Mobile phones

It’s been some time since SonyEricsson had this sort of media presence and coverage due to a product release. Needless to say, at the mind boggling rate they’re releasing new mobile phone products, it’s easy to get the impression that the wheels are spinning at bit too fast at times. SonyEricsson’s latest flagship product, the Xperia X1, does warrant some extended coverage; partially since it’s the first product from the company that is based on the Windows Mobile platform.

Opening the box unveils the standard stuff; a charger, headphone/handsfree, a battery, some product documentation, and obviously the Xperia X1 phone. Inserting the SIM card, and the battery is easy. Replacing the external memory card (MicroSD) with the 8GB add-on I purchased is a little bit tricky, mainly due to the size of MicroSD cards, but after a few seconds I find a paper clip to help me in my task. The one thing that I’m missing at a first glance is a screen protector. I keep my phone in a pocket, usually in my pants or possibly my jacket. I can’t possibly fit a “carrying case” into either of those places. For a phone of this type, and at this price, I’d expect a suitable screen protector to be included in the box.

Holding the Xperia X1 in my hand, it feels solid, and it looks good. It’s not an Iphone, nor do I think it wants to be one, but it feels like a solid piece of hardware. Sliding out the keyboard feels “just right”.

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Having used the Sony Ericsson P990 smartphone for some time, it was with some anticipation I opened the box to the new Sony Ericsson P1i. The P1i is, or appears to be, a M600i with “smart phone add-ons”. For those having used the P-series (P8xx, P9xx), the P1i makes for a welcome change in its much slimmer appearance and handling.

One of the most irritating things with the previous P-series is that Sony Ericsson insisted on enabling “animation effects” in the operating system; sliding selectors, fade-in, fade-out, icon effects, and so on. Later versions of the P9xx firmware allowed for an option to disable this. Why anybody who has half a finger in the right place would want these stupid effect in a telephone is way beyond my comprehension. To make a long story short, the P1i comes equipped with an option to disable the fireworks.

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Having been delayed time and time again, it was with some anticipation I read the “Your order is on its way”-message from our local hardware supplier (Dustin). My Sony Ericsson P900 smart phone was deteriorating beyond usefulness, having been dropped on the floor a few too many times. So I’ve now spent some 6-7 hours getting the new Sony Ericsson P990i smart phone configured and ready-to-go.

There are very few things not to like about this telephone. It’s lighter (most likely due to a more lightweight battery) than its predecessors and has a lesser feeling of brick-in-pocket. But being a “business user” of the P900, which is the type of user Sony Ericsson wants to target their P-series to, I found some serious issues when it came to migrating data from one Sony Ericsson P-series smart phone to another. I cannot for the life of me understand what the software developers at Sony Ericsson and/or Symbian are doing. Had it not been too foulmouthed to write here, I’d ask myself what on earth these sh*t for brain programmers and developers are thinking of.

Migrating data turned out to be a real headache. You see, the software that accompany these “professional smart phones” cannot handle import/export from one model to another. Say what? Why can I not backup my P900 and then restore suitable parts to the P990i? Sony Ericsson wants the P-series to “grow in capacity and flexibility with users’ ever growing demands and needs”, so supply me, the user with adequate tools to do just that!

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