Sony Ericsson P1 / P1i
Discontinued 8th May 2007
The Sony Ericsson P1 is a 3G Symbian smartphone with
a QWERTY keyboard which can be regarded as a replacement
for the troubled Sony
Ericsson P990i. There are two versions of the P1,
the Sony Ericsson P1c for sale in China and the P1i
which will be sold in other markets.
The P1i breaks with the tradition of the P800/P900/P910/P990
series and disposes of the characteristic "flip"
on the front of the device and it also ditches the QWERTY
keyboard for a keypad similar to the M600i
- a move that might not be popular with all P900 series
users. It's also a fair bit lighter than the 150g P990i
weighing in at 124 grams.
The first thing to note on the Sony Ericsson P1i
is the large 2.6" 240x320 pixel TFT display - this
is now a transflective panel which means that it can
be read more easily outdoors. As with previous models,
this is a touchscreen although the Sony Ericsson P1i
also has a jog-dial control.
On the back is a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus
and flash, and there's a secondary video camera on the
front of the Sony Ericsson P1i for video calling. There's
also a multimedia player and FM radio. The 160MB of
internal memory can be expanded by using a Memory Stick
Micro card, we understand that the standard sales package
will include a 512MB card in the box. Of course the
P1i also supports Bluetooth.
Underneath this is a tri-band 900/1800/1900 MHz device
with UMTS 2100 MHz and support for 802.11b and 802.11g
WiFi. One major drawback is that the Sony Ericsson P1i
doesn't support HSDPA, and also the tri-band GSM/single
band UMTS network support is a little limiting.
The
operating system on the Sony Ericsson P1i is version
Symbian 9.1 with the UIQ 3.1 interface running on top.
Those familiar with the P990 will find the usual set
of applications including a web browser (based on Opera),
RSS reader, email client and a range of personal information
management tools. The P1i supports VOIP too, but expect
this to be carrier dependent as some networks have recently
disabled VOIP in their phones.
Support for corporate email solutions such as BlackBerry,
ActiveSync and other systems will be available through
add-on applications. Whether or not P990/M600 applications
will run on the P1i without modification is unknown.
The Sony Ericsson P1i is only a little larger and
heavier than the M600 at 106 x 55 x 17mm and 124 grams.
Battery life is quoted as 10 hours talk/18 days standby
on GSM, 3.5 hours talk/14 days standby on 3G. Using
Bluetooth and WiFi will eat into the battery life significantly,
although hopefully not as quickly as it did on the P990.
The P990 was a bit of a disaster for Sony Ericsson,
it was very late to market and extremely buggy to begin
with.. although it's a handset we rather like despite
all its flaws. Hopefully the Sony Ericsson P1 will be
right first time.
Sony Ericsson say that the P1i will be available
in some markets in Q3 2007 but have not given any pricing
details. Our estimate is that the P1i will cost at least
€800 / £500 at launch.
Subscribe
to our newsletter for more news on
upcoming releases
|
Sony
Ericsson P1 / P1i at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q3
2007
|
Network:
|
GSM
900/1800/1900 + UMTS 2100
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ UMTS (3G) + WiFi
|
Screen:
|
240x320
pixels
|
Camera:
|
3.2
megapixels
|
Size:
|
PDA
style device 106
x 55 x 17mm / 124 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
Memory
Stick Micro
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
10
hours talk/18 days standby
(GSM) 3.5 hours talk/14
days standby (3G)
|
|
|