Sony Ericsson P900: Smartphone Extraordinaire! - Internal features
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Foraging internally now, the device contains an ARM 9 processor -- a 32bit RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) chip, designed specifically for portable communications and media devices. There is also a mysterious second processor, which may provide additional multimedia support for movies and games. Not much about this chip is known, including its speed and actual function.
ARM themselves are big market players, known for producing high-performing, cost- and power-efficient chips. The processor maximizes its efficiency using the patented Thumb instruction set: 16-Bit instruction sets that are decompressed to full 32-Bit processes as and when needed. The processor actually runs at 156Mhz, which is pretty slow next to say, the iPAQ HX4705 which clocks at a staggering 624Mhz. This is however the fastest PDA around at the moment; on average, most PDAs are currently pushing between 300 – 400Mhz, and as the P900 is not a dedicated PDA, it can be forgiven for not having the full power of one. Programs open fairly quickly and things generally get done without too much waiting around. For the average user, the operating speed of the phone will not be a cause for concern.
You also get 48Mb of internal storage, comprising 16MB OS space, 16MB RAM and 16MB available to you to use as you wish. It doesn't sound like much, but if you keep all of your games, movies and music files on your memory sticks, and save the internal storage for essentials, it can be more than enough. The downside to this is that if you have applications on a particular memory stick, but don't have it with you when you want to run the program in question, you're stuck.
The phone takes Sony Memory Stick Duo (standard and magic gate) as its external media format and is bundled with a 32Mb stick to get you started. Unfortunately, the largest memory stick it can take is a mere 128Mb. What Sony-Ericsson recommends is that you purchase several Memory Sticks and treat them as you would CDs. While this approach works, it can detract from the portability of the device if you have to carry around a few sticks of memory, especially since the carry case that comes with the phone does not provide anywhere to store them.
When buying the phone new, you get a comprehensive package consisting of all of the necessary accessories. Actually bundled with the phone comes the SyncStation for charging and connecting the device to your PC via USB, a 32Mb Sony Memory Stick Duo, a tiny screw driver for removing or attaching the flip screen and several spare screws, a black carry case, a screen cleaning cloth, two lithium ion rechargeable batteries, a spare stylus, a spare keypad, a strap, a set of Sony headphones, and two software CDs. One of the CDs contains the software required to attach the phone to your PC, the other CD consists of software and games, mostly demos, for the actual phone.
Separate accessories are becoming increasingly popular with a growing market of official and unofficial fascias, cases, funky styluses, Bluetooth headsets and dual chargers.
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