P990i release news from Vodafone
08 March 2006
Hmm, I’ve wanted to get a Sony Ericsson
Argh, I’m so gutted. I’m due for my upgrade right now, but what should I choose? Vodafone don’t have a great selection of
Anyone know when any other good Sony Ericsson phones are due to become available on Vodafone? It’s upsetting me that I can’t get my
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May 16, 2006 at 07:49 AM What a load of old cobblers....Sure SE are working on the next version already
May 16, 2006 at 07:53 AM How about doing some research rather than posting an useless comment!
May 16, 2006 at 07:55 AM Matt "The Phone Guy" Brindley has said the release date has been pushed back till July. Unfortunately I couldn't wait any longer and on Matts advice I bought a T-Mobile MDA Pro. Very happy with it so far.
May 16, 2006 at 07:57 AM Research is from SE Sales Manager for UK & Ireland.. July is still the date as per SE and Vodafone Ireland...
May 16, 2006 at 08:12 AM I will back that up, Matt (who I linked above) works for CarphoneWarehouse in the UK and he has heard the date is July from SE.
June 20, 2006 at 08:22 AM It will be August. It is updated on SE official Shop. It is aprox. one year after first rumours sbout this phone occourde. NICE quick work from SE.... Reallly
June 15, 2006 at 03:21 AM I'll be in Spain in July, will it be abailable then? No release date for Canada at all. We might not even see it here.
June 21, 2006 at 11:11 AM Hello All, I am the director for Mobileshop.co.uk, having read all the comments you have posted i would like to take you out your misery and inform you that the P990i will be released in November 2006 due to software difficulties. Many Thanks
June 21, 2006 at 07:57 PM how come? i saw a website which sells it for 664 pounds sim free ?
June 21, 2006 at 09:20 PM *Handset Only Our Price: £664.95 (565.91 exc.) *Availability: Pre-order Now *Stock News *This unit is due in early July I am a Director of an IT company and I woudl ike to let you know that Vodafone Ireland and nearly all web sites I have read are talking about JULY 2006. * http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=126791
June 22, 2006 at 09:19 AM I am a Vodafone customer and got tired of waiting so I tried the Nokia N61. Pretty cool phone but... it isn't yet supported by Vodafone live - 1. meaning, you are browsing the entire website vs a mobile version 2. wth Wifi works but there is no UI that allows you to actually connect with WIFI networks 3. I have a Mac and Nokia does not support Macs. Cool phone but released too early - not yet fully supported so I returned it. I stop by Vodafone at least weekly for an update on the 990i. Yesterday they showed me it's in their system for a mid-July availability. This is the first date they have given me in at least two months. Fingers crossed.
June 22, 2006 at 09:25 AM This phone is not due in July. August is the earliest. Sony Ericsson have recently changed the release dates on their website: http://www.se-store.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=comingSoon.home
June 22, 2006 at 11:34 AM I can't wait for August, my 910i is on it's last leg - touch screen doesn't work, etc. What is taking SE so long to get this 990 out? Also, I have a feeling that there is an enormous pent up demand for this thing - so supply of free handset upgrades might be scarce.
June 22, 2006 at 11:53 AM @Tom Philip Hi Tom, I have a Mac too. Apple's list of supported iSync devices has loads of Nokias on there – they seem to do really well syncing with the Symbian OS. Did you try yours and it wouldn't sync? The n91 is not listed to work, but in my experience, Apple is slow at updating the list and usually anything with the same OS should work.
July 12, 2006 at 06:09 PM the N93 is still better than the P990i. the p990i needs to be near a hot spot for it to be 'location free'. also it isnt the only the device to be able to do this. the PSP can be location free too and probably other phones too. on top of all that you also have to buy the location free base and thats like another 150 pounds aswell
June 27, 2006 at 08:43 PM So all you people out there, just visited http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=135454 they have it advertsied on Vodafone UK tariff's already. My contaqct in Vodafoen Ireland still think it will be launched in July "06"...So hang on...
June 28, 2006 at 02:10 PM if you cannot wait for a P990i then i suggest you get a N93 its got better features a 3.2 mega pixel camera expandable memory, up to 2GB maybe more in the future. 2GB is more than enough anyway.. the only thing you wont have is a touchscreen and a stylus
July 05, 2006 at 06:23 AM hello i have been spoken to the Phone House and Air Call in Sweden. Phone House says the phone will be released between week 28-29 and Air Call says it will be released the 16th of July. I really hope so
July 05, 2006 at 05:47 PM Get a nokia N93 this phone is much MUCH better than the P990 i . the only thing i like the P990 i for is its stylus and kool screen. the N93 has a SICK camera . 3.2 MP and TV capability and just as many internet functions as the P990i symbian plus blutooth 2.0 .......
July 05, 2006 at 06:50 PM Thanks for the tip. Talked to Vodafone UK, its available there Vodafone Ireland have told me August / September AGgghhhh ! So I have also put an order for Nokia E61 I use mail etc alot so I'll let you know how I get on..It arrives next week, Sorry Sony your fault !
July 08, 2006 at 11:20 AM Yo i just wanted to ask; what is better the p990i or the m600i? i did a comparison on sonyericsson.com and clearly hte p990 was better...but some ppl here are sayin the m600i is better...plz tell me. and also does anyone know how much the p990 will cost?
July 08, 2006 at 06:09 PM M600i is Really good. i was gona get it BUT they dont tell you that it dosent have a camera. then i just stopped looking at it and its other look alike. theres no point getting it if such an advanced phone hasnt got a cam. its like the basics of a modern phone now.....
July 10, 2006 at 09:09 PM The M600 has no camera, only the camera facing you for video calls, so the P990i is a complete phone. To clear up all the date issues. My sources are extremely reliable. Sony Ericsson are launching the phone in July/August 2006. Some networks will release the phone in November because they are currently working on branding/customising firmware/menus etc. Some online retailers and high street retailers will have deals with SE, so they will get them first, therefore retailers and high street stores are giving mixed dates. As always the independent stores and small online stores will miss out because the big boys would have struck deals to keep them out of the picture. I always buy from independent small retailers because the big boys give poor service! And BTW, Nokia cannot meet the quality of build, software and innovation that SE produce. The N93 is a fancy camera phone, and thats it, they are always very buggy and it history shows with how many software/firmware updates Nokia produce. They are however the easiest and most widely used, but P990i vs. N93................P990i wins it purely on functions and flexibility. Come on, Sony are launching LOCATION FREE, watch/listen/read anything off your hard disk anywhere in the WORLD(!) using your Sony device.....where is Nokia.....infact where are the other electronics manufacturers? And I've seen the next generation of phones/pdas: Strap on computers to your wrist along your arm with flexible LCD screen, yes flexible - coming out early 2007, contains a bigger SIM card, finger print recognition, GPS, WIFI, Bluetooth all the usual refinements, but its like a computer and with it always linked to your hard disk at home, you can surf, email etc, control all your domestic electronics remotely....remember where you heard it first.
July 11, 2006 at 11:36 AM Just thought you would like to know, if you go into an Orange shop (In the UK) and pick up the July 2006 brochure, you will see the P990i for August release, who ever said that the phone is going to be another 6 months must work for Nokia so something.
July 11, 2006 at 11:36 AM Please see on this link. http://www.katshing.se/prod/prod.asp?aid=11803
July 11, 2006 at 01:02 PM The m600i has NO camera - video or otherwise
July 17, 2006 at 09:21 PM wats 'location free'?
July 18, 2006 at 02:36 PM yeah - what is 'location free'? Vodafone UK was doing some 'maintenance' on the business section of their site... I got my hopes u, and then when it was published... nothing?
July 18, 2006 at 06:26 PM dont know much about it all i know is that you have to buy a locaion free base (sum small box) which connects to your computer and wireless-ly to your phone or sony device that is location free compatible like PSP or P990i ... then when your sony wireless device is near a hot spot any where in the world, you can connect to your computer and do things like listen to music watch videos and maybe control your computer from where ever you are....
July 19, 2006 at 04:15 PM Just been told August (20th I think) by vodafone.
July 21, 2006 at 07:16 PM Neither the P990 nor the m600i would need cameras (even though one does hold a forward facing shutter), as they are in no way aimed at anyone except business users. Consumer handsets have the camera intergrated as an added hook for customers. People buying either the p990 or its kickass sibling would not be looking for phones with the gimmick of a camera, anyhow.
July 21, 2006 at 07:25 PM I have been waiting for this m600i for over half a year, now, and the attitude of the major carriers is becoming pretty irritating. Advertising on the vodafone website claims it should have been out in june. No dice. T-mobile wouldn't specify a date at all, claiming as they did that 'this allows us to pull any handsets which we decide to right up until the very last minute'. Not very sound advertising practice, surely? Having finally gotten a 'pencil' date of July from these people the handset has now disappeared off t-mobile's systems and reappeared once more with a (unconfirmed) release date of end august. Orange told me they MIGHT release the phone if they feel like it (customer services words exactly!) and 02 just wanted to 'know what an m600i was'. Shouldn't there be some kind of advertising regulation governing these corporate entities? I mean, if they are allowed to advertise products which they are absolutely gagging for you and me, the consumers, to buy as soon as they are on the shelf, and are doing everything they can to drum up interest pre-release, surely they should set their own goals and stick to them?
July 25, 2006 at 09:16 PM hi there! I feel all the pain of all of you who have left posts!!!! I have been holding out for monts, and months,and months!!!! orange have no idea (at elast the upgrade department dont!) of when the phone is going to be released! it really pssssssseeess me off as my p910i hs been replasced about 3 times through fault! if anyone hears anythign please contact me!
July 26, 2006 at 12:12 PM Hi all, I too am slobbering to get my hands on the P990i and am due an upgrade very soon. I spend in excess of £250 a month with vodafone and I can't even put my name down for one. I just keep getting told to call back. I did manage to prize a date out of them today though. They are now saying they asolutely guarantee having stock in hand on 24th August (unless of course they don't!) I got hold of a Jasjar recently and had nothing but problems. All the Windows Mobile 5 phone/PDAs have only 64m RAM, in oder to preserve battery life. Sadly this makes them really sluggish and riddled with performance issues. My opinion, for what its worth, if you can't hold out for the p990i then do yourself a favour and steer clear of WM5 devices.
July 26, 2006 at 05:53 PM The P910i has certain drawbacks, but its shining virtue is a level of near-bulletproof stability which does not exist in any other smartphone or PDA that I have ever seen. For a device which you depend on to work right now, 24/7, as your primary phone, this is a key issue.
July 27, 2006 at 03:05 PM Guys, Any idea how far this design is true, heard SE is launching this design http://scancom.co.uk/product.php/1612/729/ . It looks great... Cant wait to get hold of it
July 27, 2006 at 03:47 PM I don't know what is going on here, but there is a chap selling P990is on ebay! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-Ericsson-P990i-P990-Phone_W0QQitemZ290011542080QQihZ019QQcategoryZ3312QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
March 19, 2006 at 06:03 PM Well, I suspect Vodafone have the July date because their release means not only having the phone available, but all the pricing, marketing, FAQs, agent-training, etc., so it's always going to be behind. You might be able to get one before that, but possibly not as a Vodafone upgrade until later. I have been given a date of "Q2 2006" recently, directly from Sony Ericsson. In the meantime, go for something simple. I'm waiting for the P990i too and have opted for the Nokia 6680 in the meantime. Not exactly the same thing, but 3G & Symbian nevertheless and works fantastically well. I suspect the upgrade to the P990i will actually feel much less painful from this one than it did from my ancient Nokia 6310i. Karl
April 03, 2006 at 09:34 AM Sony Ericsson in dubai said it will be released in July
April 27, 2006 at 09:17 PM Hey man, I'm in the same boat. Sony Ericsson has been holding off on this release for awhile. The p910i was an amazing phone. I hope Vodafone will release this on-schedule, but I would find it hard to believe that they'd allow it as a free upgrade option right when they release it. But let us know if they let you upgrade to it in July if you're planning to wait. It's a small price to pay for such an amazing phone!
April 28, 2006 at 09:00 AM I've just been talking to the O2 store in my local town to be told it is now due in August. Now I am really gutted too. I have been waiting for my upgrade to get it as originally it seemed as if it would tie in perfectly with release due at the same time as my upgrade (April originally). There just aren't any phones out there that can compete with it. The guy in the shop told me that they had tried it on the network but much of the software wasn't compatible so it is being redone for release in August. The wait continues!
May 05, 2006 at 12:04 PM I had a P910i from my company on Orange, when I left, they said I could keep the phone but I had to get a new contract with Orange, but Orange don't give contracts without a new phone, so I bought a pay and go Orange SIM and have been waiting for the P990i so I can have a contract again, I have now been waiting since November 2005, I must be spending over £150 a month of pay and go top ups, Please Sony Ericsson, bring the P990i out now and save me from my misery :-(
May 09, 2006 at 08:08 PM I feel for every one on this. I was takling to some colleagues in Sweden who said that was some software upgrade etc etc which delayed the phone. However, on expansys they had listed it as a contract phone with UK tariffs etc, which lasted for two days then it was pulled off. I have the P900 and the P910i and so want this new 990i....Come on release it
May 15, 2006 at 03:44 PM I see from the Sony Ericsson website that this phone should have a 400 hour standby time. I have to say that this is a very marketable feature given the functionality of the unit, and I would be surprised to see such battery life achieved in the final product that hits the shelves! I wait with baited breath....
May 16, 2006 at 07:47 AM Spoken to a Vodafone representative yesterday, and have been told that both the P990i and M600i have been delayed a further 6 months! Reason for this is the failing of the Quality Assurance tests with the touch screens, and have had to ship all the phones back to SE.
July 27, 2006 at 11:08 PM That model appears to be used... pretty expensive for second hand phone :/
July 28, 2006 at 03:51 AM I just love this phone, but the only thing which is holding me back is the keyboard ... It looks too platic. Wondering whats up with these SE guys. If they are releasing the modile with the KB as shown in this then http://scancom.co.uk/product.php/1612/729/ sure its going to be hotselling phone. Not sure if they may upgrade the keybord after the release with a new model P999i ?????? with Symbian 9.3 ????? who knows :( ..... But sure, with the money you are going to put in that platic keyboard is not worth it... Its spoiling the entire looks.
July 28, 2006 at 02:54 PM The delays on the 990i are ruining my summer. My 910i is beat to crap so I finally pulled the sim and plopped it into my VERY OLD SE 610i which can store about 25 sms messages, but it still works. I tried the Nokia N61 and it just ain't there yet - plus I want a camera. When is SE going to get their act together? I have never seen anything like this and if it is a marketing ploy - it is brilliant bz people are salivating for this thing. My therapist tells me to be patient, but I can't wait!
July 28, 2006 at 05:47 PM Hi there I have been waiting for this 990i for 15 years ( well it seems that long ) Who supplies them and on what network. Going to get two tins and some string now. thanks Jeffers
July 30, 2006 at 02:55 PM I spoke to one of the sales reps at Orange in London today, and they've said that the P990 will be out late August. Let's hope :)
July 30, 2006 at 07:41 PM look at this: http://www.mobileshop.com/mobile-phones/all/contract-mobile-phones/Sony-Ericsson-P990i.php/nwrk/A/ttype/A/ Here are the current contracts on the phone. its bloody expensive. all the contracts come to about over 500 pounds altogether...... also the N93 is out acording to this website. it is also just as expensive. i think ill get the K800 i now......
July 31, 2006 at 05:48 AM I just spoke to SE Customer service and they said its going to be launched in end of Sept in singapore... Long way to go. Also he mentioned the dates still could change. They are trying to launch it by end Q3
August 01, 2006 at 11:58 PM everyone may be pleased to hear that on the official SE site for the UK, the P990 is NO LONGER COMING SOON!!! which now means the bugger is available somewhere, but no network seems to have any yet....
August 03, 2006 at 01:31 AM its been released in the middle east....dubie/UAE and places liek that...and they say the middle east is backwrds...lol....i will be getttin one real soon...hahah...when it comes to mobiles that is where the US/canda/europe suffers.
August 04, 2006 at 06:40 PM Had an email from Sony the other day, they confirmed a release date of the 6th of August... Spoke to O2 yesterday, and they said it would be available on contract on the 7th of August. Vodafone say the 21st.
August 05, 2006 at 07:41 PM I've been waiting for this phone since jan 06, like most of you i got fed up with SE saying next month every month. I have my name down with SE to receive the phone immediately as its released they have told me that it will definitely be released at the end of august and that i will receive a call from them one week prior to the device being released. Lets hope by the end of the month we can say the wait is now over and that the device was worth waiting for.
August 06, 2006 at 09:52 PM ...well, i´m also waitin since last october. never waited so long for something (and definetly not for a mobile). dunno if this is common in the mobil business?? it makes no sence to me to have so many delays with the p990i like it is in this case. i cant think that this early announcement and those many delays will have any positiv effect in selling this mobile. oh lord, why am i still waiting?? i hope i will get the answer when i´m using this phone...
August 06, 2006 at 10:15 PM Orange will have the phone within the next 14 days. They already have them in stock I was told by someone that knows in Orange. Their staff are just going through the training now for them so they can't release them yet! Like everyone else, I haven't had an upgrade for 20 months because I've been waitiong since last October! Not long to go now though! I'm just hoping the price tag is zero for high users, The P800, P900 and P910 was so I'm assuming so!
August 07, 2006 at 09:04 PM Matt i'm surprised that orange have told u that they have these handsets in stock when SE have not released them yet. I'm afraid that you will have to wait untill the end of the month before you can get your hands on one. As for the price tag SE have told me today that the handsets will be £560, which i think is extremely expensive for a phone no matter what it is capable of doing.
August 08, 2006 at 07:14 PM Just got off the phone with Vodafone (11/8 8.15pm) They have revised their release date now to 8th Sept - oh what a shock!
August 08, 2006 at 09:51 PM Well All, Last time i spoke I was taking on the Nokia E61 in view of the late release date of the P990i. The E61 last 3 days on phone only, 1 day with push mail enabled...Oh yes the good and bad news...in Vodafone Ireland today...Bad News, further delays with the SE P990i, due to software releases to be updated...so looks like end of Septemeber 2006 now...The Good News for me ....is I have one to test for a while ;-) Sorry about that....LOL All the best
August 10, 2006 at 08:22 PM I have bad news for those of you who was hoping like me to buy the p990i sim free. SE have told me that you will have to wait a few weeks after the phone has been released on o2 and vodafone, which should be 24th of August earliest date, but may be subject to further delays depending on how the phone reacts to the o2 and vodafone network.
August 10, 2006 at 08:28 PM SE are a joke! I sold my P910 back in Feb 2006 as I was told that the P990 was on the "verge" of release. I just wish that someone would have told me that "verge" according to SE meant 7 bloody months!
August 10, 2006 at 08:41 PM Hi guys, allow me to join in. I have had it waiting for the phone, I was at Vodafone shop yesterday and they assured me that it's either 21st of August or DECEMBER!! Surfing the net I came across a few sites that sells the phone with a contract through any provider. I did tell the guy at Vodafone about it. He said yes the phone is out there but the High Street still is not confident to sell them! I am new here and I don’t know what has been said, but I have a simple question, go for it or not? What do you guys think? I could sell my useless PDA, and end up with a sweet deal!
August 11, 2006 at 01:11 AM Well, I am quite picky when it comes to phones. I have now tried 2 WM5 phones (the jasjar and qtek 20201) Both were very disappointing in the OS stakes. Having been a Symbian UIQ (specifically p800, p900 and now p910i) user for some years I have to say that in my humble opinion you can't get a better, nore responsive and more reliable OS than this. I do a lot of travelling in my job and sat nav has always been very useful. I must admit that I was tempted to go to a HP hw 6915 as it has a built in GPS, which I hoped SE would put into the P990i. They didn't and thats a shame, but in balance it will have a built in FM radio (nice as I now commute to London on the train) RMS feeds (great for news and share prices on the go) and, from what I have seen a much more user friendly interface. I have found with the p910 that I have had to add a few programs extra (Handy Day with its plug-ins are phenomenal) but the P990i seems to have learnt from this and re-designed their calandr interface to be very similar to this. The HW6915 can get radio via websites e.g. radio4 listen online as it supports real one player. But the airtime fee and the battery drain make this almost too expensive to listen to just the Today program. My toss-up therefore became this: I know the WM5 OS is poor and the UIQ is superb I know the battery life in the p9xx is superb but in WM5 is poor If I upgrade to a p990 I will get a better interface, building in a lot of the features I have had to gain on my p910 with 3rd party apps, admittedly no GPS, but I will have an RDS radio, RMS feeds, the stabilty of Symbian, the incredible camera that was missing from the p910, a video phone, the sleek, well packaged one handed device (shame we lose the 5 way jog dial for a 3 way, but maybe the software is intelligent bought o not need it) Trust me I have been desperate for a new phone and the wait for the p990 is doing my head in, but not enough to give up on it. I don't know why SE do this, they ditched the p800 almost immediately (lets face it - it was a bit 'fisher-price') for the p900, then there was a wait for the p910i. The wait for the p900 is bordering between 'I have to hold out' and ' awww, stuff it, what else is out there?' But I have looked and honestly cant find another phone that even comes close. If you find one then please let me know. My last Voda bill for the month was £273.65 so whan I say I will go to another provider, they do listen, but I know and they know, I won't get a better phone so as much as they would love to give me a p990 they simply can't get them. I called them again today ( I'm hoping they get so sick of me that they send me their first just to shut me up) and they are now quoting end of Sept Found this blog site by accident, by the way. Excellent site though. I check in every day.
August 11, 2006 at 01:14 AM Made 1 or 2 typos - sorry - Should read 'the wait for the p990'
August 11, 2006 at 01:59 PM Just a footnote for anyone who might be interested... not to be considered a harbinger of doom (and not with regards to the p990 itself but rather its baby brother the m600i), but having waited since June for t-mobile to get off their backsides and pony up with this phone i have just found out from some sales type there that they have pulled the phone and are not going to be releasing it at all. This is apparently due to huge software issues/conflicts/etc. While this may not be related to the p990 it does not seem to bode well (at least not to my mind) for any poor folk waiting with baited breath for a t-mobile flext release of this mythical SE machine. Having asked the sales person if they would be releasing the p990, i was told (a). they had never heard of a p990 (but that i could get a p800 or even a p910 if i wanted), and (b). although the handset was not showing on their network that did not mean they would not be getting it as they almost certainly would. Which is the same thing they said about the m600i. I'm going to vodafone. It might be more expensive but at least i know they've got it and the tariff they've offered is not bad.
August 13, 2006 at 03:04 PM Just found this http://www.mobile-review.com/review/sonyericsson-p990-en.shtml
August 13, 2006 at 03:21 PM And this... http://www.bengalboy.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=316&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&start=0
August 14, 2006 at 06:48 AM i got a mail from SE the other day stating that the release is EXPECTED IN AUGUST 2006........
