Sony Ericsson P1i

Smartphones are the obvious choice when buying a cellphone but not many of us prefer PDAs in that category.But that might change with Sony Ericsson P1i which combines functionality and also fulfills downsides that older PDAs have. Sony Ericsson is expert at manufacturing excellent PDAs which put their Nokia counterparts to shame.

Have a look at its specs:

• Dimensions: 106 x 55 x 17 mm
• Weight : 124 gms
• 2.6″ Display 240 x 320 resolution
• QWERTY keyboard
• 3.2 MP Camera with Autofocus
• GPRS, HSCSD,3G
• Wi-Fi 802.11b
• Bluetooth v2.0 ,Infrared
• Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0

What sets this PDAs a league ahead of the other PDAs is the integration a high resolution camera which you do not see in a PDA along with its light weight. A 512MB Memory Stick M2 micro card comes with the package along with other standard accessories like stylus,stereo headset etc.

The P1i comes with a silver body which sports a large 2.6″ TFT screen.The VGA camera for video calls has been placed at left top.The keyboard is a new design with each key able to type two different characters depending on whether you pust it left or right which saves saves and also makes it a QWERTY keyboard.The memory card slot and camera key are placed on the right side of the phone.The speaker is at the back on top of the camera which has dual LED flash. All in all P1i feels nice and comfortable to use.

Display and Keyboard

The 2.6″ display having QVGA resolution is quite good but not as good as some of the Nokia displays.The performance of the display takes a beating in direct sunlight and it becomes tough to use.The color saturation is fine though.

The keyboard which is one of its kind although does save space but is nowhere near a full QWERTY keyboard and is not ergonomic and it will take you time before you get used to it.A regular keyboard or a full QWERTY would have been better in my opinion.

Camera,Music Player and OS

The camera quality is above average and produces good enough images for printing when sufficient light is available for shooting. The macro mode does its job well. The camera interface is not as responsive as the one found in Cybershot models of Sony Ericsson phones. The downside of the camera is it video recording capabilities as they turn out to be grainy and 15fps do not do justice to them.

The music player is same as ones found on Walkman series phones and hence offers full functionality.The loudspeaker sound quality is respectable for a PDA.The bundled earphones are not great and also you can’t plug in your choice of earphones as it does not have a 3.5 mm jack.Flipping through music tracks is a breeze with the jog dial button provided on the side.

UIQ 3.0 based on Symbian 9.1 OS has been used on the phone.The standby mode displays the standard clock,battery meter,signal strength and today screen which can be customized according to you.RAM management is very good and that helps in multi-tasking.The phonebook is very advanced and allows you to store extensive details about your contacts.

Web browser and Organizer

Opera Mini 8.0 has been used as the default browser on the phone which delivers excellent performance while surfing the net. It is capable of displaying various kinds of sites based on HTML,XHTML,JavaScript,CSS etc aptly. Surfing through web pages is fast but it gets bottlenecked as this phone is not EDGE compatible.

Notes and task applications allow you to makes short notes and schedule tasks respectively.Alarm clock is standard and does not offer any new functionality but does its job well. The calendar offers good functionality.You can store reminders for various kinds of events. Apart from these there are also many other settings that you can play around with.

Pros:

• 3.2 MP camera
• Good RAM Management
• Handwriting recognition
• WiFi enabled
• Crisp display

Cons:

• EDGE missing
• QWERTY keyboard not ergonomic
• No 3.5mm jack
• Bad Video recording capability

Final Thoughts

The Sony Ericsson P1i is a big step forward in PDAs.It does most things perfectly.The keyboard was a disappointment and so were its video recording capabilities.The organizer is top-notch. Handwriting recognition adds to the yum. So if you are not too much concerned about the half-QWERTY keyboard nor the lack of EDGE then it is a perfect PDA for you.