I desperately want the new Sony Ericsson P800 phone, but a single obstacle stands in my way: I hate memory sticks.

This has to be the worst form of media. Not only that, but the phone uses the MS Duo format, which is about two times as expensive as SD media. This makes absolutely no sense to me. I can either buy a 128MB MS Duo card (that horrible Magic Gate stuff) for about $80, or I can get a 256MB SD card for $70. I wouldn't mind AS much, but you can't get higher than 128. This is incredibly frustrating, as I don't want to carry around multiple cards for storage, and I definitely don't want to spend so much money on it!

So my questions are:
1) what are your own impressions of MS media? how large do you think they will get in the Duo format?
2) does anyone know of any phones comparable to the P800 coming down the line? This phone would be ideal for me if it weren't for that damn memory stick.

I'm not a fan of memory sticks either. I got a P800 a couple of weeks ago and when I saw the MS duo, I thought that at last Sony had relented and had switched to the MMC standard. But alas, it is just a slightly smaller card that looks similar. There are third-party memory sticks available for much less than Sony units, so check around for prices.

BTW, I sent the P800 back - I hated it. If you've not had a chance to use it for a few minutes, make sure you do before you buy - the interface and usability is appallingly bad and the lack of predictive text entry is unforgivable in a phone where they've managed to stuff every other feature in.

I wasn't aware that there were third party memory sticks at all, let alone MS Duo. Who makes them??

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with the phone. I hope I won't feel the same about it. It is exactly the product that I've been waiting for since my Rex6000 died. That didn't have predictive text either, and I got along fine with it. Perhaps they're implement that in the future.

I would love to try the phone out, but I doubt I'll find a place to do that. Any ideas?

Don't put it in your pants pocket and sit down...

...one of my collegues did this two days after getting his P800 and cracked the screen, rendering it completely unusable (can't even make a call because the touch screen is broken). He could barely afford the phone anyway and has no insurance, so he's not a happy camper..

Ouch...that's no fun. I don't put anything in my rear pockets anyway. Far too uncomfortable. I'd get some kind of belt clip or just put it in my side pockets.

Still, that sucks. Yikes. There are places to return it to, I think. I was reading a bit about that on the Howard Chui forums.

Dabs list a few. These are original memory sticks - I guess that it'll be a while until they get around to doing the Duos.

My dislike of the P800 was probably more to do with the fact that I've got a Nokia 7650 and the series 60 interface is very, very good.

I've also got a Nokia 7650, and was planning on 'upgrading' to the P800.

So I gather you advise against this?
Mind you, if putting it in your pocket and sitting down is enough to damage it I don't even want it anymore. It's not like I will be throwing the phone, but knowing myself it should be able to withstand a few "sudden drops".

Well, you have to think that a device in which half of it is a touchscreen, the force of 150+ pounds is probably going to be a bit much. I don't find it that suprising. After all, that's pretty much what happened to my Rex6000, and that was pretty much all screen

I'd like to get more of an impression as to what design elements you disliked. What stuck out as particularly annoying features to you, besides a lack of predictive text?

Okay, I think I'm confused as to what you mean by "predictive text." My current phone has T9, but I get the idea that you don't mean that. I recently heard a good reason for a lack of T9 input, but what do you guys mean by predictive text?

He does mean T9.

What was the good reason you heard for not having it ?

That is the single reason why I won't bother with P800, oh, that and the price!

To me, the P800 offers no real benefit over the 7650 - there are some plus points, but they are outweighed by bad points. Bear in mind that I'm very fussy about technology and am difficult to please, so you might not feel the same way about some or all of this.

- The camera doesn't have loads of dead pixels unlike the 7650, but the overall quality is lower, plus no low-light mode.

- The Opera browser is very good and reformats complex pages very well, but the platform is a little slow to manage it quickly and resizing then displaying JPEGs takes time.

- The email client supports scheduling.

- The device isn't really designed for one-handed use and even if you do use it that way, it is akward to keep one finger on the scrollwheel and your thumb on the keypad/screen unless you have very big hands. The Nokia's 'nipple' control is far more useable and intuitive than the multi-way wheel, which is narrow, sharp-edged, fiddly to use and feels cheap.

- Aesthetically and usability-wise, the UIQ interface sucks. It feels like the UI was designed by programmers more interested in cramming in features than usability or good interface design.

- The docking station is cheap and nasty and is fiddly to place the phone on.

- No profile support - you can set different ringtones for car, headset, etc, but it isn't enough.

- It is actually larger than the 7650, but about the same weight.

Overall, I'm happy to stick with the 7650 until a smaller/better series-60 based phone comes along.

Well, if you guys do mean T9, then the reason I heard for not using it was wear on the screen. For T9, it is assumed you would us the keypad. The keypad is actually just a bunch of little styluses, and if they are pressing down in the same location over and over again, this could create wear on the screen. Frankly, I think they should have designed the flip better, so that it had nothing to do with the screen when it is closed, but that probably would have been more difficult.

So yeah, that was the reason someone posted on the Howard Chui forums. Sounds reasonable to me. If you are using the virtual keyboard, there's more of a variation of screen taps than if the same 9 buttons are hitting the same 9 places over and over again.

All of this is why I want them to create/support something like this. That is the best solution I can think of.


And thanks for your impressions of the phone. Some of those things don't bother me, but others might. I'll be thinking about it. Thanks again.

> Well, if you guys do mean T9, then the reason I heard for not using it was wear on the screen.

Bizarre - T9 would reduce the number of taps necessary. So in effect they may have removed T9 so that using the kepad normally was so tiresome that you wouldn't use it at all. If that's the logic the designers were employing, then no wonder the rest of the phone is so bad.

And there were arguments for that as well. The problem is that even though there would be fewer taps needed, instead of taping in 26+ locations, you'd be taping in about 10. Even worse, the 10 taps would always be in the same exact location every time, whereas if you were using the virtual keyboard, there would probably more of a variation on where you tapped each letter each time. It makes some sense.

I think they just didn't want people to use text messaging with the keypad.

And like I said, I would LOVE to use this thing with a keyboard. That is the ideal solution.

Bear in mind that I'm very fussy about technology and am difficult to please, so you might not feel the same way about some or all of this.

I've got an Empeg haven't I ? In fact I've got three of them!

Nah, chances are that I probably won't like the P800 also. I mostly use my phone to get phoned (not to phone myself) and to send SMS messages.
Now and then I also use the built-in camera and the scheduler functions. But if the SMS capabilities and the general construction of the phone are so weak, I don't think I 'll bother with it.

Actually, there's also another reason why I stick to Nokia : I've grown so accustomed to their interface that I just can't get used to any other phone anymore. Even if they don't have the latest and the greatest in technology.

I agree with you and I'll stick with my 7650 too until the next big Nokia thing comes along... which might take a while, because none of the new models they've announced on CeBit really impressed me.
Oh well, money saved I guess...