August 14, 2006 at 08:41 AM Well, its Monday morning, its raining, My holiday is over and I'm back at my desk and working on the assumption thaty things couldn't be any more depressing I have just called Vodafone. They are now telling me that they have put the date back AGAIN to accomodate their testing of the handset. The new date is now 8th September. I am now going over the road to carphone warehouse to inquire if any network can actually provide this phone if I switch providers. They are out there somewhere and I WANT ONE
August 14, 2006 at 10:38 AM orange have started taking pre-orders on their website, but talking to their guys, even they say its moved from august to september now
August 14, 2006 at 11:56 AM Dont think anyone read my message so I'll say it again... I have a Sony Ericsson P990i ;-)
August 14, 2006 at 12:43 PM Looky Looky! http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=126791&tab=4 Oh and Karl, La la la la, I can't hear you ;-)
August 14, 2006 at 02:29 PM OK I had to get to the bottom of this to be certain. I have just had a long chat with a nice lady at Vodafone who went off to talk to their technical guys. What she came back with was that VF are not happy with the results of the performance tests they have been running and the handset doesn't perform to their expectations for the RAM it has. They are in discussion with SE at the moment to get a patch applied to fix the problems they are encountering. VF have refused to release the phone until this issue is resolved and will not be supporting phones bought on VF tarrifs from elsewhere (like Expansys) prior to their official OK of the handset. In her words, 'the software is crap' (I think she meant firmware though) and her off the record advice was to wait until the phone is on general release with all service providers before you buy. It sounds like people who are fighting to get their hands on early eleased model might be in for some disappointment. One thing she said did make sense. 'There are good reasons why SE have released this phone but none of the operators are yet willing to sell it'
August 14, 2006 at 02:43 PM Whilst we are all waiting for the impending birth, can I hazard another question to occupy the mind. The P990i doesn't support the standard jack connector for stereo headphones, it has the speed connector block at the bottom like the k750i. This is apparently becasue SE want to promote the use of bluetooth headphones. Fair enough. I quite lke the idea of playing my MP3s over bluetooth, no problem there. However I can't find mention anywhere as to whether or not the bluetooth headsets like the HBH-DS970 will support playback from the FM radio. anyone read anything to that end?
August 14, 2006 at 05:43 PM i dont mind if the phone has no proper 3.5 mm jack for music, as long as it sounds like the sony ericsson walkman phones its all good
August 14, 2006 at 07:05 PM O2 says it will release the phone on the 1st of september..
August 15, 2006 at 03:12 PM Spoke with Sony Ericsson this morning and they have confirmed that the phone will be released on the 1st September (This Year!!)
August 15, 2006 at 03:47 PM I too spoke to Sony Ericsson today with reference to the question about the headsets. They tell me that none of their bluetooth headsets support streaming radio broadcasts from their phones. So I guess we are stuck with the block connector on the end of the standard headphones. You'd really think that a company of that size would employ a set of half decent testers who would not only poke the product but do some User Acceptance Testing and some requirements analysis I mean its not difficult is it. Test Case: Expected Result: Replace the original headphones with a bluetooth set. No Loss of functionality. I've been in a test manager for a number of years and if one of my analysts missed an obvious test like that, they wouldn't forget it in a hurry.
August 15, 2006 at 07:07 PM Terry...Sorry I had to mention the fact that I had one very special P990i...The testers I got it from did mention the firmware is not perfect and the delay is in fact on SE's side...Cheers Sony Ericsson...So you're right, when its available and tested it will be released...Meanwhile I'm enjoying mine as well as my E61...Cake Eat It...For sure. ;-)
August 15, 2006 at 07:29 PM Karl, Nobody likes boasters (except the McVities Cookies), so stop bragging about having the P990 and tell us if it's really as good as we're all hoping. After all, there are hundreds of us out here who don't have and have never seen, the thing yet. I want mine now. I've never been the patient type and have only just resisted the temptation to do what so many others have done and buy a Nokia. Expansys are stating that it was released 14th Aug (i.e. yesterday) so the networks will surely have them in-store for us by end of the month.
August 15, 2006 at 09:24 PM Well l spent today checking the specs of dozens of PDA phones and nothing but the P990 comes close to what l want and l dont like wm5 so l guess l will just have to wait. (posted this from my trusty P910i)
August 16, 2006 at 05:05 PM Wexfordian...the GUI on the phone is much different than the P910i its takes some time to get used to it, still trying. Overall seems good, but need a more time to get used to the VERY different menu's
August 17, 2006 at 05:44 AM Hi..just to let you SE P990 is available in Brunei Darussalam since yesterday. But the price is so expensive at B$1850 abt US$1100. Will get 1 for myself in a moth when the price starts going down. Cheers!
August 18, 2006 at 08:38 PM Just an update on the P990i. Have for a while now.. Battery is worse than even the P900. Powered it on at 10am today from a full charge, 1.5 hours talk time later at 7pm...red flashing light...needing a charge already..nothing but voice calls used on it...Thats Bad.. Even the E61 lasted a day with Push Mail as well. So, I know you want this phone, I have it, and I had the P900 and P910i, but nut impressed with this one...Perhaps the firmware update might help..who knows !
August 18, 2006 at 08:42 PM Just an update on the battery ...sorry. This link for the P990i doesnt refer to battery time ?? http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=ie&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pp1_1_1&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10336 This one for the P910i does !!! http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=ie&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pp1_1_1&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10183 My Point ;-)
August 18, 2006 at 09:14 PM Sounds like the same as when they brought out the Macbook Pro and didn't release any battery life times and surprise surprise when it was released it was loads worse than Powerbook battery life times.
August 19, 2006 at 09:36 PM Does anyomne have any information on what capacity MS Pro Duo stick the P990 will support. On somes sites it is listed as 2gb and on others 4gb. I have a 4gb stick and was wondering whether this is supported. Also with the imminent release of the 8gb stick, I was hoping that it would support these.
August 19, 2006 at 10:46 PM Dont know about the MS Pro Dup capacity...but even the jog wheel is different...too sensitive...I'm actually not liking the phone....I so disappointed
August 20, 2006 at 08:30 PM whats wrong with it ? if you liked the P910 youve gota like this?
August 20, 2006 at 09:27 PM I have to agree with Karl (Dublin); I finally got my hands on one last weekend in a store on Oxford St. London, and walked away quite disappointed. The wheel scroller on the side was way to sensitive; thought the speed was quite sluggish and not very responsive. I know a very recent firmware is availble for download, and may well sort out these issues. They were charging 750GBP SIM free! Don't think so. I have been a big SE fan for many years, and itching to get my hands on one this since Jan, but sad to say I might even be tempted to go for the HTC Tytn instead.
August 21, 2006 at 07:58 PM LONG WAITE - So we have them and are really sad that this is so S***. What are SE on ? The Wheel is So sensitive....The menu's totally re-written...I'll give it the firmware update then I'm chucking this P990...and on to something else...Sorry SE Fans ,,,I was one too...
August 21, 2006 at 08:08 PM so its only the nav wheel and the menu thing , what else i soo baad with this phone?
August 21, 2006 at 09:28 PM http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/267565/art/sony-ericsson/p990i.html# €729 - not bad?
August 21, 2006 at 09:36 PM I stumbled across this blog and was suprised by some of the feelings toward the phone. I've had my P990 for about a month and have had no problems at all like Karl has mentioned. My battery life is fine - the same as my P910 (probably better IMHO). Yes the scroll wheel is a little sensitive but to say you're dissapointed is strange - this for me at least is easily the best smartphone on the market. PS: I never really use the scroll wheel so was never a selling point for me. Don't let the sensitivity put you off - either adjust to it or wprk around it.
August 22, 2006 at 09:25 AM So Karl (Dubliun) what you want for your P990?
August 22, 2006 at 03:26 PM Hi Long Waite, Which store did you see the P990 in on Oxford St? I work near Tower Hill so Oxford St is only a few stops away from me on the tube. I'd like to have a play myself.
August 22, 2006 at 04:39 PM TerryD, Don't know the name of the store. But if you walk from the corner of Tottenham Court Rd down Oxford St, it's approx 5 -10 minutes walk on the right hand side. Small electrical store.
August 22, 2006 at 08:45 PM Thanks Long Waite, I'll try to get over there this week and check it out before I blow my Vodafone upgrade on a phone I've never seen.
August 22, 2006 at 08:56 PM I found the shop after a bit of searching (well I assume this is it) Its called Mr Mobile an dI will be there tomorrow around lunchtime! http://www.streetsensation.co.uk/oxford/os_n09.htm
August 23, 2006 at 02:06 PM Phew, Hi all Well I am back at my desk, very hot and very excited. I managed to make it form Tower Hill over to Tottenham court road station and back in about 1hr 30m. It would have taken me less but today is only my 3rd day in London and I haven't quite got the hang of the tube yet. Oh yes, and there is a deceptive sign on the corner of New Oxford St that had me scurrying off down the Charing Cross Road for 10 minutes before I realised I was going the wrong way. Anyway, I was wrong - Mr Mobile is a tiny little market stall of a shop (barely big enough to stand in) that sells tacky phone covers and nokia 3310 cases that say "Sexy Bitch" in cheap diamante. The shop in question is further down (opposite Pizza Hut) and is called Mcdonalds. It has a black shiny sign with a big Sony and JVC (i think) logo on it. this all just in case anyone else is in the area and fancies dropping in. The phone section is right at the back like a little aladdin's cave. I walked in behind a very attractive young woman and stood at the counter next to her. I couldn't take my eyes off her, there she was beckoning to me to touch her. I couldn't resist any longer.. "Could I have a look at the P990 please?" I tentativley asked the salesman. The woman turned to me and said "That's what I'm here to look at too, but I don't know whether or not to go for that." She said pointing at a Jasjar. Whilst the salesman booted up the phone (which seemed to take about a minutes worth of start up time) I explained the problems I had with mine and she seemed at least half convinced. He handed it over and in true gentlemanly style I let the lady take it (although inside I wanted to push her over like a kid in the playground and grab it and run off). The first thing she did was pick up a p910 and do a screen comparison and yes the P990 is a tiny bit shorter and a tiny bit wider by comparison. But put aside the p910 and you wouldn't know the screen size was any different to look at it. Certainly when the phone is powered on, the high res of the screen means that there is no difference at all unless it is an improvement. The Menus are really nice, they fade in and out like winxp, very smooth. I found them very intuitive and although different they still follow the 'common sense' logic that makes Symbian so user friendly. The jog wheel is, as has been pointed out, more sensetive that the one on the p910. It has much smaller increments on the positions which means if you roll it the same amount you would on the p910, you would have rolled between 2 and 3 slots on the p990. It took a minute or so to get used to this but once I did I thought it was superb. Its like setting your mouse so that a 2 inch move on the desk crosses the whole monitor. I found it very efficient on the longer menus. I used it for a good ten minutes and I didn't even notice the 2 directions missing form the wheel, and I thought I would as I use that all the time on my p910. I'm not sure how but the new symbian just doesn't seem to need it. It also felt quite natural to use the navi-key on the front in cinjunction with the wheel, though I wonder how much difference it would make if I were to take the flip off. The side buttons are nicely positioned too. With my p910 I find that often when using the jog wheel, my index finger presses the camera button by accident. The p990 has no buttons where your fingers place opposing pressure. The Camera is awesome. unlike the p910, the p990 is there immedately. As soon as you open the lens cover the application starts. I took sevral pics and from the main screen to having the photo stored all happens in less than two seconds. The quality is incredible. even without the light, the picture it took in flourescent light was like looking at the real thing. If you want to compare, then going from the p910 cam to the p990 is like going from Gramophone to 192kbps Mp3 Overall size wise its almost identical dimension to the p910 but in looks, it looks so much more professional - it actually looks like a metal phone rather than a plastic phone sprayed metallic. I must admit that after the qwerty effort on the flip of the p910 I was dubious about the usability of the one on the p990. Oh how wrong could I be. Its eminently usable, with just the right amount of space between keys. The keys have a nice stabilty to them (not all wobbly rubber keypad) and a good firm click. I'm not sure how the battery life will be affected but they seem to be illuminated all the time the phone is in use. I'm sure there will be a 'switch off backlight' option somewhere though. The application screens are excellent, thay give you that 'this is a really well thought out app' feel. The colours make them easy on the eye, the layouts are well though out and they too are very intuitive and common sensible in their usability. The woman was impressed with my knowledge of the phone, and said "you've really researched this haven't you" Even as I was saying yes I could see my 'cool' leaking down the drain and being replaced by several pints of 'geek' "How much?" I asked the salesman "£750, SIM free" he replied With that I pulled my shades off my head in aDoc Brown "Roads? where we're going we don't need roads" kind of way, smiled, wished the lady 'happy hunting' and left the store. I can't wait to see her again, I know its love, I can feel it in the pit of my stomach. The woman? God no, the P990i! Get a move on Vodafone!!!
August 23, 2006 at 02:46 PM For T-Mobile Business clients it is now availible in Germany. Only Hotline, not in the shops. Shipping 2-3 days.
August 23, 2006 at 08:05 PM As anyone noticed that the release tag on the p990i on the SE website now says September, this is really p-----g me off i've been waiting since January for this phone my patience is running out. I'm sure that by the end of sept the tag will say october release and so on untill I may be able to buy it as a late Christmas present for myself. This is the worst bit of advertising that I have ever seen SE are a complete joke, and they are having a laugh with the UK consumer. It is just a shame that no other phone company has anything close to this because i just would'nt wait any longer.
August 23, 2006 at 09:19 PM I've been in Test managment for many years now and I can say without shadow of a doubt, you would be a deal more p----d off if you paid several hundred pounds for a phone full of defects. I know its frustrating but better late than crap surely ? You might not like it but you have to admit its a superb bit of advertising. The Internet is alive with sites like this one, sneak photos, roumored specs etc. When it finally ships, SE won't be able to manufacture them quick enough. I mean we're dealing with one of the biggest and most successful marketing departments on the planet. I think they know exactly what they are doing. And face it, they know there is nothing out there that even comes close to the P990. IMHO of course
August 24, 2006 at 07:15 AM TerryD , Since you are the lucky one to get the feel, the touch of the sexy w...n; i mean P990i, how would you rate it with windows powered PDA like XDA O2 Exec . I find myself tooo confused.... P990i is costing 1300$ here in singapore. the price factor is making me think twice, hows the performace of the applications when compared to 910....
August 24, 2006 at 09:19 AM Hi Nasser, Having owned a WM5 device (jasjar / XDA exec) I can honestly say that it filled me with nothing but disappointment. The problem is that the new WM5 platform devices all seem to come with only 64Mb of RAM. This is totally insufficient to support the OS without it locking up or crashing all the time. As for installing 3rd party apps, forget it - the thing becomes unusable. Check around on blog sites for WM5 problems - you won't need to look far. Absolutely EVERYTHING seems to cause a drain on the memory, and you can add storage memory all day long but its RAM it needs. Even keeping your emaisl SMS and MMS drain the RAM - how rubbish is that! Try running about 3 apps at once and you will pretty soon be doing a soft reset. As for the Symbian OS (I'll be generic cos I think its the OS that makes the difference) I have never had that woth my P910. I have installed alls orts of rubbish on there, stuff I never use from one week to the next, I have hundreds of messages stored multiple apps running and I have never and I repeat NEVER had the thing crash, lock up, refuse to swap apps or give me stupid messages about memory running low. Having used the P990 I can only say the performance issues that have been reported were nowhere to be seen - if anything it was faster than my p910. There appeared to be almost no processing time in starting or switching apps, it was immediate. Comparing the performance of Symbian with wm5 is unfair, would you compare a ford with a jaguar? Symbian has always been the superior OS Please do yourself a favour, and look around some sites that are dsicussing WM5 devices. Here are a couple to set you off... blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/11/17/494177.aspx http://www.expansys.com/forumthread.asp?code=119353&thread=42 Just had a call from my account manager at Vodafone who confirmed that the new date they have is Sept 8th. She did however add that as soon as they hit the warehouse, she will pull two out and send them to me for me and my finacee FREE OF CHARGE !!!
August 24, 2006 at 01:24 PM I have to agree with Denton, to be honest... i was waiting for another SE phone but the way the networks are handling this UIQ business at the moment it seems like both it and the p990 will be out next year the way they are delaying things! Keeping a cap on releases as popular as they must have know this would be would undoubtedly have been less damaging to SE in terms of just getting a working handset out there...! And it's not as though anyone can really say well if you cant wait then buy something else, there *is* nothing else out there as specific as this phone. Thats not necessarily labelling it the be-all and end-all of smartphones, response to it may be varied and it may polarise opinion violently; but until folks can even form an opinion, it's all hearsay! It might be hard to limit publicity for something like this but surely they could have kept it a little quieter until nearer the actual, genuine, for-real release date? Might pop down to totty court road on saturday in any case, though =) Hurry up Orange!!
August 24, 2006 at 10:32 PM The phone is now listed on Vodafone's website, but is strangely only accessible via the "Business Customer" section. If you do a search for P990 in the Business section then the phone is there with a status of "coming soon", but if you search via the normal "Online Store", then the search engine replies with "Sorry, we couldn't find any products called p990". The direct link is: http://www.vodafonebusinessshop.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=Phones.productdetails&prodid=1&mnuid=2 Also I called Vodafone today and was told a release date of 28th August. When I told the representative that I was under the impression the phone was to be released on Sept 8th, he put me on hold to talk to his "new products" department and then came back and said "No, it definatley due for release this Monday 28th August" TerryD ... any chance of calling your Account Manager again to double check this? I hate all these random dates being thrown around.
August 24, 2006 at 10:51 PM sure, she seemed pretty certain but I'll check again.
August 25, 2006 at 06:25 AM Hi TerryD, Thanks allot for your valuable suggestion, I have decided to go head for P990, going down to orchard road to order one today. SE had launched it yesterday and its already out of stock , need to wait for couple of days to get it.... Thanks again.
August 25, 2006 at 09:10 AM But one thing is really troubling me, when you open the flip the qwerty keypad is really spoiling the show, they should have used the keypad like treo 650 or Motorolla Q . The plastic thing looks ugly atleast in the photos but TerryD you have seen it and also own 910 so how do you find it.
August 25, 2006 at 10:24 AM Hi guys. Sat Bhamra, Vodfone are a bit funny like that. They market their phones in a way that divides them between business users and common users. I've no idea why. I double checked with Debi at vodafone to check this with her and she says there will definitely be no release until Sept 8th. Nasser, Personally I don't think the keyboard looks too bad. I tend to use my P910 with the flip on though and will probably do the same when I get the P990 (I like the feel of a solid phone and I hate touch screen dial pads). I guess its down to personal choice but I know when I use the phone, the superb functionality will outweigh any minor cosmetic defects. Everyone, I hope when we all get our shiney new toy, that we don't all disappear into the shadows. This has become a very useful forum, I think. It would be a good place to share tips, tricks, tweaks, Q&A and hot software when we are all off and running on P990s (of course those who get them early are just going to make the rest of us jealous with their "ooh have you seen how it does this..." or "hey I discovered you can...") Where are we all from then? I live in Bognor Regis in the UK (south coast mid-way between Portsmouth and Brighton)
August 25, 2006 at 10:54 AM TerryD Appreciate your view , you have my vote ... Well I am from Singapore ... Its already 7pm here and need to rush to orchard road to get the feel of the phone...
August 25, 2006 at 02:39 PM Cheers TerryD Any concrete info you can muster up from your account manager over at Vodafone will be much appreciated. I thinks it's a great idea to keep on posting after we all have our P990. Like you say, we all chare tips & tricks! Anyway I'm from Ealing, West London, UK.
August 25, 2006 at 03:14 PM Just seen that there are a few sites starting to sell apps for the p990: http://se-p990-software.epocware.com/index.html http://www.visualit.co.uk/UIQ3/UIQ3_Tube2.htm http://www.mobimate.com/SonyEricsson/P990/worldmateprofessional.shtml
August 25, 2006 at 06:50 PM TerryD, HH; Alias (Long Waite) from Hampton Wick in Surrey. I thought the name was appropraite for the length of time I've had to wait for this device, and still waiting! I will still go for the 990 rather than the HTC Tytn. The phone quality on the HTC is very poor, and I need a phone / PDA for business rather than a PDA / phone, so it's a no brainer. Very good idea to keep in touch and suggest any useful utilities, apps or tips and tricks to people like myself who's new to this Operating System. At present I use a Blackberry, S700 SE phone and a HP PDA, and would love to be able to combine all 3 devices with the P990i. I rely heavily on my appointments, and to date have been using an application called 'Pocket Informant' on the PC 2003 Operating System (Which is fantastic). Does anybody know of a similar piece of software I could install on the 990 so I can do away with the PDA?
August 25, 2006 at 09:11 PM Well, I see alot has happened whilst I was away.... true Love in a Mobile shop and even found the p990i. My dilema is that I actually have the phone and find it very very slow... Plus I am trying hard to get used to the "XP" type menu's I suppose I have the Nokia 9300 and E61 to play with, both with their own problems....Big issues for me was the battery life, which is scraping to get on day....I hope with the firmware updates when its issued fix these.... Best of luck with your ventures on the SE Crusade...I'll hang on the mine until the firmware is done...then re-think....!!!
August 25, 2006 at 10:25 PM Hi TerryD there was alot of info that u and the rest of the guys shared and they are all very useful esp the bit where u mentioned how the ACTUAL phone performance and incomparison to the P910 as well. and i'd like to thank u and the rest of the guys that had shared and worked on it. i believe that we all want the best and the cheapest product. the comment u n the rest made has given me more confident and knowledge in buying the p990. im from chichester which is just next door to u buddy.
August 26, 2006 at 11:21 AM Hi all, Well I found myself on Oxford Street again yesterday (well actually went there deliberately to show my fiancee the phone - she loved it too , by the way) and called in to a certain shop just to convince myself that the phone WAS as good as first impression. I had a chance to look more at the phone and was impressed with everything I saw. Oh and if you do decied you can't wait, and buy from this shop, haggle - I got him down to £700 very easily) I'm a bit concerned by what you say Karl, about performance. I'm worried now that there are different batches out there with different firmware (I remember a few years back a similar issue with the Nokia 7110) Still, I'm happy enough with what I've seen of the phone to take a chance. Vodafone have always been good with me over replacing phones I'm not happy with. HH, I used Pocket informant when I had my Jasjar. You're right, it is a superb program. I don't think I have ever seen a PDA app with quite so much sophistication in the way it integrates your diary, notes, recordings etc. A truly remarkable app. I used this in conjunction with SPB diary and SPB Pocket Plus. It was an ideal setup but the damn RAM could never cope with running them all for more than about 10 minutes. From my research there is only one PIM app worth buying for the p910 and thats Handy Day 2005 which is excellent and probably the closest you will get to Informant. It integrates your diary in to a week view and allows the adding of notes to days and that kind of thing. It also has flip open and closed views, and different pages. I have my internet button mapped to it so it cycles through a week view, a contacts page, a weather and news feed page (as standard!) and a page of apps shortcuts. Its very cleverly made, basically giving you blank pages and a whole long list of plugins (all built into the app) so you can build your own pages. On top of that it gives you a menu bar that operates just like a pc (in fact I have th exp skin and it looks jus tlike my pc). It also has quick links to apps, blutooth, Irda and stuff. A really powerful little app for anyone who doens't use it already. Oh and the customer service is brilliant. I emailed them and suggested a minor change tot he software to improve it. Not only did they include it in a new build, they sent me a free copy of the upgrade! Handy day for the P990 is on the epocware link i posted a few messages ago - the first hyperlink I think, but I will hold off buying for a while as they will probably add a lot more functionality to later releases. It doesn't at present seem to offer much more than the phone already has - compare it to Handy Day 2005 for the p910 and you will see what I mean. The SE phones are pretty good anyway and SE released a free app called 'desktop' for the p910 quite a while ago. I installed this and it gives you a 'front page' kind of thing when you pop the flip, showing missed calls, tasks. messages and appointments. This ships as built in on the p990 I believe. There's realtively few apps for the P990 yet but thats to be expected with any new device. It takes a while for developers to realise the full potential. The only thing I think SE could have done to improve the P990 is add a built in GPS receiver and EDGE. Then it would have creamed everything in the market. Right, I am going to get some aspirin for this pounding head. My fiancee and I went to All Bar One in Leicester square last night and we decided that it wuld be a good idea to pour a bottle of champagne down to wash away the taste of beer. Feel a bit delicate today.
