Sony Ericsson P990

The Sony Ericsson P990 is the fourth in the P-series, following from the Sony Ericsson P800, P900 and P910. The P990 is now available from the Sony Ericsson site. The phone was code-named Hermione prior to its launch. It is arguably succeeded by the similarly specified Sony Ericsson P1.

All About Symbian - P990 sneaks out UIQ - P990 specifications SymbianWiki - P990 overview Engadget Mobile - P990 FCC approved - with great photo! Wikipedia information on the P990 Counter Intelligence - P990 flies off the shelves Unrumor.com - Memory controller problem to prompt P990 recall?

Release countdown

The BIG question is have Sony Ericsson left it too late with their killer phone? Phones like the K800i and the Nokia N80 and N93 already boast superior features (3.2MP cameras and/or 802.11g connectivity); is the P990 going to be enough? Plus point for the P990: the nasty flip is removable. Minus points: the QWERTY pad is just as fugly as the flip.

Martin gets excited SE Store Esato forum for Sony Ericsson Esato P990i MASSIVE P990i thread

The countdown to the initial SIM-free release has been archived here: P990ReleaseCountdown. The networks are being slow to release the phone on contract, apparently due to initial problems with push email and general beta state of the handset (memory leaks, crashes etc). A firmware upgrade on the 20th of August seems to have resolved most of those problems, so the networks should restart their verification shortly. The following are our best guesses at the release dates on UK networks:

O2: 4th December [updated 14th November]. Details have gone from the coming soon page. There have been reports of O2 customers successfully upgrading, and getting SIM-free phones, via the Carphone Warehouse. Orange: Now available for all customers (new & upgrades)! [updated 15th October]. Orange site. The phone is badly hobbled by Orange's proprietary software -- some screen shots are on this page. Vodafone: Now available [updated 12th September]. Vodafone shop, check out the Â£20/month with free phone deal!

Note that some places are also selling SIM-free phones with O2, Orange, and Vodafone contracts. You may want to check out the following if you are after a P990 now :

Expansys [Vodafone] fonePlanet [Orange] foneshop [O2, Vodafone] phones2udirect [O2, Orange, Vodafone]

Note: We are not affiliated with any of the above and place no guarantee on accuracy.

Getting your questions answered

The best places to start if you have a question with your P990 (and most phones) are the online forums. Here are a few we find useful:

All About Symbian esato My-Symbian

Pictures & Video

Full pictures of the P990i Even more pictures! - Shows flip removed too. From mobiles-live.com (direct link to MP4 video) MobilMania.cz - several videos

Reviews

Mobile-Review All About Symbian - quick hands-on review All About Symbian - full in-depth review All About Symbian - Comparative review - Nokia E70 vs HTC TyTN vs Sony Ericsson P990 mobile 9 My-Symbian The Register Martin Little - Orange's firmware sounds appalling Symbian One - developer review Smartphones Talk MobileBurn (preview) P990 mini user reviews All About Symbian - P990 reloaded - review with R5A17 firmware Phonegg - Sony Ericsson P990 vs Sony Ericsson P1 MobileXpert - P990 vs Nokia N95

Software & Support

Latest firmware

UIQ3 Sourceforge wiki

General

All About Symbian Sony Ericsson P990i UK support page My-Symbian software page SSH & telnet Instant Messaging UIQ 3 wiki

Outlook/Exchange and Email

How to check if your email host supports IMAP IDLE (IMAP IDLE is the normal person's version of Blackberry) Exchange ActiveSync, as supplied on the M600 and P990

Multimedia

3gp videos

Accessories

memory cards Martin Fields screen protector

There are many other UIQ Phones, and UIQ Getting Started should help you get going with one.

Categories: Form Factor Flip - Form Factor Monoblock - Qwerty Keypad