I finally upgraded from the Sony Ericsson S700i to the P910i and after a full week of daily re-charging, I am ready to pen down what it has communicated to me.
First of all, about the physical aspects. SE, take a bow! The phone looks sassy and considering the amount of features it packs, the size is perfect (or even small).
Considering its size, the phone is amazingly light in weight. (Forgive me for omitting the technical jargon…but the actual dimensions are easily available on countless web-sites). It fits easily into shirt and trouser/jean pockets.
Now to get down to the actual inside of the phone. SE, take another bow! This phone ’s superb! It has 2 modes, namely “Flip-Closed Mode” (FCM) and the “Flip-Open Mode” (FOM), the basic difference being that you can operate a limited number of applications in the FCM and everything in the FOM.
Not that the FCM limits you very much. In the FCM, you can very well operate the most common functions like Messaging/Call Logs/Music Player/Connections (Bluetooth/Infrared)/Ring Volume/Silent Mode/Calendar/Contacts/Speaker Phone/Mute.
On the numerical keypad (in FCM), it has what I call a “Magic Button” in the top right corner. This is a magic button ‘coz on pressing it, it gives you the most common shortcuts related to the current application that that you may need. Eg. whilst in the Call List function, it gives you options to filter Incoming/Outgoing/Missed calls, in the Message Function, it gives you options to send the message, add recipients, add words to the dictionary, etc.
On opening the flip, you use the Stylus to select (tap) the required functions/options. This can also be done with the Jog-Dial on the top-left corner of the phone, though not all features can be selected using the jog-dial. The most convenient method is to use the Stylus…remember this is not just a Mobile Phone, it also has PDA functionality which cannot be fully exploited without the Stylus.
The screen is BIG and has a crisp 262K display. The camera is a VGA one (0.3 mega pixel), but I must say the photos are very clear. The Night Mode is something that needs to be improved though.
It’s pure joy to see the Photos/Videos/Documents on the full screen of the P910i. Believe me, the screen is BIG!
The Music Player is great and it plays MP3s in addition to all the regular formats (ringtones/midis/etc.). You can organize all your files into folders so that the player works with each of these folders representing a play-list.
Another great feature is the MP4 (mpeg4 video) file support that this phone gives. MP4s are smaller in size as compared to the other regular video formats. 3gps also play great on the P910i, though they have to be of a good quality to show well on the full-screen.
The Interface in the FOM is great and very easy to use with all major shortcuts (in the form of icons) on the top of the screen. You can just tap away (with the stylus) at whatever is needed and the icons are pretty descriptive. You do not need to exit from one application to go to the next. Instead you can directly tap the new application’s shortcut. Any unsaved work in the previous application is automatically saved.
The Shortcuts can be customized, i.e. you can change the on-screen-position of the shortcuts to suit your needs. The screen can be customized for right & left handed usage!
There are two dedicated buttons on the top right side of the phone for the Internet and the Camera(Video & Picture).
The Applications that come installed with this phone include support for MS Word (.doc)/Excel (.xls)/Power Point (.ppt) and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files.
This phone also has handwriting recognition and you can use the stylus to write on the screen while inputting any kind of text. While inputting text, the screen gets divided by a small marker into 3 parts, the top, the middle and the bottom. Numbers are supposed to be written in the top half, capital alphabets in line with the marker and small case alphabets in the bottom half. You also have the facility/option of a Virtual On-Screen Keyboard (represented by an icon at the bottom) that can be used with the stylus by tapping at the required alphabet/number/symbol.
The speakerphone is great and so is the sound in general.
Now for the best part…the P910i works like a charm with GPRS!!! The CDs that come along with the package include the free Opera Browser and this I must say…is the browser to use!!! It is fast and very easy to use. I am yet to come across a web-page that it doesn’t agree with. I check my Yahoo! Mail using this browser and it works no problem. Gmail is not supported as the P910i doesn’t support SSL encryption. But there is a Paid Application (Profimail) that can iron out this wrinkle. The GPRS function works great in the full-screen mode. Fyi…I followed the Tuesday, 6th September’s India-New Zealand final using my phone. The score card even auto-refreshed! There are also applications that support chatting on various Instant Messengers like MSN, Yahoo, AOL, etc.
The Memory Stick can be upgraded to 1GB and this is a welcome relief as you could put an entire MP4 movie on this kind of area! MP3s/Pictures/Documents? Yeah those too!
The Operating System is Symbian UIQ. What I intend to say is, there is no end to the number of Applications (Free/Commercial) that are compatible with this phone. And all these can be installed using the Desktop Stand provided in the boxed package. A few useful ones I have installed are Mobipocket Reader, SplashID, Splash Photo, TaskSpy and Desktop. A lot of good themes are easily available too.
About upgrading the firmware, no longer is there need to go to an authorized SE service station. This can be done from home using SE’s online update service from https://sonyericsson.com though it would be better to use a Broadband connection for this.
The phone hasn’t crashed even once till now and as it has withstood all my past week’s experiments, I am sure it never will.
One (the only one) drawback that I find in this phone is that for the SMS function, you cannot set the Delivery Reports to “On” permanently. You have to explicitly set it to “On” while sending each message and to do this you have to open the flip. But if you don’t need the SMS Delivery Reports, keep that flip shut and message away my friend!
All in all, it is a great phone and something that SE should be proud of. I am yet to come across a phone that combines the usage of a mobile phone and the facilities of a PDA so beautifully. Unlike most other Smartphones in the market, you don’t always need the stylus and two hands to use this phone!