August 26, 2006 at 12:11 PM Just got back from tottenham court road, only had a chance to goggle the phone in a store case; the dodgy dealer claimed it was up for £750 but that he could, of course, do me a deal. It looks quite solid though, the surprise for me was how good the front flip seems to be in terms of quality. i hated the previous versions on my p800 and on the p910 so this was a nice surprise! For any Orange fans out there, they have now pushed their release date out to 'whenever', apparently, as opposed to the end of August. Boo :/
August 27, 2006 at 12:51 AM Now that were all sharing location details, I was just wondering where Karl(Dublin) is from?
August 27, 2006 at 11:03 AM Sat, I think the clue is in the name for Karl!
August 27, 2006 at 08:10 PM ill just take a completly wild stab in the dark and sayy...... dublin? but then agian its just a guess
August 28, 2006 at 02:04 AM Rushed to orchard road last Friday night but was disappointed as non of the shop was ready to show the actual phone, all were showing the dummy set ... Just managed to look at the packed box :( .... Either you buy it or just satisfy your self with the dummy set ... Will wait for few more days till I manage to see the original set.... The price has gone up by 200$ here and now its costing 1500S$ but head with line it will cost 1200$....
August 28, 2006 at 11:50 AM Hurrah.. my provider told me the P990 was here Booooooo they were all recalled due software fault...no further release date given. Congratulations SONY you have lost one VERY loyal customer who has stuck by 800, 900, 910i. Just cant wait any longer have already switched to Nokia E61 and have Nokia N93 arriving monday. For goodness sake Sony stick by your release dates. I have been very happy with thp910 and use at as a real business tool.. but two years of getting smacked around and enoughs enough .. I need to replace while there's any value left. Couple of other things just in case your SONY guys read this. Whats with the scrathcy screen??? You expect me to pay $8 a time for a screen protector because you lot cant' do your R&D properly .. come on!!! Philippines.
August 28, 2006 at 07:12 PM Play.com had the P990 listed as the 1st Sept 2006. Just checked the Play and found the phone has been pulled off the site completely! God only know when the phone will be released. I really doubt we'll see an 8th September Vodafone release either. Also after what Rodany said, it's more than possible that the phone still has many software glitches. I am really running out of patience with SE. Gonna go get my stress ball and squeeze....
August 28, 2006 at 07:46 PM This news from Rodney does not surprise me, although i agree somewhat with Terry D that its better to spend alot of money on a good phone than a phone full of problems. I just think that it is so amateur to keep advertising a release date for a phone when the device clearly as software issues, why not perfect the phone first than advertise a release date.
August 28, 2006 at 09:28 PM Yup, bought me nokia E61 today. Orange have also pulled the last release date they had, apparently (although i'm not sure what the last one everyone heard was, i heard late august early september myself), whether this is hearsay or not i do not know. Vodafone still seem to know nothing and T-mobile are still clueless as to any mention of a p990 on their network. starting to think if it's that amazing, and i am beginning to wonder just how amazing it's going to be with all of these bugs still popping up, i guess an upgrade fee might be worthwhile... but no more holding my breath. :)
August 28, 2006 at 11:13 PM Sp ... which provider have you got the E61 with? If Vodafone then does the device support Vodafone Live?
August 29, 2006 at 03:19 AM Guys,I am not sure how far all this is true but here in Singapore i have not heard such news, The phone is availabe with all the major telcos ( Singtel, StarHub, M1) and also http://www.singtelshop.com/store/product/default.asp?id=1&sort_1={53C60EDD-EDA1-473D-8E04-C76B55A87395}&sort_2=&sort3= available in store as well. The problem is no one wants to show the original set unless you buy it as they say its expensive to put the set on display as later they cant sell the used phone. But heard so much will find out if there is really any problem with the set.
August 29, 2006 at 03:26 AM Select Sony Eri from the list http://www.singtelshop.com/store/product/default.asp
August 29, 2006 at 11:17 AM i think it does Sat Bhamra, i haven't had time looked into that just yet though to be honest :)
August 29, 2006 at 11:51 AM ITS OUTTTTTTTTTTTT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! chk it out at a malaysian website www.lelong.com.my then do a product search for p990 selling at Rm33xx equiv to USD890
August 29, 2006 at 01:05 PM HH - I used to use Pocket Informant on my Jasjar and I agree it is a superb program. On my p910 I use Handy Day 2005 which is a similar app (loosely). Handy day is available now for the p990, but the functionality is way short of the version on the p910. The first release of Handy Day for the p910 was very limited in functionality and then they released HD Pro and HD 2005 with so much more functionality that it was like a different program, with RSS news feeds, weather updates, customisable plug-ins etc. I guess that we need to see the full functionality of the p990 out of the box before we know what kind of PIM apps might be suitable.
August 30, 2006 at 11:50 AM Well it finally happened today, my p910 touchscreen finally gave up the ghost. Now when I put stylus to Martin fields overlay plus screen protector (it was so much easier in the old days when you could say pen to paper) it goes crazy selecting the wrong apps, ticking the wrong boxes, hanging up calls I want to answer (worse, answering calls I want to avoid) and the handwriting recognition looks like a monkey has been etch-a-sketching all over the screen. I'm so ready for a new phone. Just spoke to Debbie at Vodafone who says they are still holding for the 8th Sept.
August 30, 2006 at 02:05 PM A friend of mine couldn't wait for the P990 any longer so went and bought the new SPV 3100 from Orange. After only 1 day, he is fed up with the sluggish performance, absoulte shite Windows Mobile platform and dropping WLAN conection. Yesterday he called me to say he is sending the phone back and is now back in the queue for the P990. C'mon SE!! hurry up and get the phone on the shelves!
August 30, 2006 at 02:59 PM I must admit I'm not far behind him. I almost bought a HP hw6915 on ebay today, but when I really think about it, I know I will be disappointed with its performance. I'll tell you what though, this phone better live up to its first impressions or I will be totally at a loss as to what to replace with. Probably a new p910!
August 30, 2006 at 03:21 PM Whilst we are waiting, a little bugbear that has bothered me for ages on my p910 is that I can't get birthdays to synch from my pc to my phone. You know in Outlook contacts you can add their birthday and it projects this into your calendar for you. These events, I have found don't go across to the p910 on synching. I have tried every setting I can find in the synch station settings but can't seem to get round it. The only way I can see to do it is to create a recurring appointment for everyone's birthday in outlook and delete the birthday event but I shouldn't have to do this. Has anyone else seen this and managed to overcome it?
August 30, 2006 at 10:14 PM Sorry TerryD, but never tried that myself. Sadly, I sold my P910 back in Jan 2006 as SE assured me the P990 was a week or so away from release *sigh* If I had my phone then I would have tried this - anyone else with a P910? Try and help TerryD out.. I'm just gonna sit here and wait until Spet 8th - if the phone is not out by then or pushed further, then may I suggest everyone watch the news that day as I plan to dress up as Batman and climb up Buckingham Palace in protest! Anyone wanna join me? I also got a spare Robin outfit.
August 31, 2006 at 10:31 AM In 20 years working for technology product companies this is absolutely the worst managed product release I have ever seen. Any company I've been with would have fired plenty of people in that product group 5 months ago and as a minimum step 1, would have reset expectations back in April that they would have continued to exceed (ie. said it won't be out before year end 2006 and then begin to pull the date forward). If this is out on 8th of Sept then I can forgive and forget. If it is not, we should bombard the CEO of SE and Symbian with emails. It would be completely unprofessional to move the date again. I can even live with Vodafone saying that they have it but don't have enough stock for everyone - but if they move it off... Well, I think a email campaign is in order.
August 31, 2006 at 01:12 PM BI, the story I am getting from Vodafone is that they absolutely don't have it. This is from my business manager who has dealt with my account for years. Are you telling me they DO have some? Where did you get this intel?
August 31, 2006 at 02:09 PM Well i would say just relax, i dont think the dates further will move on ur side as its already released in south east asia.... SE has done roadshow here with big bang to market this model and also i heard they are doing the same in Comex IT show 2006 here in singapore.... Going down this weekend to have a look and probably to get one if every thing moves well.. Just hang on guys, our patience will PAY :)
August 31, 2006 at 03:56 PM Terry - I have been told by Vodafone that 8 Sept remains the availability date. However, they don't have the dummy phones yet and we are 8 days away. What I am saying is that if they delay from the 8th of Sept - I would lose all faith in SE being able to get this phone out.
August 31, 2006 at 06:13 PM im bored of the darn phone now , dont want it anymore...just buy something else
August 31, 2006 at 08:49 PM I'm sorry TerryD but I have to agree with BI on this one because for a well established company like SE I really would expect better. I think the way they have conducted themselves regarding this phone's release date is totally abysmal and extremely amateur. I spoke to SE yesterday and they told me that the phone is awaiting network approval. O2 and vodafone have already approved this handset to be compatible with their networks so what are SE waiting for, because they are saying that this phone will only be availabe on O2 and vodafone variants on release. As far as I am concerned this is another excuse to hold back this handset because there must be a problem with it. What benefit does a company gain by holding back for so long a product which they say is due for eminent release. SE change the release date for this phone towards the end of every month, even if you are working in marketing you would have to admit that this behavior will eventually become counter productive. Keeping their loyal customers waiting for so long cannot be a good thing. If this phone is released on the 8th of september I will be totally shocked because I don't believe its going to happen, I only hope that I am proved wrong on this one.
September 01, 2006 at 08:35 AM check this out http://www.uiq.com/news2006_1753.html
September 01, 2006 at 09:01 AM Oh, indeed I agree that if SE were to move the date again it would not only be disappointing but unprofessional and a severe breach of its customers trust. But no amount of people threatening to buy a nokia will make them release it any faster. Rearrange these words into a well known phrase or saying: have barrel they over us a.
September 01, 2006 at 04:07 PM orange and SE have some sort of new partnership thing going on, and you can get the P990 on orange now @ mobile rainbow. I should be getin mine monday
September 01, 2006 at 06:46 PM O2 have the phone now , contract customers like myself can get the phone for 130 pounds plus their current contract
September 01, 2006 at 08:47 PM Where do O2 have the phone? I can't find it anywhere but in their Coming Soon section.
September 01, 2006 at 10:15 PM Phones2udirect have also started selling the P990 on Vodafone. Just yesterday the listing was "Pre-Order" and today it is "In Stock" - not impressed by the prices though - will wait for official Vodafone release. Check the link: http://www.phones2udirect.co.uk/Products/type/phones/ProductID/6481/NetworkID/6
September 02, 2006 at 11:26 AM (In reference to Raheel's comment) We are all desperate to get our hands on this phone, and I have been into an O2 shop this morning, and they mentioned October. May I make a suggestion that nobody makes any statements that O2 or Vodafone have the handset 'In Stock' until that person has the phone physically in the palm of their hand. I know that expansys and several other web sites have it in stock, but I'm talking about the retail outlets. If Raheel can prove me wrong, which store have you bought it from and how much?
September 02, 2006 at 12:06 PM Nice to see my frustrations are shared, for someone who has just found this blog it has been very informative and has given me the knowledge that It will be here when it's good and ready. And I'll still want one!
September 02, 2006 at 03:46 PM Hi guys, I have now found that all stores are saying Septemebr, whether it be 8th or 11th, they don't know. Also spoken to all the networks via phone and they also all say Septemebr, with no dates. I'm assuming the phone is being "branded" by the networks, which means they're putting their menus and software on them. They'll also try and iron out the bugs people have had [see the Esato and Expansys forums] like syncing and bluetooth. My biggest worry is what the networks will block out, for example I had bought the SE S700i and Vodafone had blocked out bluettoothing JPG's and MP3s from PCs as well as games, so this means you have to go to Vodafone via WAP and pay to download content. But I had the SE developers software which meant I could put a fake DRM code in the JPG or MP3 file and the phone would play/show it OK. I don't want to have to go through all that effort with the P990i, so I may stay away from Vodafone (the greedy so and so's). It is a waiting game and I hope that they realise and fix all the bugs in time!
September 02, 2006 at 10:23 PM sorry for all the confusion, i am due for an upgrade and when i asked them if they have the phone, they told me it was available. i am not getting it though beacuse its too expensive for me.... and i didnt go to a shop, i talked to 02 on the phone.
September 03, 2006 at 01:53 PM Check this link, post by Sony Ericsson D http://developer.sonyericsson.com/thread.jspa?messageID=85771. You decide, in my opinion this phone will not be available by the 8th or 11th September.
September 03, 2006 at 04:29 PM That link doesn't seem to lead anywhere.
September 03, 2006 at 04:58 PM Drop the full stop off the end of the link
September 03, 2006 at 09:05 PM Thanks very much for that TerryD did'nt realise that the full stop made a difference link should be http://developer.sonyericsson.com/thread.jspa?messageID=85771
September 04, 2006 at 04:36 AM Well,Finally managed to get my hands on the phone but was disappointed with the amount of publicity done for it. It really lacks the looooooooooook factor. It lacks the quality specially when you open and close the flip. For design I find the previous model P910i looks much better in terms of design and quality. Tried the card scanner, it could only retrieve the phone numbers and not names for all the cards I had. The camera is Good. But in landscape view its very irritating when the flip is opened. The Performance looks good but UIQ3.0 still needs to improve specially if you compare the GUI with WM 5.0. For wireless network, I could manage to search all the available network but some how it never got hooked to the free ones available...I guess SE need to work on this part Navigation is not friendly, may be because it was new to me. Well the bottom line is I still need to think twice before investing $1300 .....
September 04, 2006 at 09:25 AM Nasser, do you know if the model you looked at was the P990i or the P990c ? Apparently there is a different model for the Eastern Asian Market - they are both on the SE website. there doesn't appear to be any functional difference but you never know...
September 05, 2006 at 07:01 PM I've had a P990i (world version 2) for over a week now and I can tell you that the resource issues have gone, no crashing, phone works great.......BUT and its a big BUT....anyone wanting this phone as a blackberry replacement had better forget it. Despite SE web site clearly listing this as a key feature it does not provide nor support Blackberry push mail. Further bad news is that Blackberry also doesn't support this phone. SE Europe claim that this isn't currently available on the p990i and have no date for the release, strangly they also mentioned that it would probably require a firmware update in order to be blackberry compatible. Now come on SE isn't that false advertising!!!!!!
September 05, 2006 at 11:57 PM i think the new P990i should have been like the M600i but with a camera..... if the M600i had a 2MP cam then i wouldnt bother geting the P990.it would have been a TOP seller..
September 06, 2006 at 12:25 AM Finally guys my patience wore too thin. Conceivably the poorest product launch ever has resulted my switching camps to Nokia after long years as a loyal client of Sony. The E61 and N93 im now using do the jobs they are designed for beautifully .... they do not reuire me to spend $5 a month on screen protectors or the annoying "out of stock" when i try to replace a lost stylus. They do not ask me to wait 7 months for the phone and then withdraw it due to software conflicts, they deliver what they promise and best of all they are in my possession now. Further, a friend has the P990 -- purchased in Singapore -- wireless access is crap, blackberry connection not available etc etc. C'mon guys enough is enough! SONY .. do you ever read these cooments? wouldn't it have been an opportunity to say a few soothing words??
September 06, 2006 at 05:02 AM hello every one.....i know that se messed up pretty bad with the launch and other issues with the p990i but c'mon it aint tht bad...had it for about 3 days n it works wel esp after i updated the fw....n i was a NOKIA fan untill my eyes fell for this beauty......now i have a question for Terry D....i have an old NOKIA 6670 (yes its sad tht i still have this phone - was waitin n waitin 4 the p990). how can i transfer all my contacts from the nokia to the p990 as weel as my calendar and a whole bunch of other stuff?
September 06, 2006 at 05:20 AM Hi FaBu, I'm not over familiar with nokia phones but I would guess that what you need is a common ground between your nokia and the Sony Ericsson. Your PC will be this. I am, of course, assuming that you use a pc and not a MAC. You need to have nokia phone suite installed and synch your phone with it. This will, I believe, create a file on your PC called ContactsDB.mdb, probably somewhere like C:\Program Files\Common Files\Nokia You should be able to import this into outlook (again assuming this is what you use) The Sony Ericsson synch software will synch directly out of outlook, taking all your contacts and their details onto your new phone. If this is all rubbish, then let me know and I'll have a rethink T
September 06, 2006 at 06:04 AM I eventually gave up on the P990 back in March and got a T-Mobile MDA Pro. Kinda wish I could get a P990 now...I'll have to keep an eye out for when the sim-free price drops. Hint - don't bother buying a full size PDA/Phone. It's great for using TomTom but I often have to leave it at home when I go out somewhere because it's just too big! Anyone know if the 990 can run any satellite navigation software?
September 06, 2006 at 08:18 AM thanks TerryD...i tried that one but it does not work with the Nokia...i can synch with Nokia and outlook and get all the contacts but with missing numbers as i presume outlook does not recognize the "MOBILE HOME" "MOBILE OFFICE" etc fields....if i can get across this hurdle then getting into my se p990 would be simple.....any other work around??
September 06, 2006 at 08:37 AM Ok FaBu, does the nokia data suite allow you to export the data to a CSV file (Comma Separated Values). If so then do this and import THAT to your outlook program. What this should do is map the field names together that match and then ask you where to map the fields that it has no direct match for in outlook. This way you can tell it where to map to. Thinking cap at the ready if that doesn't work. T
September 06, 2006 at 09:39 AM Just had an email from my account manager at Vodafone, SE have just put the date back to 11th Sept!
September 06, 2006 at 09:55 AM Rodney, have you experienced any audio problems with your e61? the speaker quality on the one i got from vodafone was awful, i took it back and got another which was as bad. the incoming sound kept fading and becomging very tinny. i tried the sim in another handset and it didn't seem as bad. just wondering if you'd experienced less than great sound out of your handset too.
September 06, 2006 at 10:13 AM Oh great - 9/11 release date! Figures that after almost a year of bungling release dates SE and Vodafone would select a cursed date for product availability.
September 06, 2006 at 10:55 AM LOL Beyond, it hadn't occurred to me. Lets just hope that them choosing a release date synonymous with disaster is nothing more than an unfortuitous coincidence.
September 06, 2006 at 11:55 AM Yes - they should rename this phone the SE 9-11.
September 06, 2006 at 07:18 PM Hail TerryD and everyone else have no fear about 9/11 and all that stuff because you won't be able to get your hands on a uk spec P990i by this date but its not all bad. Got a call from SE today to tell me that Vodafone have just approved this handset and have now ordered stock they asked if I wanted to order but I want the phone sim free or at the very least with O2. It appears that O2 have not jet approved this handset so for O2 customers the wait goes on. I was also told that the SE sim free version will be avaible at the end of September at a cost of £570 pounds, when i called back later a lady rep said that it is possible that the handset will never be released sim free, I think that has got to be a load of rubbish. Checked in at Carphone Warehouse Oxford street this evening and they say that they are awaiting stock. They say they will be selling the sim free version but at a cost of £800 POUNDS, free on O2 and Vodafone for 70 and £75 pounds a month respectively.
September 07, 2006 at 09:45 AM Well as promised .. 5.30pm Manila time .. and my P990 has arrived a mere 6 months or so late .. initial impressions on opening the box are good .. extras look a little more solid than before.. but of course new additional chargers will now have to be found (good game guys .. new home charger, new car charger, one for helicopter and yacht. Function controls seem ok .. phone looks chunkier ... lets try loading the software ..... 4 mins no problems lets trying synching contacts (800 ) 3/4 mins no problems.. lets trying opening a contact CRASH! oops hope this is not portent of things to come .. will be fiddling with it this evening and will post results am. Good day!
September 06, 2006 at 08:51 PM Hi guys ive been waiting for the p990i for months and have today been contacted by vodafone today and they have told me the 08th for delivery (cant wait) !!!!!!
September 06, 2006 at 11:34 PM Hi All i have been reading your e-mails as far back as May 06 ( intersting topics and debates )and i too am a frustrated SE user my P910i got caught in the car door about a month ago and the LCD screen has smashed beyond repair does anyone know where i can get a replacement lcd screen, i was not going to replace the LCD screen because i heard that the P990 is wait for it "coming soon", i think the end of the world will come before that baby is officialy released, Do you thhink that SE know how frustrated people are with this P990 farce.
September 07, 2006 at 03:36 AM Good morning all from the Philippines. Well someone is reading my missives here as low and behold this morning my provider SMART (God bless 'em)contacted me wanting to know if they could deliver my P990 this afternoon. Well yes of course they can I replied. So now I will be able to give you all the benefit of a three way comparison between E61, N93 and the now mythical 990. I will admit the E61 is a usefull business tool but doesnt have the same touchy feelly familiarity as the 910 had. the N93 is fun for .. well fun, but a bit chunky to carry around and with the ever looming disaster waiting if her indoors ever decides to investigate the co-stars of the some of the video footage embedded in the memory card! Will let you know how things go as you mere mortals in the developed world wait for your new toy. By the way in answer to previous question.The E61 (my unit) has excellent sound quality both for tones, voice and MP3/video. if you are having problems I would supsect the unit.
September 07, 2006 at 05:24 AM Morning all, its about 06h20 Bognor Regis time and I have to leave for my train in about 10 minutes, but just a quickie to say Rudibo, a quick search on Ebay usually yields people selling the p9xx screens for a reasonable price. And congratulations Rodney on your new arrival. Can't wait for the blow by blow comparison.
September 07, 2006 at 10:46 AM Right, I think I've had enough of both SE & Vodafone. Just got off the phone with Vodafone for the 2nd time today and have been told "Sorry we don't have a release date set for the handset due to technical difficulties". Spoke to a guy first and was given that infomration, then tought "Peter (from this blog) has been in contact and has a delivery set for Sept 8th", so called back and spoke to a laday who advised me of the same thing again "Sorry we don't have a release date set for the handset due to technical difficulties". Explained to her about this Blog and that some were given a release date of either Sept 8th or 11th. She went off to check and came back and said this information is incorrect as the phone has yet to pass Vodafone's software testing, and then game me a bigger shock, by saying "We expect the phone to be released sometime after Christmas!!!!" SE & Vodafone are both tossers! SE for just delaying the phone & Vodafone for the constant bullshit information & feedback! What is it with Sony and delays! First the P990 and then the Playstaion 3 - looks like a bleak Christmas for me.
September 07, 2006 at 11:54 AM I was told by Vodafone to ring on the 9th fri an they would sort my order out then as thats when it will be released .A pic of the 990 i is on Vodafone's website after all.
September 07, 2006 at 12:02 PM Woops Friday is the 8th getting nervous.
September 07, 2006 at 12:49 PM Freudian slip Jon? The next Friday the 9th is Feb '07 !!!! ;^)
September 07, 2006 at 01:16 PM I do believe the 9/11 date is very appropriate as Vodafone told me yesterday that it's delayed until the end of September! But from reading this forum, Vodafone seem to have a Calendar on the wall acting as a dartboard each time a customer rings up. Nodobdy really has a firm date. Also, if anyone (like me), is hoping to have their POP3 accounts "pushed" not downloaded on 15 minute intervals, this looks doubtful. That function will only work with an Exchange server. I have looked on the Vodafone Business section, and does seem quite informative with all the different packages available but very vague or limited if there is a mention on the handsets suitable for a service. I can't believe they make it so difficult in this day an age. Can't a manufacturer come up with an all in one device for a small business i.e. decent phone (no camera, multimedia and all that bollocks), decent programs for contacts, appointments, access several POP3 accounts on a "push email" service. THAT'S ALL I WANT!!. They would make a killing. I believe SE have been over ambitious with this P990i; too many apps crammed in and the possibilities of things going wrong are extremely high. Well I feel better now; back to work!
