| Author |
P800 dissapointments |
cccalvin
Joined: Jan 30, 2003
Posts: 4
From: Belgium
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Hi,
I have a P800 since about 2 weeks now. This is just a little summary from what I have as 'usability' problems.
I am a big fan of Ericsson (or SonyEricsson) and mostly because the UI grows on you, makes it possible for you to get the most out of the phone. I have owned a R320 and a R520 before.
My major problems with the P800
* screensaver & keylock: you need to wake up the screensaver and then press 'ok' & '*' to unlock. That's 3 keys to press when the screensaver is on 2 when it's not active. I know the keys are locked most of the time so when I want to use the phone, I almost blindly want to unlock it, but it's impossible since I don't know the state of the screensaver.
* internet browser: This is a real deal breaker. It's impossible to browse with one hand, you need to hold the phone and use the stylus or your nails to navigate... We have a 5-way jog dial, all we kad do with it is scroll up and down... you should be able to scroll to every link on the page click for access, and use the back and forward functions of the browser. It would be perfect.
* keys change function: when the flip is closed, you have an 'ok' key. This key has more functions, wich is not a problem, but that one key has to do everything the 'yes' and 'no' buttons do. This splices my mind. I don't want to use the same key to end a call... this has bitten me quite often now.
* picture viewer: full screen pictures please, use the jog or stylus to 'pan' the picture. Why have a VGA camera if you can only see 1/4 max on the screen that is 1/2 the size. This will be solved by 3th party apps I guess. (full screen video is the same gripe)
* landscape mode: would be great for video, pictures and most of all Internet browsing.
* camera: make the settings more accessable, easier to change. They can really make a difference, and I often change enviroments (inside, outside, etc...) I want a faster way to change this.
These are my first impressions. It's a great phone, if they can fix some of these, it would be even greater.
(I have the feeling the phone uses more the 'Sony' way when using it, maybe I'm dissapointed because I never used a Sony phone before...)
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skjalg
Joined: Dec 08, 2001
Posts: > 500
From: B$rum, Norway
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about a full screen picture viewer, try:
http://my-symbian.com/uiq/applications/applications.php?fldAuto=43&faq=4
a really great software that I use all the time!
along with MSN and IRC using my phone is never a dull moment  |
Raven
Joined: Jul 01, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Norway
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It would be nice if someone wrote an app which enables the jog dial to be used as a mouse on the screen(just like on a PC). That would certainly make one handed use easier in PDA-mode.
This message was posted from a P800 |
docemonos
Joined: Jan 12, 2003
Posts: 6
From: Spain
PM |
About your 2 first weeks of P800 use, I´m very interested in battery life. Does it lasts a lot? 2 days? Less? Right now my 2 problems in buying the P800 are no AvantGo available (Palm OS and Pocket Wndows only) and notices of a short battery life (anounced almost 1 week, but reality seems to be just 1 day, 1 and 1/2 day at best).
Thanks in advance... and congratulations for your P800. |
Raven
Joined: Jul 01, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Norway
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Those battery times you listed there are with heavy PDA use, of course that'll drain the battery like crazy. Especially extensive GPRS use will kill the battery pretty fast. The battery is actually very good if you tone down your PDA use, then it'll easily last for a week.
This message was posted from a P800 |
cccalvin
Joined: Jan 30, 2003
Posts: 4
From: Belgium
PM |
Battery live is not that bad.
I have bluetooth on constantly, travel a lot, but I don't use the pda functions much.
Let's say I can get 3 days like this with moderate GPRS surfing (15-20 minuts a day), and moderate calling.
First time I had the phone I played with it a lot, and had indeed no more than 1.5 days.
The backlight really kills the battery when used a lot.
I'm not sure but I think it will be possible to buy bigger batteries (the deskstand should be able to handle it, the will sell a new backplate with the battery I guess). This would off course make the phone even more bulky.
It would be nice to able to 'dim' the backlicht brightness. This should consume less, as it does with most portables.
