Sony Ericsson P910a PDA Review

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Is the Sony Ericsson P910a worth the buy? There are tons of PDA's out there to choose from, so will users other than the hardcore Sony lovers decide to invest the cast into the latest Sony PDA? The triband (GSM 850/1800/1900) Sony Ericsson P910a runs on the Symbian 7.0 operating system. THere are tons of features including a high screen resolution, a VGA camera, Bluetooth support, and massive battery life, are great features. The only drawback, as with all Sony products, is the price tag, starting at 700usd.

Compared to other mobiles, the Sony Ericsson P910a is on the large side. At 2.3 by 1 by 4.5 inches and 5.5 ounces, it's about average for smartphones. The 3-inch-diagonal touch screen is vibrant and crisp (262,000 colors), and it rotates to support Landscape mode. You can't change the text size, but a zoom feature does the trick.
Aside from the great display, the P910a's most notable feature--and the most significant change from the P900--is the flip-down QWERTY keyboard (see below). In phone mode, when the flip is up, the backside of the QWERTY keyboard is a standard numerical keypad that also boasts an OK, Back, Clear, and Menu key. Like the phone itself, the keys are silver, and the letters and numbers are white. In darker situations, seeing your way around the keypad is simple, thanks to the backlighting. Furthermore, the keys are raised such that dialing by feel is a snap. That said, there are no Talk and End keys; you'll need to use the OK button instead. While this isn't a big deal, we prefer dedicated call buttons. When the flip is opened, there is a full QWERTY keyboard with tiny keys all crowded together. There's no truly comfortable way to type while holding the phone, and the flip mechanism seems fragile. By the way, there's no enter key so you'll need to use the stylus to send after you're done typing.

On the mobile's left spine, you'll find the power button, the headset jack, and a handy scrollwheel that not only adjusts volume during calls but also navigates through menu items on lists and the home screen. On the handset's right spine is the Memory Stick Duo slot, the stylus holder, a dedicated camera button, and a Home Screen button that fires up the integrated WAP 2.0 browser. As with the P900, the VGA camera lens and a self-portrait mirror are located on the handset's rear face.

The Sony PDA holds 64MB of embedded memory, tons of memory to allow you to store as many contacts as space will allow, with room in each entry for multiple phone numbers, addresses, and other information; you can hold an additional 250 names on the SIM card. The phone even ships with a 32MB Memory Stick Duo card. (The slot can handle cards up to 1GB).

Wireless features include an infrared port and Bluetooth, as well as USB connectivity through the charging cradle. Any of these methods can transfer data between the device and a computer, and you can also use the Bluetooth to connect to a wireless headset or as a modem with a Bluetooth-enabled laptop. There is no Wi-Fi support.

One of the P910a's best features is its ability to sync with IMAP4 mail servers using Smartner Duality Always-on Mail for corporate e-mail support of Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes. This feature will take some smarts to get working, especially when connecting to new networks. The P910a also supports POP3 and SMTP e-mail and ships with a WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser.

Yes camera phone enthusiasts, the P910a ships with a VGA camera, which to some may be a disappointment, considering the growing number of megapixel camera phones. You can take pictures in 640x480, 320x240, or 160x120 resolutions and with outdoor, indoor, night, or auto settings. You also control the brightness and contrast, adjust the lighting (auto, fixed, indoor, outdoor, and fluorescent), use a backlighting option, or activate a shutter sound. We missed an optical zoom and a flash, but you get a mirror for self-portraits.
The camcorder records up to an hour of video with sound in MPEG-4 format; its file-editing options are similar to the camera's.

Cons: QWERTY keys are not backlit. VGA camera, not megapixel. Bit bulky.

Pros: Great battery life. Tons of features. POtential for huge memory space.