Aug 31, 2007 11:25 AM
7472 Views
I was using Windows mobile 5 HTC phone, then was using Nokia E61i series business phone and now I have got this P1i phone. My comparison is my experiences with other phones. I found that this is a compact phone with partial QWERT keyboard, Microsoft Exchange mail, pop mail, 3.2MP camera with touch screen. This specification is fantastic.
But I realized that this keyboard with two letters on same buttons is extremely difficult. The error rate is 30%. I mean I keep typing wrong letters. Very high learning curve. May be it will take months to get use to. It has a touch screen but the stylus is located on the wrong side. IT would have been good to be on right side.
The menu buttons are missing. So you dont see any 4-way navigation keys nor, the two option buttons. So it feels strange to navigate. You need to constantly use the jog wheel on the side. This wheel is very sharp and it pierces the finger. The press effect is very hard. If you use your fore finger of right hand or thumb of left hand, you will constantly get confused with what figures of which hands to use for rest of buttons.
But I liked the big option menus appearing on the screen. They are finger friendly. I mean they are big enough to be pressed by fingers. Unlike the windows mobile menu that is very tiny and only stylus can pin-point the location. But the menu of P1i - symbina UIQ 3 is very complex. It has 3 levels of cascading menu. You will not find the desired action on the first menu. eg- if you want to zoom the text size for surfing, you need to press more>setting>zoom> then drag the bar.
So you see.. all the functions are hidden. even the copy and paste is two level deep every time you have to do more>edit>copy and then more>edit>past Such a stupid way. Most of the screen size is unnecessary used by the status bar on the top, followed by a big context specific bar. Eg. big Email icons and the name of folder. So the effective usage area is just 60% of screen size.
Also this screen is smaller then the HTC O2 or Nokia E61i. IT has very few hardware buttons that can be mapped. Nokia E61i have dedicated buttons for email, web, and volume, and a customized button. This has only one customize button, a jog wheel, camera button and return button ( which is again very hard to locate and press as it flushes with the side surface) Feature vise its limited in every function.
Eg. in email, there is no spell check, you cant define keypad lock time, the text size in the emails is very small even after you set to max size, the touch screen with handwriting reorganization dont have transcriber, meaning.. only single letters are recognized and not whole sentence like in HTC windows mobile, there is no single screen that controls bluetooth, wifi, gprs, etc. I liked the windows mobile connection manager.
The camera quality of 3.2MP is less then Nokia 2MP E61i. The pictures appear edgy with white noise, The focusing is not proper. Also the camera opens in landscape mode and menu are in portrait. Such a stupid design. Video quality is also bad. It shows frames. The battery is very weak. It drains in a day. The video recording is in 3gp. You cant play that on dvd. you need to convert that in mpeg or mepg4.
The processor I dont know, but it seems faster then the normal Nokia E61i and HTC O2. The task manager inbuilt does show the memory usage and you can switch between applications or close. The display screen is bright(256K) and it uses bright icons and themes. A better design then the O2 or Nokia. Also the email client shows HTML mails too which is lacking on both Nokia and Windows mobiles.
That means P1i keeps the formatting and colors in email ans shows it as it is. I feel there is very less amount of customization of screen possible. You cannot create a customized startup menu. It does have a Today screen and shortcut icons.
Also the buttons are not effectively mapped depending on their functions in a particular context. Eg. if I have opened inbox of a particular email-say yahoo, then if I want to go to sent mail or outbox, I cant use the arrow keys. I have to go to more>vie folders>sent mail You will see such no use of navigation buttons even if they are in all applications. Speed of navigation has always been a problem with all Sony Ericsson.
But the sound quality of speakers is good. The FM radio is good. Over all a good combination of business and multimedia but lacks the best design in all functions and usability