BTW: I'm a Mac user and there is still no sync soft available. You can send objects back and forth using bluetooth, but the real iSync thing doesn't work.
iSync seems to use IrMC to sync, as defined in the bluetooth 1.1 specs. But bluetooth dropped that requirement in favor for SyncML. I think the device tries to be bluetooth 1.2 (or something like that), but with bad backward compatibility, as most things on the Mac just don't work. These things worked on T39, R520, T68x etc etc, so SonyEricsson should know what they are doing, heck they invented the stuff.
Any ideas if the bluetooth version will change soon? It's a real hurdle to use the phone to it's real potential now 
Thanks
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jplacson
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Philippines
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Regarding the camera...that's why there are auto settings ya know? They work really well. Now, if you change settings for every photo you take...well, I doubt they'll make it easier to access the control panel.
The keypad layout is SOOOOO SOOOONNNNYY... I hate it. The OK, back, option keys are dumb... I prefer the Yes/No layout of Ericsson. I find it annoying cuz they're changing layouts now... the T200/300/600 still use the Yes/No and the P800 uses this OK, Back layout. That's dumb. PICK ONE! The T68i had no problems with the interface... there is a reason why Ericsson had a greater market share than Sony ya know!!! SE...HELLO!?!??!
The browser is very limited at the moment.. but good news.. Opera will soon be released! So lets hope it'll be smarter than this one... I think they just threw together some lame browser to get the P800 out on time cuz Opera wasn't finished as scheduled. |
terrible
Joined: Aug 23, 2002
Posts: 36
From: Philippines
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After what all of you have said, let me tell you that l've seen the WAP browser of N7650 and I'll be very glad to tell you that the only thing nice is the joystick control.
This message was posted from a P800 |
cccalvin
Joined: Jan 30, 2003
Posts: 4
From: Belgium
PM |
@jplacson auto settings are not bad, but they fail to see the difference between fluoroiscent lighting and normal indoor. This generally generates pictures witch are too much saturated with red. I need to select the fluo setting manually to have some acceptable colors.
Will Opera be a free download then? Or will it be paying (like they say, if you can pay for the phone you can also pay for the soft
I sure hope they find a sponsored solution... |
droll
Joined: Nov 05, 2001
Posts: 98
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is it just me or doesn't the browser work for frames? i can't seem to browse frames-enabled web sites with it... ???? |
jplacson
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Philippines
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Ok, regarding the browser... I'm not sure if it'll be sold by Opera... or offered by SE as a free upgrade. For the price of the P800, we should get it free... besides, I know Symbian is supposed to include Opera BY DEFAULT on ALL Symbian OS machines... including UIQ and Series 60. So we'll wait and see...
Now, the current browser of the P800 is...OK. That's all it is. I'm glad SE didn't wait for Opera to finish the browser (which is still under development, but I feel it's gonna be worth the wait) ... before releasing the P800...otherwise we'd still be waiting for the P800! |
Necrosis
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
Posts: 81
From: Portugal
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Greetings!
Regarding the battery life time, I must say I have the t68i and set the Normal Profile with Backlight Off. This has increased the battery life for me. It lasts about 5 days, max...
I was wondering if the P800 has the possibility of setting the backlight OFF?
Thanx in advance.
 rox! |
jplacson
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Philippines
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Of course... the P800 with backlight off, and power save on would dramatically increase your battery life.
The backlight actually drains a LOT of power. More than everything short of making a call!
Power save does help a lot. Even though mine is set to kick in after 30 min, it helps since when I sleep... the phone's screen 'sleeps' as well... and this puts very minimal drain on the phone at night! |
linmajon
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
Posts: 66
From: Sweden
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I must say that i'm very little dissapointed after a couple of weeks use. Almost everthing works great and with very little hassle. |
beefeater
Joined: Aug 28, 2002
Posts: 4
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Quote:
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On 2003-01-31 00:05, cccalvin wrote:
My major problems with the P800
* screensaver & keylock: you need to wake up the screensaver and then press 'ok' & '*' to unlock. That's 3 keys to press when the screensaver is on 2 when it's not active. |
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If you don't have time to press 3 times, you can just press JogDial in (wakes up the screen) and *.
[ This Message was edited by: beefeater on 2003-02-04 13:34 ] |
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Posted: 2003-01-31 00:05
