The Swiss-Army Phone (+ how to get them cheap!) (Sony Ericsson P800)

Member Name: johninnit

Product:	Sony Ericsson P800
Date:	14/05/03 (2035 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It does everything..., ...and then some

Disadvantages: It costs a lot, Little memory supplied, Not universally compatible

Public Service Announcement: This is likely to be quite a long op, sorry, as I'm very very very impressed with this thing. Consequently, anyone who's only after how to get them cheap should take my endorsement as read, and skip straight to the bottom now...

Well, there is quite a lot to write about here...

I've had a mobile for about 5 years now, and whatever the handset, it's always been my most treasured possession. I think it goes back to when I was a kid, reading Dan Dare in the Eagle comic, and watching Star Trek. I was always deeply disappointed that I'd been born far too early. In the future, people would be able to do absolutely everything - walking in space, hurtling round the world, vanquishing Mekons without even breaking sweat. All we needed to turn ourselves into these comic book super-beings seemed to be the right technology, but the digital watches and chunky calculators that we swooned over in the early 80's might as well have been flint tools in comparison with Spock's Tricorder or Buck Rogers' spaceships.

Then came mobile telephones. They might not be the most advanced device the human race has ever invented, but I think they're the most "futuristic". A human with a mobile is suddenly able to reach out make their presence felt nearly anywhere on the planet. We can talk to many more people, much more quickly, and as a result we can affect many, many more outcomes. No longer do we need to think "I wish I knew what was happening", and what we want to do is limited more by what we can think of than where we are, or how much time we have (This is of course not always an advantage if, like me, you can't think of anything in particular, but I digress).

So, for me the mobile became a symbol of empowerment, and no longer having to wait for some distant future to arrive. Imagine then how happy I was then to learn at a text messaging conference (yes, I know that
9;s rather sad in itself) about this time last year, of the planned development of the mobile to end all mobiles, the SonyEricsson p800.

Looking at the specification for it all made sense. We've built up so many gadgets by now, that convergence was due any minute - all our little silver toys would inevitably merge into one "personal empowerment device", a sort of digital swiss-army knife, if you like.

The phone that is more than a phone is also a:
MP3 walkman; Digital Camera; Video viewer; Dictaphone; Notepad; Address book; Diary; Games console; Emailer; Web browser; Calculator; File storage; Modem ..and pretty much whatever new software is made for it

Given my mobile fetish, it's hardly surprising that I was practically camped out on the doorstep of Carphone Warehouse for a year, begging "Is it here yet?" so regularly that I had to make sure I kept going back to different branches so that the assistants wouldn't notice it was me again.

Eventually, the launch date of September 2002 was announced, and I started scraping together pennies, and infuriating my poor partner with my entreaties to be allowed to buy it ("It's only £400. If I don't have another pint, does that mean we can afford another half a percent of it?").

September came and went, and my anxious emails to SonyEricsson (those poor customer services people) stopped being returned. Another date was set for Christmas, which similarly over-ran. Finally in February they started to appear on these shores. I stepped up my campaign of Carphone Warehouse-bothering, returning day after day to find missed shipments, shipments without O2 compatible handsets, and shipments that had gallingly sold out minutes before I got out for my lunchbreak.

Anyway, it's May now, and I am in finally in possession of my very own blue and silver marvel. Jo can't entirely identify with the way in which I cradle it, tuck
it carefully into its docking station at night, or that I've stopped talking to her to play with it - but at least I'm happy.

On a more level-headed note, it is a very useful and very well made phone. I used to use a Siemens SL45 (because it had an MP3 player for the tube journey) and an old windows PDA to organise my life. Merging the two into one saves me filling more pockets, and charging more devices every night. I get to work, synchronise my appointments in the phone with my Outlook diary (so my colleagues can see just how little I'm doing in the next week), and I always have a contacts book with me whenever someone asks me for a phone number or email address. I was worried about synchronising it, as my PDA had never worked properly - deleting reams of work email in the attempt - but this worked perfectly and set itself up without a hitch.

