Sony Ericsson P900

Sony Ericsson's P900 is the follow up to the P800 (reviewed in issue 148) and is more of an update than a brand-new product. But that's not a bad thing, as the P900 retains its predecessor's strengths and fixes a lot of the minor niggles it was riddled with.

Firstly, the keypad flip has been replaced with one with hard-wired buttons rather than rubber feet. This simple alteration makes the phone more reliable and it feels better to use.

When the flip is flush with the screen the P900 is a standard-sized, if rather heavy, mobile phone with an intuitive interface. In this mode you can look up numbers or dial in the traditional way.

Open the flip, however, and it turns into a fully-fledged handheld computer with a colour display. The screen is pretty good, but not in the league of the Palm Tungsten T3.

In this mode, the stylus is needed to enter data and select the phone's functions. As with all handheld computers, these are primarily contacts, diary entries and notes. But the P900 can also surf the internet over a GPRS connection.

Access the program menu and you'll find a whole host of other applications, including a picture viewer and MP3 player.

As for the camera, the picture quality is in line with that of other mobile phones - nothing special, in other words.

There's only 32Mb of onboard memory, although Sony Ericsson does provide a 32Mb Memory Stick Duo memory card as well. The P900 is also a tri-band phone, which means that you can use it in most of Europe and North America. It connects to a PC via a USB cradle that also acts as a charger.

The P900 is expensive but the excellent keypad and touch screen mean you get the best of the phone and handheld worlds. It's a definite improvement over the P800.

Contact: Sony Ericsson 0870 523 7237
www.sonyericsson.co.uk