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 Back to P900, and see the Overview, more Photos, Complete Specification Table, Reviews, Shops and other useful linksP900/P800 Comparison Table This table shows the things that have changed from P800 to P900 and exceptionally the bad things of P800 which are still present in P900. Altough you can this can be read as a review, most stuff that has remained exactly the same is not shown here. |
 P800 |
P900 |
Comparison Photos |
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| Size | 117 x 59 x 27 mm | 115 x 57 x 24 mm |
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| Weight | Flip attached: 158 grams Flip removed: 148 grams (excluding MSDUO and SIM card) |
Flip attached: 150 grams Flip removed: 140 grams (excluding MSDUO and SIM card) |
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| Flip(keypad) | Mechanical. Keys touch the virtual on-screen keyboard underneath. It lights with screen's light (it's translucid). Covers 55% of the screen (it leaves a viewable 208x144 pixel area) | Electrical. It's a solid keypad with solid electrical self-lightened keys like in conventional phones. Covers just 35% of the screen (it leaves a viewable area of 208x208 pixels, even larger than Symbian 6 and 7 non-UIQ smartphones) |
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| Housing | Plastic-looking plastic. Feels solid but battery cover moves slightly and is noisy when squeezed. There is a space between the battery and the battery cover | Aluminium-looking plastic. A little more solid and better quality. Baterry cover lays flat on the battery and doesn't move. It also has two rubber pieces to prevent scratches | |||
| Stylus | Plastic translucid stylus. Very light and comfortable to use, and especially easy to take in and out of its place | Plastic PDA-style pen. Heavier but also very light. P800 users might feel uncomfortable with it in the first days of use, but in the end it is supposed to be more appropriate. However it's not as comfortable to remove as the P800's | 
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| Battery | Li-Po 1000 mAh Stand-by time: 400 hours Medium usage time: 96 hours Talk time: 13 hours |
Li-Po 1260 mAh The battery is also called "BST-13" (like the one of P800). However it is this better in terms of capacity |
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| Processor | 32-bit RISC ARM9 156 mHz | 32-bit RISC ARM9 156 mHz (the same) But according to the official site "The P900 is geared up with two powerful processors". We don't know the type or speed of the second processor yet, but it's probable that its function is to help top multimedia applications like fullscreen video playing or 3D gaming OR maybe, as seen in other recent smartphones, it's just for phone/voice functions only |
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| Internal memory | User available memory: 12mb Total memory: 32mb |
User available memory: 16mb Total memory: 48mb |
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| Screen | TFT, 4.096 colors, frontlight Looks white when off |
TFT, 65.536 colors, variable backlight Looks black when off Apart from the increase in number of colors, the variable intensity front light technology (same as Pocket PC's, laptops and large TFT monitors) gives the screen more contrast and color intensity. |
 
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| Camera | VGA 640x480 pixels No video recording No predefined or automatic settings |
VGA 640x480 pixels With the ability to RECORD LONG VIDEOS with sound (being each minute 1 megabyte of memory space, this means over 2 hours of video in a single 128 MSDuo card). Rotating the JogDial activates different modes for taking photos: Night, Indoors, Outdoors, etc., and Auto, which automatically adjusts contrast, brightness, white balance and such according to what's being pointed with the lens. Quite useful. Photos are of slightly better quality |
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| External Memory | Memory Stick DUO classic and MagicGate up to 128mb (NOT DUO Pro or more than 128mb). The card is inserted with the conectors faced up (and main face faced down) | (the same) Memory Stick DUO classic and MagicGate up to 128mb (NOT DUO Pro or more than 128mb). Sony Ericsson may have decided not to support professional Memory Sticks in European phones until the substitute of P900, which will be presented by the middle of 2004. The card is inserted with the connectors faced down (and the main face faced up; more logical) |
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| Operative System | Symbian 7.0 UIQ 2.0 | Symbian 7.0 UIQ 2.1 Most of the specifications mentioned hereinafter are related to or are consequence of this new version. Something appeals to everyone now; will P800 users be able to upgrade their OS to UIQ 2.1 or does this new software need the specific hardware of P900? |
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| Interface | Conceptually both interfaces are the same and are used exactly in the same way 95%, but P900 shows more pleasant 3D buttons and dialogs with color gradients and most of the times buttons are round and bigger in order to make it even easier to use the phone with one hand and your thumb. In terms of interface looks, P800 is to P900 what Windows 98 or MacOS 9 are to Windows XP or MacOs X. Even so, the overall speed of the P900 is faster than P800. |
See also all the screen captures in the rest of the table.
