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< Esato Forum Index > Sony Ericsson / Sony > Symbian phones > p990i or E65 or p1 or m600 a little help Bookmark topic

Hello all its been a long time since ive been on here as ive not had a smart phone for a while and havnt had the money to upgrade but now I do.

Ive been wanting a phone with wifi for a while and now there is a little more choice in the market i need some help deciding. Ive always prefered SE but ive had some playtime on s60 v3 phones and they dont seem too bad. My main requirements in order are these.

1. Decent battery life
2. ability to play mp3's with decent headphones and not drain the battery too much.
3. Wifi
4. Tom-tom capable
5. large memory card / upgradable
6. doesnt crash
7. cost

I am not too fussed about alot of the smart phone features, such as touch screen for the p-series and a camera would be nice but it is not a necessity. Ill prob buy the phone off ebay and i dont mind secondhand.

So you the friendly esato bunch could help me with my plight. Which phone should I get.

one big thing I have been reading on here is the p990's low ram problems, is this a big issue or has new firmware sorted it out?

thanks TK


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Posted: 2007-07-30 18:54:37
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I think P990 is the right phone for you. First of all its price is very low now so you can buy some nice stereo bluetooth headset for the money you save.
It also has all the other requirement you mentioned above.
The negative side is low ram which is not a problem from the phone's specific feature point of view but rather multitasking in general. Your multitasking will be quite limited, which is very bad no doubt, but for what you practically need (above) it will serve you extremely well.
With my P990 I listen music, browse the internet, download media files, type long docs, edit excel files, watch dvd quality movies, receive and send emails with attachments, use wifi, read books, use it as external disc, take very nice photos, use VOIP, and so much more.

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Posted: 2007-07-30 20:09:37
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Definitely the P1i.

It has a much better screen than the P990 or M600 (I owned a P990 and my friend a M600, now I have a P1i and can compare all three).

Also the P1i has a lot more RAM and is much faster and more stable than the P990 (Note: many pointed out that the P990 & P1i have the same CPU, which is true and hence should not be faster, but I can confirm that it certainly reacts and feels much faster, mainly I suspect because it is not always trying to free/balance up memory and can keep the applications always open in the background).

I am happily running EMO (corporate email client, very RAM heavy) + web + contacts + calender + messaging + wifi + golf game + java IM client + more all simultaneously without any problem, without any being shut down in the background, no stability problems and with 60+ MB RAM free.

Battery life is also better with the P1i, I easily get a full day use out of it and I am a heavy user. With no fixed line, I use my mobile for all office calls, at least 2 hours talk time per day on a 3G network + 5 to 10 SMS + calender for all appointments + for reading my work email. I would get a days use from my P990, but no guarantee and I always charged my P990 during the day, whenever I got a chance, to be sure. No problem with the P1i (mainly due to its bigger battery I suspect rather than any fundamental hardware change).

I have not used GPS or Tomtom myself. A friend of mine uses Wayfinder + their bluetooth GPS receiver on his P1 and is very happy with it. Sorry but more than that I can't say, never having bothered with it myself.

Hope this helps,

/Mike B.
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Posted: 2007-07-30 20:26:54
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Id suggest the E65,its small,has great battery life,a nice screen, WiFi 802.11b/g support,a decent camera,its a very stable phone,has 3G And EDGE, its running s60 v3.1 and its just an allround great stable,smallish smartphone,or the N80 which id say is the same, mine is very stable,has a great screen,decent 3mp cam, wifi 802.11g and also has 3G and EDGE and is a s60 v3 phone
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Posted: 2007-07-30 22:14:21
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thanks for the replies guys.

This ram issue seems to darken the otherwise mighty fine image of the p990. I mean I had a p910i and a p800 back in the day and noticed that the updated ram of the 910i made a significant difference. However battery life is more important to me that running simultaneous tasks as i would much rather have a phone that remains on for 5 days rather than 1 that does lots of apps but needs charging every day.

I am a student who doesnt need to drive too often and so my main use for the phone would be day to day life. Question, if I keep each of the phones running a low number of apps, does the battery life last alot longer, GSMarena.com says that the p1 has 400 hours batt life and p990 has 350 hours, but is that if the phone is doing nothing?

Is there an Sman type application available on UIQ 3.0 which could flush my tasks when the phone is not being used so much?

I would love a p1 but i think the money is an issue at the moment, im looking at around 260 - 280 pounds on ebay for one shipped from the US whereas p990 is around £180 shipped from US. Is it worth that 100 pound extra?

keep the replies coming
TK
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Posted: 2007-07-30 22:14:24
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Yes, there is a similar application called Swiss Manager

http://cellphonesoft.com/

There is both a freeware and a Pro version in the downloads section. I find the freeware version good enough.

However the P990 is pretty good at managing the RAM itself and the P1 does not need it.

I have never seen the the number of applications having any significant impact on battery life. Using 3G & the screen is the biggest impact (and of course WiFi is a huge power hog).

One tip on the P990, by default the screen brightness is set to 90%. However if (like me) you spend most of your life indoors, this is overkill and you can set it to 40% (note: by default on the P1 the screen brightness is 40%). This really helps battery life.

Also another tip, set the phone to GSM only mode. Unless you are doing a lot of web surfing or using the phone as a data modem, you don't need 3G and GSM only mode will greatly improve battery. You can easily turn back on the 3G when you need higher data speeds and after about 30 seconds the phone will automatically switch back to the 3G network.

Finally, though more expensive, I still recommend the P1. It really is a big improvement over the P990, its smaller, lighter, better screen and the more RAM makes a big difference.

If you are not in a big hurry, wait a month, until September. Just now the P1 is only just hitting the shops, still in relatively small quantities and with a huge pent up demand. A month will make a big difference to the pricing, as the P1 hits all of the stores and there are no availability issues.

/Mike B.
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Posted: 2007-07-30 22:49:00
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Thanks for all the help.

In the end i decided to go SE but couldnt afford the p1 so have bought the p990i. Cost me 180 pounds new including delivery which was actually cheaper than the E65. I figure that I can try out the phone and if i like the setup and system ill keep it and if not ill put it back on ebay and the most ill loose is around £10. Ill keep my eyes on the price of the p1 and when it drops below £200 ill consider it.

I also already had a 4gb pro duo card for my k750i so i dont need to buy another mem card (p1 takes the pro duo m2) which i dont have so that would be at least another 40 quid.

im sure ill love the p990, now i just need to find some decent apps.


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Posted: 2007-07-31 14:26:24
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Congrats on your new phone!! Hope you enjoy it and dont have the probs some people hav with it
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Posted: 2007-07-31 14:50:18
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ahhh your getting me worried now.

is it worth upgrading the firmware?


illl wait till ive got it then ill start worrying properly
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Posted: 2007-07-31 22:43:52
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Lol,this is what u must ask in P990 Firmware thread,not everyone has had a bad experience with P990 some are actualy loving it,rather visit the P990 Firmware thread though, u might not even have to update the FW
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Posted: 2007-07-31 22:51:51
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