Review: p910a

I was using the P800 for the past two years and I thought it was time
to upgrade. SE was offering a $100 rebate and if I could sell the P800
for $50, it would come to around a 25% discount. I was also having
several usability issues that seemed ridiculous to work around. For
one, pressing say, 1 on the P800 would simply say "Speed Dial 1" and
not say who was under slot 1. There were a bunch more like this. Also,
I always suspected the poor signal I got was due to the handset and
not due to Cingular's towers.

So I got the P910a unlocked, stuck in my Cingular GSM card and voila!
It picked up the signal, my account and I was ready to go. I still had
this problem with getting my contacts over to the P910a from the
P800. I didnt look around for answers. I followed the brain dead
scheme of syncing my P800 with Powerbook using bluetooth and then
syncing my P910a (The powerbook can only recognize one Symbian OS
device; so before syncing the P800 I had to delete the settings from
the laptop; no biggie; the contacts is still secure in the laptop;
only the sync settings are lost).

I am glad to say most annoyances in the P800 have disappeared in the
P910a. Speed Dial displays the name; I can finally see 5 bars when I
could only see 3 bars in the P800. and so on... And the screen, wow!
its so much better than the P800. Its just as good as the
treo650. However, I cant see a way to turn off the calendar alarm. I
only want my laptop to play some irritating noise to remind me of
appointments. Not my phone also. Thats just madness!!! So, I just dont
use my P910a for calendar at all. This _sucks_ big time.

The phone keypad is the reason I chose the P910a over the treo650. I
wanted a phone/PDA and I thought without a numeric keypad, it just is
not a phone. However, I am disappointed by the P910a's keypad. There
is absolutely no space between the keys. This is a serious drawback
when you try to use the keypad; you dont know if your fingers have
moved enough over the keys to enter the next number. The P900 seems to
have lots of gap between keys (I know the P800 did) and I just cant
see why they had to move away from that design. Oh well, a barely
usable keypad is still better than none.

The keyboard is excellent. Typing text into the phone is so much
faster than trying to use the jotpro (or whatever it is called). I was
worried that when you type, the strain on the flip keypad will be
great since it takes all the weight of the phone. However, as it turns
out, I naturally use both my index fingers to support the phone. So,
no problems there. However, the empty space on the left and right is
criminal. It would have been great to have scroll left and right keys
there. And I am very worried about the longevity of the keyboard
itself. The keys seem to be of plastic surrounded in a plastic
sheet. I use my nails to do the typing and am very worried if the keys
will last for even a year. Here's hoping for the best....

The interface is _very_ unpolished. While things are more professional
looking than the P800, all the themes that come with the phone look
like kindergarten crayon drawings. The treo 650 looks so much more
polished in its theme, its font etc. So if you are into style, forget
the p910a.

The camera is still a disappointment. Apparently the quality has
improved, but I have heard of verizon phones (Motorola brand maybe?)
with flash already. SE should do something!

This phone does not do Wi-fi either. But I dont _any_ phone in the
market right now support wi-fi either. The Samsung i730 claims it will
but that is a good 6 months away. So, I dont I can complain about
that.

The browser seems like a significant upgrade to the one in the
P800. Maybe its just the screen giving me the impression. The Opera
browser is _even_ better. But I think only the demo is free. I may be
wrong on that one also.

The V-rally demo is very impressive. However, I dont know the full
game is worth the $40. YMMV. You can also download the shareware
version of Doom from the net and install it. Its a great way to show
off; but the game is a _very_ short one.

I dont know about the audio quality, the video camera quality, the
ebook reader capability, the voice recorder quality and other
gazillion possible ways to use this device. I dont have a need for
them and am not inclined to play around with that. If I get around to
that, I will write up my experiences.

In the end, I am happy with the P910a. Its not perfect but then no
device is ever perfect. So I am glad I blew up $400 bucks for this
device.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Veera.
(a 28-year-old _male_ software engineer)