(One caveat to this is that the phone as supplied doesn't work with Windows 98, and if you want to connect to this, you'll need to download hours' worth of extras from the SonyEricsson and Microsoft sites - Linux and Mac users are damned even further with no support I know of)

The controls took a little while to get used to, and I very quickly dispensed with the optional keypad/cover flip thing - easier to use the jog-wheel on the side, and virtual buttons on the touch sensitive screen. Handwriting recognition wasn't as tricky as I was worried (the Palm-style graffiti input is less sophisticated than a windows PDA's script recognition, and only takes one letter at a time, but it is very simple, and it's hard to make mistakes, which is always a good thing). The fiddly and lose-able stylus has come in for a bit of stick in reviews, clipped to the side of the phone, but I actually think it's the best solution for quick access - and in any case they do give you 3 spares!

I've used the browser several times for work and amusement, and the phone's l
ong screen makes great clear viewing (especially if you download the excellent free Opera browser for it). Likewise, the reader software for email attachments is very useful. The camera's a decent if unremarkable one, and the MP3 player's good.

On the rather major down-side, the phone only has 11MB of memory, with a stingy 16MB Sony Memorystick expansion. This isn't enough for much music or synchronised email, quite infuriating when you consider all the neat stuff you could carry on it if you had enough memory. Memorysticks are also the new Duo variety, which you can't buy anywhere yet, grr, and even if you could, they would be much more expensive than the non-Sony alternatives. If you haven't balked at the price tag of the phone, do beware that you'll still have to pay another £100 probably for the extra memory to make it properly useful, and a second cable to synchronise at work as well as at home.

Much has been made of the phone's 3d chip, and the swanky games you can play on it, though of course these will be dependent on enough developers writing them, and there's hardly anything at the moment. I did download a remarkably fun strategy game (a la Command and Conquer) to play on it, as well as the 3d racer and shooter supplied with it.

For the boring stuff, the phone's very small considering what's in it, but larger and heavier than most these days (kind of like a phone from 2 years ago if you can remember that far back). The batteries charge very quick and last at least 2 days of fairly good use. The screen is clear and bright, with a powerful backlight. Construction is sturdyish, though I've seen some people's p800s already with scuffed paint (they evidently don't love theirs as much as I do mine). The Bluetooth functionality I have yet to try (as I can't afford any other bluetooth toys to go with it, sob).

What you're probably wondering though is: "DIDN'T
HE SAY I COULD GET IT CHEAP?". The answer is yes (sort of). Read on...

I've bought all my phones from Carphone Warehouse (they get another glowing op from me for customer service), and they're pretty much ubiquitous, so when a new branch opened in a new discount village in my home town of Portsmouth, I didn't think much of it.

I don't like "discount villages" on the whole. They seem to be a way of offloading stuff that designers couldn't sell a few years ago, onto people who've been blinded by the label and a tiny reduction (If you told most of the blokes going in that they'd be coming out with a pink shirt, 3 sizes too large, they'd not be best pleased, but the XXL fuschia Ralph Lauren Polos seem to fly out at 20% off).

Anyway, in keeping with this discount theme, CPW at Portsmouth Gunwharf Quays offer a 30% discount on all phones. Not sure why, as they're the same phones as sell for more in their Commercial Road branch, rather than the out of season tat peddled by the likes of Calvin Klein's outlet, but ours is not to reason why...

30% off a £350 phone is a rather generous £105 discount, which happily paid for my £20 train fare from London, and made a very profitable visit (and Mum & Dad thought it was to come and see them - bonus!). CPW have another 6 of these outlet shops around the country, so check out your nearest before buying a phone. Plus, a lunch in a nice Portsmouth harbour side pub, and a walk up the pier can't be too bad, eh?

Anyway, thank you very much for reading all this, you've helped me pay for 0.0075% of this wallet-crippling phone now. I hope I've convinced you of the absolute necessity of buying one of these wonderful devices - If only because I don't yet know anyone else with a colour phone that I can send photos to!

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