P900 - general smartphone questions

Hi,

I've always had Nokia phones so I've not really spent any time looking at
what SonyEricsson have to offer.

I've had a little play with the P900 and liked the touch screen in
combination with a display large enough to a GUI. It seems to work well

I think I've talked myself into the P900, just want peoples opinions and
comparisons really.

How easy is it to unlock a SE P900 that is likely to be locked to Orange UK?
It seems I need a specific type of cable, is that correct?

Firmware updates are available it seems, which is a very nice and welcomed
feature in my book. Do I just download the firmware from SE? There are no
operator-specific versions I should be wary about?

I think thats it for now.

Cheers!

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

---

› See More: P900 - general smartphone questions

I purchased a P900 a week ago and to be honest I'm having a hard time
liking it. Basically the following are my issues:

1) Battery life using the PDA and phone is less than a day. Comparing
the phone usage to a T68i, the T68i's battery with similar usage was at
80%. I should also comment that the PDA usage wasn't that excessive.

If I do nothing other than have the phone sitting in my pocket, the
battery is down to 92% by 11am, where it was 100% at 8am in the morning.
There are a number of recommendations available over the web to conserve
power. Even with implementing the recommendations, consumption is high.

2) Without the flip on the P900, using the phone is simply not as easy
as a normal phone with buttons. Not impossible, just inconvenient.

3) The number and type of third party applications permit a similar
experience with respect to a Palm. On the other hand the robustness of
the third party applications is in question in my mind. This appears to
be due to a lack of maturity. Consider the P900's PDA to be 70%
solution.

I should also comment that in many cases the UIQ applications do not
offer all of the features with respect to the corresponding Palm
application.

4) If you add most any case to the P900 don't expect to drop the phone
into your pants pocket. The vast majority of the cases on the market add
significant bulk. In other words this phone really wants to hang off of
your belt or for a woman in a bag.

For those of us in the States, there are products that simply are not
exported to the States. Specifically there is a case from trim Martin
Fields that is apparently not available from any source that will ship
to the States.

5) When you are talking on the phone, your cheek tends to touch the
screen. This in turn causes applications to start, bring up menus, etc.
Also expect to clean skin oils off the screen as a major pass time....

6) Then there is the fact that in a month or so the P910 will be out
with significant increases in internal memory.


In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> Hi,
>
> I've always had Nokia phones so I've not really spent any time looking at
> what SonyEricsson have to offer.
>
> I've had a little play with the P900 and liked the touch screen in
> combination with a display large enough to a GUI. It seems to work well
>
> I think I've talked myself into the P900, just want peoples opinions and
> comparisons really.
>
> How easy is it to unlock a SE P900 that is likely to be locked to Orange UK?
> It seems I need a specific type of cable, is that correct?
>
> Firmware updates are available it seems, which is a very nice and welcomed
> feature in my book. Do I just download the firmware from SE? There are no
> operator-specific versions I should be wary about?
>
> I think thats it for now.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Ben
>

You will love the P900 I can not answer the question about unlocking however
upgrading is a matter of placing the P900 in the cradle and going to the
update site via Internet Explorer.

Go to www.esato.com they have an extensive forum dedicated to the P900 and
probably can answer the unlocking question and anyother one's that you may
have.



"Ben Pope" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi,
>
> I've always had Nokia phones so I've not really spent any time looking at
> what SonyEricsson have to offer.
>
> I've had a little play with the P900 and liked the touch screen in
> combination with a display large enough to a GUI. It seems to work well
>
> I think I've talked myself into the P900, just want peoples opinions and
> comparisons really.
>
> How easy is it to unlock a SE P900 that is likely to be locked to Orange
UK?
> It seems I need a specific type of cable, is that correct?
>
> Firmware updates are available it seems, which is a very nice and welcomed
> feature in my book. Do I just download the firmware from SE? There are
no
> operator-specific versions I should be wary about?
>
> I think thats it for now.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Ben
> --
> A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
> Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
> I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...
>
>

I had mine unlocked for £10 it was on orange and is now on all networks
"Ben Pope" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi,
>
> I've always had Nokia phones so I've not really spent any time looking at
> what SonyEricsson have to offer.
>
> I've had a little play with the P900 and liked the touch screen in
> combination with a display large enough to a GUI. It seems to work well
>
> I think I've talked myself into the P900, just want peoples opinions and
> comparisons really.
>
> How easy is it to unlock a SE P900 that is likely to be locked to Orange
UK?
> It seems I need a specific type of cable, is that correct?
>
> Firmware updates are available it seems, which is a very nice and welcomed
> feature in my book. Do I just download the firmware from SE? There are
no
> operator-specific versions I should be wary about?
>
> I think thats it for now.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Ben
> --
> A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
> Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
> I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...
>
>

Nicholas Barker wrote:
> I had mine unlocked for £10 it was on orange and is now on all networks

How?