September 07, 2006 at 04:51 PM I just got my call from my Vodafone rep - 1 day ahead of schedule!!! That's the good news. The bad news is that he told me he wouldn't be calling me tomorrow like he promised. But that he will be calling me on Monday bz the phone will be available then. I asked him if he would be me that it will be available on Monday - told him I'd bet that it won't and offered him 5 to 1 odds. He declined the bet.
September 07, 2006 at 05:15 PM I've done a bit more research on the Nokia website, and they recommend 3 different ways of getting the "push Email" service to work. One of them is the 'Seven Always-On' application, and it supports POP3! The link is https://www.alwaysonmail.com/index.html and has the SE 900, 910 but not the 990i as yet. Looks a decent piece of software, and you simply download an application onto the device. Not able to test until I get a compatible device.
September 07, 2006 at 10:45 PM HH>> Why don't you just use IMAP instead? The P990 supports IMAP idle which offers similar functionailty to push email. That way you can use POP on your desktop machine to download and archive messages and just have unread emails come through to the phone. Or, if you have enough email storage space, go IMAP all the way, then you've got all your emails to hand.
September 07, 2006 at 11:00 PM Since we've all waited so long for the P990, and its still not clear when it will actually be on major release, it might be worth seeing what SE have on display at the Symbian Smartphone Show (http://www.symbiansmartphoneshow.com/2006/). I'd hate to be caught out like those that jumped on the P900, only for the P910 to be anounced just a few months later. Not a big deal for regular phones I know, but when I might be dropping a couple of hundred quid on a phone, I want it to be on top for a while!
September 08, 2006 at 09:44 AM Just called vodafone to order 990 as I was told to ring on fri to place order and as I expected no luck event thretened to leave with no luck does anyone know what's going on on thurs night SE sent an email with the 990 on the bottom when you click the link it's still coming soon .
September 08, 2006 at 11:11 AM I too got that email from Sony Ericsson - interestingly enough there is a link on the left side stating "how to get the most out of your p800" - do you think they are trying to tell us something? I am waiting until Monday (I was told the 11th) to see what doesn't transpire.
September 08, 2006 at 11:21 AM the launch date is today but Voda dont get stock till tuesday ( 12th ). holding my breath now....
September 08, 2006 at 02:36 PM Just called Vodafone at 3.30pm and have now been given a release date of 20th September 2006. When asked the guy about the costant changing of dates, he just seemed fed-up and said "it'll be out when it's out" Don't know what to make of all this anymore - just feel really tired and fed-up with the whole ordeal. Also read an online review of the P990, which it was scored the a meagre 55% - this is all so depressing! Anyone else spoken to Vodafone today?
September 08, 2006 at 09:31 PM Spoke with vodafone today and was told someone said above that the phone has know release date yet. Also mentioned this blog so she placed me on hold for about 5 mins before coming back and telling me that the phone is due for release Monday 11th September. Yer right. Good news is that sony phonned me to say that i could buy the phone from them and delivery would be 2 weeks so phone is out there somewhere.
September 09, 2006 at 11:32 AM Hi guys, despite me bieng told the p990 would be in stock on 8th i recieved a very badly spelt e mail tht looks like it was written by a 8 year old from vodafone customer services,they now inform me that they will have stock from the 11th just as they have told shane.I am getting pi***d off now because i am getting told lies.I am now taking a trip to my local mobile providers this afternoon and see what else i can lay my hands on because i have had enough of this farce!!
September 09, 2006 at 12:19 PM I just called Vodafone and asked them when stock will be coming in. She told me Tuesday 12th Spet - again when I told her about the Blog and dates of Sept 11th being given out, she assured me that the phone is definatley not out on the 11th!? I have a feeling they may be getting limited stock on the 11th and are brushing people off until the following day - either that or she's trying her best to avoid a busy Monday morning for herself!
September 09, 2006 at 01:52 PM Went into the vodafone shop today Sat 9th and they said that the SE rep had been in on friday and they should have stock on mon .Could I order one now from the printed catalogue no he said as he didnt have the pricing tet . Ah well roll on monday.
September 09, 2006 at 07:03 PM A very helpful man at thee vodafone store gave me his business card on friday 8th and told me too email him for updates as he too was getting anoyed having sold his old pds ericsson at xmas waiting for the new p990i. Anyway emailed him today and has said that head office told him that the warehouse are expecting the phones in on Monday as mentioned and told me to cll in to see what he could do. I take by this and what you guys are saying that they are not wanting to sort out lots of orders on monday. Fingers crossed x
September 09, 2006 at 11:09 PM Yes .. to clear the "Where are you from Myth" I am from Ireland, Dublin. I have had the P990i for awhile now....Gave it back to Vodafone and told them I will be using the E61 as a corporate phone instead...No Stylus to lose, no sensitive screen, No slow response and no slippy jog wheel... So I had it and its gone back... Vodafone have offered me a good discount deal but, to be honest I'm not bothered with it...Had the P800, P900, P910i and quickly the P990i...its the most advanced, but the poorest in performance of the lot... Happy Hunting everyone. Since the company I work for are all over the world I mailed SE for feedback, guess what, No reply....E61 is doing the trick...
September 10, 2006 at 12:39 PM "No Stylus to lose, no sensitive screen, no slow response and no slippy jog wheel…" AND no camera, no bluetooth 2.0, no music player... Ever thought you might have had your hands on one of the many grey imports that are coming into the country, that have been reported as having sub-standard software. For example, the ones Expansys are knocking out - I wouldn't touch 'em with a barge pole. I know for a fact Vodafone have been sitting on the P990 for at least a couple of weeks, trying to sort out the software issues before they go to mass retail.
September 10, 2006 at 06:37 PM Karl, I'm with you on the e61; just having a problem with the speaker, otherwise it's a fantastic phone. Have you had any poor reception with yours at all when making or receiving calls? I exchanged one but seem to be having the same issue with this handset too; i'm wondering if vodafone have rushed in once again where angels fear to tread.
September 11, 2006 at 09:33 AM Got the 990i on friday as a gift, all the software loaded after charging the battery for the required 4 hours. Everything seemed slow, so learned how to close tasks to speed it up, went to contacts, CRASH. Restarted, made a call....CRASH. Restarted,tried to send a message....CRASH. One gift being returned today..... hate that!
September 11, 2006 at 09:52 AM I got into work today to an email telling me that my two p990i's will be with me tomorrow. Vodafone had stock turn up first thing and they are flying out the door. I do wonder though about the posts on this page decrying the poor performance of the P990i. Where did these phones come from if SE hadn't actually released them yet.
September 11, 2006 at 10:56 AM Well no news mon am so called Vodafone they said no P990is so called back and threatened to leve as I'm out of contract and hey presto one 990i arriving tues surprise surprise.Why do you have to go off one one just to get them to say its in stock ?
September 11, 2006 at 12:19 PM At last! got mine coming tommorow via Vodafone. Asked the nice lady on the cancellation period due to rumours of ongoing niggles & bugs. She did say that she was aware of problems with the handset on some other tarrifs, but the phone is stable on Vodafone, hence the reason for the long delays. Anyway as Terry once said, let's not dissapear into the darkness once we get our new toys. It would be nice for people to keep in touch via this blog and share their experinces.
September 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM Hey guys, (sorry for the long post) I've been reading the posts here for ages, but am posting myself for the first time here. Now that Vodafone have finally decided the P990i is OK for general release. I was wondering, all those people who have agreed deals with voda and are getting their P990i's in the next few days. Do you think you could post what sort of deals you managed to get? espicially if your upgrading as I will be. What sort of handset price should we be expecting to pay? For example, I'm currently on the £30/month deal, but during the current contract spent over £1200 on bills. What should voda offer me to keep me? A colleauge recently upgraded on the THREE network for a Nokia N80 (very decent phone). But they bent over backwards to give him a good deal. He got the phone for free, pays only £12/month (12 month contract) but gets 800mins, 500texts, etc. He has spent only a fraction of the £1200 I've spent. What tactics can people advise me to get the best deal on my P990i? I shall definitely be still posting after I get my P990. All the best to those getting their P990i's soon, and good luck to those who are still waiting. : )
September 11, 2006 at 02:20 PM Check this: http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=paymonthly.chooseByTariff&variationID=546
September 11, 2006 at 02:26 PM After all the long wait; since the start of this year to be precise, I have decided to ditch my plans in buying the P990i. I've come to the consclusion that for my needs, I'm way better off with a Windows Mobile device, and HTC have just anounced 4 new Smartphones (VERY SMART INDEED!) / PDA's which ARE out this month and the next. My decision was helped further on reading the comments in this forum, and having spoken to various telecommunications stockists, the overall view of the P990i is nothing to shout about. And these comments are from people who have used it. Main concerns is the speed and the constant crashing. SE have made people wait too long, and other products are coming on the market which are more practical and compatible with a far wider range of software readily available. Will be interesting to read over the next week or two if any of you can post some positive comments.
September 11, 2006 at 02:32 PM Hi there Kuljiy, You think that a long post, you should look back over some of my ramblings! You raise a very good point though, we are all talking about 'getting' our phones, but not mentioned for how much or what extent of am twisting we have done. Well as you all know I am with Vodafone I have a business account, with 2 mobile phones and 2 data cards on it. I have been with Vodafone for around 4 years and have had an average monthly spend over that time of about £250 The tarrif I am on is called Sharetime. It gives me 500 inclusive minutes at a cost of £55 for the first handset and £15 for the second. I then have a bolt on of 1000 text messages or 51Mb of data for £34. The benefit of the package though is this: The two mobiles call each other for free and my home office phone is also free for the two phones to call. It also has cheap rate international calls too. I only switched to the acount this month so I'll keep you posted on the savings I make. Anyway, the two P990s have cost me a total of nothing in exchange for signing up to an 18 month contract. As I am happy with vodafone and have no intention of swapping networks, and when I want an upgrade mid contract, they look at my spend and give me one anyway, then the extra length contract is no problem. And to be honest a lot of providers are going for 18 month contracts anyway. So thats my story from the hot, humid city. Next......
September 11, 2006 at 02:51 PM Hey Thanks TerryD, Your comments were very helpful. ANyone else pushed vodafone to give them good deals? and has anyone managed to get 12month contracts. After all, for us gadget lovers we must have the latest. If SE decide to release an update to the P990i at the symbian smartphone show; then we don't want to be stuck with a 18month contract to upgrade to the latest release. Thanks everybody.
September 11, 2006 at 02:56 PM HH If performance and constant crashing are a worry for you then I would seriously hink twice before committing yourself to a WM5 device. Regardless of the hardware, the fact that these machines still only have 64Mb RAM and WM5 needs more to be viable means you are condemning yourself to an underpowered device before you even start. I am going to give the P990 a fair chance, and if it turns out the gossip is right, then they can have it back. Lord knows what I'll upgrade to then though!!
September 11, 2006 at 02:56 PM Hi gang, Just got a call from our dear friends at Vodafone and they've offered the p990i as upgrade. I asked about the software issues and she said that the phone has been in testing for some time to sort these issues out. I think that they wouldn't release the phone if it was as buggy as the first European handsets that are doing the rounds, because all the replacement and upgrade costs would have to be met by them. The deal I got is the phone for free, infact I was on the £40/month - 350 mins/200 texts. Now I pay £35 and get 500 mins and 100 texts (I don't text loads). I did try and barter and said o2 are offering better deals and so were orange and she actually said that if you want to take their offers then please go ahead! She said we've got quesues of people waiting for this phone. I will post an update once I've played with it. (the phone that is)
September 11, 2006 at 03:02 PM just looked at kuljiy's point, i've been fighting with orange for a while now because they told me of the p990 for as long as word came out about it. everytime i rung them about the phone (even when i knew it still wouldnt be out), i made sure they wrote all my calls down on my log. this way, what i've managed to do is wrangle them into improving my minutes and texts. at the moment, i only get 200 minutes a month and no texts for £35 but i havent changed my contract for nearly 3 years. my monthly spend is roughly £250-£350 on calls and texts. now with my business spending, they finally got fed up about not being able to live up to promises of the p990 (not their fault, but hey, it works for me!!) to offering me 1800 minutes and 1000 texts a month for the same £35 a month. in addition, they have the phone in final testing apparently and i'm told i'll be told as soon as they decide to put in out. for spending they expect out of me on an 18-month contract, they're offering the phone for free. since i never upgraded from my p900 anyway, this doesnt seem a problem for me...
September 11, 2006 at 03:16 PM just called voda..........OUT OF STOCK until next week...........DAMN!
September 26, 2006 at 04:13 PM been playin with my mates dubai-unbranded P990 it is by far smoother, clearere and faster, many more options within the browser (really great things like setting ur own hompage). It did not crash at all. I WANT IT. also been checking out debranding by people like davinci and others, it looks like they never done debranding for P series the do network unlocking but not operator debranding which they do on other SE series but not P. so, it seems that my P990 is going back to VF casue it sucks, and I might go have a weekend on a beach and get a real P990, and a tan :)
September 11, 2006 at 05:27 PM "Check this: http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=paymonthly.chooseByTariff&variationID=546" I was looking at the Vodafone website earlier and found that they were offering it for free on all combinations of 12/18 month contracts and price levels. I phoned Vodafone and asked for the price for a £25/18 month contract and was quoted £150. I asked about the website price and at first the operator didn't believe me; after much convincing I asked him if Vodafone would honour the free price if it was a mistake - his reply convinced me to hang up and order one online quick. I now have a confirmation email which confirms that I have a P990i for free! The link quoted and posted above now does not give a handset price of free on any of the cheaper monthly tariffs. Now i'm just waiting for the Dear Andrew, Further to your order with vodafone online i'm afraid we cannot honour.......email Anybody else get lucky with the quoted URL today?
September 11, 2006 at 05:37 PM HH ... be weary if you think that the WM5 platform is as stable as you may have heard. My friend had also got fed up with waiting for the P990 and opted to join Ornage and bought the SPV 3100 by MTC. After only 2 days he returned the item due to constant locking up, echoey phone calls and the constant loss of Wi-Fi connectivity.
September 11, 2006 at 06:57 PM ive got the LG U400, desent phone and free internet on it. forget the P990i now it looks like alot people are just dissapointed with it ,even though it aint even out ......
September 11, 2006 at 07:18 PM GUESS WHAT Vodafone have called me today to tell me that the p990 has been dispatched and is coming tomorow.my friends has also been despatched and will be with her tomorow,she doesnt want hers she wants to sell it for profit so if anyone wants to buy hers you are welcome to(it is a uk spec p990 and she will not open it and it will be kept sealed) post something with your e mail address or phone number and i will contact you if its at the right price she will sell it,before it goes on Ebay. WHHEEEYYYYY i cant wait till tommorow i am sooooo excited i probably wont sleep.
September 11, 2006 at 07:35 PM Peter i am interested in your friends p990i. how much is asking price
September 11, 2006 at 07:40 PM Hi Mo i will ring her now and find out.
September 26, 2006 at 07:54 PM I have plenty of problems with mine... now I find I can't receive SMS messages properly... Says incomplete, and won't open. So I called VF, and they are going to replace the handset on Thursday.. here's hoping.. John
September 11, 2006 at 08:17 PM Phonned up at 8:15am this morning to be told i could not order till tuesday even though in stock, anyhow phonned three times today after this call only to be told that they did in fact sell 750 within hours. What a bunch of w**nkers vodafone are get it sorted lads. Not happy
September 11, 2006 at 08:27 PM Sorry to hear that shane I had to throw the toys out of the pram to get any result out of them but didnt get the same deal as NC above so will call them tomorry to see if they can do any better I also saw the phone for free on a £25 tarrif so will quiz them on that too will keep you posted
September 11, 2006 at 08:46 PM Hi mo she wants £430 for the phone.cheers Peter.
September 12, 2006 at 07:36 AM Hi everyone, I'm still trying to get hold of my P990. Might be some time. But I'm still interested in hearing people's comments on what tarrif deals they managed to get. Espicially if your upgrading. And to comment on another user, £35 for 500mins/100 texts is still a bad deal if your UPGRADING. I mean this is the deal you get if your a NEW customer. Come on everybody, if we all hassle vodafone, and settle for nothing less than honouring our loyalty; then we'll all get good deals. As a benchmark, let me quote a deal someone else got from THREE (network); 800mins and 500texts for £15/month (for a free Nokia N80!!, not some crappy LG or something). Now I don't expect a large compnay like Vodafone to do a huge deal like that. But they CAN do better. WHY should we be treated like NEW customers. And don't let them give the excuse of 'oh, we got lots of people waiting for this phone'. Remember, your one of those people, YOU should be VALUED. report back on your responses. thanks everybody and good luck.
September 13, 2006 at 01:48 PM RUDIBO I'm trying to work for vodafone on mast work how do u get in touch with them
September 13, 2006 at 02:02 PM Chris you are probably right about sending e-mails but i did recieved a mail reciept and tracking Number.. but you could be right, but i would rather vent my frustration on paper than commit murder, i like a peace ful existance, Jon, i work for a company that have been working for Vodafone since 1990 when they were Racal Vodafone.. i am not sure what type of work /field you are in are you a Rigger, Engineer CAD Technician, CAT planner, if you are a Designer or CAD Technician they do not employ directly anymore as far as i am aware but i do know a company who is looking for CAD Tech and engineers...
September 13, 2006 at 02:33 PM Hi Folks - thought I would cheer you up with my sorry tale. Yes, I too have been waiting for the all-singing, all-dancing P990i. Went into my local Link phone shop monday and was told they didn't have it, but Vodafone did. I called them and they confirmed it was in stock. I rapidly arranged for my number to be ported over from T-Mobile (so much for their exclusivity on this phone - HA!) and the new contract was sorted out. Nothing too special; 200 minutes, stop-the-clock and 250 texts for £27 a month. I was told that the phone would be couriered out to me the following day, between 8 and 6. Well, I waited..............and waited. And waited. in the past when I have had phones delivered, they normally come pretty early, so by 1.30pm I was getting a bit twitchy. Phoned Voda and the rep. simply said, "Wait till 6". About 5.30 I called them again to be told, to my crushing disappointment, that the phone hadn't been sent sent as although it was in stock when the order was taken, it was out of stock by the time it was processed. No-one thought it appropriate to let me know that the phone would not be arriving! I have now been told that their next batch of phones will not be delivered until Tuesday 19th, so not delivered till the following day. Grreat! My contract with T-Mobile finishes on Monday when my contract with Voda starts. Unfortunately, no phone or sim card for another 3 days, so no working phone. Fortunately, I still have my P910i and a Pay As You Go sim! Again, the complacency of the staff was almost too much to bear - the old, "do you want another phone" was thrown out. Voda Customer Services really are appalingly bad. I feel better for getting it off my chest!
September 13, 2006 at 02:36 PM Oh, yes. I forgot to say - at least the phone was free.
September 13, 2006 at 02:40 PM Oh, yes. i forgot to mention - I got the phone for free!!
September 13, 2006 at 02:44 PM See, for a mediocre tariff and £27 a month you (eventually) get a free phone... us poor bastards who have merely given V our custom for years on twice the price get fobbed off and ignored! They are reknowned by me at least for the old "phone's on the way" then not bothering to tell you if it doesn't make it. Rudibo - tracking numebrs are great but that doesn't mean that they'll kill themselves to deal with it quickly ;) tho it means they can't lose the call PERMANENTLY. The plus side of a vocal call to a manager is that it might spark enough to get a free phone as I likely deserve whilst actually getting the tale of the woeful cust services through to someone who manages it, rather than the gum chewing oik who doesn't give a toss since he probably gets his cut price phone from the company. I moved from Orange because of all this - Vodafone were a refreshing breath of fresh air. What did they do, merge the helplines? I work in a support environ and if I treated customers like that our company would go bust. Then again I think I likely have a somewhat higher skill set than many of these fellas on the desk :P
September 13, 2006 at 02:51 PM Chris, the ones of us getting free phones are spending in the region of £250 to £350 a month on our contracts (my last one was £330) To put some perspective on things it might be an idea for those of us WITH p990i's post how much our avg monthly spend is and how much we paid for the handset AND how ong we had to renew for to get trhat deal (don't forget that VF will not only be looking at how long you have been with them but more hoe long you are likely to spend in the future). Those who wish not to then your privacy is respected. I just think this way, those trying to get 'deals' and then being told hey have missed out on the latest batch because they made 10 calls trying to get a free phone, might not be so disappointed and angry. I'm sure we aren't the only bloggers trying to get the new phone and I am sure that VF are probably doing the best they can matching supply to demand but also trying to be both fair, and sensible about the return they will get on an account against how much the phone should be.
September 13, 2006 at 02:53 PM in the end of the day Vodafone are trying their best with what little stock they have been given. Their internal account managers will be hanging over the stock lists to make sure they get hold of the phones for their best accounts. SE have only given them small drips of stock and that has to go towards the whole of vodafone and vodafone retail estate so its not wonder we will struggle to get them. im getting this phone as a straight swap for my E61 ( which ive grown to love ) for free so i cant really complain but dont like waiting... give it a week and you will be able to get them all over the place... reminds me of the PS2 when i launched... one min people would offer you big cash just to get one early then the next you could get them in argos.... ive given up waiting now... ill call on the 19th and then on the 20th, 21st etc etc... anyway its free..
September 13, 2006 at 02:53 PM Average spend: £210 per month (approx) Phone cost: Free Agreed Contract: 2 years Status: happy
September 13, 2006 at 02:58 PM RUDIBO thanks for the info I"m into LOS surveys if that helps.
September 13, 2006 at 03:07 PM TerryD, that's fair - but bear in mind my paltry £45 is the flat tariff, not my monthly expenditure which ranges from £60-near £200. The fact is that after initially laying out money ages ago for the best phone aroudn at the time, an upgrade can only be described logically as the next gen phone of that type. Year before last Vodafone said this to me and i got my current P910i free. After telling me this would be the same this phone round and then changing tune several times, I'm sure you can understand my frustration. I never lie and I STRONGLY object when people do to me, especially on a professional basis where I pay them money! I also agree with LiamH to a point, but again - being straight with us is one thing. telling everyone soemthing different is another, and lying to me to get the "bothersome" customer off the phone isn't acceptable. I'm neither stupid nor unobservant so I can tell the difference 'twixt genuine regret and fobbing ;) I'm happy to stick my contract on for longer, VF were up till recently fine and I've had this number for so long now I don't really want to change less I have to. Still doesn't change the fact other deals for less than I'm paying on other providers include a freebie P990! I don't count the recent lack of care or business professionalism as being "fair" though.
September 13, 2006 at 03:08 PM For those interested, the SE page with the file and the instructions for the P990i firmware upgrade is http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=ph&lc=en&ver=4000&template=ps1_1_3_1_1&zone=ps&lm=ps1_1&pid=10336&fid=21839&esi=true I have already confirmed with Vodafone that running this will not invalidate your warranty. I intend to give it a go tonight
September 13, 2006 at 03:12 PM I've been reading and posting on this blog for some time now. And I think its a great way for us to share the frustrations and lies vodafone are giving us. SOme of the comments have been very interesting to say the least. if you don't mind PINHEAD, I'm going to reiterate your comments from my understanding. Your a new customer to Voda, you got the P990i free, and are on a £27/month tarriff that comprises of 200mins and 250texts. Now using that benchmark, all us existing customers spending even £30 a month should be getting our phones free too. And chris is absolutely right we should be hassling till eventually we get what we want. Rudibo, please let us know the outcome of your complaints. Perhaps we should all send letters / emails.
