Buy Now...

Now this is a phone that a lot of people have been waiting a long time for, myself included and people that know me have asked whether it's been worth the wait. My feelings are still rather mixed on this - in some respects the P800 is definitely ahead of similar devices and clearly outclasses them yet in others it simply seems disorganised. Personally I think this is down to it feeling far more like a PDA with phone functionality versus a smart phone style device. This really sets the stage as to who this device is really for in many respects - for those that are looking to actively operate on the go with only a single device then the P800 is superb; if you're looking for contacts, calendar, tasks, e-mail, web surfing, MMS services, etc. then there are several other devices that aren't as bulky and can handle all of these functions with aplomb.

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The P800 is a rather well done device for the most part - unlike the SPV with which it's often compared the camera actually works well and jotting on the nice, large display is nicer than a joystick. As I'd mentioned in talking about the SPV, Sony have brought their wonderful 3-D dial to the P800 which lets you spin, push up or down as well as push in to provide a high degree of navigation. This comes in handy for zipping through the menus as well as reading long web pages.

Much like the SPV the P800 comes capable of synchronising out of the box however also offers Notes in addition to Outlook. Better still is that you can synch via USB, Bluetooth, infrared or even remotely over GPRS with SyncML - very well done but if this is all you need this isn't the device for you.

If you do however want more, the P800 has some great capabilities with its support for Java. While many devices are today being produced with Java support, there aren't that many in this form factor (yet) and the ability to load any of the wealth of Java applications available is superb. For corporate use the P800's browser supports Java applications as well which makes accessing and utilising numerous enterprise systems a reality out of the box.

Unlike the SPV you can pick up Java applications from the phone itself, download and run them then and there. Although you can do this with the SPV it isn't out of the box. It's quite spiffy to be showing the phone to some mates with a bit of web surfing, finding an application for the phone, getting it and running it right there - made even easier by the 12MB of storage the device ships with.

There's nothing "bad" about this device at all save for some niggles in consistency or more appropriately a lack thereof. Rather than having certain core functions "centralised" they exist as independent elements, each with their own set of menus and constructs. Finding the ability to change sounds on the SPV was pretty simple, Settings and Sounds in there. Several folks who tried to do the same on the P800 were rather surprised to find that the phone settings weren't in Control Panel and Sounds on the P800 and even more surprised to find that you actually had to go into the phone function itself and change the sound there.

This lack of fluidity also manifests itself in answering the device - a common complaint from everyone I've known with the device thus far has been knowing if the device will answer in "phone" mode or speaker-phone mode. This can be rather embarrassing when it decides to go speaker phone and the call isn't something you want broadcast in the office! You do get used to how it works (eventually) but these are the simple things that should really be in there from the outset.

Let's see if the P900 resolves these issues effectively?