Highly awaited as it is, Sony Ericsson P990 is going to be the flagship of the Sony Ericsson product line. Equipped with every possible current connectivity features, an autofocus 2 megapixel camera, a second video calls camera, a conventional keypad and a QWERTY keyboard, Memory Stick slot, FM radio with RDS, the latest Symbian 9.1 OS, and last, but not least with a large 2.76" TFT touchscreen with a QVGA (240x320 pixels) resolution it surely made the news for many impatiently waiting fans when it finally hit the market. The handset has a lot to offer, our job is to see if it's got what it takes to become a bestseller among the sophisticated smartphones which are now offered on the mobile market.
Sony Ericsson P990 official photos
Main advantages
- Autofocus 2 megapixel camera with macro mode and LED flash
- Memory stick Duo/PRO Duo memory card slot (hot-swap)
- Walkman MP3 player and stereo FM radio with RDS
- 3G support with video calls, GPRS and HSCSD
- Wi-Fi 812.11b support
- Touchpad TFT display with a QVGA (240x320 pixels) resolution
- Stereo Bluetooth 2.0, Infrared port and USB 2.0 support
- Conventional keypad on a removable flip along with a QWERTY keyboard
- Internal 128MB flash memory and 64MB RAM
- Symbian 9.1 OS with the UIQ 3.0 user interface
Main disadvantages
- Incompatible with older Symbian UIQ applications
- No EDGE support
- Records video with a QVGA 320x240 pixels resolution
- Display not very legible under direct sun light
- User interface is not always user-friendly
Traditional competitors of the Sony Ericsson P-series smartphones are the Nokia Communicators such 9300 and 9500. Some Windows Mobile-based devices however such as the HTC TyTN (a.k.a. Qtek 9600) which has been previewed on GSMArena.com not while ago are also really strong contenders for the communicator class title. Windows mobile devices have begun to earn their own place in the hearts of the smartphone fans and in some cases they offer even better functionality over the similar Symbian-based devices. Lately the Nokia Symbian S60 smartphones are also becoming a strong competition - one of the rivals of the Sony Ericsson handset would most definitely be Nokia E70 which we reviewed not long ago and. It doesn't have a touchscreen, but it comes equipped with a great folding QWERTY keypad and on functional level and pure speed it comes to equal terms with P990.
As is the case right now, both the latest versions of the Symbian S60 UI and the Symbian UIQ 3.0 have a limited amount of third-party software available. That is of course expected to change in the course of this year, but nevertheless it is a fact that must be noted because it is one of the most crucial aspects when making a buying decision. And that may definitely tip the scales in favor of the Windows Mobile OS for PocketPC which traditionally has a wide fan base supplying it with tons of software - both free and paid.
We were very excited when we got the opportunity to make a review of the eagerly awaited Sony Ericsson smartphone P990. It turned out though that the test handset is obviously a rather early prototype since we experienced frequent crashes in various situations and applications. Nevertheless, we decided to go on with the review since we realized how interesting a material like that would be to the fans of the P-series smartphones all over the world. We would mention the bugs we encountered while using the phone but we have a good deal of confidence that these would be fixed in the final version.
The version we tested
The retail package would most probably include a USB cable, a Desk Stand, a stereo headset, a spare stylus, a flip replacement cover, and a 64MB Memory Stick PRO Duo card. There is also going to be a special screwdriver which will be used for removing the flip. Of course, as with any other cellphone, the contents of the retail package remain strictly market and country dependant.
Some of the P990 retail package contents
The desk stand that also comes with the retail package is rather convenient since it can be used to make video calls with the phone sitting on your desk. At the same time the desk stand is connected to the computer USB port and not only charges the battery but serves for synchronization purposes.
P990 desk stand
Sony Ericsson would be offered in three market-orientated versions: the standard P990i for Europe, Middle East, the Americas, and Latin Asia which would be also available with a Russian numeric keypad; the P990a for North and Latin America and working in the GSM 850MHz band; the P990i Chinese for Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore; and finally, the P990c for China. The first two models would offer Latin characters handwriting recognition only, while the last two would have Chinese keypads and support for Chinese handwriting recognition.
A P-series design
The Sony Ericsson P990 retains the classic looks of its forerunners P800, P900 and P910. The smartphone measures 114 x 57 x 21 mm without the flip and has a thickness of 26 mm with the flip. It weighs 155 g with the flip which is almost the same as the one of the previous models. Its main difference with the Sony Ericsson P910 is that the QWERTY keypad is located on the body itself and not on the inside of the removable flip.
The P-series evolution
Speaking about the flip, removing it is simple enough with the special screwdriver. Just remove the back cover, unscrew the two holding screws and the flip is detached. Next thing you need is just to put the special cover to hide the joint.
The central place in the body is taken by the large 2.76" (41 x 56 mm) display. Below it is the QWERTY keyboard which is covered by the flip with the numeric keypad. Above the display you can easily see the eye of the frontal VGA video call camera. Next to it, right in the dead center is the in-call speaker aperture and on its right there is a LED which blinks to alert you on various events and while a certain connectivity feature is turned on.
Sony Ericsson P990 front: keypad, keyboard, frontal VGA video call camera
The left side of the phone incorporates a Music player shortcut key, the traditional Jog Dial, a hardware BACK key and a hardware keylock sliding key. Sliding it down locks the keypad no matter whether the flip is opened or closed. After your slide the button returns to its position by itself.
A nice feature is that the Music player shortcut key function can be customized to the user's needs - up to certain limits, of course. It can be set to turn on the Music player, to automatically start playing the last track or turn on the FM radio. An interesting change is that the Jog Dial can no longer be used in 5 directions as in Sony Ericsson P910. Now the only available directions are scroll up, scroll down and press. We think that the 5-way Jog Dial was a great navigation tool and stripping it of two of its functions would most surely disappoint many people that are already used to it.