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| JogDial operation | Operations in Flip Closed mode, Rotate up/Rotate down and Press Inwards actions do the same things in both devices: Forward in Flip Closed: Opens options menu. Press and hold opens the Applications list Backward in Flip Closed: Goes to previous screen/menu or cancels Press: In a menu or application, works as OK/SELECT. In calls, it DIALS and HANGS. Also, a press Backwards on an incoming call (Flip Open or Closed) will send a busy tone. However operations in Flip Open mode with Backward and Forward presses work differently. The P900 behaves much more coherently and makes it much much more comfortable to use any application with one hand and your thumb: |
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| Forward: Always select and opens the applications from the top main icon bar from left to right, no matter if you are in an application, game, web page or whatever. Backward: Always selects and opens the applications from the top main icon bar from right to left, no matter where you are. Rotate up/down: Act like common vertical or horizontal scrollers, in contacts lists, applications lists, menu lists, messages, web pages, etc. |
Forward: Toggles the "Main application menu", Edit menu and Category/Folder menu of the active application. VERY USEFUL! Also a Press and hold action goes to the Applications list. Backward: Goes back to previous screen or cancels current dialog. Very useful too. Rotate up/down: Act like common vertical or horizontal scrollers (...) as in P800 but also toggles the different modes of the CommuniCorder application (the camera): Video, Auto, Night, Indoor, Outdoor, Message picture, Message video. JogDial proves to be the definitive tool in the P900 |
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| Shortcuts | One of the main reasons why P900 is definitively a better (and worthy) choice than P800 is that in general, it's more comfortable to use. P800 already are familiar with shortcuts like tapping the volume icon to toggle silence mode and such. P900 adds more of these like tapping the network icon to toggle Flight Mode, a Ring Volume shortcut in Flip Closed options menu, a new option after the volume icon to activate/deactivate the vibration, direct icons for adding images or sounds or formatting text when writting sms (that looks like MSWord  )... |
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| Status bar | The bottom status bar in Flip Open mode doesn't display the keyboard icon all the time like p800. Such unpractical behavior has been replaced in the P900 by the logical "display keyboard only when available". Thus the status bar has more space for status icons | ||||
| Lock device | You can only lock the keypad and the screen in Flip Closed mode | You can lock the keypad and the screen in Flip Closed AS WELL as in Flip Open mode. Lock screen when in Flip Open mode does not light up the screen if you tap it (As it happened with some third-party solutions for P800) |
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| Third-party software support | C++ Personal Java Visual Basic (AppForge) Mophun 3D (thirdparty) Java MIDP 1.0 |
C++ Personal Java Visual Basic (AppForge) Mophun 3D (thirdparty) > Java MIDP 2.0 with the ability to run midlets in full screen |
Check out the Mophun 3D preview | ||
| Included software | The favourite third-party solutions for P800 are now included -some proprietary, even exclusive- in P900 (preinstalled or in the CD) like a complete File Manager, a Contacts Manager, an Image Editor, the Opera Browser (this is not installed by default), or the new Chat (some sort of instant messaging client... we'll have to review that one). Note: There is no Chat application in the final commercial version |
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| MSOffice support | Able to VIEW Word, Excel and Power Point documents (among others) (Edit available in third-party solutions) | (the same) Able to VIEW Word, Excel and Power Point documents (among others) (Edit available in third-party solutions) | |||
| POP3/SMTP/IMAP3/MIME attachements. No HTML. | POP3/SMTP/IMAP3/Web-based email integration (Yahoo, Hotmail...). Access to corporate email. Works with the built-in features for mobile access in Microsoft Exchange 2003 and IBM Lotus Mobile Notes. No HTML. | ||||
| If you usually read email in a P800 you know the problem with the email application. You receive the headers of your new emails but only see the first one or two words of both the subject and sender lines. Thus, most of the times, you can't tell what are some emails about or where do they come from. You have to download the entire message to be able to read the header line completely. It was and is a frustrating bug but THIS HAS BEEN FIXED and now you have the option to make email headers show in two lines, one for the sender and one for the subject, as well as space for the hour/date. Actually you can see this option in SMS, MMS and other places too. Click the image above for comparative screenshots |  |
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| Service menu | The "Jogdial up * jogdial down jogdial down * * jogdial down *" when in Flip Closed mode trick brings up a larger service menu in the P900. In addition to the typical firmware/hardware and network locks information and the format internal disk option, now you can access to a broad selection of tests (speakers, vibration, microphone, screen) and information about the external disk (Memory Stick DUO) |
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| T9 |  |
 Available for 19 languages. Useable with the Flip or with the Virtual Flip. Automatic addition of your own new words to the dictionary and "My words" feature (direct text macros). Thanks to the bigger viewable screen area, the T9 and the new keypad, writting SMS promises to be a wonderful experience in the P900 compared to P800 |