September 13, 2006 at 03:18 PM I didn't spend the initial outlay on the best phone around to either downgrade for free or BUY the new best one! ;) The P910i was the same rough price when it came out and because of my contract and previous expenditure I got it as a free upgrade. I expected the same this time, esp as I was told so! i agree with Kuljiy to a point tho we all have to remember that all the companies will be trying to lure new customers with good deals... but I'm buggered if I'm going to spend £200 on the next phone after all this. Maybe I'll claim insurance on my battle damaged P910i and ask for a crafty new one ;) (ha!)
September 13, 2006 at 03:22 PM Liam, I'll ask you because everybody else i've asked seems to be disappearing :) maybe because it's a bit off topic... You mentioned your E61 - have you ever experienced any bad speaker quality while talking on the handset? Any noticeable drop in the sound where it seems to fade out and in again? I had two of the little buggers from vodafone and both struggled... but it may have been their reception, i don't know. i'm just trying to find anyone else who may have had any bad experiences with the sound on their e61 too.
September 13, 2006 at 03:53 PM SP: Never had that problem with my E61. lots of other but nothing wrong with the sound. the phone gets slower and slower and you have to to a hard reset after a while. 3G reception is crap and my phone is always in GSM mode.... Its a goog phone but ive always been a SE p9XX fan and i want the p990.
September 13, 2006 at 04:02 PM Hi TerryD. I checked the link, but the P990 is not on the compatibility list. All I see is the P900 & P910, so I would probably give SE a call first to confirm.
September 13, 2006 at 05:06 PM Hi Everyone, I've been reading this very interesting blog for ages and like the rest I qualify for those wishing for the P990. I phoned Vf today, was fobbed off by the first guy I spoke too. I then phoned back and got my hands on one at the time 11.31am the guy I was speaking to said they had 120 in stock which were going to be released at 12.00. He later txt me to confirm the order and the details. I'm talking about an upgrade here. The links that some people posted seems incorrect, YES its say's that the P990 is FREE BUT it only applies to the £75 tariff, if you select the 200 minutes and 50 text it still say's free until you select tariff at which point the price for the phone is displayed as being £130. I've used VF for years and have spend sometimes in excess of £900 per month, so I got a very good deal when I phoned then. Yes they wanted £120 for the upgrade but after "expressing" my reluctance to pay this, they caved and gave it to me for free. Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow, but we will have too wait and see.
September 13, 2006 at 05:08 PM Apologies for the typo's, I type faster than my brain processes sometimes.
September 13, 2006 at 05:19 PM To be fair Chris... it did list the 990 as free on ALL tariffs, but it changed later.. I was on the phone to VF at the time, and when they offered me one at £200, I said it was free on their website, and reloaded the page to check.... whereby it had miraculously changed.. Hopefully, I have got one sorted with Orange for free. John
September 12, 2006 at 07:56 AM Hi People Rang Vodafone this morning 8.08am regarding the elusive P990, they told me that they have ran out of stock but they will be getting some more in about 11.30 this morning, i said well since mine is an upgrade can i just pre-order it, they said that Vodafone don't do pre order, i said if you are out of stock why can i still order the P990 online... he said that the website has not updated yet... Vodafone said ring back about 11.30 and they will sort me out. Is this a ploy not to give upgrades out first i am a bit scepticle..
September 12, 2006 at 09:37 AM It's correct, vodafone had the pre order functionality removed from their ordering software. Partly, I believe, to give everyone the same chance of getting new phones. Apparently some of their customers would rather be the bottom of a long list of higher spenders though!
September 12, 2006 at 09:53 AM Tried to order yesterday at about midday and was told no stock until the next few days, rang back at 13.00 and told that it was in stock and hey presto it has just arrived and it is awesome.
September 12, 2006 at 10:29 AM OMG! Vodafone are really annoying me now. Someone quoted me £198 for the phone, then after refusing the deal. I called back and was offered £80 for the same price plan by another guy, but I still refused and said I want the phone for free. I was then passed back and forth between customer services and upgrades only finally to be told the phone is OUT OF STOCK till tomorrow (I don't believe them). I haven't given up haggling yet; I advise everyone to do the same. The HUNT continues....(I'll keep you posted)
September 12, 2006 at 10:54 AM Well it's here as proniced no how do i get rid of that vodafone logo will let you know when it's charged
September 12, 2006 at 11:22 AM YYYEEESSSSS !!!! its arrived and oh my god its bloody sexy,i cant put it down WWOOOOWWWWW !!!!!!!!
September 12, 2006 at 11:53 AM Just got mine too!! what a sexy piece of kit - shame there is no basic case included, like the P900/910. Jon - I shat myself when I got the VF logo, as I thought it crashed - I just held the on-off button down for about 10 secs and it reset and then came on - now works fine. fingers crossed all is OK for now on!
September 12, 2006 at 12:18 PM Aw c'mon guys, there's no sign of mine yet.
September 12, 2006 at 12:36 PM Thank you EVERYONE who mentioned the price the got. I got the call yesterday from Vodafone while out of the UK. He said he shipped my phone and it will arrive today and waiting when I return. Now the bad news - I pay about £250 on my Vodafone bill and I am the plan just below their top plan. He told me the phone was going to cost me £60 to upgrade on an 18 month contract and I asked if anyone was getting these upgrades for free - and he said "NO" - so I agreed to the £60 (desperate, as I am for the phone). I am now going to call Vodafone and complain that I now KNOW I didn't get the straight scoop from the rep who called me. It is great now living in a world of Blogs where people help each other out.
September 12, 2006 at 12:48 PM Right a few problems have crept up now - no crashing as yet, but I can't use any personal photo as wallpaper that is not part of the SE wallpaper selection. I have a photo in JPG format copied across to MS Duo Pro. When I try and view the file in Photo Viewer I can see the image as a thumbnail, but when I open the image I get a broken link message (like a photo cut in 2). This problem is then reflected by the fact that I can't then use this image as a background wallpaper. Also I tried to play Vijay Singh Pro Golf and got an error message that pooped on screen for about a second and nothing more. I hope this can be fixed by a reload of the app. Anyone else tried selecting a personal background wallpaper other than those supplied on the handset?
September 12, 2006 at 02:11 PM Just been told that my phones were misdirected to Southampton. Guess I'll sit out the jollities until tomorrow. 8^(
September 12, 2006 at 02:26 PM Just to clarify - it was Parcel Line's fault not Vodafone's. My account manager couldn't apologize enough and it wasn't even her fault. Still, if you guys start posting that there's all sorts of problems, then at least I can flog mine for £600 a piece on ebay, unopened. LOL
September 12, 2006 at 03:18 PM well ive been waiting.. called loads today and been told they dont have stock of this phone... i asked how come some people have the phone and some done....??????? so tomorrow it is...
September 12, 2006 at 03:25 PM Hi, i just bought mine from the vodafone shop, they gave me the same deal as the internet 500mins. 100 texts and the fone is free. However i was amazed that i have got the unbranded version ie, it's not got the vodafone logo on the phone, what about you, have you also got the unbranded version? I was told it was also unlocked to take any sim??
September 12, 2006 at 03:47 PM That's right Abdul, they are all unbraned and unlocked. That's how vodafone have got them all out first. Everyone else is mucking about putting restrictions and little badges on and Vodafone are cleaning up! Clever move - please the customers AND one in the eye for the competitors!
September 12, 2006 at 03:50 PM Yeah, I got the unbranded phone too - even stranger though is that the 64mb Pro Duo card that comes supplied is from SanDisk - I'fd have thought it would've been a Sony stick. Also I managed to reload the Vijay Singh Pro Golf, and all is fine, but still having prolems with Wallpaper setup. Also tested 3G Vodafone Mobile TV, which was great for about 10 seconds until I lost my 3G signal. The went on to test MP3 & MP4 playback. MP3 is great and lets you sort into playlists and include album art like the Ipod. MP4 playback is great too, but a bit slow to start. I copied an episode of Prison Break (178mb), and it took about 10 seconds to load the file into the player. Once started though everything is fantastic! Finally tested adding contacts and have had no problems at all - no locks up at all like someof the early adopters of the European handsets. Also the camera is really good for a 2mp, and has shit loads of features to play around with. Now if I can just sort out the wallpaper issue, then I'll be has happy as pig in shit! ... Next ... Testing WLAN & Updating Firmware
September 12, 2006 at 03:57 PM Hey Sat, sounds like you are up and running. Glad it seems all ok. Do you know of a firmware flash already ? I so can't wait to get hold of mine. Tell me though, what phone were you on prior to this and how did you transfer your contacts?
September 12, 2006 at 04:46 PM Hi Terry - I called Voda for some help this afternoon with Mobile TV setup, and explained about the wallpaper issue. The techie told me to try an update for the phone - I'm just gonna check now and will keep you guys posted. Also when 1st swicthing on and using the phone seemed very sluggish. I promplty whipped out the 64mb stick and replaced with a 1gb - and now the phone is running fine. Anyway will update you guys with some further info later. Also would be good for others who have the phone, to share their thoughts.
September 12, 2006 at 04:59 PM So, if the phones are unbranded, have they still had the check ups by vodafone, or are these the pre-release versions. Also iam new to vf, how do i go to the vf live pages? The guy in the shop told me that i will be charged for browsing vf live, is that true?
September 12, 2006 at 05:43 PM Phoned Vodafone a few times over the past coupla days.. Generally, they just don't seem bothered with keeping a customer... first guy said "would I like a different phone?" when I said no, he replied "never mind" and hung up on me.. The second guy faired better, but still couldn't help.. yesterday was a bit better and on one call, got a pleasant lady, who was very helpful, and offered to call me if any came in.. which didn't happen. Price wise, they have told me anything from £150 to an unbelievable £300 today, all this as an upgrade.. I'm getting fed up with Vodafone giving me the brush off, so I reckon I will see how much the other networks want my custom.. there are plenty offers to be found on the interweb, with the phone being free on a £35 contract frequently stated.. All this flippin' stress over a sodding phone :( John
September 12, 2006 at 05:45 PM Right, there's no firmware update at present (hell, the P990 is not even listed in the software section), so I am going to have to be patient with the wallpaper issue until SE release an update. Terry, I used to have the P910 back in Jan, but since then have been floating around on various pas as you go tarrifs waiting for this phone. At present I am manually updating my address book as I want to test the stability of the phone. Quite a few people have complained about locking up when entering contacts. So far I have had no problems in this department. I have also tested the WLAN, which seems to be very slow. Now I can't really say if the phone is the problem as I have issues with my router so will need to test this further at a friends house.... or may just go for a walk in "scan mode" to find suckers who are unencrypted!! One more bit of info on the WLAN. My friend bought his MTC 3100 round mines and had the same problems with slow connectivity, but says at his house it was fine, so chances are high that the WLAN is OK, but just seems shit due to my donkey of a router. Abdul .. yes you do need to pay to use Vodafone Live if using GPRS or 3G. You need to speak to Voda about pacgage deals that come with incluse data tarrifs. You can get online for free if you have WLAN though. When you open your Web Browser, Vodafone Live is the home page. Right, I got an IT exam on Friday and need to buckle down and study. For this reason I will not test any further until after Friday.
September 12, 2006 at 05:52 PM Think i am going to wait until Orange get theirs out...
September 12, 2006 at 07:24 PM Hi all my 990 works ok on my Apple airport extreme at home not tried it with P/C
September 12, 2006 at 09:36 PM Well, had a browse round the interweb, and found one on an orange contract (I know it's not out yet) racoon35 with 500 xnet minutes, and 200 txt 250 xtra landline mins.. for £35 a month.. and the phone is free :) plus there is £20 cashback ! Sod Voda.... John
September 12, 2006 at 09:48 PM I've been waiting for this phone since a year after the P910i came out, and it keeps getting put further back. I can appreciate that yes they want to debug, but they ARE taking the piss slightly. I called Voda yesterday, was told it was in stock but not available till today am and to call back. called back this afternoon, it's all a lie and it's been put back till October. SHOCK. I'm also riled over this pay for it rubbish - I paid out for the top end phone ages ago, I'm on a distinctly average price plan and was told ages ago I would get it as a free upgrade. Bonus. Monday I find that their idea of free is £240. Then they aren't in stock. Today I find They REFUSE to go lower than £200. I pay £45 a month for my damn tariff, it's BS frankly, and there's "no note on my call to say I should have it free". I pointed out orange have a deal for £55pm and you get 100 txt and 1200 mins free plus the phone free, and they said we won't match it. I said fine, when the phone comes out I'll be with Orange. I'd rather not do that since Orange are frankly pants, but I am NOT having Vodafone take years of customer loyalty and say one thing and then refuse. Anyone who got offered a free one, please can you give me the name and number of your account manager? :D Reaons I left L'Orange in the first place was one day I phoned cust suppot and the guiy said "I don't care" and put the phone down. Voda have always been very good, what changed?! My arse, they can kiss. Anyone else with me? We should push Voda until they remember what customer loyalty deserves. Either that or have a roof of £30... or one of those account manager names from the above ;) C
September 12, 2006 at 10:05 PM How did the rest of you guys get one if it's now pushed back to october?? eeh... i'm starting to appreciate my poor little SPV more and more each day :)
September 13, 2006 at 08:42 AM anyone else who hasn't got their p990i yet tried pushing voda to give you a good deal? What results did you get? Anyone threatened to leave? (see my previous posts above)
September 13, 2006 at 09:18 AM Yep, look at my post above Sp. when told that £200 was "the lowest" they would go, I said well I'll have to take up another contract and mentinoed the Orange one. The guy said they won't match it. I said fine, you'll lose my custom. They didn't seem bothered. I am tempted to demand to talk to a manager and ask them if they are now so busy with customers they don't care if we start leaving en masse... New deals for people to attract them, fine, but what happened to customer loyalty!? They used to be so good. I think it depends on which rep you get on the phone as well, some of them are bored and don't care.
September 13, 2006 at 09:58 AM I still want your nice account manager's contact details for a free p990i too ;)
September 13, 2006 at 11:02 AM still waiting stock!! how did you guys get yours? im being told they havent had stock yet at all?? all lies...
September 13, 2006 at 11:42 AM Ok so they had 160 and they all went... now im being told 19th for the next delivery.. thanks vodafone. £250 bill per month and i still have to wait..
September 13, 2006 at 11:52 AM LiamH ifI were you mate I would phone up again tomorrow. You know the lies that come out their mouth. And don't accept anything less than a free phone and loads of free mins. to give you an idea, £250 / month on THREE they would probably give you the keys to the company. I think, those of us who are upgrading and haven't recieved our P990i's yet should complain. Why the hell shoudl vodafone reserve phones for new customers but not for loyal existing customers. DAMN them! Who's with me? p.s (I'm not starting a revolution, just want vodafone to know they're not all that) :) Chris, you raise a good point in threatening to leave en masse.
September 13, 2006 at 12:03 PM Ok, they just arrived and I can't say I am overly impressed with my first attempt at adding a contact. Can someon replicate this? flip closed, go to contacts and add a contact, click on the name field (or any for that matter ) to edit it. Now open your flip. Mine goes to white screen and I have to remove the battery to reboot. Similarly the same happens when I edit a contact. Hell I only have to VIEW a contact and open the flip and I get a crash. First impressions? Sack the testers!
September 13, 2006 at 01:25 PM TerryD have you updated the firmware? Mine was terrible out the box, then upgraded the firmware and it's a million* times faster/less buggy. *maybe not a million
September 13, 2006 at 01:31 PM I rang vodafone again today and they stated that there will not be any more P990's in until the 19th of September they said they would do me a call back when they come in if i wish, Eversince i read reviews about the P990 i have been salavting because i had the P800 P900 & P910 so the most logical thing is the P990, but now i am not so sure, I have waited so long i think i will wait a bit longer, i sent an e-mail of complaint to vodafone regarding the mis-information given to me regarding the P990 upgrade prices, i will keep ou guys posted on the outcome, what is strange is that i indirectly work for vodafone designing there mast and antenna locations, i am quite surprised about the apparent problems some people are facing with the P990, This Phone has been in conception since last yr why are there still problems??? etc,etc,
September 13, 2006 at 01:42 PM Hi NickB Can you gie me details of where I get the frimware flash files from please. I assume its either an exe file or an updater and ROM Cheers
September 13, 2006 at 01:46 PM See, I was told nothing until end of OCTOBER by this gibbering prat who refuses to let the phone go for sub-£200. Stuff the email, which is easily ignored/"lost"/delayed, I'm seriously considering calling and demanding managerial interfacing. Not in a weird way. They are lying to all of us to varying degrees and as long standing customers, I agree that we chouldn't have to pay - especially if you pay a standard tariff ex extra call of over £40 a month! Phone being delayed = frustrating. Vodafone LYING and charging us instead of new customers = the ghey. Maybe I should point out there IS no point attracting new customers if we'v all got fed up and left. They'll merely be maintaining a status quo and more damn fool them if they still don't give a turd. i might call again today and DEMAND a free phone again. I thinhk I'd accept paying £30 like I said. that's an "upgrade" kind of price...
September 13, 2006 at 06:37 PM Nice man from Vodafone phoned me today at 12:05pm to confirm my details to order the phone only to be told at the end of the call again that between him calling me processing my details (3mins) every one of the 185 units had been sold, as someone mentioned earlier i guess they are hanging around and ordering for there best customers. Arrrrrrhhhhhh
September 13, 2006 at 07:30 PM Cripes... thanks for that info Liam, to be honest i was hoping you'd come back telling me the phone was the best you'd ever had bar none... hard resets and crummy 3G wasn't what i was hoping for, but at least i know now! I guess T-mobile will have to wait for my dollar until nokia or sony ericsson or SOMEBODY releases a smartphone or a PDA-style that actually *works*. Certainly not the e61, by the sounds of things :(
September 13, 2006 at 10:04 PM Sorry Fellers - try this link for the firmware flash. Be careful when you do it though - its misleading - when it says press and hold the C button and connect it to the PC, you have to hold the C button whilst you connect and hold it until it tells you to release it. Mine is just going through the upgrade now (taken about 15 minutes) When it reboots, it may look like it has hung on the language selection screen but give it a few minutes - it hasn't. Now then.... The firmware flash has not fixed my contacts problem but I can live with that. There is a workaround When you view a contact and open the flip it white screens. The workaround is - nudge the keylock button on the left side to lock the keys. Then press any button on the qwerty pad and it says "keypad locked". repress the keylock key to unlock and it goes back to normal. I will talk to my account mgr at vodafone about this and I'm sure she will be good enough to flag it with the SE Rep. Right - now I'm off to really give this baby a run for its money Can anyone tell me how to check the firmware version on the phone (I hate instruction manuals) Catch y'all tomorrow
September 13, 2006 at 10:11 PM I lied.... the firmware upgrade DOES fix the contacts issue - you just have to take the battery out and restart the phone - I have no problem with contacts now and like NickB says - its a million times faster (approx)
September 13, 2006 at 10:48 PM Hi there TerryD - When I run the Update Software it detects my phone and then says "UP TO DATE - NO UPDATE NEEDED" followed by "CONTINUE ANYWAY?" Did you get this message? It seems strange if you did not as both our handsets are from Vodafone. If you did get it, then did you just continue anyway?
September 13, 2006 at 11:08 PM Hi Sat, yes I did get this message - ignore it. The firmware DOES update. As for me - I can't get the camera to take photos - it goes through the motions but nothing gets stored - what am I doing wrong ?
September 14, 2006 at 12:41 AM Hi there TerryD - thanks for that - will give that a try tommorow. The camera was bugging me first as I had no idea why it was not storing photos, but not to worry it is not faulty - it just needs to be pressed VERY firmly & hard - I spent ages thinking the button was dud, until I pressed extra hard! You will hear a click and the image will stay on the screen in preview mode. Also you an also press an icon on the touch screen to initiate the snap. Also Terry, do you have WLAN? any chance of testing this if you can as my router is on it's way out.
September 14, 2006 at 04:15 AM Hi all I have had the phone for a week or so now and am generally very happy with it... a definate improvement on the 910 .. although those who want "one handed" control will be dispapointed .. afew more steps are necessary this time round to access some functions. Q: does the 990 have an option to store album cover art in the music player? would be cool if it did as the player and sound quality are first class. Gripes: Why oh why cant sony just give us a standard headphone jack .. i hate the bllody things they ship with and with so mnay better afetr market options its really bloody annoying. The jog wheel used to have multi functions .. now not. The phone does not immedaitely recognise files ona hot swapped memory card .. why? Niggles but still I have been using thses things since P800 days find them a really useful business tool and wonder why Sony dont offer us a froum for suggestions .. and then listen to them!! Come on software guys get your skates on .. particullary MUMSMS which is brilliant app. Handyday doesnt do enough and doesnt appear to have a deafult function to appear when flip is down. Couldnt find a 990 screen protector anywhere so use one meant for a m600 ... slightly smaller but works fine .. fits on easier and no air bubbles. Hope you are now recieving your phones!
September 14, 2006 at 06:27 AM Hi John, You are of course right, the sneaky fella's at VF realised they were shooting themselves in the foot and changed the website. I wasn't trying to be derogatory to the poster
September 14, 2006 at 07:42 AM no problem Chris.. :) on a side note, I pay an average of £25 a month... but did mention to VF I would be going up to a higher tariff anyway.. the amount you guys are spending, you should get shares in the company, let alone a free phone ! :) John
September 14, 2006 at 08:12 AM I called Voda this morning just for the hell of it. (you never know). Before she found out the P990 was out of stock, she offered me 150mins and 100 texts for £36/month. I started laughing right there and then. who in their right mind would spend £36/month for just 150mins / 100texts. Voda, your really taking us for a ride. Sorry I just had to share that.
September 14, 2006 at 10:19 AM Well it arrived as promised. Fantastic. Very excited. I didn't realise however that the adapter was different from all the other SE kit, "sigh"
September 14, 2006 at 10:20 AM Thanks for that Sat. I figured it out at about 2 am this morning! My wireless LAN is super fast. web pages load in seconds. I am on a 2meg BT line using a netgear ADSL router. No problem at all. Not figured out how (or if) I browse the home network yet. Here's an oddity I found. I have a folder called contact pics on the memory stick In it are loads of photos of my contacts. The file names are the same as the contact names. Waddya know - it found them all and attached them to the contact entries! anyone else found this? As for Screen protectors, the best one is the Martin Fileds Overlay Plus. It is really hard wearing, you can hardly tell its on (as long as you carefully folllow the fitting instructions) and its washable! www.blueunplugged.com sell them for under a tenner each but are out of stock at present. I have two on order (as well as a 4 gb sandisk card they do) but in the meantime, if you have a p910 screen protector, lop about 8mm off one end and it fits perfectly.
September 14, 2006 at 11:13 AM Chris... Guess what i recieved a Phone call and E-mail from Vodafone regarding my complaint They were very apologetic and told me that due to the popularity of the the phone it has gone as soon as it come in, anyway i just recieved a call back i have had my phone ordered and it will be delivered tomorrow i paid £50 upgrade fee which i was quite happy to pay, i have never had any problems with SE phones and i am glad i stumbled onto this blog it has and will help me sort out any bugs the P990 spits out... Screen protectors: there is another shop you sells them called L8shop have you guys heard of that one ?
September 14, 2006 at 11:15 AM So were all still waiting? looks like ill just have to call first thing on tuesday and give them hell. cant really complain too much as im getting the swap out for free.. Anyone else waiting?
