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November 29, 2007

Sony Ericsson P1i with BlackBerry Connect

We reviewed the 3G Sony Ericsson P1i handset for two reasons: a Sony-branded business phone is a rarity, and it’s the first Sony Ericsson phone to work with BlackBerry Connect.

For the unitiated, BlackBerry Connect is software for non-BlackBerry phones that nonetheless provides BlackBerry-like functionality. There are actually quite a number of phones that are able to make use of BlackBerry Connect software. Samsung, HTC, Motorola and Asus between them offer 20 such devices. So the Sony Ericsson P1i is in good company.

Unfortunately for us (and any other time-pressed businesspeople out there), the Sony Ericsson P1i doesn’t come with the necessary BBC (BlackBerry Connect) software preinstalled, so we had to set things up ourselves. We’re told that 02 and Vodafone versions of this handset come with it preinstalled, however.

Having set up the Sony Ericsson PC Suite and installed the BlackBerry Connect software we were easily able to activate the BlackBerry service over the air and to add both personal and Outlook work email account details. Synching with Outlook, Lotus Notes and some other email clients happens automatically when the Sony Ericsson P1i is plugged in to your PC and is far more efficient than we would have believed.

We kept a running check on both our desktop and handset inboxes and found them updating stroke for stroke when in sync mode (note that you need to select the correct phone to File transfer mode to copy data such as Office files, photos, video and MP3 between phone and PC).

We also liked the clear BlackBerry Connect status alerts that meant we always knew whether we were using the BlackBerry service – since we availed ourselves of the cheaper web-browsing route using the BlackBerry server, we set our Sony Ericsson P1i to autostart BBC whenever we switched on the phone.

We found the BlackBerry Connect service useful when out of the office for checking up on planned meetings and to confirm attendance or plead for a postponement as our diary dictated.

We weren’t wholly enamoured of the Sony Ericsson P1i handset itself, however. It’s too heavy and we’ve seen better interfaces with more obvious icons to access the most useful applications.

We didn’t like the way the Sony Ericsson P1i tried to take us online to download items whenever we clicked the More button on the main screen, either. More crops up (as an alternative to Done) on most screens on this phone, yet rather than offer more options or take you to further preinstalled features, you have to go through the rigmarole of waiting while it accesses the web before you are able to tell it to back off again.

These other features include a Contacts book, Calculator, Stopwatch, currency converter and a Timer. Under Entertainment you’ll find an FM radio, music player, video and photo slideshow playback, music DJ and Quadra Pop, as well as a MusicDJ program, a sound recorder and Vijay Singh’s Golf Pro. You can load up tracks and clips on to the Sony MemoryStick or sync them with the Sony Ericsson P1i, as we’ve already described.

Getting around is fairly efficient using the scrollwheel on the left of the Sony Ericsson P1i, but we often found ourselves resorting to using the stylus to select onscreen items, which isn’t always convenient.

NEXT PAGE: battery life, layout, the SIM and our expert verdict > >

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Independent customer reviews from

Sony Ericsson P1i scored:
7.9 out of 10 100% real reviews

The 2 most helpful reviews based on 18 reviews:

04 Oct 2007 Mohamed, London

9

Good Points

Design and look

Bad Points

The material and the finish (final touch) are not ideal. Keep in mind that this is an A Grade phone, the material used and the ouside look should have been enhanced; at least to the standard of P9901. The camera is as well is not ideal. had Cypershot facility been added this phone would have been matchless.

10 Dec 2007 Manolito, Frimley, Camberly, Surrey

10

Good Points

The mobile phone features are user friendly and has greatly improved since the P900 series. I have been using Sony Ericsson mobile phones for more than 3 years now and even bought the Sony Cybershot mobile phone because of the picture quality of the camera. P1i is the best in the market for me at the moment.

Bad Points

None

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Total reviews: 4,313

  • www.o2.co.uk
  • 0800 089 02 02
  • O2
  • Depends on contract
  • Around £400 inc VAT SIM free (see online price below)

See product specs

expert rating

Build quality

3.5/5

Features

3/5

Value for money

3/5

Overall

3/5

expert rating

Sony Ericsson P1i

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