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Sony Ericsson P800
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By Jørgen Sundgot, Friday 14 February 2003  
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Tag along with Editor-in-Chief Jørgen Sundgot for an in-depth, detailed look at one of the most anticipated connected handhelds of 2003: Sony Ericsson's UIQ-based P800.
Originally slated for a launch in the fall of 2002, Sony Ericsson's P800 has been of the most anticipated connected handhelds for a long, long time. Not only is the P800 the first palm-sized Symbian OS device, it's also the first to sport a touch-screen, tri-band GSM, use the UIQ platform, and simply come from a company which isn't Nokia. Sure, its introduction has been delayed a couple of times - but as you're about to find out, good things come to those who wait.
 | Sony Ericsson's P800 can either be more of a phone...
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Design
Prior to its launch, the Sony Ericsson has already had time to be both lauded and loathed for its design, with descriptions ranging from superb to it looking more like a plastic dummy phone than anything else. Fortunately, the previously released pictures do not do the phone justice as its appearance is a calm mix of silver and blue shades that not only are easy on the eye but could be described as a sort of 'understated cool'. Being palm-sized, it is comfortable to hold and use in one hand, and is in addition incredibly small when considering the amount of functionality it harbors.
One of the more special features of the P800 is its ability to operate, in a sense, as two completely different devices, despite it having only one display. A "dumb" flip, which when closed hides 3/5th of the display, activates a mode aimed at making most common functions available through one-handed navigation. In this mode, all navigation is carried out by means of the jog dial, buttons on the flip and other hardware buttons. Most embedded applications support this mode, but the P800 does not reveal its true colors before the flip has been opened to enable the touch screen and activate a more PDA-like navigation system.
 | ... or more of a PDA, depending on the user's preference
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Due to the "dumb" nature of the flip, in the sense that is contains no electronics but rather uses plastic plungers that press corresponding points on a virtual flip portrayed on the touch screen underneath it when closed, it can be completely removed for those who prefer using the advanced mode continously. Still, when the dumb flip has been removed, the virtual flip can be called up - letting users tweak just how they want to use the device. This chameleon-like appearance isn't just impressive, but is also more innovative than anything else we've seen lately and also just plain useful.
The 12-bit (4,096 colors) display of the P800 is as good as that of any mobile phone, but is not quite on par with the latest semi-transflective TFT screens used in many recent Pocket PCs. At 208 x 320 pixels, the display is crisp and clear despite a complete lack of contrast and brightness settings, and comfortable to view both when in- and outside. To navigate by means of the touch screen, there is also a plastic stylus which looks quite silly and flimsy at first glance, but thanks to its flat and slightly curved shape works surprisingly well. Sony Ericsson also provides three spare styli in the box - as if losing it is to be expected, to which we can only concur.
Whilst still on the topic of visual experience, it is only natural to bring up the integrated digital camera of the P800. Dubbed the CommuniCam, it can take pictures at 640 x 480 (VGA), 320 x 240 (QVGA) and 160 x 120 (QQVGA) pixel resolutions with 24-bit color depth, at three different levels of JPEG quality. Compared with pictures taken by the Nokia 7650, the P800 struggles under poor lighting conditions but otherwise performs well. Using the default settings, the phone can store approximately 200 pictures in its internal memory, or approximately half of that at the highest level of quality.
Although at first glance being seemingly sparsely equipped with buttons, the P800 has a pleasant surprise in store. Its jog dial, placed ergonomically correctly on the upper part of the left side, lets users navigate five ways instead of just three. Up, down, press - and back and forth towards the back and front of the device. From here, almost all one-handed navigation is conducted easily and intuitively. The number of functions performed is far too great to list, but virtually all important and common aspects of the phone can be controlled through the jog dial. Other buttons include the power on/off button, which only serves that single task, as well as a button to open the CommuniCam application and subsequently take a picture, along with a button to open the embedded browser. Both the jog dial and the buttons provide good tactile feedback, although it is disappointing to not be able to remap at least the browser key.
 | In phone-prone mode, the P800's interface is less advanced, and can be navigated solely by means of the jog dial and the flip buttons
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To notify users of various events, the P800 uses a combination of visual and audible alerts. Two LEDs, one blue placed to the left of its speaker and one green to the right, indicate respectively whether Bluetooth is active and whether a network connection can be found or a message or other event has taken place on the device. Both LEDs retain good visibility without being intrusive, and the audio quality of the speaker (which also offers speakerphone capabilities) beats that of any other mobile device we have reviewed to date. Bass and treble are perfectly balanced, and the volume ranges from discrete to outright loud.
