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Sony Ericsson P1

Following the release of the P990 is the Sony Ericsson P1 on May 2007. This smartphone is a conglomerate of P990’s hardware features and M600’s design and form with some notable enhancements. The phone runs on Symbian 9.1 OS and features a QWERTY keyboard and 3.2-megapixel camera with auto focus.

The Ericsson P1 measures 106 x 55 x 17 millimeters and weighs 124 grams. The P1 boasts a huge 2.6-inch touch screen display, which deals well under direct sunlight, with the VGA video camera and the in-call speaker grill above it. The QWERTY keyboard shows a Sony Ericsson trademark design whereas three or four characters share a single key. The design appears to be appealing but its user-friendliness has been in question. The P1 is easy to grip and comfortable to the ears.

The left side view of the P1 features a strip eyelet, Jog Dial wheel and Back Key. The Jog Dial is a navigation solution that allows the user to scroll up and down and to press for selecting. The bottom portion is where the microphone and Fast Port are located while the right side locates the camera shutter key, memory stick micro card slot and a customizable short cut key.

On the top are the Infrared port and the On/Off key. Below the On/Off key is the slot for the stylus. The 3.2-Megapixel camera lens is on the backside and a silver line that covers the loud speaker. Phone capabilities of the Sony Ericsson P1 need not put into question. Signal reception strength is consistently nice and calls have no problems. Moving to P1’s interface, the UIQ 3.0 is a customizable stylus-based UI for Symbian 9.1 OS-based phones which displays the clock, date, signal strength and battery meter. It also consists of shortcut keys which are by default are allotted to the Calendar, the phonebook, the web browser, the message inbox and the main menu.

Another important feature of the P1 is its call management system, particularly the mechanism that sends an SMS to the person whose call the user is rejecting. Messaging in the P1 is also amazing, with support to SMS, EMS, MMS, and RSS feeds. E-mails have their separate inboxes. P1 supports POP3, IMAP and SMTP protocols and writing an e-mail is as easy as writing a SMS message. Adding attachments is an easy task as well.

File management is also breezy with the P1. Aside from the 166MB of flash memory and 128MB RAM, it also includes an expandable storage memory. The file manager’s interface features two tabs – one for folders in the phone’s memory and one on the memory card. Browsing pictures is also much easier with the P1.

Multimedia capabilities of the P1 include the music player just like the Walkman-branded Sony Ericsson phones and the Video player. There is also an FM radio which can store up to 20 radio stations. The 3.2-Megapixel camera produces astounding pictures of good resolution.