SonyEricsson p990i first impressions

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About a week ago I received my replacement p910i. I have read rave reviews about it and was mildly excited what I finally held it in my hands. It weighs a bit nicer in the hands, with a more round feeling that the privious 810. the keyboard has undergone a very sucessful re-design, the buttons are easier to push. The jog-wheels no longer works on 3 axises, but 2 - something which one gets used to ever so quickly.

The phone has a whole lot of switches and buttons, some of them are a bit too easy to push accidentally. With the flip closed, you get of course the normal 12 number keys, plus 5 cursor keys, 4 option keys, and 6 keys spread around the edges of the phone. This is not a simple just-use-it phone.

Switching on the p910i, the first downturn comes. It feels like it takes a full minute for the phone to boot. The menu has been re-designed, and at first I did not understand the logic behind the structure. Why, for example is the calendar on the main menu, but for the to-do-list I first have to go to the Office folder?

The phone crashes frequently, especially when using slightly more demanding applications, such as taking photos, or playing back video. In normal use (like making some calls, and checking e-mail once per day), I need to do a sorft re-boot at least once a day. Last week the phone was used on a film, where it was supposed to play back a small video file. On about every second take we had to wait an extra two minutes for the crashed phone to re-boot. I find this unacceptable.

Ringing SonyEricson, I get the tip that I should update the phone’s hardware…

Why, oh why do I need to update a phone that I received only days ago?

Why, oh why does SonyEricson think that every p910i user has a PC?

That’s right, you cannot update your phone on a Mac. Actually, you cant do anything on a Mac, they jsut do not talk together (except for simple Bluetooth file transfer that sort-of works, ocasionally and slow).

Sometimes I cannot make outgoing calls. First after a re-boot does the phone work as a phone again.

For a phone that has been delayed for many months, I find it amazing how unstable it is. Considering the price-tag I think that SonyEricsson should feel ashamed. Not recommended.