From: Oliver Brose (oliver.brose_at_t-online.de)
Date: Tue Apr 08 2003 - 09:13:53 PDT
Hi List,
like a vulture I had drawn my circles on Vodafone's website, just
waiting for the arrival of the Sony Ericsson P800 Smartphone.
Yesterday, finally, was the day sought after for so long. As soon as
I my business on campus was done, I strolled into the nearby Vodafone
retail store. They had one on display. Attached to it, 3 (three!)
security lines (they use ugly, black thingies, with a springy cable,
and disgusting yellow-white-ish glue) rendered the (inactive) demo
unit virtually unusable. I asked for a usable one, they said they
would only have one left and could not break the seal, nor did they
have a battery for their unit on display. Who cares, I wanted it
anyway, but yet again, Germany as usual.
After three years with a sleek but impotent Motorola V3690 this phone
is the equivalent of a Freightliner next to a Volkswagen Beetle. If
you are a left-handed and/or happen to have small hands, be sure to
give it a try before you buy. This thing was not made for lefties.
While you can use the jogwheel with relative ease holding the phone
in your right hand, it is hard to pick up the stylus (attached to the
right side), and I would have placed the OK button on the right
instead of the left side. All the menus within the phone are also
made for right-handed people, the stylus often blocks your view.
Otherwise, if you happen to have a Palm & cellphone with you all the
time anyway, this thing is for you. My trusty Newton, while elegant
and intuitive, always is a little unhandy for the simple tasks of
keeping dates & names, as it, simply due to its size, does not sit in
one of my coat's pockets. On the P800, it is all a bit simple, not as
elegant as the Newt (especially the looks of the GUI), but
sufficient. The on-screen keyboard it a tad too small to be
efficient, I still miss letters very often, the built-in Jot is
amazingly precise - if you happen to know how to start the letter you
want, and the flip-cover keyboard is... well... it is there. If I
want to hack in a fast SMS, I will rather use the virtual flip-cover.
Sounds negative? No way, it is a really nifty gadget, I am just no
used to it! It is all the data management I need on the go, while the
Newt has all I need for real work. The GUI is fast, in fact
everything is fast, the screen is fine, it plays MPEG4 video, has
tons of storage capacity, the plastic used for the case is okay
(could be nicer though), and most things are really easy to do, not
much room for confusion. If I could hook it up the AirPort network
for free surfing it would be even better, of course.
Now for the negative stuff. Sony Ericsson's Mac support is - absent,
there is none. At this time, you need a Wintel to sync. I wrote them
and they more or less said it was Apple's problem. Apple did not yet
manage to put out iSync support, and while I personally managed
connect the phone to the Mac via BlueTooth (no way using USB) the Mac
can just see it, but fails to transfer files. This is not good, and I
am a tad helpless. If anybody on the list managed to connect this
phone to OS 10.2.4 via BT and sent files to is successfully, or knows
a decent Mac & P800 FAQ dealing with this problem, _please_ contact
me (off list if fine, be sure to keep up the [OT] if replying to the
list).
Now if my Newt had BlueTooth...
Oliver :)
-- I can see by your coat my friend that you're from the other side There's just one thing I got to know Can you tell me please who won Jefferson Airplane -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries List FAQ/Etiquette/Terms: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
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