September 14, 2006 at 12:13 PM Rodney ... You can have album art displayed - took me a while to suss out, but the trick is as follows. Create a folder in the music folder, for example lets say "Michael Jacksons Thriller", in this folder alone store all the MP3's from the Thriller album, and also in this folder add a single small sized JPEG image of the cover art of the album. When you start Media Player, scan for the new songs and then select a track from the album, let's say Billie Jean, and hey presto, the album cover will be displayed! So basically for each album you have, store the songs in an individual folder with the JPEG cover art. If you only have a single track, then you will also need to put this in an individual folder with the JPEG image. Hope that helps you. TerryD ... I also want to buy a 4gb stick, but am unsure how good the basic SanDisk sticks are. I have a 1gb SanDisk stick and when I select a movie (lets say it's about 300mb in size), the Video Player takes about 1 whole minute before it starts to play! I have emailed SE regarding this and will post their reply when I get it. I'm curious as you can also buy Pro Duo sticks which are lableled "Ultra II", and are supposed to have very fast access speeds and as such am wondering if this is what is causing the slowdown in read time form the disk. Also finally, do any of you know the type of battery you have in the phone? SE was supposed to include a longer lasting battery (BST34), but have shipped with the lower capacity BST33 instead. Apparently the BST34 is far superior and as such I am also pondering on whether I should pick this up.
September 14, 2006 at 01:06 PM No need to ponder any longer. The BST34 is not even available to buy yet.
September 14, 2006 at 03:14 PM Yeah Sat, I get the same issue with loading mp4 movies. Mine IS the sandisk 4gb Ultra II. It can take a good 8 to 10 seconds before it loads and plays the movie. The same if I pause it then press play. Very disappointing and worth a word to SE deaf ears!
September 14, 2006 at 04:02 PM Right chaps, purely as a favour toyou all, you understand, I am off to Ibiza for the weekend to test the roaming capabilities of the P990i. I hope youall appreciate the sacrifice I am making in doing this. I might even try a post wehn I am out there (can you post pics on this blog ?) Have a good weekend all Speak to you Tuesday if not before. Regards T
September 14, 2006 at 04:04 PM TerryD::::: thanks.... gets me right here........gulp!
September 14, 2006 at 04:12 PM rudibo... reh heh heh heally. Well, I might have to give them another call. I've been given a contact at O2 to see if they will set me up with a very good deal. LiamH, how come you're getting the swap for free? (unlike the rest of us poor bastards)
September 14, 2006 at 04:23 PM Chris, im on the biggest traff plus the 1000 txt pack and my bills are well over £200 per month. Also used to work for vodafone and know a few little trick of what to say. i.e. asking for terminations and PAC's etc etc. ive never paid for a phone once in the 6 years ive been with VF. Its a bloody shame they dont have the retention team anymore, they rocked..... I didnt want the e61 and at time of upgrade was offerd the p990 when it came out. as soon as he said this i asked him to but on my notes that he would swap out this phone. since then ive asked for the notes to be re added to each call i make to the team to check on the status of the phone. the E61 is a great phone, when they sort the firmware out but im in love with all the p9xx phones....
September 29, 2006 at 05:26 PM Can't believe it... the replacement turned up today :) initial findings are that this one seems a little faster, the camera works better (sharper), the video calling works, and the sms works. Alhough it is still a VF branded phone, so far so good. one little hiccup as I attemped to sync the contacts, at the same time as inserting my 2gb card, which caused a bit of a lockup.. the phone let me turn it off though. haven't had a chance to check the firmware numbers yet.. John
September 14, 2006 at 09:49 PM Yes Chris Reh heh heh heally to Ras, i have no reason to lie, i was..here is a copy of the e-mail i recieved from vodafone I appreciate your concerns and would like to help. I'm sorry that I was unable to speak to you when I called today, but have left a voicemail on your phone. I understand your frustration at the difficulty you have had getting the upgrade that you would like. The Sony Ericsson P990 is an extremely popular phone at the moment, but as it is newly stocked we only have small deliveries at first. These sell out fast. I can see that a batch of 159 P990s are due to be released a 12pm today. If you like you can call this department free on 08000 158 801, and I will make sure you are transferred straight through to the upgrades team. If you are unable to call today to arrange an upgrade, there is another delivery due on the 18th September 2006. If you feel it would be of value to you I can call you then and transfer you through to upgrades as soon as these are released. I can also do this for you at 12pm today, just let me know if you would like me to. Please be assured that you are a valued customer to Vodafone and I will do all I can to help get this matter resolved. If there is anything you need, I'm always here to help i was pesimistic when i complained but as i said if you dont try you don't get...
September 15, 2006 at 01:08 PM I have a few questions that are plaguing me: 1) is there any difference in the operating systems between the p990i, the m600i and the w950i? Are they all the same? 2) Why does the new p990i design look like crap compared to the p900i & p910i? 3) Has anyone else gotten an unbranded / unlocked p990i from Vodafone?
September 15, 2006 at 05:50 PM Whats the battery life like mine only lasted from 7 untill about 3 today with 5 pics and 15 mins of calls but radio on ??????? have we got the wrong battery mine is a BST33
September 16, 2006 at 11:09 AM Lads guess what? This is a true story.... once upon a time..... After being promised the p990i earlier in the week as a new customer, yesterday I rang customer service and made a complain about unbroken promises. The chap said that he will ring around vodafone shops in my area and c if there are any in stock. He rang me back stating that there was some in stock in a shop nearby me and the shop wil ring me back if I was interested.. So I had a phone call from the sales rep asking me what type of contract i was looking for..so I said 12 mnths, £30 month (100 txt & 2 gifts ( i chose 10% line rental & stop the clock)comes standard with this tariff) So she said "i will talk with my manager as we do not do 12 month contracts". Earlier on in the week the same contract was offered to me (ie. 12 mnth £30pm) £130 for the fone. whereas online it is £180 plus free bluetooth headset. So she rang me back stating yes i can match the deal..then i asked "can u better the deal" she said "what do u want in terms of a better deal" i said "want to pay less for the phone" she said "£100 is the least i can take for the fone" so i said "deal". I have collected the fone and now testing various functionalties on it....first time running a pda fone. WLAN is working fine....no problems..testing ongoing what u guys reckon about the deal... 1 happy vodafone customer..
September 16, 2006 at 11:20 AM Hey Mo, may I inquire are you a new customer or an existing upgrader? That is a very good deal, espicially since I too am looking for a 12month contract.(i'm upgrading). how many mins did you get? and where did you see the offer for free bluetooth headset? well done on the haggling by the way. I'm still waiting for mine.
September 16, 2006 at 12:51 PM Hm, i'm still debating between the m600i and p990... dont want a camera and i love that m600 keyboard but grown to hate touch screens lately...
September 16, 2006 at 02:19 PM ...any information/news about the release date in germany? thanx
September 16, 2006 at 08:05 PM Got phone on 12 mth contract 500min 100 text / stop the clock/ 10% of line rental/ £35-10%/ and wait for phone free Yippeeee!! Only problem is he keyboard light gone after 3 days. (From Vodafone business store)
September 16, 2006 at 08:46 PM Er..... well..... went into VF in Dewsbury to give them a piece of my mind, re phone calls, prices etc Told them of the deal I got on Orange... He reckoned he could match it.... so I said, so can anybody when they don't have the phones... to which he replied he had one left.. then he also said I could have it free on my current tariff of £25 a month... so now I too have a P990i :) for free! John
September 17, 2006 at 10:39 AM i was just wondering for anyone who now has a p990, has anyone had any luck with the push email service?
September 17, 2006 at 11:00 PM Well, so far it's taking a bit of time to get used to.. Battery life isn't amazing, and numerous application crashes.. although only one system lock up.. Camera is very good, business card reader works ok. WLan was pretty easy, and works well, email setup as well. getting used to the handwriting function, but a few letters are still a bit difficult to get right. Just ordered a 2GB Sony MS Pro Duo (High Speed)... average price £120.... good ol' Ebay gets me one for £27 all in. :) Also ordered the Sony HCB-700 bluetooth car kit.. Things are looking up for once :) John
September 18, 2006 at 08:17 AM ..
September 18, 2006 at 08:26 AM FYI - Voda are expecting 400 units to be deliverd at 12 today....
September 18, 2006 at 08:53 AM Well, I've had prety crap news and I'm not happy with Vodafone at all. Rang up, asked for my PAC and told them that I was not accepting £200 as an upgrade given I've been with them 7 years and have spent anywhere from 50-250 a month most of that time, not including insurance and so on. Was told whilst they value me as a customer (evidence still to be seen here), they were not willing to even begin to compromise on this; also that since there weas nothing on my notes about getting this as a free upgrade, she said she thinks a competitor rang me and lied to me (for reasons unknown since it's the same damn contract with Vodafone). Also, they no longer call to renew a contract as "people were getting pissed off" - they now wait for you to do it and move it to a month by month basis after it finishes, apparently. The final turd in the waterpipe was that contrary to this forum and everyone on it, this phone is now only being offered to people who have incredibly high spending business accounts and pay more than £600 a month for the foreseeable future. I feel like I have been fed the biggest load of bull I've ever heard, when I mentioned there were other people (ie you fellas) who got reasonable or free upgrades on this, she basically said you were all either lying or even if it was true she couldnt' verify it so tough. For God's sake can someone give me the name of a reasonable contact in vodafone or a manager or something! This is ridiculous, I'd be happy to pay a reasonable fee and now I'm told I can't have the phone at any price. NOT what I'm seeing on this board. Any help/thoughts? I'm actually getting p'd off with VF now.
September 18, 2006 at 09:16 AM Chris, Are you serious? Vodafone aare taking the piss out of you. If you spend that much money, of course you shoudl get the phone free. Tell them that you could get a better deal being a new customer; its true, ordering online you could get the phone for £100, £35/month 500mins, 100text, plus 4extras. THAT'S a new customer; !!!!! Tell her how the hell you end up getting shafted (pardon the expression); when lower spenders can get beter deals. ASk for a supervisior or manager!! Let me know how it goes, I'm continuing to negotiate too.
September 18, 2006 at 09:24 AM Totally serious, word for word :( I told them that, told them other places also offer better deals. Their attitude was that they didn't care. i asked her that exact question her response was she had no evidence anyone was getting the phone free on lower deals. I wouldn't mind laying out £50 if I had to, but I'm getting miiiighty irritated by all this! I'm cursed with finding the wrong ppl to pick up my call :D I'm sure that it can't be true that the only way you can get an upgrade now is to be spending up to a grand a month. I'm goign to call back at 12 and demand to talk to a manager.
September 18, 2006 at 09:40 AM Nice one Chris, I'm gonna call at 12 too. Keep me posted on how it goes. And do me a favour, however much you want the phone, do not setlle for less than free for the phone. Take it easy mate.
September 18, 2006 at 11:33 AM All I can offer in advice, is to go to your local VF store... As they told me, they have completely different rules to online ordering.. They told me my upgrade status was very high, and so the phone was free.. even though I only pay £25 a month, and rarely ever go over this. I admit that phoning VF is a complete waste of time, and that most of the people I spoke to couldn't be bothered. John
September 18, 2006 at 11:38 AM I suppose it's far easier to not care on the end of a phone as opposed to in the flesh. I'll call in a mo and demand a supervisor; Anyone know where the nearest VF store to Woking is? :P
September 18, 2006 at 11:43 AM hi, i've been reading this blog for a long time now and its really informative, so thank you all. i have just got back from holiday and have phoned up vodafone regarding a contract, this is the deal i am being offerd: (currently on orange PAYG) 200mins, 250txts, stop clock, 3 months 1/2price, £30-10% per month, 18 month. £75 for handset is this a good deal you reckon?? thanks shaggy
September 18, 2006 at 12:06 PM better bloody deal than I'm getting atm! All 400 phones went in 40 minutes. Still on phone, still arguing my case.
September 18, 2006 at 12:16 PM RIGHT. they're all out but my number has been passed to someone with authority to negotiate with me, who will call me to work out a deal the instant they are back in stock. I still think this is all pretty ridiculous given some of you lucky buggers have got it free on a lesser price plan :D Pray for me, my brothers.
September 18, 2006 at 12:19 PM Chris, are you sure they're all out? I was told it wasn't released yet, there was some delay in stock. Told to try again at 2 0'clock. I would try again if I were you.
September 18, 2006 at 12:21 PM Chris, There is a VF store in Guildford if that helps.
September 18, 2006 at 12:28 PM I have 3 days of heavy use under my belt and so far, no crashes or major problems. VF live television broadcasts were a bit spotty yesterday but crystal clear when they were working and worked well this morning. Camera is a huge step forward (from my 910 or 610). In general, I'm pretty happy with this little beast. One question - I can sniff out a Wifi network no problem (I have one at home) but then what? How do I get it to pull content via my Wifi/broadband home network rather than via 3G?
September 18, 2006 at 12:51 PM done! i went for that deal (to eager to w8!) the guy said that they had about 30 phones left when he was sorting it all PHONE COMES 2MO!!!!!! WOO HOO!! i will post any problems or anything i have shaggz
September 18, 2006 at 01:04 PM Well I got one... Called at 11:55am and explained my situation and he chatted till just before 12. They had 400 in stock and it was going fast. By the time we finished it at 12:20 there was 220 left in stock. Glad the wait is over and i just hope nothing goes wrong coz i dont wanna wait for replacements. So, tomorrow before 12 the wait is over and its all for free. All i have to do is hand back my e61 ( gladly ) I recommend calling before 12 and not at 12. stock was released at 12 on the dot.
September 18, 2006 at 04:12 PM Hi guys, just got off the phone with VF, I ordered my p990i, had to pay £50 to upgrade without much haggling, said it would be up to 3 weeks before it got delivered, but when i asked him about this he checked his 'logs' and said he wouldn't be surprised if it arrived within a week. So I said ok. Can't wait to see it, but I am a bit worried about all the issues everyone has been reporting. If it sucks, I'll just send it back and get a w850i, which he said is released 'officially' on the 29th. We were pretty okay with paying the £50 as it is (per the specs) an amazing phone, but we'll see. I will report back again when it comes.
September 18, 2006 at 04:15 PM Hey Functionista Can I ask what your priceplan is? I've offered that and they say they flat out can't do it. I think they either have no internal comms or someone is lying to people! they still insist it's £200 for me, on a £45 flat rate plus insurance plus extras which makes my average bill 50-200 a month. C
September 18, 2006 at 04:58 PM Or just say if mine's better or worse than yours ;) that gives me a baseline at least!
September 18, 2006 at 05:29 PM Hi there, Don't forget that the 14 day's grace that Vf give when you upgrade doesn't just apply to your handset. It also applies to the tariff and any queries you have. You can call Vf within the 14 days and speak to the returns department to re-negociate. I plan to do this tomorrow. To me this wasn't obvious, so I thought it good to share, apologies if this was obvious to other people. KR. C.
September 18, 2006 at 05:34 PM @ Chris We have two phones on a Business Anytime plan, one is on 750 min / 250 txt, the other is 500 min / 500 txt. Those figures are after our 'free extras'. We're upgrading from previous business plans, been on VF for one year now. We don't have insurance on them that I know of. Again as I said, all we had to do was mention that we weren't happy with paying £100 for the phone and we reminded him we'd been with VF for a year and he just okay "okay, how about £50?" and we said okay. Easy as that. @everyone From what I'm hearing on this forum, it seems that the deal you get if subject to many different parameters, one main one being the rep you get on the phone. Mind you that since we are already business customers we have a dedicated rep, maybe that means we get through to nicer people or something? I suggest that if you call and can't get the deal you want, just call again and try someone else!
September 18, 2006 at 05:56 PM hehe see you're on a better deal than me and I've been with them 7 years. They just don't care about exisiting customers, from what I'f been handed so far. Grrr. anyone got the skinny on when the next lot are in? Half the ppl there don't knwo what the others are doing! Or what the plans are! Or what's going on! It's an unholy messy way to do business.
September 18, 2006 at 08:12 PM Guys, get in to VF store in Reading oracle they have stock.
September 18, 2006 at 08:48 PM Hey all I'm from the U.S. and I've been wanting a p990i for a really long time. Does anyone know of a way I can sign up for a VF contract? I've emailed them but nothing.... Or if there is some way I can get a p990i without having to pay 700 dollars!
September 18, 2006 at 09:20 PM Folks, for those of you that have been running your phones into the ground, i'd like to ask a few questions... any opinions or thoughts welcome. I'm still teetering on the edge of a contract with vodafone, would like to get a few ideas on the following first though. on the whole one-handed use issue; has anybody been using their phone without the flip? i noticed the thumbpad has numerals attached in the store today... anyone been using theirs to dial with as well? i'd like to use the phone without relying too much (if at all) on the touch screen. is it possible to navigate the p990 without the flip or the screen? might sound like a stupid question but i'd give my b*ll*cks for a p990 with a d-pad and numerals where the thumbpad is, just for the phone spec :) excluding features like the camera and video, is the OS quite easy to get around? how useful is that jog dial? on paper it seems quite chocka with apps and goodies, but i'm quite curious to know if it fulfills the wishes of all those folks who've been waiting with baited breath for the handset. as a whole... is it everything you'd hoped for? more to the point, was the hype worth it? is it a pretty amazing piece of kit or is anyone underwhelmed at the moment? any and all thoughts on this one welcome... when i saw it, i just couldn't help thinking, wow... this is what all the fuss is about, and is it worth it?
October 03, 2006 at 10:22 PM @ terryD Terry i was wondering if you managed to try the push email on the TyTn and how it worked compared to the p990?
September 18, 2006 at 10:19 PM Lads, seems that most of u r having problems negotiating with VF for a v.good contract. I have already posted my contract details which I received on Friday. (see 16/09/06) new customer - 12 mnth contract, £30 per month, 200mins, 100txt, 10% line rental, stop the clock = £100 for the phone free bluetooth headset. shaggy beat this deal! Is there anywhere where i can download anti-virus software from? or can anyone help me identify one that will work with p990i? By the way I live in Birmingham and got the contract from a VF store in West Bromwich for guys that are interested in a value for money contract.
September 18, 2006 at 10:24 PM It seems we are in a world first, gentlemen. For the first time ever, it would appear you get a better deal IN a Vodafone outlet than online or by phone! Even Vodafone admitted this to me earlier. Weird-o. 7 years, you bastards! I know for a FACT (inside source, chaps) that they buy the phones in COST PRICE for circa £50, NOT £650, so if you tot up what they make out of you, e3specially all you long time customers, the phone for free really isn't asking TOO much. Oh, one other thign I was told earlier - "it doesn't matter how long you've been with them. They don't factor this in to upgrades". THERE'S customer loyalty appreciation! ;)
September 18, 2006 at 10:25 PM Idiot fingers. Circa £350. Not £50.
September 19, 2006 at 01:23 AM Can someone mention the cheapest place in the UK to buy the p990i sim free Thanx
September 19, 2006 at 02:16 PM try www.mphone.co.uk very cheap and good. Well i got my p990i as promised... love it... crashed on boot up but that was the only problem ive seen so far....
September 19, 2006 at 03:05 PM Hola all, I have had chance to play with the new gizmo over the weekend and I'm startig to find one or two bugs. BUGS... If you take a photo and opt to send it as an MMS, then the phone asks if you want to resize it. If you say yes with messaging already open, then it crashes. I think the code that drives the camera is trying to open messages in order to create the MMS and crashes because it is already running. I tried it with messaging closed and it works ok. Its a bit of a pain to have to check that Messaging is shut before you take a picture, but its not life-threatening. I've also noticed that it doesn’t like running two of a similar kind of app at the same time. For example if you are listening to the radio or music, and try to use the camera, the whole thing just locks up. MEMORY... The new UIQ3 oprating system seems to have a heavier drain on the memory than perhaps has been catered for. With no apps running at all I can't get the VJ Singh golf to start without getting the 'not enough memory' message. HARDWARE... I miss my 5 way jog dial, it means that wih the flip removed it is no longer one handed operation as the old 5 way used to enable full navigation on the phone wheras the 3 way limits this considerably. CAMERA... The autofocus is poor when the ambient light levels are low or when snapping a landscape. The phone seems to need something quite substantial to look at and focus on. The flash is pretty ineffective on distances of over about 5 feet too. On the whole though I am still pleased with the camera, I just wish I could get on the UAT team at Sony Ericsson. Functionally each application appears to hold up in bench tests, but I would challenge the quality of the User testing that has been done. This may be Sony Ericsson's testing or Symbian itself but its poor at best. Listen up Sony Ericsson, there's a team of about 10 beta testers here who would probably do the job for free for you if you asked, saving you both the wages of the testers you have who are clearly not doing a very good job, and get you better results. What better user testing can you get than ACTUAL users. If they post a reply I'll show you my arse!
September 19, 2006 at 03:42 PM For the love of GOD reply!
September 19, 2006 at 09:26 PM Hi all my battery life has settled down now aftwe a few charges but what is that black triangle that appears on the right hand side some times anyone any ideas?
September 20, 2006 at 08:41 AM anyone know when the next stock is in? And are the vodafone shop so much better to go to? Are they really that much better to go to? SO, many questions, Oy vai!
September 20, 2006 at 08:50 AM I second those questions. If I know when the next stock is in, I can ring and hound them again. I'm going to follow Rudibo's example and email in as well.