On the top of the smartphone we find the Infrared port covered by a dark plastic strip. The head of the stylus is also seen in that position. It sits inside the smartphone's body as usual and is easily put in or pulled out. Once put in it sits firmly in place and there is no risk of losing it.
The right side of the phone houses the Opera web browser shortcut key, the camera shortcut key and the Memory Stick Duo slot cover. The Web browser key function can also be customized similarly to the Music player shortcut key - it can be set to open the Web browser, the Main menu, the Media player, the Sound recorder, the Task manager, or the Video phone application. When the flip is closed, pressing the camera shortcut keys turns on the LED on the back which otherwise serves as camera flash. It's a convenient solution since you can use the LED as a flashlight. Since the Opera web browser works only in fullscreen mode you need to have the flip opened in order for the Web browser shortcut key to work. As opposed to all new Sony Ericsson models which leave the factory with the new M2 Memory Stick slot, this time the manufacturer has allowed the users to use the more popular Memory Stick Duo cards.
The bottom part of the smartphone features the regular Fast port used by Sony Ericsson and the microphone aperture.
Flipping the phone on its back reveals the rotating camera lens cover, the external antenna slot cap, the handset's loudspeaker and the LED flash. There is a transparent rubber strip in the bottom part of the backside. When the handset is put lying on a table, the strip makes it impossible for it to slide on the table surface.
The camera cover is opened by a circular slide. The cover itself is nothing new and is used in other Sony Ericsson mobiles. Opening the slider turns on the camera automatically - much like on the Sony Ericsson K750 and Sony Ericsson K800 which had a different design cover though.
Sony Ericsson P990 camera cover: opened and closed
As we already said, the stylus is hidden in a hole on the upper back of the phone and is easily accessible when you turn the phone around.
The battery cover on the back is readily opened with a slide. Sony Ericsson is equipped with a Li-Polymer Sony Ericsson BST-34 battery with a capacity of 1120 mAh.
According to the manufacturer, the battery should supply the smartphone with enough power for up to 400 h standby in GSM networks and up to 300 h if 3G networks. The total video call time supported by the battery is 1 h and 40 min, while in regular calls it should last up to 9 hours in GSM networks and up to 3 hours in 3G networks. Furthermore, when using or editing emails with the backlighting turned on or when listening to music using the headset, the battery should last up to 9 hours. Unfortunately, we couldn't test the phone's battery life since we used the phone heavily during our tests and thus the battery life we experienced was not indicative for the real-life performance of the phone. But judging on our experience we might say that when using the phone normally, taking the occasional pictures with the camera and using the Wi-Fi for an hour per day, the smartphone won't last more than full 2 days.
Flipping it
The numeric keypad features a 5-way navigation D-pad, two soft keys and the traditional BACK and C keys. Writing a message with it is relatively easy since the keys are large enough and nicely spaced. All the keys are somewhat unevenly lit in light blue. The mechanism of the flip operates nicely and there is no problem to open it even while holding the phone in one hand. Opening it reveals the QWERTY keyboard with tiny plastic keys. The keys themselves have again light blue backlighting and although they are rather small they are easily used even with big fingers. Each key has two characters assigned to it - one letter and one special symbol such as a bracket, a hyphen, a slash, a question mark, an exclamation mark, currency symbols. The top row of the keys has the numbers as alternative symbols. All the special symbols and the numeric symbols are typed by holding the ALT key pressed in the same time. The keyboard also has a SPACEBAR, which activates the phone application when pressed longer. There are also two arrow keys and a CAPS LOCK key. The DEL and BACKSPACE functions share one key, as well as the OK and ENTER keys. There is no BACK key, but you can use the back key on the left side of the phone for that purpose. It is easily pressed with your index or middle finger while holding the phone in hand. Impressive display
The display of the Sony Ericsson P990 is 2.67" TFT touchscreen with a QVGA (240x320 pixels) resolution, supporting 262K colors. That resolution is greater than the one of the previous Sony Ericsson P900 and P910 models which was 208x320 pixels. When the flip is closed though, the resolution of the visible portion of the screen is changed to 240x256 pixels. That however is reflected in the quality of the menu graphics - their edges become more jagged due to the downsampling. When the flip is closed the touchscreen functionality gets turned off and you can operate with the handset as you would with any other regular mobile phone. There was one problem we experienced with the touchscreen and it concerned an obvious lack of calibration. The display touch reception was slightly offset to the right so instead of pressing directly on a virtual OK button for example you had to press slightly to the right in order for the phone to accept the command. Unfortunately, the phone lacked any option for calibration the screen which is seen on PocketPC devices based on Windows Mobile. The second half of a smart-phone
After all, even a smartphone is a half "phone" so handling calls is equally important as any other feature. During calls we saw no problems with P990 - the sound during calls was clear and loud enough. The network signal was always full which is just what one might expect in urban areas with nice network coverage. A bit of a unique feature is the so-called Business telephony which practically means that you can use your P990 on a corporate telephone network via a Corporate switch PABX (Private Automatic Branch Exchange), equipped with a mobile extension port.
When the flip is closed dialing a number is simple as with any other mobile phone. When the flip is opened or off though you should make use of the integrated phone application in order to dial a contact using the touchscreen display. The virtual keys are nicely set apart so that you can press the numbers with your thumb without any mistake even if you have large fingers.
As far as the performance of the loudspeaker is concerned, we are far from impressed. The sound lacked any bass frequencies at all and the loudest ring volume of the handset proved more than insufficient in noisy streets.