Connectivity
Unlike many of its rivals, Sony Ericsson has opted for a proprietary expansion standard in the shape of its one Sony Memory Stick Duo slot, placed under the stylus on the right side of the P800. Not only is this the least common Memory Stick format, but customers are also at a loss since cards in this format consistently offer less storage capacity and are higher priced than similar SD and MMC card alternatives. On a positive note, a 16 MB card is included in the package, offering users additional storage space. Neither does the format seem to be inferior to its competitors, as performance loss when accessing applications and data on the card appears to be minimal.
 | In the PDA-prone mode, users navigate by means of the touch screen - although the jog dial is still being put to good use
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The P800's cradle solution is somewhat perplexing, as it employs the highly uncommon method of using a driver to establish a serial port connection over USB. Its installation is a fairly simple procedure, but due to the special setup, 460,800 bps - far from full USB speed - is the maximum rate at which data can be transferred. This obviously impacts the speed with which large files are synchronized, but fortunately has little if any impact on PIM synchronization. On the bright side, the cradle, shaped like a typical flying saucer, is small and unobtrusive with a LED which lights up when the P800 is connected - most likely placed there since connecting it can be a quite complicated task due to the construction of the physical connector and the cradle.
In the PAN (Personal Area Network) communications department, the P800 excels with its support for cable, Infrared and Bluetooth connections. Its support for cable connections enables it to be used in conjunction with a laptop as a modem, while its Infrared support allows for the same in the well-known manner of aligning ports, as well as exchanging files. In terms of Bluetooth, the P800 uses v1.1 and offer users a selection of profiles including Serial Port, Generic Object Exchange, Dial-Up Networking, OBEX Object Push and Headset. Our tests revealed all profiles and services ranging from sending and receiving files to using Bluetooth headsets of various kinds and makes to work as expected, with Bluetooth connections in general proving very reliable.
Seeing as how the P800 is a convergence device, it should not come as a surprise that it also excels in the WAN (Wireless Area Network) department. With tri-band 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM, the P800 can be used for voice and data communications all over the world, further bolstered by its support for HSCSD (2+1) and GPRS (4+1). Both voice and data communications proved rock solid over a test period of three weeks, with only two drawbacks: its signal reception can only be described as adequate, and we would have liked to see increased HSCSD and GPRS speeds.
Innards
The P800 is powered by an ARM 9 core processor, which packs enough of a punch to keep the operating system running fluidly and the user experience charmingly void of coffee breaks. No hour glasses here, in other words. In its out-of-the-box state, 12 MB of internal memory is available to users, with an additional 16 MB through the bundled Memory Stick Duo card. Obviously, a vast library of MP3 files is out of the question regardless of what storage method is chosen, but considering the typical space requirements of Symbian OS applications and data, the included memory should cover the needs of most users without a hitch.
 | The unified approach to messaging has great advantages - and the overall messaging support in the P800 can only be described as fully featured
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A 1000 mAh battery powers the P800, and provides quite impressing battery life for a device this powerful and with such a large color display. Sony Ericsson lists the P800 as having up to 13 hours of talk time and 400 hours of standby time, which is only slightly more than what we achieved during our review.
Software
As a completely novel device in a multitude of ways, there is much ground to cover with the P800. Not only is it the first Symbian OS 7.0 device, but also the first to use the UIQ platform as opposed to Nokia's Series 80 or 60 platforms based on Symbian OS 6.0 and 6.1. Comparable to the way in which Microsoft has built platforms such as Pocket PC Phone Edition and Smartphone 2002 on top of its Windows CE operating system, the combination of the Symbian OS and the UIQ platform offers support for a range of advanced technologies and applications of various kinds. This includes native Symbian OS applications, as well as two brands of Java applications: J2ME and PersonalJava.
 | E-mail support is excellent, with e-mail retrievals as frequent as every 15 minutes
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As mentioned earlier, the UIQ platform implements a clever design trick to allow the P800 to work in two different "modes". In its simplified mode, functionality is limited due to an emphasis being placed on one-handed operation while the advanced mode allows for a more complex user interface. In either mode, users can have multiple applications running simultaneously and switch between these, but there is no task manager to let users see which applications are active and close or switch between these. Instead, the UIQ platform relies on a Palm OS-like launcher to divide applications into folders to let users switch between applications, as well as an always-present application picker at the top of the screen.
At the bottom of the screen, a status bar presents vital information such as signal strength and battery life, plus shortcuts to call up a virtual keyboard, volume controls and the time. The status bar also doubles as a notification well, and alerts users of a variety of ongoing actions such as whether voice, PAN or WAN connections are present and whether they are transferring data. Also, event indicators for new messages appear here, and a button which enables the previously mentioned virtual flip of the phone is also present for when one-handed navigation is more suitable, such as when traveling.
Text input to the system is carried out by means of three different solutions, of which the embedded Jot handwriting recognition is by far the most elegant. With the flip closed, text can only be entered through multi-tap key presses, as there is no predictive text input feature in the P800. When opened, users can switch between handwriting recognition and a virtual keyboard, where the latter is complicated by the narrow display - unless one is at a complete standstill, using handwriting recognition is by far preferable. Regardless of the method used, special character and symbol input is thankfully never far away.
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| Hands-on impressions, news, reviews, prices and release dates; now all-in-one-page: |
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