Sony Ericsson P1i

Posted by T3 Online on Tue 30 Oct 2007

First review: Mail model or junk mailer?

Sony Ericsson's P1i has a rich heritage. Following the P990 and M600 it's the latest phone from the Sony stable to come packing a full QWERTY keyboard as well as a touch screen.

What it represents, however, is a giant leap forward from the tacky-skinned P990 and understated dullness of the M600.

Clad in slinky aluminium its solid build and rubberised back make the P1i a joy to hold, while a jog dial, stylus, keyboard and touch screen make it one of the most versatile smartphones around.

Unfortunately, while the P1i is geared up for almost any input, its interface is easily foxed. While some on-screen buttons are large enough to prod with a finger, others are fiddly without the stylus. Likewise, not every on-screen option can be selected with the jog dial, so single handed use has to be abandoned on a regular basis.

Stick with the stylus though, and you won't go far wrong. There's even handwriting recognition, if you're desperate to avoid the keypad, although it's not terribly accurate.

Of course, the main reason for choosing a P1i is to master your e-mail on the move, and it's a task relished by the handset. It'll support BlackBerry Connect and any POP or IMAP account.

Tapping out messages on the keyboard is comfy enough, but getting used to Sony Ericsson's rocker keys takes a while as your thumbs constantly jostle for position in the cramped space. As a result, it's still not as fast as single letter keyboards from BlackBerry and their ilk.

What sets the P1i apart from the e-mailing competition, however, is its ability to combine business and pleasure with equal ease. There's an unusually high-spec 3.2-megapixel camera (although it lacks the xenon flash it deserves), a rock solid video player, walkman-esque MP3 abilities and super-smooth syncing with a PC. This is also the first Sony smartphone to officially support Apple Macs using iSync.

On the business-front, the P1i's a fully featured beast. Quickoffice makes mastering documents simple, and a built-in PDF viewer is handy too. Top marks have to go to Sony Ericsson's business card scanner, though.

Fire it up, take a snapshot of a business card and its details are entered into the address book automatically. It's fiendishly clever, and reassuringly accurate, only struggling with poncy business cards or awkward fonts.

Under the hood there's plenty of grunt to run other applications and games, and unlike Nokia's N95, we failed to crash the P1i by stuffing its memory full of multi-tasking apps.

It's usually a bad idea to mix business and pleasure, but the P1i manages it with ease, and unlike other handsets, takes both tasks as seriously as each other. Sony Ericsson have pulled out all the stops to make this mighty smartphone a true contender for BlackBerry's crown. Our advice? Make space for it in your suit now!