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< Esato Forum Index > Sony Ericsson / Sony > Symbian phones > P800 users - Do you feel let down by the P800? Bookmark topic

Dear all

I am curious what the general feeling is amongst those of you who put the P800 to the test in a real business sense (ie you manage other people / a company etc).

A lot of the pro-P800 posts on this board (and others) seem to be by people who either don't have a P800 or dropped out of school at 12:

ie

"oh no, my bitch (P800) is gonna be superceded - what's next?" or

"Quick, the Nokia 3650's ahead in the latest polls click here to bump the P800 back to her righful place as the queen of all things electronic www.nothingbettertodoonlinebutimatworksowhatthef*ck.com ")

Despite my previous posts berating SE for releasing a poorly tested product (and losing 380 contacts due to corrupt versions of PC Suite) I really (really!) want to get my P800 to work before I have to accept that it's a very-poor first attempt at a PDA/Phone by SE. The SE servicepoint here in Zurich (Eschenmoser) upgraded the firmware last week so now I have:

Phone R1D, Bluetooth R2C, Organiser R1G05 & CDA R2A04.

They assured me that it is the most up-to-date one here in Switzerland until a "major" upgrade (their words) due in 2 weeks (UIQ2.1 possibly?).

However I STILL cannot restore backups, despite trying on 3 machines (2 XP's and a Windows 2000 Compaq EVON410c) over this weekend.

Whilst I was at the service centre I noticed 11 (!) other P800's on the bench, each with an "attractive" rubber-band and a piece of paper detailing owner details etc wrapped around it.

I came back two hours later as instructed to find myself in a queue of 6 other people (3 swiss-germans, 2 americans & 1 Italian) all waiting to collect their P800.

Everybody was suited and booted, and in the polite-but-friendly environment, talk soon turned to "how much time-wasting has P800 ownership cost you?.."

One of the americans likened it to the JFK asassination - "Where were you when your P800 screwed-up your day?"

The Italian was the most animated, making continual reference to " these sh*t phones - what a waste of money..."

The Swiss guys summed my position up pretty clearly in that they said they can no longer "trust" their P800's, and are only really now using it as a phone, with all numbers on the SIM.

Given that the 6 of us were a pretty fair cross-section of the BUSINESS market that P800 addresses (2 were Directors of Swiss Banks, one a Director of a Pharma company), we all felt that it was a complete waste of time when balanced with the effort that we have all had to go to.

However friends of mine in the MUSIC industry think the're great, but admit that they rarely have more than 100 contacts in their phones (especially as clubland seems to be a regular place to get your phone thieved or lost).

So, honest opinion.

1. Deliriously happy & always have been?
2. Had some problems but are now resolved and happy?
3. Had continual problems which are still not resolved?
4. Would like your money back?
or
5. Your partner logs onto ESATO and you've spent too much to admit online to making a mistake?

It would be interesting to see how many people choose option 4.

Regards

Mike

PS If anyone can advise me how to move to option 2 by way of restore advice that works I would appreciate it. A number of you have kindly sent me private messages with "workarounds" to my problems that work intermittently. As you would expect I am really trying to get a trustworthy solution from SE. (I had a Revo previously and it never missed a beat re backups etc)
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Posted: 2003-04-07 03:12:00
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Option 3

I still need to bring my O2 xda.
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Posted: 2003-04-07 03:47:00
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@Mike, hello, i am a very happy user, i bought mine in early January in UK (import) i buy & sell all kinds of things (Classic cars, antiques, collectables ETC) i photograph & send pics of items to buyers using my p800, i use my p800 to view pics of things i am concidering buying (i use a full screen pic viewer app)its used very heavily for notes & calender reminders, i had a t68i & ipaq 3870 before & wondered if this p800 would replace them both & it MORE than does the job.
This phone has not missed a beat since the first week when my fumbling caused the 10 second screen thing a couple of times.
The phone is almost always running at full memory capacity without a hitch & i am waiting for a larger memory card.
I use "file manager" to shut down unwanted programs, i use my phone with the MSI bluetooth key to connect with my laptop.
BUT i have never trusted any phones memory & i have all info backed up on PC.(i have never lost anything on it though)
I am extremely happy with it, 3 months use & it hasn't let me down once.
BTW i had a t68m/i for over a year & that was spot on as well,If someone gave me £500 for my p800, i would go straight out & buy another one.
PS, also i'm a heavy user, all my calls are on my p800 as i dont have a landline phone.
Vote = No.1
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Posted: 2003-04-07 03:48:00
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Definately 1

Never had any probalems with phone, EXCEPT for bluetooth. I think the bluetooth could have used another 2-3 months of testing and refining before they released it, but except for that, everything on the phone works great.