September 20, 2006 at 10:47 AM Well Chaps, they will be having 2 in stock at least very soon...... just sent this to VF ---------------------------------- I am dreading having to say this after the trouble you went in getting them to me, but I am sending you these phones back. Last night was the first time I really got so sit down and go through the phone thoroughly and I have to say I am sorely disappointed with its usability, its overall performance, its stability and the hardware itself. In updating UIQ to version 3, it has become a lot less user friendly. In UIQ2 you could arrange applications into folders, for example I had all my most used apps in a folder called 'desktop'. This made them quick to access. You can no longer do this with UIQ3 - you can reassign apps you install to other folders, but not the pre-installed ones. This makes is more cumbersome to navigate. The hardware itself has suffered from a step backwards in the removal of the 5 way jog dial. With the flip removed on the p910 you can fully navigate apps, menus and settings. The P990 is no longer a one handed device. If you have the flip fitted to use the nav-key then you only get a restircted view of applications in any group. To see the full list you have to open the flip, immediately losing your means of navigation. With the flip removed you are in a similar position as you have to use the stylus in conjunction with the scroll wheel. It makes the phone very difficult to operate. As with Windows Mobile 5, little consideration has been given to the memory requirements needed to suport the software. About 5 times last night I got the 'Not enough memory to run app' message and had to proceed to close some open apps. This never, ever happened with the P910. Quite often too, applications will conflict with one another. Mainly when they are in the same program group. For example starting th camera whilst listening to music or the radio will invariably either lock the phone or close the sound app. There appears to be some conflict within the device as to having the flip open or closed. For example, if you receive an MMS and view it with the flip closed, then open the flip all you see is a white screen (a thing that appears a lot on the phone). This happens a lot when you open the flip mid-operation. The alleged 'RDS' radio is not. Radio Data Systems was introduced in the early 90's and served 3 purposes. It allows a radio to say 'Radio 4' instead of 92.7 FM, it allows radios to pick up traffic infromation, overriding your current station, when it comes in range of a frequency transmitting a certain signal and lastly it allows you to tune your radio to a national station at one end of the country and it will seamlessly switch frequency to keep the strongest signal, giving you reception all the way to the other end. The P990 basically picks up the name of the station and that’s all. There is no traffic info and as the signal gets worse you have to totally rescan for stations. This is not RDS and is being mis-sold. The 35 button qwerty keypad, I found after using for about 5 minutes constant, is more trouble than it is worth. It is clearly not designed for a man's thumbs, not even one with manicured nails ! The combinations of keey needed to navigate with the flip open are, frankly ridiculous. Movie playback from the memory stick is fine, as long as you wait for about 30 seconds for the madia player to load the movie and don't intend to pause, forward or rewind, if you do then the whole thing locks up and you have to start again. The P910 plays exactly the same movie files with no such problems. The p800, p900 and p910 all had a feature where you could open the flip during a call and this would activate the speakerphone - this no longer happens and you must navigate to a menu option to do this. The whole 'slickness' that has been added to the phone has only served to slow it down. Menu's 'glide' onto the screen and selected icons grow and fade into the application. I don't want 'it looks nice' I want 'it works efficiently' The Messages inbox has been lumped all into one. This means that all the area messages, texts, mms, beamed files are all in one folder and there is no way to filter them apart from creating seperate inboxes and moving them manually. If you add to all these, the simple fact that many applications just close, mid use, for no apparent reason you can see why I am so thoroughly fed up with the device after only a few days. You have to bear in mind that this is an out of the box phone I am using, its not as if I have installed any third party sfotware. Just a SE firmware upgrade. I am sure that Sony Ericsson wil eventually get round to addressing all these issues, but I'm not willing to have them do it on my time. I'm a customer, not a guinea pig. My assessment of the handset is that the underlying software is flawed, the hardware is cumbersome, the applications are full of bugs and the user interaction has been very poorly thought out. When I got up this morning (oh yes, the alarm failed to go off, despite me double checking the settings were correct) I reset the factory settings, boxed it up and put my SIM back in my trusty P910i because even with a touch scren that doesn’t work, the old phone is twice as easy to use as this monstrosity. I could probably have put up with waiting for Sony Ercisson to get their act together had this phone not been a tie-in to a two year contract. There is no way I am willing to commit myself to two years for this handest. Frankly its not worth committing a week to. So I'm afraid I must ask you to let me have an address to return these handsets to (obviously along with the freebies you sent) and to cancel the 2 year contract that they tie me to. I have every intention of staying with vodafone because the service, package and support you give me I the best I have had in 15 years of having mobile phone contracts, but I can't commit my self to using my upgrade on such shoddy equipment. I will continue on a month by month contract until hardware hits the market that suits my needs (i.e actually does what it is damn-well supposed to). In the meantime I will buy spares to repair my p910i's I hope you understand my position an I hope that you don't think this reflects on you in any way, you couldn't have done a better job. You might want to 'take 5' with the Sony Ericsson rep when you see them to go through this though because in my opinion they are going out there selling this phone either with no knowledge of how bad it is or knowing and not saying anything. This phone is not ready for release.
September 20, 2006 at 11:16 AM @ TerryD Those are some strong words TerryD. After that convulated review; I'm reconsidering how badly I want this phone. It seems like a disaster more than anything. Is it really that bad? AS someone else mentioned, the mobile devices conference is coming up in october; I'm seriously thinking of waiting till then. Thanks TerryD. Anyone else up for waiting? or just me? :p Although I don't completely agree with your comments about vodafone. They're not the most helpful bunch in my opinion; and we know they categorically lie to us.
September 20, 2006 at 12:13 PM Great review Terry. I'm giving up on both the p990 and its baby brother; must reconsider the e61 yet again.
September 20, 2006 at 12:21 PM Most of the reviews I've heard were good, so I'm going to still vie for mine and then make my own mind up; good review though TD. Have to agree with K tho; VF support has gone waaaay downhill unless I'm just cursed when I call in! can you give me the email address you have used to contact them?
September 20, 2006 at 12:39 PM Thanks Guys, looks like I am not the only one who is seriously underwhelmed by this phone. http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/04/sony_ericsson_p990i_review/print.html The sad thing is that the p800, p900 and p910 were all great phones and the latter two an improvement on their predecessor. I have no idea what SE were thinking when they designed this. I Know some of you feel that you have been badly treated by VF and to each his own, but I honestly don't havea bad word against them. The way they have dealt with this is the only saving grace about the whole sorry ordeal.
September 20, 2006 at 02:38 PM Hey Terry D, I updated the firmware on The P990 it took absolutely ages but every now and again it comes with a closing application "kernal" is anyone else having the problem. also does anyone know where to get some good themes
September 20, 2006 at 03:49 PM Light at the end of the tunnel! Just had a call regarding my PAC code that I requested. When asked why I was leaving (again) I explained wearily (for the umpteenth time) why. He asked if it was just a case of that phone, I said yes, and he said well you can have it free, delivered tomorrow. Then proceeded to UTTERLY contradict EVERYTHING the others had told em about stock/reasons/prices/not caring how long I'd been with them! And to cap it all he then asked if I knew anyone not on Vodafone who wanted one free as well. WTF?! Unreal. We shall see if I agree with Terry, but finally I feel like I've been valued as a customer. Even if the phone is utter poop I'll feel like I got recognition I deserved! C
September 20, 2006 at 04:07 PM Hey Rudibo - I missed that one off the list. It seems to happen a lot using the browser.
September 20, 2006 at 04:21 PM hi i must say after using this fone constantly for a day n a bit (having nothin betta 2 do being a student) it has only "crashed" on me once. n i quote "crashed" because it bassically just kept saying busy one time wen i opend calender so i impatiently end taskd it and that was it, bak to normal. thats the only problem i've had with it. i've tried to make it crash doing wot sum ppl above hav sed they did 2 crash it but it works fine for me. i've neva got a "not enuff memory" or anything like that. the fones been working fine, altho the menu's r slow due to the animations but i remember seeing a way to "disable" them on another forum. i'm very happy with this fone, its completely different to my p900 and took a lil' getting used to but other than that its gr8. i'm sure i may run into sum problems with more constant use but it seems fine at the moment. will keep u posted shaggz (i no my english sucks)
September 20, 2006 at 07:36 PM i think i jinx'd myself kuz i got a kernal error just now wen i end taskd contacts! D'oh!
September 20, 2006 at 08:22 PM .....and so it begins....
September 20, 2006 at 10:17 PM Well, problems so far include: kernal errors, freezing, battery life not good... and the worst one... reboots by itself, especially at night, and then beeps as it turns back on, waiting for me to put in my simlock code... waking me up :( Also lost a load of apps, including the games etc.. flashing the phone brought them back, and so far it has been flashed 3 times, due to the various problems. To be fair, I do like the phone very much, and I expect most of the problems will be cured in later firmware updates. I installed the car kit this afternoon, and works very well at voice dialling numbers, fairly good with names, but the phonebook doesn't work (it does mention this on the HCB-700 webpage) but it could be accessed from the phone if necessary. maybe another thing SE could look into? As said in the review, SE have a reputation to live up to, so i am sure they will endevour to fix the bugs asap.. John
September 21, 2006 at 02:47 AM Gentlemen, I've been reading this website for about a month now. I am most thankful for all your postings. I'm a 12 month VF user, and was trying to upgrade to this P990i. I was offered a deal where I would keep my current tariff and get the phone for free. I was about to accept this deal when I read Terry D's comprehensive review. His opinion made me delay my decision. Now I don't know what to do.But, the main reason I am writing is that I'd like to inquire as to whether most of you readers have also researched the Nokia N93 also. This Nokia was my 2nd choice to the SE 990i. But, now I'm beginning to think the Nokia is a better deal. Unfortunately, the nationwide VF aren't dealing in the N93. More info > http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051199,39378327-39254926p,00.htm Any thoughts? Thanks, and I really enjoy the feedback here. cheers, Scott
September 21, 2006 at 03:22 AM While the mobile itself definately does have teething issues. They are definately getting solved over time with FW releases. the latest one already makes the phone far more stable. Patience is a virtue and I have faith that SE will deliver. I personally have had very few issues with the mobile, a few crahses here and there but nothing major. Some of the issues people have mentioned, like the lack of 5D jog. You do now have a 'back' button on the side of the phone and so on to compensate. So it's not all bad. Someone above also mentioned that the camera does not like landscape pictures so much. When you take a landscape pic, the image goes dark. The more the distance in the photo, the darker the image gets. You can easily compensate for this by simply upping the lighting, instead of 0, set it to 7 and watch how the landscape image comes out perfectly. Basically, tinker about with the camera for the best settings. I am getting some truly outstanding results from the camera. Better then my old K800i and far better then my old N93. The last mobile I had was the N93, which I returned for my P990i. As I have close links with people at different mobile stores I can pretty easily get whatever phone I want and 95% of the time for free. I much prefer the P990i thus far over the N93. It might not be as stable. But the Ui imo is better, camera far superior, WiFi and web broweser far superior and the MP3 player and equaliser settings better. WiFi internet on the N93 is a bit laborious without the touch screen. Just thought I'd drop by and leave a comment for those trying to decide between the N93 and P990i or interested in the P990i in general. I'm a member of Mobile review forums, so sign up and keep posted on the latest mobile news. I've done a very brief set of impressions on the site, as well as updated it with sample pics of how the camera of the P990i performs. Check it out. I'll keep you guys posted. http://forum2.mobile-review.com/showthread.php?p=472918#post472918
September 21, 2006 at 10:15 AM Oh! are there are any more in stock now? N93 I considered this phone too, but the sheer bulk of the phone put me off. I know what you guys are thinking; the P990i is bigger. But the SE is justifbly bigger, it seems to carry the bulky design better because of pedigree and form factor. The N93 just looks like a big bulky version of any other clamshell phone. Is the firmware really that bad guys? A lot of you have reassured me by saying the firmware upgrades help. But I'm a little reluctant. Will SE fix ALL the problems? In hindsight; would those of you who have got it, reconsider the reward to risk ratio of getting the p990i?
September 21, 2006 at 11:26 AM yo @TerryD i found sum options in the radio settings for the RDS to allow Traffic annoucments and News broadcasts and the 're-scanning thing' (i forgot wot it was called). not sure if u knew this wen u posted your "review", or if u knew n were just complaining cuz they're crap, (i havnt tested them out yet). but jus thort i'd mention it. @every1 is the bluetooth on the p990 10m range or 100m range?? cuz i can find my p990 quite a distance away but it wont transfer files frum that far. maybe its cuz the device im using is 100m and can find it but the p990 is only 10 and cant find my other device. (if i that makes sence??!!) i think i've answerd my own question there, maybe. any thorts?? anyways, sorry if i've confused any1, god no's i've just confused myself. ok bye shaggz
September 21, 2006 at 11:29 AM oh yeh, the main reason i was posting (im retarded and forgot 2 mention it) was: duz any1 no of any software to allow msn messenger to work on the p990?? thanks bub bye shaggz
September 21, 2006 at 11:48 AM Cheers Shaggy, I hadn't seen that in the radio settings. D'oh! Besdies this though, I find the whole user interface far too clumsy in design. Its not user friendly, the phone has had an army of buttons added to com[esate for the loss of th 5 way jog and even without the crashing I just this its badlt designed. I will hold out for the P1000 when SE come to their senses again. I don't know if there's a version of MSN for UIQ (remember MSN is basically microsoft and Bill will be looking for sales of WM5!) You can get a thing called Agile messenger though that does MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and a few others. Mind you, I never managed to get it to log on successfully. I hear that Top Gear's Richard Hammond had a bad car crash yesterday. I wonder if he was trying to dial a contact from his phonebook on his new P990?
September 21, 2006 at 05:12 PM Hi Everyone, Has anyone managed to get the Exchange active sync working? I know my credentials are correct, I've changed the TCP/IP timeout to above that recommended by Microsoft (450ms) i've set our firewall to 550. Still no joy. Anyone experienced this? Of course I'm using Exchange 2003 SP2 with all the right settings and virtual folders in IIS. Just wondering if it's something someone else has found a solution for. Cheers Chris.
September 22, 2006 at 02:39 AM Hi all 1. Thanks to whoever it was who told me how to get album art on the music player .. workks a treat 2. There are some MSN applications for P990 check out Handango website I have had the phone two weeks now. It hasnt crashed once,, the LAN works just great .. cmaera is much improved .. many bits of the new software system I like .. some I dont .. dialing from contacts is a pain in the butt. Loss of the five way jog a huge minus although somewhat alleviated by the back button. In general I'm happy wit the phone and consider it an improvement over p910. I am sure sony will worlk to fix any operating software faults in double quick time. HOWEVER, I'm telling them now that if i spot a P1000 or whatever with all faults recyified, five way jog etc in the next 12 months .. then screw you sony .. I will not be used as an expensive guinea pig . You should listen to forums like this .. perhaps even post a message or two yourselves and be damn sure to make firmware updates and UIQ improvements avialble to all your supporters. Thanks I feel better for that ... By the way I have the N93 also ... clunky chunky and great videao but naff all use in comparison to P990. Lets face it guys the P990 is a business tool not a toy ... and for that its spot on. I have not managed to get the excahnge sync working yet .. have a sony tech visting me monday and will post results if they manage to sort it out .
September 22, 2006 at 11:24 AM Try this u want to chat http://www14.meebo.com/
September 24, 2006 at 10:14 AM finally managed to get hold of a p990 this weekend (my brother bought it on vodafone just so that he could get it before i got mine on orange...sucker!!) anyway, altho its vodafone branded, his phone seems to be unlocked to work on any network, because for the rest of the day he left his existing t-mobile sim in it. i'm assuming it would be the same with my orange sim, but i dont want to try yet (ok, ok, so he wont let me play with it properly, but lets not get in to that...)
September 24, 2006 at 01:47 PM @jam Dude, I haven't gotten mine from VF yet, but I will be quite excited if it's unlocked. Will report when I get it. However, there is a previous post that says that all of them will be both unlocked and unbranded, which is clearly not the case. Looks like they're trying to cover their tracks by branding them.
September 24, 2006 at 06:52 PM How do you make it louder the i have the volume set on max and it's quiet have a query into SE about it.
September 24, 2006 at 10:16 PM Well this place seesm to have livened up a bit! Jon Lewis - I found that too, the volume seems to be very limited. quite poor on trains and planes as you can't drown out the engine noise! I sent mine back on Saturday. I honestly think that the P910i is a better phone than the P990. The only advantage of the P990 over the 910 is that the camera is better. I chalenge anyone to tell me any other advances. I think SE have really let themselves down on this one, but I will be interested to see what everyone else thinks. Both mine and my fianceé's p910i's are in pretty poor shaep (had them 2 years) and the only thing stopping me from renewing my contract with VF on two more p910i's is the fact I would have to pay for all the software over again (as most of it is registerd against the IMEI) - unless anyone knows a way round this (legally, of course!!) I scoured the internet for a possible alternative but there is nothing that I can see that comes even close. BenQ Siemens have a new model out - the P51 Its Windows mobile 5 but has 128 meg of RAM yes - RAM! I read that WM5 will still only use 64 meg though so no better than any of the other under-powered WM5 devices. If anyone knows different then I'd like to hear. I still think WM5 is great only the RAM in the hardware lets it down.
September 24, 2006 at 11:29 PM I agree that the P910i is a fantastic phone, but has no 3G and no WiFi. I stopped using it a year ago (gave it to girlfriend, who complained that it was big then a couple of days later refused to part with it :) ). The main reason I am after the P990 is 3G, WiFi and the hope that is works like the P910. I called VF last Thursday and signed up for a new line and asked to get the P990 which they said was in stock, and will arrive next day, I thought great, I confirmied 3 times with the sales woman the they will be sending a SE P990i and was told "yes that is right", the package arrives on Friday with a SE V630. I called VF to complian, and was told their records show that I asked for the V630 and that the P990 was not in stock. Somone from VF is to contact me on Monday. Do you know if I cancel the new line if the dont sort it out?
September 25, 2006 at 07:38 AM i agree with the WM RAM issue, but having used an Orange SPV 550 with windows CE the last year and a half i dont find it makes life too difficult with underspec'd memory - plus i love the UI and the contacts system is great. After hearing the press the p990 is getting generally now, i'm going to wait and see how the new Palm 750 is received with windows mobile 5.0 and hopefully consider that as a replacement. Unfortunately Palm have (apparently) not implemented windows mobile before, but fingers crossed!
September 25, 2006 at 12:15 PM Hi Everyone Active Sync. I've got this to finally work after trying most things and the reason for the problem is SO annoying. VF uses two types of internet based connections. WAP and Full internet. Now it seems that the settings sent from VF and/or SE are only the WAP settings. Now this may seem fine, you can browser the web etc, there seems to be a difference in how the connections handle the VF proxies. I created a new internet account, then used the following Address: Internet Username: web Password: webs I had too put this in a group I chose business email. Everything now works. I thought I'd let you guy's know so you can benefit if you've experienced problems. Chris
September 25, 2006 at 12:40 PM Wooooo. Well, I'm of two minds - I love the phone and am irritated in various measures. It's crashed a few times, which is a nuisance - and the biggest problem, the only REAL issue, is the fact it (as stated) randomly restarts to iprove memory performance. And it does it mainly at night. Thsi means if you SIMlock as I do, the alarm doesn't wake you... as it sits at that screen alll night. Idiot design and bug. SE said "return the faulty unit"... um, it's a general bug fellas. The only other two issues I've had is 1) getting it all to connect via bluetooth (apparently my dongle isn't good enough to be used by the software) and 2) WLAN. It's set up, it's secure, it's detected by the WA Point, the mac is registered, it has the WEP key... it just won't bloody connect! Does anyone know if it's limited to a 64 bit key? I'm trying to use a 128 bit one and I'm thinking perhaps it removes everything after the 64 bit one ends as it halves the stars after you've put it all in. Apart from that, and the fact that virtually no apps work on it (Symbian 9 requires them all to be signed so no eDoom or anything of the ilk), the good points I love. Roll on firmware update, there;s so much potential bar the main memory issue. C
September 25, 2006 at 02:01 PM Chris, WLAN works great 128 bit wep encryptoion. Had the fone for an hour, only thing that bothers me with it so far is the vodafone logo on startup and exit, which prabably means it is locked to VF. I used to own a v800 which became a much nicer and faster fone when i loaded the z800 software on it, does anyone know how to unlock the VF P990i? I already tried the fortware update thing no joy stil the same
September 25, 2006 at 04:00 PM Gus it is unlocked the vodafone icon is just the splash screen. i have put my T-mobile in mine and it works great,
September 25, 2006 at 04:39 PM Rudibo, Thanks. Would still like to get rid of it thou. And yes it did start to crash, had a few web pages open with som downloads (speed on Wlan is great), just reebots a comes back wih a message that it did it to improve performance. tried to install Agile Messenger 3 Alpha for UIQ3 and it didnt work it says "Unsigned, you will need to configure your phone to accept unsigned apps" anyone know how? cheers, G
September 26, 2006 at 09:36 AM @Gus Hi Gus, with my experience with 'signing' apps, it helps quite a bit to contact the software manufacturer. They will know exactly what to do. Probably verify it (somehow) over-the-air with some activation thingy. It's not as complicated as it sounds. BTW, AgileMessenger was my fav app on my p910a. A little update on getting my p990i from VF: Renewed & upgraded my business contract with a p990i for £50 (as previously posted), but apparently phone wasn't ordered because 'there weren't any in stock'. So I called this morning and they said they would text with with the delivery date as soon as it was available. Did anyone else get told this?
September 26, 2006 at 01:06 PM @Gus - ha! yes, it does ;) must have put the key in wrong. Several times. My my my, isn't it nice? @Functionista - I was told that someone would call when they were in stock. I thought, of course they will... and then got a call from a fellow who had my PAC code and asked why I was leaving. As per post above I was then sent one. Battery life is a bit sporadic, it seems fine until it hits 20% and then nosedives very suddenly... and the major bugbear is the damn reset for memory thing, meaning I can't reliably use it as an alarm. Arse. Fix it, SE!
September 26, 2006 at 01:15 PM @Chris Just received the ominous text from VF stating the phone will be delivered tomorrow between 9am and 6pm. Geez, I'm from LA, and you could never get away with giving a customer a 9-hour delivery window. Britain is, one a word, quaint-n-quirky. I must say after the huge faff of finally having one ordered in the first place, I'm thoroughly surprised that they actually did send me a text at all! Well done VF! However, after reading about all the problems you guys are having with it, I'm taking advantage of my 14-day grace period and may end up sending it back for a VF 1605 (HTC TyTn) instead... *cringe...
September 26, 2006 at 01:28 PM functionista, I was given the 9 hour window last fridat and at 17:36 I got a SE V630 instead of a P990i :). I found a store that had them in stock got it there on a better deal, and canncelled the one I ordered by phone. The phones we are getting from VF are unlocked but branded, I am getting really annoyed by the "Not enouugh Memory" then a reboot, Also, when uninstalling and app then installing again it does not install due to a certificate/security error. A friend just camme back from Dubai where he bought an unbranded P990i, it does not have any of the problems, seems to run much faster. Need to find a way to de-brand the VF rubish which is spoiling a nice phone.
September 26, 2006 at 01:38 PM @Gus Man, that sucks! They better not run that crap my way – the idiotic rep this morning already got an earful about my mess! What do you mean 'better deal', as in a different price plan or different carrier? @everyone It seems the recurring theme here is that the VF branded version has a bunch of issues and we won't be able to use the SE Update Service software because it's locked. We need to band together to do something about this! We shouldn't have to get old buggy software and not be able to update to the manufacturer's current firmware! I'll try to think something up... maybe a petition or something? Any ideas?
September 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM @functionista Welcome to Britain. We take the much-derised American fast service culture and manage to remove the only two good things from it, the speed and customer service! ;) Rule Britannia. My P990 doesn't seem locked, it just tells me that it's got the latest firmware already - doesn't mean much on a new phone, roll on the next one. I'm sticking with it because the features I love, I DO love - just a couple of bugs that are frankly bloody annoying. SE have always been good for updates in the past, so I'm sure it will be ironed out reasonably soon. I wonder if VF have actually installed any background services/apps which cause the lockups/slowdowns and crashes? Ooooh are they going to be in shit if so, it WILL get found out.
September 26, 2006 at 01:56 PM functionista, batter price plan by £15 a month. Chris, the phones are not locked, check: while flip closed you do, jog dial down one noch, then * * on kepad then jogdial down one noch it will tell you if locked to network or not. The branding is the VF software loaded on, that is causing memory to leak. the SE updated service works and sends down the same damn software with no updtes.
September 26, 2006 at 02:08 PM Cunning. Well, it's not locked. Now all we need to do is work out how to uninstall the VF shite. I wonder what processes are causing the memory leak? That presupposes a constantly running application or service. Who knows how to wipe the VF stuff off these?
September 26, 2006 at 02:26 PM Not locked! That's very cool. No doubt due to the fact they they probably didn't have time to do it. (maybe it wasn't just out of the goodness of their hearts) However, I'm going to have a look around and shoot out a few emails to the people who may be working on a fix to get the VF branding off our babies. Will post if I find anything.
September 26, 2006 at 02:33 PM i really hope that this leaking memory is the reason orange keep delaying the release of their version of the phone, i dont care if its orange branded, but having been a customer to almost every network for a while (except 3), orange usually have the best support and services from the word go.
September 26, 2006 at 02:48 PM i remember with the P900 et al the unlocked ones could have their startup movies changed... oh yes. That would be nice. I'm not as worried about the V rubbish as I am about adversely affected performance through bad coding...
September 26, 2006 at 04:19 PM Does anyone have a DEFINITIVE list of the VF branded changes and effects? This is stupid. If it turns out they have taken a perfectly good phone and raped it, I won't be impressed at all; what on earth do they think they're doing? The only blessing is that they haven't locked it, theoretically enabling us to DO somethign ourselves.
