PDA Functionality

Fitted with an ARM9 processor the load times of applications were reasonable to surprisingly fast. Of course that's not to say it's the fastest thing I've ever seen, but it was better than expected. Compared with that of the Nokia Communicator, the P800 seemed to edge out the Communicator in performance on average.

The software included with the P800 is very satisfying. In addition to all the normal office stuff, it provides excellent diversions in the form of MIB2: Alien Attack and Stunt Car Extreme as well as the audio and video players included. It also has the standard fare (calendar, contacts, document viewer, and office suite) packed into the brand new Symbian OS v7.0. From my experience with it, it's very similar to that of the Palm OS. E-mail support was excellent for both POP and IMAP formats. The strength of the Symbian OS is its flexibility and developer-friendly capabilities encouraging developers to pay attention to it when designing applications which ensures a continuous flow of new quality software for your top-of-the-line phone.

Of course when you're playing around with so much cool stuff you're going to want to save some of it at some point. That's where the memory stick comes in. Although the memory stick won't hold as much as those dedicated MP3 players it is still sufficient to store whatever office things you need while still having some room leftover for the fun stuff.

Moving onto what is now a standard, but much criticized function of PDA's - the handwriting recognition software. Fortunately, the P800 doesn't suffer many of the same qualities of PDA's past. Software has vastly improved and now recognizes a greater variety of handwriting styles. Gone are the days where a small machine teaches you how to write. Now, much like the PocketPC transcriber, you're the one doing the teaching. The machine caters to you. And that's how it should be.

Battery

A 1000 mAh Li-Polymer battery is used. Sony Ericsson claims the battery will work for 13 hours of talk time and 400 hours of standby, however we all know that to get those numbers you'd have to live under a tower and try not to breathe on your phone.

Minimum Rated Standby Time: 150 hours
Minimum Rated Talk Time: 450 minutes

When reading our reviews, you should view the test results of mobile-phone battery talk time and standby time as relative information only. Many variables, including carrier signal strength at your location, signal consistency (including incoming and outgoing calls), display and ringer settings, and battery charging methods and history, will affect performance. When handset manufacturers and mobile phone carriers list talk-time and standby-time ratings, they usually include disclaimers about variable performance and often refer to the times they publish as maximum times. Some quote expected battery life ranges, and in this case you're probably safe to assume you'll experience at least the minimum rated range. Note that manufacturers of dual-mode digital and analog handsets publish battery-life rates for both digital and analog modes, as analog mode consumes much more power than digital mode.

Storage

The P800 comes with a 12 MB of internal memory and a 16 MB memory stick duo card for storing pictures (JPEG, GIF, animated GIF, or WBMP), ring tones, screen savers, themes, text messages, songs, and third party applications. It should be mentioned that the memory stick duo is proprietary of Sony, so purchasing more memory may be more expensive than normal.

Connections

On the bottom of the phone you'll find some of the P800's connectors. Charging your phone, and the accessories connector are connected here. On the top right, you'll find the memory stick duo slot. You can buy extra memory for your P800 if needed. Above that is where the stylus clips to the phone. The left side contains the infrared port for transferring files between your computer, PDA, or other phones.

As mentioned previously, the P800 also comes with Bluetooth wireless technology. This makes it possible to transfer images to another phone, and connect wirelessly to headsets, PCs, or other Bluetooth-equipped peripherals.

The P800 includes all the common connectors (Infrared, Bluetooth, data cable) and ships with a USB cradle for recharging and synching purposes. All very standard but good to know it's there. The software included with the package includes synchronization between the P800 and applications like Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, and Lotus Organizer.

There are language packs that can be loaded onto the P800 as well. The first phones, aimed at the European market, will support:

Other languages will be added later.

Probably the most interesting feature to me was the inclusion of a radio-free or flight mode to ensure compatibility with sensitive devices. When activating this mode, you can use your P800 while flying, or around fragile electronics like hospital equipment without fear of dangerous interference. Just another thing that shows the designers are taking real world conditions and demands into consideration.

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