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- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 135 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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54 out of 56 people found this review helpful
2.0 stars
"Expensive/Obsolete brand new gadget"
Pros: Phone signal, voice quality, 1GB storage capability
Cons: Unable to sync to Outlook, weak phone and PDA features, expensive for what it is, must buy additional software to make it a somewhat decent smartphone, the list goes on and on...
Summary: First of all, I would like to tell you why I bought this phone. I wanted to have all my data in one place (contacts, agenda, Office files, pictures) integrated with a powerful phone.
I´m the owner of a Motorola V300 and an Ipaq 4150, both were working great and my only complaint is that I had to carry them both.
Now to the P910 issue. The phone feels and looks bulky and somewhat cheap, but this form and feel factor could be overlooked if what your are looking is performance. Shamefully, the performance of this very expensive gadget is very limited.
The phone features are poorly designed and in order to do the most common features as adding contacts with the flip closed are not present. If this phone is designed for busy hard working executives, Sony Ericsson should try to keep simple tasks just simple.
The agenda is rather weak in comparisson to Palm and PocketPC devices.
The most annoying problem with this "smart" phone is its deffective sync program. I could not set it up to sync with Outlook, even after several calls to SE customer service. They were polite but unable to solve the problem, blaming it finally on my computer (brand new Sony VAIO T) and on Outlook (The most common PIM in Windows PCs). They made me delete Activesync, disable Norton, re-install their Sony PC suite several times, and a few more attempts too complicated to explain here (all of this without any success). Very complicated and full of bugs compared to painless synchronization with a PocketPc or a Palm.
The Jog Dial works fine with two hands. If you are driving it is very uncomfortable to hold the phone and try to do something else than dial a number in your contacts.
The flip keyboard is only nice when it is closed since you can use it as any regular phone, but if you want to use it for typing when it is open I think you will have a hard time holding it firmly.
The camera takes low quality pictures and the same can be said about the video. I tried to make a picture inventory of some machines in our company only to find them too blurry when I transferred them to my computer. For the price you have to pay for this, at least they should have upgraded the camera to 1.3mp as the SE 710.
If you are used to Palm or Pocket PC you would find the Symbian OS very primitive, both in appeareance and functionality. It almost looks like a 5 year old software.On top of that, the software available for it, is very limited compared to all the options for PocketPC and Palm OS.
The processor is slow. When you open apllications the P910 takes it very slowly, even more when you have a few apps running on the back, which is always an issue since on Symbian you never really close a program, they just keep running on the back.
The phone works ok as a phone (signal and sound quality, speakerphone, bluetooth handset), but that is all about it.
Also, there are a few programs that you can purchase at Handango which could improve the P910´s performance and ease of use, but you would have to spend a couple hundred dollars more to your already depleted wallet.
In conclusion, I spent more than a thousand dollars overall because in addition, I bought the 1GB Sony Pro Duo Memory Stick ($249) since I wanted to have only one gadget to handle all my needs, but found myself realizing that if you want a great phone, get a great phone, if you want a powerful PDA, buy a powerful PDA, and you get the point for mp3s, and pictures-video.
It is hard to say, but PDAs are not dead yet, simply because Smart Phones are not that smart yet. For now, they are just playing to be phone/PDA´s when they grow up.
End of story : I´m returning back my P910a tomorrow via Fedex to Sony Ericsson, at least they have a 30 day return policy, and will use once again,very proudly, my IPAQ PDA and Motorola cellphone.
I hope you find this review helpful.
- 6 replies to this review
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I have been using this PDA for a year and it has become essential part of life. Except for CAMERA which doesnt have a good resolution which cant be blamed for coz it was never advertised to have one...
Anyways...My Suggestion to all who are not going to use PDA Features or Dont know how to use it dotn buy and dont leave crappy comments. -
I owned the phone for about 2 years now. I did buy it for the same reason, consolidation. I syncs great with my Outlook and have no problems. I bought it for business reasons so the MP3 and cam are not that big of a deal to me. The OS system should be upgraded and if we pay that kind of money, we should not buy additional software. I am sure there could be room for improvement. I was thinking of buying the Nokia 9500 but there were no carriers for it in the US market. I still think it is a good buy if you buy it for the right reasons.
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I am a Heavy User and Repair Guy on these Smart and PDA Phones. I agree some issues, these PDA may gave you some frustration but if you are an experience guy and knows these phone in and out, they were not bad at all. They don't total agree with some user who blamed on SE P910a. This is a Great PDA in Design and Performance. Their Sync software may have some annoying issues but that doesn't hurt me must when I get it connecting with my PC. In general, for more complicated Gadgets, such asa this device, we need more time to learn and practice and since you get use with it, you will see how powerful it is. It sounds from speaker is not that lound but when you hook it up with a Great Headset such as Bose or shure or EV, you will see how powerful is the sound. You must need more time to have a fair judments.
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I don't have this phone, so can't comment on the rest of the review, but IMO the Symbian OS is the best, most intutive and featured PDA/phone OS out there by along shot. I do agree that it's slow (especially starting up). I have it on my Nokia 6600 and I just love it. Palm is already going downhill fast. PocketPC has always been terrible. Zaurus unfortunately is going nowhere (That's even better than Symbian) so that only leaves Symbian which really is quite good.
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dont put 1gb sticks on phones...it makes them slow
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I was worried with another user comment that he had the best phone. but after the two negative reviews of this Sony phone i realize mine is the best - Audiovox PPC 6600. Great phone, lot of fun, great Outlook sync, easy to set up & use and I have a very vivid pic of Val Kilmer that is even better on this phone. Thank you for not making me regret my choice in phone. Patty
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