Had 3 "freeze-ups", all fixed within less then 30 seconds with a reset.

The phone definately doesn't have the same "user-friendliness" as a PDA compared to for example the Palm OS, but then again, the Palm OS can't do even 1/10 th of the SE...

Just a tip... if you really really value your contacts so much, try backing up your desktop PIM like MS Outlook, in addition to SE's own backup/restore function (which by the way works great for me to).
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Posted: 2003-04-07 03:51:00
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Hi Mike! I'm sorry to hear about your plight with the P800. I would say I'm a number 2 customer. Had some minor problems before (not even close to what you went through) but seems fine now. I have about 600 names complete with addresses (email, home & office) and several phone numbers all within one contact and my calendar is pretty much booked with birthdays, appointments and reminders. Have several notes and a lot of pix. No mp3s yet but a lot of wav files as ring tones and alerts. Have some Word and Excel documents to view and about 4 programs installed like Worldmate, Currency Converter, Fuel Manager, Handy Safe and jZip. Also have about 4 mp4s. That's about it. Hope you can get your unit fixed up.
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Posted: 2003-04-07 03:53:00
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i don't own a P8oo and i have a question. whats easier to use, series 60 phones or the p8 using only 1 hand? This message was posted from a WAP device
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Posted: 2003-04-07 04:08:00
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After a little getting used to it, the p800 is not reliant on two handed use for most menu things. at first i didn't realise all the jog dial moves & thought i needed 2 hands for a lot of things, but you don't.
I even cancel alarms with the phone still in its case & inside my jean pocket, by feel, couldn't do THAT on my t68.
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Posted: 2003-04-07 04:22:00
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Sorry to hear about your problems with the P800 Mike. I'd have to say I'm between 2 & 3. I've had a few glitches... but nothing really bad (Thank God!) ... Never had to return my P800, so i don't really know if I'll have any problems with restoring data.

I have a little over 300 contacts... syncs perfectly with Outlook XP. Never had any problems with email on my phone... sends & receives just fine.

You have to remember that the P800 is NOT for everyone. Just cuz you can afford it, doesn't mean that it's the phone for you. I have a pretty good mix of business friends who like it, and others who returned it and went back to their Nokia 8310. What I have noticed, is that most P800 users are early-adopters. People who are eager to try out new technologies & techniques. I also know a few doctors who have it. They have Medical Reference books in their P800.

With regards to the problems you've had with back-up and restore... I hope it gets resolved soon. Good luck!
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Posted: 2003-04-07 04:57:00
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I have been fortunate (knock on wood) not to have had any problems with synching with the Desktop suite. My data and applications haven't really given me any problems.

As someone who has been an early adopter of new wireless technologies (I was a beta tester for the Omnisky Minstrel for Palm V; I bought a Danger Sidekick the day it was released) the P800 gives me more joy than any other device I can remember. Is it buggy? Yes! Does it crash? Yes! Does it put a shit-eating grin on my face every time I look at it? Absa-fucking-lutely!

(And when Putty allows me to use VI via SSH, I will absolutely cream my pants.)
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Posted: 2003-04-07 05:06:00
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sorry to hear about that Mike.

i've had a couple of glitches too. but i wont and cant expect the P800 to be "perfect"... there has to be something wrong somewhere.
the most irritating thing i encounter with the P800 is having the 10-second warning when i've already written a loooooong SMS and was about to send it. grrr.

i've had a dead pixel on the LCD too. but local service was good, i got it 2 hours after i had it fixed. they replaced the LCD for free (under warranty).

when my phone says "not enough memory"... i use Handy Day to end tasks that arent supposed to be running anymore.

no prob with sync. does it well with Outlook XP. no prob using it as modem too.

and i agree with jplacson: "Just cuz you can afford it, doesn't mean that it's the phone for you"

there's always a fix for everything. it's a matter of patience.. and tolerance.
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Posted: 2003-04-07 05:22:00
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