Sony Ericsson P1i short description and specifications

The P1 is the fourth Symbian OS v9.1 and UIQ 3.0 enabled phone in the Sony Ericsson portfolio, following the P990, M600i and W950. The P1 supports a wide range of push email solutions and Web browsing applications, plus connectivity via hi-speed UMTS and WLAN. The P1 is also a slimline model, being just 17mm thick and 124 grams in weight. Other notable specifications are as follows:

• Integrated 3.2 digital camera, with double led flash and autofocus. Video capable.
• 240×320 full color Touchscreen with Pen Stylus.
• Full QWERTY keyboard with rocking system.
• Video Calls capable with secondary front camera.
• Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) support (up to 8 GB).
• Business card scanner.
• Bluetooth™ 2.0 stereo.
• Push email.
• Music recognition with TrackID™ technology.
• RSS feeds.
• Handwriting Recognition.
• Full organizer functions, Microsoft office documents editing and viewing, PDF+.
• Multimedia viewer for music, videos and photos of every type.
• FM Radio.
• BlackBerry Connect and Exchange ActiveSync.

A little history about UIQ

Even if in reality the UIQ as an OS is dead, it is still very much beloved by many people around the glove, it has lots of followers, developers and fans, just like me. And even until this day, you can find new mods, themes and programs for it. UIQ was always in the forefront of innovation, bringing us the latest of technology, even touchscreens, years ago. With a little bit of hope, we can expect some of this wonderful OS inside the new Symbian Foundation, who UIQ is now part of.

The UIQ system was always very responsive and fast, and open with lots of possibilities, and that was exactly what made UIQ a preferred choice, reaching a well deserved status of even stardom, mostly with geeks, because even if the UI and options weren’t that complex, you could always dig deeper and reach an outstanding degree of complexity.

What the P1i brought to the UIQ world was more raw power with a faster processor, more memory, smaller and better design, in the real world usage it ran much faster and stable than for example the P990i, its predecessor, who was almost the same as the P1i but with less memory, making it almost impossible to use with many processes running at the same time, sometimes even bringing that mobile to its knees.
Even if the P1i was a following of the beloved M600 with the same form factor and design, the inclusion of more memory, a camera, wi-fi and many other options made the P1i an easy winner.
The P1i uses the 3.0 version of UIQ, some new phones have the UIQ 3.3 version, that runs even better, but none of those phones have a QWERTY keyboard.

Now, let’s talk about what I think about the P1i as hardware gadget and the software it uses.

What I really love about the P1i:

• The form factor, is very small compared to most smartphones out there, and it has a full keyboard, that once you get used to it, is unbeatable for speed typing.
• The choice of internet browsers you can use. Even if the one embedded with the latest firmware is just an old version of Opera Mobile, there are many other options you can use, including the fantastic Opera Mini (my favorite for its speed and ease to use), Opera Mobile 9.5, Ozone, and the list goes on.
• The sync options with your PC. The default PC Suite is not that good, but the totally free MyPhoneExplorer is unbelievable, it works like a charm, it is fast and very easy to use.
• The incredible array of programs (most of them for free) that you can install in your P1i. Everybody is raving about the Apple Store, but they forget that UIQ has years and years of programs created for it, and it shows in the amazing selection.
• The scan music and guess who it is function. When my friend showed me this function in his brand new iPhone, and told me it was a groundbreaking invention, I remind him that Sony and UIQ has this already and since years.
• The possibility of reading almost any document know to man, images, videos, PDFs, Office documents, OpenOffice documents, etc.
• E-mail integration and push mail, it works great, even with IMAP accounts.
• The integration of RSS feeds and Podcast, the default programs work great, but there are even better free options you could install.
• I can watch Youtube videos without problems, and in high res with the last Core Player.
• Long battery, much better than most Smartphones, it last at least 3 days with heavy use, and all this after more than one year usage. (I do turn off 3G and Wi-Fi if I don’t use it thought).
• Easy Contacts and Calendar functions.
• Not like other Smartphones, I can use Copy & Paste, make videos, make video conference calls, send and receive MMS and much more!

Things I don’t like or could be better:

• The cold start time is quite slow to load, the same as when it reboots, but I don’t turn off my phone often, only in cinemas and places that don’t allow mobiles.
• I miss Adobe Flash, even if I do have the Flash Mod installed, it only works to view SWF files or play games, and only inside the old Opera 8.63 browser, that I don’t use, and not in newer browsers, at least not yet.
• It does have a gorgeous display, but it could be a little bigger and have better resolution, it is noticeable when you compare it to other new smartphones with bigger screens, but you can’t have both a small design and big screen.
• The screen gets dirty very fast, you can clean it but the smudges made with your fingers will come back.



• It doesn’t have EDGE or HSDPA, and here in Europe is needed. Still, the fast UMTS 3G network works quite well and it is fast here in The Netherlands.
• It doesn’t have an accelerated video chip, so no real 3D games. Still, some Java and UIQ games are in 3D, but they are not as smooth as in other mobiles as they rely only in the processor.
• It doesn’t have an integrated GPS, but you can buy a GPS connector, via the cable or via Bluetooth.
• It is the last good UIQ phone with a keyboard that will ever be!
  Sony Ericsson left UIQ and even if it is part of the new Symbian Association, it is leaning more to WinMo phones, I do like the XPeria, but I wish that it could have been an UIQ handset.

List of interesting links for the P1i

Other recommended software to use with your P1i, they are all free

• Swiss Manager – Much better than bundled system options in the P1i, very useful.
• Opera Mini – In my opinion the best browser at the moment for the P1i.
• Opera Mobile – Still in beta, but it is looking already very good.
• Ozone Browser – Great webkit browser only for UIQ 3, very clean and fast, still in beta.
• Google Maps – Indispensable and it works great.
• Kobo Deluxe – Great little UIQ game with touchscreen support.
• Escarpod – Great little program for RSS feeds and podcast, it can download files directly to your phone.