Longest. Review. Ever. The P900.

Buy here: 4Cellular.com

Sony Ericsson P900 The P900 was quite possibly the worst kept secret of 2003. Rumblings of a new successor for the aging P800 started many months ago, though nobody ever seemed quite sure as to what the device was to be named. It seems that Sony Ericsson was not so sure, either, as we saw images and documents referring to the device as both the P810 (the name most seem to prefer) and the P900 (the name actually chosen).

So here it is, the end of October, and the P900 is finally here. Sony Ericsson was nice enough to ship me a P900 the day after it was announced in Las Vegas, and I have been busy testing and photographing it ever since. The unit I have is seemingly not running the very latest version of software: R1A05 for the PDA, R3A024 for the phone. The PDA software is dated from the 12th of September, so it is well over a month old. I'm not sure how old the phone firmware is, but I know that R3B has been out for a while. So with that in mind, I must remind you that what you see on your very own P900 may well be different from what I see. Especially when it comes to bugs and such.

Some of the highlights of the P900 are its 65k color display, 16MB of internal RAM, and triband GSM support. More complete P900 specs are available in the P900 Preview.

Not your father's brick....

First up, lets tackle some of the physical aspects of the P900, since they are the most obvious. The body of the P900 is nicely sculpted and has a brushed metal like finish to it, though it is made of plastic. It is reasonably comfortable to hold, owing to its additional width when compared to a typical handset, and is in my opinion quite good looking - especially when compared to the original P800.

The fit and finish of the P900 is very good, much like the T610. It seems that Sony Ericsson heard the complaints about creaking noises and squeaks with the older handsets and has made a concerted effort to change that in the newer line of devices. The paint seems quite resistant to scratching, as I was unable to make a dent in it with my fingernails. It even resisted my attempts to scratch it with a key. Whatever that paint is made of, it certainly is tough.

Another quite obvious feature of the P900 is its new electronic keypad. This new keypad is much like that of the Nokia 8910 series, only bigger and better backlit. It is not nearly as comfortable to use as the keypad on the Z600, but since it takes up about half the space, that is quite understandable. Because of this new keypad, the P900 has a larger portion of its display visible than the P800 does when the keypad is closed. This is good for making use of the phone features, to be sure, but it does expose more of the touch screen to potential pocket damage. While we have seen that the painted plastic can hold up to a key, I wouldn't want to run that same test on the touch screen. Now more than ever, a screen protector is needed. But overall I find the keypad to be quite nice. The "OK" and "Menu" buttons act as the main navigational buttons, and the "back" and "C" buttons augment their functions.

Like with the P800 before it, the P900's keypad can be removed to save some weight. The P800's keypad weighed about 10g, bringing the weight of the device down to about 148g. The P900's flip seems to be a bit heavier, maybe 15g total, and should save even more weight. Unfortunately, at this time I still have not received the new digital scale that I ordered, so I will have to post the actual weights later on in an update. Removing the keypad is relatively simple, and requires a small screwdriver - one of which has been included.

Aiding further in navigation is the wonderful 5-way jog-dial, located on the upper left side of the phone. I say 5-way because you can, of course, scroll up and down with it, as expected, but you can also move it forward, back, and in. The forward and back movements often function as a way to move from menu to menu, while the in direction is usually an alternative to using the OK button on the keypad. This was one of the great features of the P800, and I still find it to be wonderful today in the P900.

Other things of note in the body of the P900 are the power switch/IR port on the left hand side, and the camera and Internet buttons on the right hand side. Also on the right had side is the Memory Stick DUO slot, which can accept MS Duo cards of up to 128MB in capacity (and can not use Duo PRO sticks). On the rear of the device is the camera lens and self-portrait mirror, directly above the battery compartment. Lastly, we have the new stylus. The P900's stylus is more conventional than the P800's, and stores in a silo in the right hand corner of the top of the handset. The new stylus is awfully thin and short, though, and I found it to be fairly uncomfortable for extended use. I imagine my hands will get used to it eventually, but it led to some hand pain after a day or playing with the device. I eventually switched to using my iPAQ's stylus since I kinda need my hand to type up reviews.... I would say it is an improvement over the P800's stylus, but not enough of one.

 

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