After many months of being perhaps the mobile world's worst kept secret, Sony Ericsson finally officially unveiled the successor to their hugely popular P800. The new device, dubbed the P900 (not the P810 as often thought), was unveiled in simultaneous events in Beijing, China and Las Vegas.

We do not yet have full specs for the device, but we have been informed of the following. Specs from the P800 model are in parenthesis in gray text, for comparison:


Triband GSM (900/1800/1900Mhz)
Talk-time: 13 hours max (7 hours typical)
Standby-time: 400 hours (typical)
Weight: 150g with flip (P800: 148g w/o flip, 158g w/flip)
Dimensions: 115mm x 57mm x 24mm (P800: 117mm x 59mm x 27mm)
Backlighted flip keypad
Tegic T9 support (P800: T9 not available)
16MB available user RAM (P800: 12MB)
48MB flash RAM (P800: 32MB)
3GPP/MPEG4 video recording in QCIF size
64k color screen (P800: 4096)
32MB MS Duo included - cards up to 128MB usable
V-Rally1 included - Jog-dial functions as steering wheel
Opera browser included on CD

As you can see, there is not a whole lot that has been changed from the old model. Like the P800, the P900 runs the Symbian OS v7 with UIQ interface. The familiar 5-way jog dial is still present, as is the removable flip - though now it uses more traditional electrical contacts instead of pressing on touch screen as the P800's keypad did.

The big news of this story might actually be this bit from the press release:

"Starting today, there are also on-line phone update services available from sonyericsson.com. They allow consumers to download the latest version of the phone software directly to the phone without having to visit a service centre."

No more trips to the service center! Now that is good news, I'm sure everyone will agree.

According to Sony Ericsson: "The P900 will start shipping to EMEA and APAC markets in Q4, for US in Q1, and the P908 will start shipping in China in Q1."

http://www.mobileburn.com/media/sonyericsson/p900/p900_flip_down_narrow.jpg

http://www.mobileburn.com/media/sonyericsson/p900/p900_open.jpg

http://www.mobileburn.com/media/sonyericsson/p900/p900_vrally1.jpg

http://www.mobileburn.com/media/sonyericsson/p900/p900_front.jpg

http://www.mobileburn.com/media/sonyericsson/p900/p900_front_no_flip.jpg

http://www.mobileburn.com/media/sonyericsson/p900/p900_flip_down.jpg

http://www.mobileburn.com/media/sonyericsson/p900/p900_pair.jpg

WOW! Now this is something new, I thought that the P800 was really amazing, and the P900 seems to be even better, it is true that the size is a kind of big, but the features of the phone make up for its big size. I wonder of what the exact differences between this one and the P800 are.

the words in Bold text are the P800 difference's between the P900
and ofcoure the P900 have other features which the P800 didnt have...

The P900 has an actual keypad, not plastic buttons that press on the screen underneath like the P800 has. In addition it also has T9 predictive text so you can use the keypad to write sms txt messages like any other phone. The keypad is also a bit smaller which allows more of the screen to show when the keypad isn't flipped open. The p900 alsol has more memory and a 65K color display.

One the whole, it means that this finally a phone worth buying compared to the P800 which had too many shortfalls. This is a phone you can use with one hand while the P800 required two hand use most of the time.

The only shortfall I see is that it uses Memory Sticks instead of CF or SD memory cards. Memory Sticks are expensive than other kinds of memory and they are limited to 128mb.

Thanks on the info Mux, this phone does sound interesting, I don't think that the usage of Memory sticks is real disadvantage as Sony Memory cards considered to be universal for all Sony products, if you already have memory sticks for your Sony Camera, Sony Computer, or Sony MP3 player, you can use it on any of these!

the P900 is out in dubai for 2700 DHS

Originally posted by Blue_Chi
Thanks on the info Mux, this phone does sound interesting, I don't think that the usage of Memory sticks is real disadvantage as Sony Memory cards considered to be universal for all Sony products, if you already have memory sticks for your Sony Camera, Sony Computer, or Sony MP3 player, you can use it on any of these!

Well regular memory sticks these days go beyond the 128mb limit, but the kind that you can use in the P900 are limited at 128mb. If you have another Sony product that uses memory sticks like digital camera you'd probably be using larger capacity sticks such as 256mb which you won't be able to use in your P900.

It is true, but if I had to choose between universal compatibility and the exceeding of 128 MB, I would go for compatibility, it is true that the more space the merrier, but you have to give for you to take as well, some people might disagree, but it is better than having an indepedent memory type instead. The problem is the memory limit here and not the fact that it is using Sony Memory Sticks.

looook marra sha'79iyaa

Originally posted by Blue_Chi
It is true, but if I had to choose between universal compatibility and the exceeding of 128 MB, I would go for compatibility, it is true that the more space the merrier, but you have to give for you to take as well, some people might disagree, but it is better than having an indepedent memory type instead. The problem is the memory limit here and not the fact that it is using Sony Memory Sticks.

But all memory cards are basically "universally compatible". Memory Sticks are larger and heavier than other types of cards. I have two digital cameras, one uses CF cards and the other uses SD cards. It doesn't bother me that they are different formats because both kinds of cards are small enough that I can carry them in my wallet. My laptop has a built in CF and SD card reader and most new laptops these days have them. However only Sony VAIO laptops have built in Memory Stick readers. Another thing, lots of printers these days have built in memory card readers that don't work with Memory Sticks.

Sony invented the Memory Stick after the other manufacturers had already started to use the other types of memory. Sony hoped that they would be able to get other manufacturers to start using Memory Sticks and eventually make it a universal standard. It never happened. To this day Sony is the only manufacturer that uses this technology, and the only reason the P800 and P900 have it is because they are co-branded under the Sony name.

Sony wants you to buy only Sony products, and that's exactly what you said. If you have a P900 that uses Sony memory, when you want to buy a digital camera you'd think "hmmm maybe I should buy a Sony camera so that I can use the same type of memory". For me, if I buy the P900 (and I probably will) it will mean that I will then have 3 different types of memory to deal with. I love my Canon digital camera and my Toshiba laptop. I won't change my buying habits to fatten Sony's wallet.

LOL, Mux, there is nothing wrong with buying Sony products ANYWAY! :D They might not be the BEST, but they are very good still!