Remotely?

In a shop with a cable?

Magic? ;-)

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

csv wrote:
> I purchased a P900 a week ago and to be honest I'm having a hard time
> liking it. Basically the following are my issues:
>
> 1) Battery life using the PDA and phone is less than a day. Comparing
> the phone usage to a T68i, the T68i's battery with similar usage was at
> 80%. I should also comment that the PDA usage wasn't that excessive.
>
> If I do nothing other than have the phone sitting in my pocket, the
> battery is down to 92% by 11am, where it was 100% at 8am in the morning.
> There are a number of recommendations available over the web to conserve
> power. Even with implementing the recommendations, consumption is high.

Less than a day would be silly - I might as well go with a 3G phone and get
cheap calls. (OK, so THAT would be excessive, but you get my point).

> 2) Without the flip on the P900, using the phone is simply not as easy
> as a normal phone with buttons. Not impossible, just inconvenient.

Without? Can you take it off? Why would you?

> 3) The number and type of third party applications permit a similar
> experience with respect to a Palm. On the other hand the robustness of
> the third party applications is in question in my mind. This appears to
> be due to a lack of maturity. Consider the P900's PDA to be 70%
> solution.

Well I had a Psion 5 and never really used it, so I'm not after a full PDA.
Just would like to be able to send/receive the odd email or check something
online if I need to in an emergency (Maybe I can't find that damn address
and forgot the map) - you get the idea.

> I should also comment that in many cases the UIQ applications do not
> offer all of the features with respect to the corresponding Palm
> application.
>
> 4) If you add most any case to the P900 don't expect to drop the phone
> into your pants pocket. The vast majority of the cases on the market add
> significant bulk. In other words this phone really wants to hang off of
> your belt or for a woman in a bag.

Would probably just put the phone straight in my pocket - with the screen
facing in, of course. Never been a fan of cases. Wonder how that would
work with jeans, hmm.

> 5) When you are talking on the phone, your cheek tends to touch the
> screen. This in turn causes applications to start, bring up menus, etc.
> Also expect to clean skin oils off the screen as a major pass time....

Hmm, that could be annoying. Is this 'cos the flap is off?

> 6) Then there is the fact that in a month or so the P910 will be out
> with significant increases in internal memory.

But it seems that memory can be expanded using a <whatever> expansion card.
None of the problems you mention have been addressed in the new version I
take it, so what would I gain?

I had looked at the 910i, but the only differences I saw were the qwerty
keyboard that would be too fiddly to use and I'd worry about the lengevity
of the hinge on the flap if I were supported the whole weight of the phone
on it. And of course more internal memory. (48 vs 16MB)

Thanks for your response.

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

csv wrote:
> 1) Battery life using the PDA and phone is less than a day. Comparing
> the phone usage to a T68i, the T68i's battery with similar usage was at
> 80%. I should also comment that the PDA usage wasn't that excessive.


Thats a far cry from the 400h standby OR 780m talktime they suggest the
battery is good for.

That would be like 12 hours of talktime per day (including standby) before
the battery runs out. Obviously that would be absolute best case, but even
cutting it in 4 they're pushing their luck with that estimate. (you'd still
get 2 hours of calls and 24 hours standby)

I guess that completely excludes use of the screen which is clearly going to
be the biggest battery killer.

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

Marka2k wrote:
> You will love the P900 I can not answer the question about unlocking
> however upgrading is a matter of placing the P900 in the cradle and going
> to the update site via Internet Explorer.

Nice. It has USB connectivity, so can I plug the phone in to a computer and
use it like a USB flash device? Or do I have to install lots of drivers,
first?

> Go to www.esato.com they have an extensive forum dedicated to the P900 and
> probably can answer the unlocking question and anyother one's that you may
> have.

Thanks, I'll take a look.

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

Ben Pope wrote:
> on it. And of course more internal memory. (48 vs 16MB)

Is there anything that can't be offloaded to the memory expansion?

I was reading that MMS messages can't, which seems a bit silly? Is this so
that the service providers can retain their grasp on MMS revenue?

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

csv wrote:
> 1) Battery life using the PDA and phone is less than a day. Comparing
> the phone usage to a T68i, the T68i's battery with similar usage was
> at 80%. I should also comment that the PDA usage wasn't that
> excessive.
>
> If I do nothing other than have the phone sitting in my pocket, the
> battery is down to 92% by 11am, where it was 100% at 8am in the
> morning. There are a number of recommendations available over the
> web to conserve power. Even with implementing the recommendations,
> consumption is high.

Then you either didn't do the recommended full "discharge-charge"
cycles or you didn't turn off the unnecessary features. I was
disappointed by the short battery life time in the beginning as well.
But now I get four days up to almost a week (depending on usage).

