Impulse Shopping: Is This the Best Phone Ever Made?
File under: Early Adopter, Impulse Shopping, Sony Ericsson P990, Wireless and Phones
The long-awaited debut of the Sony Ericsson P990i is now upon us so it is time to look at one of the most intriguing phones ever made. As of yesterday, it is officially available on Amazon for $649.99, the lowest we’ve seen so far (even better than eBay). The P990 is a tri-band GSM/GPRS world phone (900Mhz, 1800Mhz, and 1900Mhz — no 850Mhz for Cingular customers) with built in 802.11b WiFi, UMTS at 2100Mhz (Europe only), and Bluetooth 2.0.
A 240 x 320 260K color TFT touchscreen sits above a full QWERTY thumbpad which can be covered by a removable numberpad flap (not shown in photo). Above the screen is one of two cameras: the front camera is for video conferencing while the back camera is 2 megapixels with autofocus, 2.5x zoom, and a flash. Since the kitchen sink was too big, Sony Ericsson threw in an FM RDS tuner.
Running UIQ 3.0 on Symbian OS 9.1, the P990 includes a robust software package lead by a full phone and organizer suite which can be synced with Outlook and other PIM software using Intellisync or Activesync. The email client supports POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, BlackBerry Connect, Visto, and text messaging (SMS, EMS, and MMS). For web browsing, the great Opera 8.0 browser supports HTML, WAP, and xHTML while the RSS reader allows you to monitor your favorite feeds. Other bundled software includes a business card scanning software, a media player, a photo album, and several games.
With all these functions, the Li-Ion battery allows for 9 hours of talk time and 400 hours of standby time. Measuring at 4.4 x 2.2 x 1 inches and weighing in at 5.3 oz., the P990 may not be the smallest phone in the room but it is likely to offer more features than any other phone in the market.
