Sony Ericsson P800
 

I checked out this new model and was rather disgusted... it feels like a plastic toy, and looks so breakable. The T68i (which I have) seems like such better quality, at least in terms of construction. Also, I hear that the P800 still has some software issues? Any ideas/experiences?

I bought one last week and have been very impressed. So far, the phone seems fast and reliable, and after a few initial teething problems, I'm finally learning to use most of the features on the phone.

A few complaints:

1) Most of the handwriting recognition characters are the same as a Palm. However, Palm users will find that the Palm 'A' and 'T' aren't recognised, so there is some re-training required.

2) Outlook calendar syncronisation does not copy all-day events. There appears to be no work-around for this at present.

3) Outlook contacts with just a company name are translated as firstname, lastname and listed accordingly. Hence "Inside Flyer" becomes "Flyer, Inside" in the listings -- meaning I can't find anything I have listed under company-name only.

4) Poor microphone location means I'm constantly covering the mic with the palm of my hand as I speak on the phone -- so no one can hear me.

5) Daft ringtones. Why can't I just get a normal ringtone, instead of all this polyphonic, melodic nonsense?

Otherwise, I couldn't be more happy with the phone. It is a little brick-like, but it replaces two devices and is far smaller than most PDA's.

Thanks Matt. Have you had any battery issues?

The battery is rated for 400 hours standby or 24 hours talk-time. I can believe the standby figure, since the phone shuts down its display after 1 minute, but I find the talk-time figure a little hard to swallow. I accidentally left the camera switched on in my pocket for 3 hours, and found that my battery was about 30-35% drained.

For my purposes, the battery life is fine -- I can take the phone away for a weekend without needing to re-charge. I'm a 'charge it every night' kind of guy, and typically spend an hour or two talking on the phone each day. The battery is rarely more than 15% drained.

Bear in mind, though, that the official recharge time on this phone is 4 hours.

There's an excellent, comprehensive review available here and another one here.

You may also wish to get in touch with ScottC and kanebear, both of whom have a P800 (and both of whom are very happy with it). See the related thread in Travel Technology.

I picked up my phone (on contract) for around US$60 here in the UK. I think they're around US$800 SIM-free.

FWIW, there are SIM-free P800s going for US$600-650 on E-bay in UK and US spec.

I don't find the case to be cheap at all. Several people have commented that the flip looks cheap, but I don't really agree. The answer in that case is to remove it - which I won't do because I cannot get the hang of using virtual buttons when checking voicemail/bank balances/etc.

I think it looks at least as polished as my T68.

-alan in sitges