Sony Ericsson P800 Review

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Sony Ericsson P800
★★★★☆
4.0
78.0% of users recommend this
  • Screen Quality

  • Battery Life

  • Features

  • Reception

  • Style

  • Value For Money

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Brucie.'s review of Sony Ericsson P800

“I am very pleased with this phone. I have had it for...”

★★★★★

written by Brucie. on 06/03/2003

Good Points
Easy to use, Fast OS, downloadable applications, full web browsing, big screen, "extras" included in box.

Bad Points
Crashed twice, naff (but thankfully removable) flip, Attracts too much attention ;-)

General Comments
I am very pleased with this phone. I have had it for two weeks now and am still enjoying just playing with it. I have never given so many people demos of a gadget before. Everyone wants to try this phone out; family, colleagues, even a complete stranger on the train asked me about it! They were all impressed.



I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to find Sony/Ericsson have included a few extra goodies. As well as the phone, battery, instructions, sim card, and charger there were 2 CDs (containing the PC software suite and extra games, wallpaper images, sound effects and so-on), a desktop stand allowing connection to your PC via USB which can also be used as a desktop charger, a 16MB memory stick duo card, 3 extra styli, handsfree headphones, a memory stick adapter card and a pretty nice case and wrist strap.



So how does the phone perform? Well, lets get the boring bit out of the way first. During phone calls the sound quality is good, it hasn't dropped any calls, and the navigation to the contacts application is easily achieved using the touch screen, the 5-way jog-dial, or the keys on the flip. Right now the fun stuff! The P800 has a built in camera, plays games, MPEG4 videos and MP3s. It gives you full WWW access (download the free Opera browser from the sonyericsson web site), has a touch-screen with handwriting recognition, a calendar, you can send and receive emails and MMS messages. And if all that isn't enough you can install your own applications via the USB link or bluetooth.



It would take 3 pages to describe all the applications, so I'll just give you the edited highlights. The camera takes reasonable quality pictures at up to 640x480, the results are not brilliant in low light conditions, but its great for those moments where you wish you had a camera, but previously wouldn't have had one handy. The video and MP3 player applications are good, but with around 20MB of free memory to play with there's not enough space for long videos or more than a few songs. The handwriting recognition is very good, even with my terrible writing! This can be used for all text input (SMS, emails, to-do list, calendar etc.etc.) and really speeds things up compared with a normal mobile keypad. You can pop up a QWERTY keyboard on screen as an alternative, but the handwriting feature is so good I haven't bothered with it. There is a viewer application for viewing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files, some games (chess, Stunt Run (a port of Stunt Car Racer from the Amiga/ST I think) a shoot-em-up, and Solitaire), a voice memo recorder and more.



Battery life is good, expect about 4 days under light use, reducing to more like 2 days if used heavily. It supports GPRS which I used a lot more than I thought due to the excellent Opera web browser I mentioned earlier, which gives full web access including pages with frames and JavaScript. Forget about WAP, there is absolutely no point to it now you can get "proper" websites on your phone. Sending and receiving emails is easy, you can even view common attachments on the phone.



I am struggling to find anything bad to say about the P800, although mine did crash twice. This happened in the first 2 days and hasn't happened since, and I think it was caused by a 3rd party application called eMAME that I have installed. Another bad thing, maybe just because it's new here, is that everyone wants to play with this phone. I am fed up of giving demos every day for 2 weeks! Maybe the price is too high for some. I'm sure it will come down eventually but I paid £300 on a contract and got a phone with PDA and MP3 player functionality so you get a lot for the money. I also disliked the ugly plastic flip which comes fitted to the phone but you can remove it completely and just use the jog dial and/or touch screen. The phone looks a lot smarter, and more futuristic without the flip, and I don't miss it at all.



All in all a great phone with lots of features, I have no hesitation in recommending this phone!

  • Value For Money

  • Features

  • Reception

  • Style

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Wasim.'s Response to 77880_Brucie.'s Review

Written on: 08/03/2003

I had my doubts about buying a p800 until i read this review. I think it was very helpful.

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99336_Brunskibeat.'s Response to 77880_Brucie.'s Review

Written on: 19/05/2003

Can it connect to MacOS? (9 or X)
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99184_Geezer041.'s Response to 77880_Brucie.'s Review

Written on: 19/05/2003

It syncs with Outlook OK. However i only use it for storing/editing contacts...occaisionally. Download a little program call p800 remote or some such. This allows you to control you phone using your PC via the USB cable packaged with the phone. I do all my e-mails, contact, messages, picture editing, IM, SMS via my PC and then the handset. Sod Outlook.

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98417_Tony.'s Response to 77880_Brucie.'s Review

Written on: 16/05/2003

I've heard the synch with Outlook is terrible? True / false?????

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93874_Geezer041.'s Response to 77880_Brucie.'s Review

Written on: 01/05/2003

Have a look online to purchase, i saved a bundle. www.kelkoo.co.uk. Normally next day delivery.

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93760_Francis.'s Response to 77880_Brucie.'s Review

Written on: 30/04/2003

A detailed review without the geek factor. Tried it out in a shop today and I have to agree the phome flip looks tacky but once you open it up it began to impress me no end. I have an XDA and I'm sold on this P800 The camera is very good and the operating system is fast. Thanks for your detail and effort which reassure my decision to buy it.

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Geezer041.'s Response to 77880_Brucie.'s Review

Written on: 27/04/2003

I agree, thank you for such detail, i am also sold. There must be something bad, i have read half a dozen reviews - seems too good to be true. The truth is in the testing.

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91404_Mark.'s Response to 77880_Brucie.'s Review

Written on: 23/04/2003

Sold! I'm ordering mine now.
<br>Thanks for the top review

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79531_Alex.'s Response to 77880_Brucie.'s Review

Written on: 12/03/2003

I believe every word you say, even though i dont have the phone. i own a sharp gx10, i will get along fine with my phone until i am sixteen and can get a job to make myself some cash ;-).

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