1) Do the first four or five cycles to a complete discharge and then
charge over the night. The battery gains its full capacity then.

2) Turn off Bluetooth and IrDA. Only activate it if you really need it.

3) Configure to "GSM only". GPRS is then turned off during inactivity
and only turned on if you really need it. This made a factor 2 in
battery life time for me!

4) Don't run processor consuming tasks in the background (I have Tracker
running in the background which seems fine).

--
Stefan Bellon

Stefan Bellon wrote:
> Then you either didn't do the recommended full "discharge-charge"
> cycles or you didn't turn off the unnecessary features. I was
> disappointed by the short battery life time in the beginning as well.
> But now I get four days up to almost a week (depending on usage).

That sounds a lot more sane. How much screen usage do you do in a day?

> 1) Do the first four or five cycles to a complete discharge and then
> charge over the night. The battery gains its full capacity then.

Yeah, I heard 3 deep cycles for Li Ion. And to not let it fully discharge
after that. My 6310i has been performing well based on this advice - after
22 months I can still get 6 of the 7 days it used to do.

It's important not to overcharge NiMh and Li Ion - the circuitry in a Li Ion
battery will prevent you from overcharging it. If you overcharge NiMh you
get crystal formation and growth, which can eventually break the cell walls
shorting the cells.

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

Andy Lord wrote:
> Orange haven't kept up with SE on the firmware updates and are currently
> on R3A06 whereas the unbranded version is on R5B02. Even unlocking and
> unbranding will not allow you to update to the latest firmware since the
> service now uses your IMEI number to determine whether you are allowed to
> update or not.

Ahh. How crap is that! Bloody Orange!

> Great phone though, the best item of any type that I have ever bought,
> just a shame about Orange's restrictions and the fact you have to reboot
> at least once a week.

Hmm, wonder if the firmware updates solve that issue.

And they won't let you do it even if you have a specific problem that is
fixed in a later firmware?

If I buy one from Orange will it have the old Firmware?

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

"Ben Pope" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi,
>
> I've always had Nokia phones so I've not really spent any time looking at
> what SonyEricsson have to offer.
>
> I've had a little play with the P900 and liked the touch screen in
> combination with a display large enough to a GUI. It seems to work well
>
> I think I've talked myself into the P900, just want peoples opinions and
> comparisons really.
>
> How easy is it to unlock a SE P900 that is likely to be locked to Orange
UK?
> It seems I need a specific type of cable, is that correct?
>
> Firmware updates are available it seems, which is a very nice and welcomed
> feature in my book. Do I just download the firmware from SE? There are
no
> operator-specific versions I should be wary about?
>

Orange haven't kept up with SE on the firmware updates and are currently on
R3A06 whereas the unbranded version is on R5B02. Even unlocking and
unbranding will not allow you to update to the latest firmware since the
service now uses your IMEI number to determine whether you are allowed to
update or not.

Great phone though, the best item of any type that I have ever bought, just
a shame about Orange's restrictions and the fact you have to reboot at least
once a week.

HTH

Andy

Ben Pope wrote:
> Stefan Bellon wrote:
> > Then you either didn't do the recommended full "discharge-charge"
> > cycles or you didn't turn off the unnecessary features. I was
> > disappointed by the short battery life time in the beginning as
> > well. But now I get four days up to almost a week (depending on
> > usage).

> That sounds a lot more sane. How much screen usage do you do in a
> day?

A few contact searches, a few appointment lookups and perhaps one SMS
per day.

--
Stefan Bellon

"Ben Pope" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Andy Lord wrote:
> > Orange haven't kept up with SE on the firmware updates and are currently
> > on R3A06 whereas the unbranded version is on R5B02. Even unlocking and
> > unbranding will not allow you to update to the latest firmware since the
> > service now uses your IMEI number to determine whether you are allowed
to
> > update or not.
>
> Ahh. How crap is that! Bloody Orange!
>
> > Great phone though, the best item of any type that I have ever bought,
> > just a shame about Orange's restrictions and the fact you have to reboot
> > at least once a week.
>
> Hmm, wonder if the firmware updates solve that issue.

I'd guess so

> And they won't let you do it even if you have a specific problem that is
> fixed in a later firmware?
>
> If I buy one from Orange will it have the old Firmware?

It will (hopefully) have the latest Orange firmware, R3A06. If not you
*should* be able to update it to R3A06 using the online service, but not
beyond that version.

I believe it is possible to have an Orange P900 unbranded and brought up to
the latest 'vanilla' software revision, but you still won't be able to use
the online update to update to newer versions as they're released because
the service will still check your IMEI, know that your phone should be an
Orange one and will refuse to do the update.

You could always change your IMEI of course, but that wouldn't be legal.