P990i - the ugly chameleon?

Well, I'm due for a phone upgrade and was thinking of getting myself the P990i (MTN said they should have it sometime in Sept), but somehow 'a little voice' keeps telling me to stay away from the P990i, keep my P910i (till it dies) and wait for something else.

I've read every review about the P990i that I could find on the web, but here are my reasons for skipping this phone and waiting for the rumoured P970, or P1000 :

1. The 5-way jog dial of the P800, P900 & P910 have been replaced by a 3-way jog dial. Like having a six speed gearbox without reverse, like one user said.
2. What is a keyboard doing on a P-phone's front? It should just be one big screen. I've never used the keyboard on my P910i's flip, I write much faster with a stylus.
3. The P990i's CPU can accommodate a 4MP camera, why is there only a 2MP camera on the P990i?
4. The phone is plastic & damn ugly. This makes me think of the W800 with it's shocking orange colour scheme, Sony realised people were starting to get headaches and quickly released the W810. (I really feel sorry for all owners of the W800.) Somehow I think the same is going to happen with the P990i. After three months the P995i will be released and then all the poor buggers that bought the P990i, is stuck with it for two years.

What do you think?

I think you should consider this phone. I was lucky enough to use one for a week recently ( review model for an IT publication ) and its a great phone.

Having trawled the internet for reviews you are aware of the firmware issues..and of the ongoing FW upgrades being released...

The build quality is good, it doesn;t fel too plasticky. Having used a P910 myself for 2 years the 3 way jog dial does take a bit of gettiung used to but the 'back' key does make up for it. The MP3 player and radio apps are of good quality - I'm no audiophile but the Mp3s Im listened to on it sounded the same as on my iPod... video playback is much better then the pixelated effort from the P910.
I'm not going to enter the 2mp camera debate. For my purposes it suffices..I'm not planning to size up my photos to mount on the wall. The 2mp cameras on the se phones are acknowledged to be the best among the 2mp camera phones at the moment.
My overall impression of the phone was very favourable. Barring the software issues...which are remediable with FW updates...and the memory leak issues ( hopefully, ditto ) there is very little to fault with the phone.
The built in keyboard on the body, BTW, is of good quality, the keys are firm and tactile, it's much easier to use than the flip KB on P910.

PS I'm sure you've also read the closely reasoned arguments on the overseas forums , especially esato and my-symbian, discussing then reasons why there amy well NOT be a successor to this phone any time"soon".

kingrob said:

I've read every review about the P990i that I could find on the web, but here are my reasons for skipping this phone and waiting for the rumoured P970, or P1000

Click to expand...

I doubt that will be anytime soon ... at best in 6-12 months. I am not willing to wait that long.

kingrob said:

1. The 5-way jog dial of the P800, P900 & P910 have been replaced by a 3-way jog dial. Like having a six speed gearbox without reverse, like one user said.

Click to expand...

Well, the P800 doesn't have a 5-way dial, only a 3-way one. I've heard lots of complaints about the 5-way one breaking off too easily, so it might have been motivated by that. And there is still a back button next to the dial ...

kingrob said:

2. What is a keyboard doing on a P-phone's front? It should just be one big screen. I've never used the keyboard on my P910i's flip, I write much faster with a stylus.

Click to expand...

The only way to do that is to either make the phone shorter or wider, as the aspect ratio is different from the P800/900/910. I kinda like the keyboard, but not sure if I will use it as much as the stylus.

kingrob said:

3. The P990i's CPU can accommodate a 4MP camera, why is there only a 2MP camera on the P990i?

Click to expand...

Well ... I am not buying it for the camera, so I don't care 2MP is fine for me, though. A better camera would've raised the BoM and made it more expensive.

kingrob said:

4. The phone is plastic & damn ugly.

Click to expand...

That's a matter of opinion. I like the look in the photo's I've seen. And as to it being plastic, it doesn't bother me in the P800.

Well I cannot and will not wait any longer. I have P910I and I checked out a working sample of this P990i, I like it. It will take longer than a year before a replacement is required and my second contract will then be due in six months time! So get a newbie every year if there is something worthwhile to consider and this is it!!!!!

The only problem with the P990i...
is that between SE and the service providers they are unable to commit to a concrete release date for this phone !

I have heard - release next week ( SE office JHB )
- release two weeks ( " " " )
- release end September ( MTN branch )
- release October ( another MTN branch )
- release November ! ( this one really got my blood pressure up, till I realised the reason given was blatant c&*p - " the phone can run skype so they need to change the software to override this " !!! )

Will someone with the real release date please stand up !

aqualung said:

The only problem with the P990i...
is that between SE and the service providers they are unable to commit to a concrete release date for this phone !

Will someone with the real release date please stand up !

Click to expand...

Phone:
Manfred Mill
011 844 2144

But please do not tell him I gave you the number and please do not give it to anyone else as he may be slightly upset with a few extra calls and give a release date out of desperation!

Vodashop in Cresta told me "No idea". At least they were being honest, if not helpful.

Of course they then tried to sell me a phone with Windows Mobile on it ... not a Nokia E61 or SE M600, which at least run the same OS ...

Valerion said:

Of course they then tried to sell me a phone with Windows Mobile on it ... not a Nokia E61 or SE M600, which at least run the same OS ...

Click to expand...

I'm actually looking at the i-Mate phones now...

*The Fujitsu-Siemens T830 looks SO similar to the P-series, but running Windows Mobile 5.0 as the OS instead.

I just got the M600i, I used to have a P900i which was "liberated" from my house a while ago and didn't bother to replace with a smart phone (the P900 wasbig and clumsy and I didn't use all the features). But I must say that I am impressed with the M600 so far.

It is smaller, thinner and lighter, and does not have some of features that I think are a **** on a phone i.e. xx megapixel camera. WTF? Camera pics are *always* sh!te, no matter how many mp. The only real feature that the M600 lacks, as far as I can see, is WiFi.

P990i

It's obvious that the P990i and our networks haven't been getting along hence an unconfirmed release date, the phone has been out worldwide for just under 2 months now, price was over R 10k, has now settled slightly to about R 8000, still heavy but this was the case when the P910i came as well,

Cell C have had the phone on the previous versions of their price list with a retail price of R 6 150, how can you show a price of a phone if they have no idea when they're releasing,

It's evident that the P990i is the long awaited and overdue replacement of the P910i, it definately wont be replaced by a P1000 or other anytime soon,

Limited stock available on exactmall.co.za at R 7999

My friend bought himself the iPAQ 6915 today - and I must admit, I'm very jealous!

The iPAQ runs circles round any smartphone (love the big screen!), but has the same functions + more.

Well, at least on the software side, you know Microsoft will make sure their mobile OS runs smoothly and supports all new technology & features...