart Phone from Sony, I first thought that it was made off the Clie. But it's not, so don't expect the Sony Ericsson P800 to be anything like a Clie. But Symbian OS 7.0 still proves itself to be a very efficient and attractive operating system that will offer you plenty of power.
NO BUILT-IN QWERT KEYBOARD
*The Sony Ericsson P800 offers a numeric keypad for making phone calls easily... But what about a QWERTY keyboard? The Handspring Treo 270, Handspring Treo 600, and Palm Tungsten W offer them (And other Smart Phones too), but why not the Sony Ericsson P800? People after all are buying these Smart Phones for "beyond phone" capabilities. But a lot of people still get by and are satisfied without having a built-in QWERTY keyboard. But as for others, it would make a big positive difference.
*Even though the Sony Ericsson P800 has these few drawbacks, it's still an incredible phone.
-Looks & Styling-
*The Sony Ericsson P800 looks like an almighty beefed up cell phone. When it has the keypad on, it looks like a phone. When it's off, it looks like a pretty sleek PDA. It's obviously bulkier than a lot of cell phones out there, but you won't look like a strange person by talking into a huge mobile device like you would with other PDA's. If you're looking for a sleek small phone, look elsewhere. Other than that, the Sony Ericsson P800 looks very attractive. The Sony Ericsson products are pretty sweet looking, and the Sony Ericsson P800 is no exception.
-The Verdict-
*The Sony Ericsson P800 is an awesome Smart Phone. Sony Ericsson managed to take the concept and make an even smarter phone... Well, even without Palm OS or Windows Pocket PC! Symbian OS 7.0 works wonderfully with this phone. This phone should be ideal from people who are students looking for a trendy and stylish device, all the way to business executives who need a powerful all-in-one device. Even though it's expensive, it definitely proves itself worthy. Considering it's compatible with many GSM providers, it makes life a little easier.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 500
Recommended for: Stylish Trendsetters - Hip and Trendy
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Epinions.com ID:
soupcraze
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Member: Soup Enthusiast
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Reviews written: 488
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About Me:
I enjoy many of life's passions... Music, medicine, people, and life itself.
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