Sony Ericsson P990i UMTS/GSM 900/1800/1900 2mpixel 3G/PDA phone Review (5)
Bluetooth 23 Sep 2006

Conclusion
Pricing US / UK

The long awaited P990i is here which delivers exceptional good quality features all in one unit. 3G, video calls, WiFi, FM Radio, 2 mpixel camera, name card reader, you name it you have it.

Although it is featured pack, the P990i works slightly different from the older Symbian phones. For first time users, one would need time to get use to finding the necessary applications as they appeared hidden. One good example is the RSS reader which hides itself under the Multimedia section. Another example is the setting of mobile network settings which comes under Tools-> control panel-> Connections-> mobile networks. 4 levels down the main menu. It really needs some recognisation. Another annoying that is the QWERTY keypad, it is too tiny for serious use be it for text entry.

The rotatable lens cover do a good job in keeping the lens clean. Although it is a 2 mpixel camera, i found that the pictures taken seems to be even better than the K800i, a 3 mpixel camera phone that we reviewed earlier. Although the phone doesn't feature as many features like the cyber shot phone, it has incorporated the name card reader for easy extraction of contact info/addresses. Macros taken seems very good too at around 10cm away from the object.

Features like 802.11b WLAN, RSS reader, flight mode are really good features that every phone should have. As it is a 3G phone, we also tested video calls and streaming, both are smooth with my calls to another friend on another network. The phone also comes with QuickOffice applications to view word, excel files.

Overall, the P990i is very complete in specifications and it fits the specs of a phone that I am looking for. Despite its size, the phone is pretty lightweight. With so many features already available, will DVB-H be the next thing on Sony Ericsson phones for watching terrestial TV? Time will tell.

Pros :

• JAVA, MMS, GPRS, EMS, iRDA, USB, 3G, WIFI

• External storage - Memory Stick Pro Duo

• Card reader OCR

• Flight mode

• RSS reader

Cons :

• Bulky

• Ring tone volume

• Keypad

• Too many levels of menus

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