Thread: Sony Ericsson P1i Mobile Phone

The P1 is the latest in Sony Ericsson's business line, succeeding both the P990i and
the M600i-bringing the former's functionality to the latter's form factor. Its dimensions are nearly the same as the M600i, adding a couple of millimetres to the thickness, and its style statement is in Chinese the shiny plastic sides and the chrome details look downright tacky, and we prefer the M600i's matte finish. It's based on the same Symbian UfQ 3 platform as the P990i nd M600i, with a few minor changes. OS is definitely quicker, which is probably due to the oodles of program memory that the phone comes with 128 MB, doubling the M600i's 64.

Other than that, there's nothing remarkably new here. Just like the M600i, the phone doesn't feature any soft-keys, and you're expected to operate it using either the stylus or your fingers on the touchscreen. There's also the three-way jog dial, which thankfully does away with the annoying protrusion that featured on the previous phones. The screen itself is wonderfully vibrant and quite responsive to touch, but is naturally a fingerprint magnet. We recommend slapping on a screen guard the second you open the box-the screen's responsiveness will suffer a tad, but it'll be worth it. The stylus is longer and easier to write with, and its locking mechanism seems much firmer than the M600i's flimsy setup.

The QWERTY keypad is the same as the M600i-two letters to the key-and is just as easy to get used to. The 3.2 mega pixel camera is respectable, though not exceptional-indoor photos are a bit grainy, but overall, the clarity and colour balance of the photos satisfies. There's a second camera on the front for video calls, but you can't take self-portraits with it. Like the P990i, this model also comes with a business card scanner-just take a photo of a business card, and the OCR software will create a new contact for you. The feature works just as well (or as badly, as the case may be) as the one on the P990i.

In the connectivity department, the Pli supports 3G (but no EDGE) and WiFi-802.11b, to be precise. WiFi connection speeds are quite decent, and battery life thankfully doesn't suffer for it. The P1i isn't really light years ahead of the P990i, but it definitely nudges it off top spot. There's no annoying flip top, the audio levels are louder and the huge program memory lets you multi-task like you've never multi-tasked before.