$988 (with two-year plan), $1,088 (without plan)
Available at all authorised Sony Ericsson dealers
If you've been on the lookout for a compact phone with both a Qwerty keyboard and a touch screen, check out Sony Ericsson's new P1i.
Although it's a P series phone, it looks nothing like the chunky P990i. In fact, the P1i measures just slightly larger than a deck of cards.
It probably owes its compact size to the unique Qwerty keyboard, which is spread over just 20 buttons. Each button is assigned two letters, and the buttons in the middle double up as a numeric keypad.
To type, I had to place my finger on a button, and rock it to its left or right, depending on the letter that I wanted. For example, 'O' and 'P' share the same button, and if I needed to type 'P', I would have to rock the button to its right.
Works great in theory, but in reality, you need slim fingers to use this keyboard efficiently! Initially, I had the tendency to accidentally hit adjacent keys and my SMS messages would look like the work of a three-year-old. Still, after a few days of practice, I amazed myself by being able to type at a relatively decent speed using my fingernails.
If you have stubby fingers, scribbling on the 2.6-inch screen may be less painful and faster.
But keyboard aside, the black and chrome silver tri-band P1i is a great device for business users.
Like Nokia phones, the P1i runs on the Symbian OS, but its interface looks very different. I found it easy to use and took to it pretty quickly. The P1i is quite responsive and stable too - it didn't hang on me even once in the week that I used it, unlike most Windows mobile phones that I've tested! (In general, Windows mobile phones are prone to hanging, like my Windows PC!)
As expected of a phone targetted at executives, you'll find tools like Quickoffice for viewing and editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, PDF reader, and Opera browser for surfing the Internet, and of course, push mail. Connectivity options include 3G, wireless Lan 802.11b, Bluetooth and infrared (IrDa). Unfortunately, 3.5G is missing.
A nice extra is the business card reader. Simply snap a picture of a business card with the built-in camera and its onboard software will attempt to pick up and store key contact information from the card.
And when you need a break from work, plug in the bundled stereo earphones to listen to MP3 tunes or the radio. I was happy to leave my MP3 player at home as the music sounded great on the phone.
The P1i's built-in 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera will also get you pictures that are surprisingly good. It als has a powerful Led flash for low light situations.
Onboard memory is 160MB, and the phone has a Memory Stick Micro (M2) slot. The package also includes a very useful 1GB M2 card, a cool looking cradle and a pouch.
- Melvin Seah works in the IT industry.
FINAL SAY
It's pretty rare to find such a compact phone with both a Qwerty keyboard and touchscreen. The Sony Ericsson's new P1i performs well in the business and entertainment departments, and looks good too. Highly recommended!