Well, that didn't take long; GSM Arena has already had the opportunity to put the just-announced
Sony Ericsson P1 -- or a preproduction version of it, anyway -- through a thorough battery of tests. The good news is that they appear to have concluded that it's the best Sony Ericsson (and likely the best
UIQ) smartphone to date, but the very (
very) bad news is that the QWERTY keyboard is described as "half-QWERTY, half-TORTURE." The 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera appears to produce admirable pictures, the WiFi support is said to be great, and the version of UIQ loaded on the P1 seems the most refined around. But man, a torturous keyboard? Sounds like a deal-breaker to us, especially considering that it lacks EDGE data (but has UMTS... seriously, Sony Ericsson, what's that all about?) and GSM 850.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
sean Berner @ May 9th 2007 11:10AM
WTF no edge!
mikko @ May 9th 2007 1:13PM
Yeah, the keyboard is awkward at first but when you get used to is (2-3 days) is fast as hell!
engadget @ May 9th 2007 1:14PM
The keyboard on that device is not the final version. The shape of the keys, at minimum, is supposed to change. This is why you shouldn't post reviews of pre-production devices in general, especially those where the hardware design is not complete. On top of that, keypads are highly subjective in nature. I know that I have hated/loved plenty where many other people have loved/hated them. Rafe from AllAboutSymbian, at least, feels that the P1 keyboard is a decent improvement over that of the M600. Don't condemn it quite yet....
Anders Borg @ May 9th 2007 1:38PM
Not supporting EDGE seems strange as it can't cost much to add.
Jason Brown @ May 9th 2007 2:36PM
useless until larger formats are released for memory card. the micro has so far alienated every release in almost a year. The w850i being the last released with the former memory card. the p990 is still the champion on the pda front for sony until this changes.
Admiral @ May 9th 2007 5:13PM
Another miss for SE in the US market ;-)
I wonder what the design and boardroom meetings are like when they come up with these UIQ smartphones.
MLuking @ May 10th 2007 7:07AM
Like posted before: the keyboard is similar to the SE M600, which I also have. It really took some getting used to, like 2 days or so, but then it feels natural and typing will go really fast.
It definitely isn't a dealbreaker IMO.
Anders Borg @ May 10th 2007 6:15PM
I have an M600 that's very similar, including the keypad, and people might misunderstand how to use it effectively. I key in text pretty fast (much faster than with multitap or predictive) by using my thumb finger nails (both thumbs) and pressing on the sides of the keys. Some suggested to put the finger at the middle of the key and then flip to either side. That's the wrong way of doing it.
It's definitely not as fast as a PC keyboard, but keying in SMSs, emails, tasks etc work great. I even twit with it.
Actually I would have preferred individual keys anyway (like on the P990). It doesn't matter if numeric keys then were small, as all my business contacts are anyway in the phone book. Numbers could even be on the touch screen. I'm using my phone way more for entering text than digits.
jameel @ May 14th 2007 8:10AM
With the 3.2 cam, the P1 would be a great unit. Design wise, i'm not really sure about that frame-like-thing around it. Don't know if it was to differentiate it from the M600, but i think it would look more elegant without it.
Richard @ May 14th 2007 10:03PM
850 GSM?!
NOT!!!
S/E have decided against the US market for high-end phones.
Too bad!
tnkgrl @ May 15th 2007 2:28PM
Here are some pictures I took at the UIQ Fast Track: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2007/05/15/sony-ericsson-p1i-hands-on/
tnkgrl @ May 15th 2007 2:31PM
Here are some pictures I took at the UIQ Fast Track: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2007/05/15/sony-ericsson-p1i-hands-on/
iRobot @ Jun 2nd 2007 5:34AM
They don't use EDGE in Japan!!! UMTS is what they use -- so they put that in there phones. They make a crappy, watered-down verison for the US, because our sh*t is so old.
So stop bitching about "No EDGE", and bitch about us not having UMTS.
flim @ Jun 13th 2007 4:34PM
The 'i' in SE model names means it's for the Europe/Asia market. Adding WiFi means the chipset can't support EDGE/GSM850, as you'll recall from previous handsets. Previously SE have released an 'a' version (i.e. P1a) for the American market. This might be on the cards for the P1, but I guess SE are gonna see how sales go here in Europe first...
shig @ Jun 26th 2007 8:13AM
I want! Much better than my m600i; looks like they finally got it right. Regarding EDGE though; why are you guys bitching? It has 3G... one of the biggest complaints in the iPhone forums is that it HAS EDGE but NOT 3G, seems like no-one's ever happy.
Sarah @ Jul 24th 2007 8:44AM
Available in BeLux as of today 24/07/07. Launch price is 490. And our system says also available as AZERTY! - Sarah