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| Themes | Some third-party software allow some plain color changes in the main menus/texts |
Themes involve most visual aspects of the interface: the two backgrounds (Flip Closed and Open modes), menus, selected/unselected items, graphic buttons, top and bottom bars, etc. AS WELL as ringtones and other minor personaliaztion stuff. This way have some sort of "profiles" by having different themes. A curiosity: they offer a variety of shapes for the selected tab of the top main icons bar |
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| Backgrounds | Only in Flip Closed mode Always automatically stretches any picture to viewable screen area |
Available in Flip Closed and Flip Open (Applications list background) modes independently Apart from the atuomatic stretching function, you have some sliders to manually control the size of the image in order to fit it in the viewable area the way you like. There is also a Tile option |
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| Image viewing and editing | Zoom and full screen viewing only available for firmware versions +R2D. NO EDITING of any kind available | Zoom and full screen viewing available. Image editor with resize, rotate, draw, add text, color palette, eraser, pen sizes, step-by-step undo and undo all |
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| Video Player | MPEG4 only in QCIF resolution. Full screen but low framerate (13-15fps). You can notice that 4.096 colors aren't enough colors. You can't rewind or fastforward to a specific point | MPEG4 of any size. You can see full screen videos (320x208 pixels) or even bigger ones like the Pocket PC standard of 320x240 (having them porportionally rescaled to fit the screen) smoothly and looking good with backlight and thousands of more colors. The second processor helps here too. You can jump to a specific moment in the video using a slider |
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| Music Player | A bit uncomfortable. No support for tracklists. No timeline. Not available in Flip Closed mode. In fact the application name was just "Audio" | Now called "Music Player", it IS a proper MP3 player with a redesigned pleasant interface like the other multimedia applications. It supports tracklists with the option "Manage Tracks". It works well in Flip Closed mode. You can jump to a specific point of the song using a slider |
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| Ringtones | 16-tone MIDI, WAV, AU, AMR, RMF... but no MP3 | Polyphonics are now 24-tone. It now supports using ANY MP3 file as main ringtone or as the ringtone for a specific contact |
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| Speaker | P900 external speaker sounds a bit louder: the hardware piece may be the same, but the "holes" through which the sound gets out of the phone are better designed. Incoming call tones actually sound really louder than in P800, but because they are now MP3 files instead of MIDIs or WAVs |
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| In-call record | A good feature of almost every Sony Ericsson phone was the ability to record conversations directly, internally; so you could hear them afterwards with the same quality of the actual call. P800 and P900 don't offer this option. You can still activate the speakerphone and record what the microphone might get from the back speaker and your mouth... but it's a hassle and the quality won't be as good | ||||
| Bluetooth | OPP (Object Push Profile) Off, Auto, Active, Discoverable modes |
OPP and FTP With FTP you can still share files with devices having the OPP a bit limited (like only allowing to send/receive vCards). With FTP you can actually BROWSE the internal folder structure of practically any Bluetooth enabled device (including computers) Off and On modes, plus a "visible for other devices" option. |
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| Corporate networks | Unlike the P800, the P900 can now access securely to company networks with VPN through built-in security or third-party VPN solutions | ||||
| ALS (Alternate Line Service) | |
This allows to have more than one line in a single SIM card, so the user switches between lines at any time |
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| What the box includes | P800: 1 P800 1 Battery 1 16mb Memory Stick Duo 1 Memory Stick Duo to Memory Stick adapter 1 Flip keypad 1 Flip replacement piece 1 SyncStation 1 Stereo headphones with microphone (stereo handsfree) 1 Fabric protective bag 1 Handstrap 1 Travel charger 4 Styli 1 Installation CD 1 Extra software CD 1 Manual |
P900: 1 P900 1 Battery 1 32mb Memory Stick Duo 1 Memory Stick Duo to Memory Stick adapter 1 Flip keypad 1 Flip replacement piece 1 SyncStation 1 Stereo headphones with microphone (stereo handsfree) 1 Leather belt case 1 Handstrap 1 Polishing cloth 1 Travel charger 2 Pens 1 Installation CD 1 Extra software CD 1 Manual 1 Guide for attaching/detaching the flip 2 Spare screws 1 Screwdriver |
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| Extra software CD | For the phone: Men in Black II game Stunt Run game For the PC: SE Image Editor |
For the phone Handy Day (Trial) Handy Base (Trial) Handy Expense (Trial) Handy Safe (Trial) Opera 6.0 browser Datemate 1.0 gate5 Mobile Guide (city info and maps) MobiPocket Reader Photo Editor WorldMate Professional For the PC: SE Image Editor PC Video Player Remore Control (Control/use your P900 from your computer using your mouse and keyboard) Adobe Photoshop Album |
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| Back to P900, and see the Overview, more Photos, Complete Specification Table, Reviews, Shops and other useful links |
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