Jenneth Orantia27 February 2008, 10:41 PM
The P1i continues the trend of previous P-series models by running the Symbian UIQ operating system, and thankfully it’s the newer 3.1 version that irons out most of the kinks of the previous firmware.
QWERTY thumbboards are great for writing messages, but they invariably make a smartphone wider than a standard handset. Sony Ericsson has tried to combat this problem by assigning a letter to the left and right side of each key. A great idea in theory, but in practice it’s error-prone and difficult to use. Ironically, the P1i isn’t exceptionally narrower than other thumbboard-equipped smartphones.
Ample applications are on-board, including QuickOffice for editing Word and Excel documents, PDF+ for viewing and editing PDF files, a business card scanner and Exchange ActiveSync for synchronising with a Microsoft Exchange mail server.
Navigating through the menu is accomplished by using the scrollwheel and back key on the side of the device or by tapping on the 2.6in QVGA touchscreen.
The rich 262k display and brightly coloured 3D icons make using the P1i a visually pleasing experience, but the actual interface has a steep learning curve, and the lack of dedicated call buttons or soft keys make moving between each new task a three- or four-tap process.