Sony Ericsson P900: Smartphone Extraordinaire! - External features
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First, let's look at the physical aspects of the phone. It is 115mm high, 57mm wide and 24mm thick, including the removable flip keypad. This is a little chunky when compared to a standard mobile phone, but it's a bit smaller than the average PDA and it can still nestle quite happily in the palm of your hand. Bear in mind that these dimensions include an impressive 2440mm2 of touchscreen glory. Additionally, it weighs 150g, which makes it heavy for a mobile phone but a veritable lightweight compared with even the sleekest of PDAs.
Coming briefly back to the screen, it is an impressive 40 by 61mm with a resolution of 208 by 320px. It is a TFT color LCD touch-sensitive screen that is able to display up to 65,000 colors. To help avoid scratches and smears, screen protectors can be purchased on eBay for around $8 USD (£4 GBP).
The device comes in one style: gunmetal grey with silver edging and keypad. This gives it a professional look, while the keypad adds style and flair with its iridescent blue glow. The product has been available long enough now (best part of a year) for unofficial accessories to become readily available, and replacement color fascias are no exception. You can add individualism to your phone by buying and fitting one of these. Be warned however, it is not designed to have an interchangeable fascia and the process for refitting one is both complex and time-consuming. If you are prepared to risk breaking it, an excellent guide to replacing a worn/damaged/boring fascia can be found at http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=353797
An excellent design feature is that the stylus for the phone is stored almost internally, slotting vertically down into the housing. This makes it almost impossible for the stylus to fall or be knocked out and become lost. The stylus itself is comfortable to use and is well weighted, being made partially from metal rather than just plastic.
There is also an external speaker, for speakerphone modes or just blasting out a selection of your favourite MP3s. It has a reasonable output considering it is monaural, and plays sounds (whether voice or music) both loud and clear. The jog dial is multidirectional, with functionality from rotation, push, and forward or back click modes.
Whether you choose to keep the keypad attached or remove it will depend on how you plan to use the phone. If you want to treat it more like a PDA or multimedia device, removing the keypad will probably be wisest; you don't need to open the flip to enter touch-screen mode, and games or videos can be viewed better.
People more focused on the traditional mobile phone qualities of the device will probably prefer the keypad. Using the keypad does not remove any of the PDA functionality, however, as all features of the phone can be accessed using the jog dial or short-cut buttons on the side.
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