September 26, 2006 at 06:42 PM The error I keep getting now when using WEB and IM on WiFI is: "application: IrSendListen Reason Code: KERN-EDXEC Reason Number 0" Many of them, then the thing rebootes, this has aparantley been fixed by the SE firmware relaese available on the SE website for unbranded phones: Phone: R7A001 Bluetooth: R4F01 Organizer: R3B01 CDA: R3B01 this release aparantly made the start and shutdown of apps much faster too
September 26, 2006 at 07:35 PM Just FYI: * jog-up * jog-down jog-down * jog-down * gets you into the service menu. careful here, you can wipe the phone... but I don't think this unbrands it. I know it doesn't delete the firmware so you don't have to reflash. hmm. Still searching for how to unbrand the bugger - I'm hearing stories all over the 'verse about the fault lying with VF software, the unbranded ones seem stable and fine.
October 12, 2006 at 12:13 PM Hi, Help Please! Does any of you got this problem? On the currency application one can only enter exchange rates for dollars......I click Euro, Sterling and it always shows Dollars.
September 27, 2006 at 03:41 PM okay guys, just received mine. The little sticker on mine says 'P990i', not 'Vodafone'. FYI. This little bugger seems really SLOW. I miss my p910. But the wifi is really fast and easy to connect, I like the UIQ 3, excpets it's slow. I'm going to try that hack that disables the menu transition animations. Hopefully this will speed her up a bit. Overall, I like the phone. Feels pretty well-made. The camera is amazing. Haven't had it long enough to do a thorough report, but will do in a couple days probly. BTW, I found this script thingy that converts your iCal (Mac) events into a v-file you can send to your p990i if anyone wants it. It seemed to convert it fine, but then I sent it to my phone and it hung tryong to import it into calendar.
September 27, 2006 at 03:47 PM It's not the sticker you have to watch, it's the startup screen and firmware id ;) I actually think Mine's pretty quick, mostly, but it starts bogging down. I work in IT and when a pc does that it's a usual sign of unwanted software running and stealing resources. Coff coff Vodafone coff Still looking for a quikc once off way to unbrand! Does anyone know if using the service menu internal wipe will do the trick?
September 27, 2006 at 09:04 PM service menu internal wipe does not unbrand. Interupting an update so that the version of firmware is corrupt leads to the fone not startin at all (surprise surprise), doing the upgrade on the the branded fone with corrupt firmware puts the VF firmtware back on and the phone will start. startting an update with an unbranded phone and swaoping just before it starts to write to the phone does not do it either. My branded phone goes back to voda tomorrow. Thank you parliment for the consumer rights act (14 days)
September 28, 2006 at 12:05 AM does any one know when orange are releasing this phone. sick of waiting
September 28, 2006 at 06:35 AM Hi @functionista Any chance you could let us know the results of disabling the animations? :-) and even better a pointer as to what the hack is would be great. I seem to have missed it Cheers
September 28, 2006 at 07:51 AM Orange have pulled any release date for the p990 until further notice due to problems with the phone.
September 28, 2006 at 07:53 AM Hi guys, I just remembered having read some thread about it, but I found it again here. thinkabdul.com I'll let you know if it works for me, but people are raving about it. As for my new p990i, I'm really loving it. When everything works, it is an amazing phone. And GEEZ! That Wifi is fast!
September 28, 2006 at 08:01 AM Cheers functionista
September 28, 2006 at 10:47 AM How do you make this thing louder ? I have the volume turned up to max i even red the manual but it's difficult to hear in public have i suddenly gone deaff my 750i seemed louder. It even warns you in the manual it may be loud on hands free but ?
September 28, 2006 at 01:46 PM Hi all, You know its ery interesting reading this blog having shed myself of the albatross. You all seem to be fighting with some problem or other. Is there a touch of 'emperors new clothes' here? I'm still on the lookout for a decent phone but there is still nothing on the market that can match my P910 as an all round PDA phone
September 28, 2006 at 02:04 PM We do, but I think it's more related to the branded firmware. All reports read so far on the SE vanilla P990 have said it's clean, fast, and doesn't really go wrong. Jolly good. Next step is to remove the rubbish from our branded phones!
September 28, 2006 at 02:16 PM Chris - I had a similar problem with the Jasjar. It was VF branded and had allsorts of customisations on it that slowed it down. On an initial boot from a hard reset, it had a script in the ROM that ran the VF customisations. The way I found around that (bearing in mind it ws WM5) was to do a hard reset back and before the ROM script kicked in do a soft reset. After it rebooted it simply 'forgot' to run the VF install. Don't know if you can do this sort of thing with Symbian though as the VF customisation applications and settings appear to be there from first switch on. Sounds like you need to get hold of a copy of the original ROM from factory state. Not sure where you might get this though. Not much help - sorry.
September 28, 2006 at 05:08 PM Well... further to my last post.... As 12.00 miday came and went... I rang VF to give them a roasting.. The guy I spoke to 2 days ago, assured me he would ring if the phone was not going to be here... when I found out the reason, I let fly.. the phone hadn't even been ordered :( Now they reckon I should have a new one delivered tomorrow. I did mention the branding issue, but she said all phones supplied by VF will be branded.. Hopefully someone will come up with a fix/flash/update/3ton crusher.. John
September 29, 2006 at 05:15 PM Well chaps my p910i finally pointed its stylus skywards and is now behaving like a 90 year old with a drink problem. I tried to open my calendar earlier and it rang my solicitor. Now when I use the touch screen it rolls a dice to see what operation it will choose. I have just emailed VF to upgrade to the WM5 based vf 1605 (HTS TyTN) I know, I know its a wm5 but I can at least hack the registry and ROM myself on that af fix some ot the issues myself without waiting for someone with a 'whatever' attitude to release new firmware. I'll still stay on here and keep up with how you guys are geting on with the 990, and as some of you also have WM5 devices, share some chat on that too. I feel (and I hope I am right) that in the run up to xmas there will be a round of new phones to hit the streets to catch the markets eye, though I suspect these will be aimed at kids with video and MP3 improvements rather than catering for the business user, but lets hope and wait, eh?
September 29, 2006 at 05:29 PM p.s. the guy who delivered it, didn't take the old one, so at the moment I have 2 of them :) I suppose VF will call me soon to get me to return the first one.. :( John
September 29, 2006 at 10:20 PM how do u make it LOUDER? sorry for the shouting
October 01, 2006 at 08:30 PM Hello again everybody. I finally got my P990i for a good deal. Free phone, £25/month, 500mins, 100texts. Took a lot of haggling; but got there in the end. Anyway, The phone if TERRIBLE!! After all this wait I was very disappointed. Its littered with soooo many bugs. Too many to even mention. I tried updating firmware, that doesn't do a lot. But, I must say, when it does work, its amazing. Swift, intuivative a true next generation phone. But the crashes spoil it. I don't regret getting the phone, but I'm hoping SONy Ericsson release more firmware updates. I think I should also mention, Vodafone have tinkered with the phone, which I think is the main reason its soo messed up. Thanks a lot VF> Anyone else feeling the same?
October 01, 2006 at 09:06 PM After a few days usage, I can honestly say this one is much better than the first... even got Wayfinder working with the GPS receiver... pretty cool, although I hope tomtom gets a UIQ 3 version out soon. still get a few kernal errors when exiting contacts, but I can live with that.. web use is good, and battery life is much better. made a cheap screen protector out of a tax disk holder, which isn't bad for 99p :) John
October 01, 2006 at 09:15 PM The eternal question. How do I set up hotmail on the p990i?? Im sure there is a way but need a step by step guide. Im on Vodaphone and any advice would be greatfully received!
October 01, 2006 at 09:31 PM I still cant hear it very well
October 01, 2006 at 09:33 PM If your Hotmail is a free account, then you will have to access it from the web browser.. John
October 01, 2006 at 09:41 PM So i cant import hotmail any other way??
October 01, 2006 at 10:04 PM Microsoft blocked receiving hotmail on pop3, imap, etc for free accounts.. If you pay for an msn account, then you can use outlook etc for downloading hotmail, and therefore setup the P990 to send and receive using the email client. otherwise, you will have to login using the web browser. John
October 01, 2006 at 10:43 PM Cheers John. I'll look into it.
October 02, 2006 at 12:08 PM hi guys, here's my take of the p990i after having it a few days. I love the phone. The business card scanner is amazing. The camera is also amazing. The UI is a tad bit slow, but completely workable and beautiful as well. The VF branding isn't intrusive at all, though we have come to know SE's software as beautiful. I'm surprised at everyone's hatred and bad-reviews, I think this thing's great. It does have some bugs, but I'm sure we'll find a work-around for all that. Also, after i asked SE about not being able to update the firmware from my Mac, they said to take it into a Service Centre. I'm going to do this... maybe Carphone Warehouse or something and get them to do it. Hopefully they'll kill my VF branding. Will post any updates on whether or not they do it.
October 02, 2006 at 02:34 PM Hi, just had a long talk w/ the local VF store. No complaints from my local VF store about the P990i. They've sold about 20 with none returned. But, the latest What Mobile mag had reviews of the P990i and the Nokia N93. The P990i got 3 out of 5 stars, whilst the N93 got 4 out of 5. The biggest complaint about the P990i was "lack of stability and sufficient memory." (Quoted) The reviewer chose to pass on the P990i and wait for the "P1000i." To me its just too much money to spend in order to get an average phone with lots of bugs. But, the good news is that VF will be releasing the N93 in the coming weeks (according the local VF store). I'm gonna wait for that to come online. I know someone w/ the N93 now (he works in a phone shop) and he swears by the N93, but, only had it 1 week. cheers, Scott
October 02, 2006 at 08:44 PM Well all, Tried to read all reviews regarding Vodaphone,s 990i.... but I would like some simple advice....is it now available from Vodaphone stores for contract upgrades and is it actually worth getting? My old 910i is clunking to an end and I am due an uppygrade so fellows put aside all buls**t... is it worth it?
October 03, 2006 at 03:41 AM Good day ALL FROM Typhoon torn Manila. I have had the phone three weeks and have just returned it to my provider. Lets face it guys with the possible exception of the camera its a backward step from the P910. The software is prone to crashing and in my opinion is overly long winded in use. the acrd scanner is ajoke .. bet i can enter a contacts details quicker than you can scan 'em ... I'm not saying no to Sony 'cos I am positive that in less than 6 months there will be a new version avaialble (P1000i?) but i am damned if for $700 I'm going to be their guniea pig in devlopment. The E61 is a perfectly gopod business machine with faults already cureablt via the excellent Nokia web site ... The N93 is a very nice bit of kit and whilst it's not really a business phone per se at leats it works! I am very disappointed in Sony here, conceivably this launch will appear in the "100 Worst product launches ever" yearbook. Real pity.
October 03, 2006 at 10:46 AM Hear, hear Rodney. I am in total agreement with you. I have however just taken delivery of my Vodafone V1605 (AKA HTC TyTN) I am still charging it up waiting for the orange light to go gren, but fellas, this phone is lightyears ahead of the P990 in looks. It makes the P990 look like Fisher Price's 'My First Telephone' This thing is made of hard ABS plastic and brushed aluminum. It has a really slid feel to it. It is no bogger than the p990 and it has a plethora of useful buttons. The slide out keyboard is excellent and far more usable than the token keyboard on the 990. The screen is a tad shorter, though the width is the same.It has a nice USB headset (not the brick of an appendage that the P990 charges from) It comes with a scren protector, but sadly no memory card, which I thuoght was a little cheap (and I have let VF know) Once I power her up' I'll check back and fill you all in.
October 03, 2006 at 11:47 AM TerryD, is the HTC TyTN the same as i-mate JASJAM? a friend has the jasjam and althou it seems to be great as a PDA not so good as a phone, for some reason you cannot be heared very well when talkin into it, blue toothooth headsets missbehave and battery life is not great. Hope your HTC TyTN works well for you. Let us know. I have returned my VF P990, and now have an unbranded one (a mate fedex'd from dubai). it is more stable than the VF, but still has problems, I still get IrSendListen error every now again when using WLAN. I noticed that it has 16.4 MB of RAM free on startup, it runs great untill the memory is used up, software like swismanager seem to help reclaim memory by closing down apps that are idle. but still memory is used up quickly with not so heavy use. Bottom line, the device is dissapointing, and I would not recommend. I dont think that SE will ever issue an new software release that will make it a stable phone.
October 03, 2006 at 01:38 PM Well I have been playing with this TyTN / V1605 / Hermes for about an hour now and despite my misgivings over WM5 I have to admit that somewhere a large German Shpeherd is walking around with a high pitched bark. This phone is his loss! I'm not going to run you through the phone because there's quite few write ups on it in the web and Expansys has some excellent photos if you search for TyTn. What I will tell you is that already I can see the firmware in this and the processor to RAM to software mix is really good. I mean I am really picky - ask vodafone - but this just ticks all the boxes for me. Seriously - anyone not happy with the 990 - get this - the footprint is the same but the handset has been designed by a lot cleverer people than SE employ and they have probably used the phone to boot. The buttons are laid out well, not easy to press by accident but easily accessible and very intuitive to the software you are using at the time. The fact it has a scroll wheel too is great. I have hardly had to touch the screen or the front keys and I have been whizzing all round the little beasty. If I had to give it a recommendation, then I would have to say - remember when you first switched on your new P910i and could just 'feel' that this was an intuitive and well designed phone? This gives me the same feeling. HTC have taken WM5 and really made the most of it here with some nicely built hardware and sensible use of buttons. The slide out keyboard lights up blue, and at first glance looks a bit likethe old ZX spectrum keyboard with a couple of functions on each button, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of that with use. I admit I have only had it a couple of hours, but by now I was finding bugs, things that hindered produtivity and things I plain didn't like on the P990 As for the JasJam, Gus, I think this is a variant of it, but its a lot lot nicer looking. Call-wise, well I work in the basement of the old royal mint and although I still don't have 3G down here, the call and signal quality is better than my P910. even on just 2 bars the call was uninterrupted and loud. I can hoenstly, honestly say that this handset is finally going to let my P910 get a well earned retirement. Something its successor could never do.
October 03, 2006 at 02:27 PM SE have replied about the VOLUme the trick ids to upgrade the firmware easy if u have a pc but we don't lot's of macs but no PC ???????????????????? Will keep you all posted
October 04, 2006 at 12:53 PM Jam, I have never used push email, I find it suits my needs enough just to send and recieve pop3 from the phone. I was under the impression that you need to have MS Exchange server running to use push, though I have never really looked into it. Just as with VPN, that is also something I intend to 'get round to' but my need is not sufficient at present to warrant the time to investigate it and set it up. Latest on the rest of the V1605 (to give Vodafone the credit for it) I have now installed to the main memory: Pocket informant (truly THE best PIM ever) SPB Diary SPB Weather Visual IT Tube2 London Pro Real One Player I have been hammering this baby for the last 24 hours and I have not had one crash, lock up, system hang or slow response. I have not had to hard or soft reset the handset once and with multiple programs running I have experienced no performance issues. I've found the hardware easy to use and convenient either one or two handed. The only problem I found here is that the slide out keyboard keys need a definite press to make them register. fast typing is hindereda little by this but I guess its either the newness of the keyboard or my getting used to it that need to adjust. I had one 'glitch' this morning which was the information I added to my diary in Pocket informant was not picked up by SPB diary on the Today screen. I had to remove SPB diary from the visible today items and put it back. Thenit worked fine. I had this on my Jasjar too so its a software conflit with Informant and SPB rathe than the v1605. Synching is fast and reliable with Activesync, though I can't get Actvesync to 'see' the bluetooth port allocated to the serial link with the V1605 so I haven't tried this yet. Vodafone are hooking me up with a specialist support centre to sort this out (still can't fault their service, despite the P990 'want one for free' complaints on here!). Bluetooth picked up my GPS receiver and recognised it and the serial port. Still not got a memory card yet though, I'm going to buy a 2 gig card (as they are allegedly compatible) and install Tomtom navigator. Add a bluetooth headset (I favour the Jabra JX10 but I had mine liberated by my fiancée) and that about ticks all my boxes. If there is anyone considering swapping their P990 I can highly recommend this phone. And if you are giving it thought and want me to test something on it to put your mind at rest then let me know and (within reason - don't like ask me if I can hack the radio stack to listen to shipping traffic) I'll give it a go for you. Oh and one other thing - I got myself a new 3G Broadband data card for my laptop from VF yesterday too. Last night I was logging a connection speed of 1.8Mbps ! I downloaded a copy of Activesync 4.2 installer (6.9 meg) in just under 3 minutes! Almost as fast as my shoddy BT broadband connection!
October 04, 2006 at 06:16 PM thanks for the answer terry, completely understandable with regards to the push email. i'm thinking of picking up a M3100 tomorrow morning on orange cos i cant be bothered waiting no more for them to release the p990i, i'm allowed 7 days to play with it and if i dont like it just take it back to the store. the only real thing thats gonna sell the phone to me tho is this: does anyone know anything for WM5 which lets me control the phone from my pc, just like remoteP900 does? i'm not up to speed on WM5, but i'm assuming you cant just take direct control of the phone even when its connected by bluetooth or usb.
October 06, 2006 at 02:32 AM Big problem here! I am possibly one of the last people to have given up their P800 for dead - now that I finally have the P990. But I have found that I may have to fire her back up again to use the old document viwer. The P800 has, basically, no difficulty opening 2mb .txt or .doc files but I can't get a 700k file to open on the P990 as it runs out of memory. Is there anything I can do about this, as I use the P800 for reading books all day long, so without that feature the P990 is fairly useless to me. (unless I chop all my books up into small sections. (How small will these sections need to be?)) Yes, it's branded to VodaFone. (Though I got it on an O2 contract from mobileshop.com - who assured me it was unbranded over the phone.) Yes, I am very sad that I am actually using my P800 instead of my fancy new P990. Thanks in advance.
October 06, 2006 at 04:44 PM Spoke too soon regarding txt messaging... every SMS I get, and also MMS, come in as normal, when I try to open them, it says "the message is incomplete", and an information box opens saying "access denied".... I have found if I go to forward the message, I can read it. so far, this is about the only hiccup with the handset... and just a couple of freezes. does anyone else have a problem receiving TXT messages ?? funny as it was the same on the first handset.. even though, this got the first one ok.. John
October 06, 2006 at 05:27 PM As a follow up to my earlier question; I phoned mobileshop.com and they apologiesed for sending me a VodaFone branded handset with an O2 sim card and asked me to special delivery the whole thing back and they will send me an unbranded one the same day - and they will refund the postage cost. So I am a bit more cheerful thisevening. I only hope that using the newest firmware will allow me to open large documents. Is anyone with the newest firmware able to open 1mb sized documents? Thanks again.
October 06, 2006 at 08:16 PM Dumpston be careful with mobile companies selling the p990i on O2, I bought one on O2 three weeks ago and could'nt use the internet or send and receive MMS. Called O2 and was told that the handset was not on their portfolio so did not have the settings for it, and that the company should not have sold me the phone because O2 have not yet approved the handset so I would,nt get to enjoy the phone's full potential. I sent it straight back and got one from Vodafone. I would like to know how you get on keep us posted.
October 07, 2006 at 08:52 PM Hi guys. Well for those of you considering swapping the P990 for something more reliable, here's my latest findings on the V1605 / TyTN My 2gig micro SD card arrive today and I copied a couple of movies, a load of MP3s and some dosuments on to it. Then I put it in the slot and proceeded to install the following software on it. Tomtom 5 Simple Tunes Worldmate pro Super Doku Resco Explorer woth Registry editor plgin Crypto Card The only problem I had was configuring the bluetooth com port for the GPS but I eventually fathomed it. I also bought a Jabra JX10 bluetooth headset and paired that too. And a phrase you don't hear on this blog often. Not a single problem. The media files are accessed quickly, the programs run without any glitches and for a jape I opened every single program on the little baby. Guess what happened? Nothing. It worked perfectly, it swaps programs without a delay, copies and pastes without error, adds tasks and reminders and stuff without question. The bluetooth is clear and stable in its connection and the GPS and the headset are handled simultaneously perfectly. As a test, I started up Tomtom, set a route and then called myself froma land line. It suspended Totom, answered the call in the headset and when I hung up it recovered Tomtom as if nothing had happened. This has to be the best phone I have had and quite frankly I am glad that the P990 was so poor as otherwise I wuold never have got this. I also got it synching over bluetooth with my laptop and playing music and video files off my PC over the wireless LAN. It is without a doubt an excellent handset and I would recommend it to anyone. I'm off now to play some more with it.
October 09, 2006 at 08:54 PM Hi, I just wanted to know that i have been reading some sites where people are saying that after they have updated their P990 it has improved so much and that it's almost bug free, is that the case?? I think the new update is version R7A001. Thanx in advance.
October 10, 2006 at 07:51 AM I notice that 02 have now removed the p990 from their Coming Soon section altogether...
October 11, 2006 at 09:37 PM @ TerryD a week on, does one still like the TyTn? i've been reading up on some blogs in the past, but i'd really like your opinion on it if you have some time...
October 11, 2006 at 09:50 PM tytn it is a great phone, nice to use dosent crash, good reception, great wifi and 3G, skype client installs and works great no agro no irsend error no reboots it has a hotmail client. I am posting this from a tytn. bad thing is baterry life.
October 11, 2006 at 10:27 PM cheers gus, i've got mine coming now (i think) but after god knows how many years of ericssons and sony ericssons, i have no idea where to start with WM5, the software or programs or anything, so i hope its gonna be a easy learning curve...not that i'm stupid, but hey. any websites you can recommend to see what i can get out of it?
October 14, 2006 at 08:19 PM Just to add to TerryD comments reg. the v1605 (HTC Tytn). This device is magic! It does support push email; you need to purchase the Vodafone Business Email to your package. As I mentioned a while ago in this forum, I was looking for a device to replace my old S700i, blackberry and PDA, and this has done just that. Have used it now for approx 4 weeks and am very impressed with it. Not saying it hasn't been trouble free, but hey what is these days. If anyone is thinking about buying the P990i, I beg you to try the HTC Tytn first.
October 14, 2006 at 09:09 PM From a veteran SE user, i'm backing HH...finally got mine last thursday and i'm impressed
October 17, 2006 at 11:15 PM My 2nd one is so far pretty stable.... (just the wierd sms problem) I have just installed Tomtom6, and it works really well, much better than the trial wayfinder, which in my opinion is a complete waste of time... (and money as it downloads map data as it goes) John
October 18, 2006 at 08:53 PM Just got back from the symbian smartphone show down in excel, had a good play around with the p990 and the m600i too. Still prefer the m600 to be honest, but i think i'm done with touch screens. That nokia n95 is one sweet little phone, i got to say...!
October 27, 2006 at 10:08 AM Hiya guys, sorry I've been absent. It was my 40th birthday on Tuesday and I have had parties galore. Yes the V1605 is still fantastic - I must admit, I have to send it back, if you remember I said the keyboard was a bit unresponsive and I thought it was due to its newness, well its not. I compared it to my fiancees and hers is fine so this is clrearly a hardware fault. Just wiaiting for a reply from VF to swap it. But as far as anything else goes it has behaved impeccably. Don't kniow about anyone else but my battery life is really good. I can do 2 hours on the train listening to radio 4 then a whole day and the same on the way home and its still got plenty of life. I have encountered one problem though, and I don't know what causes it. When the it is in flight mode (like after a heavy night out and I don't want my mum waking me at 7 am) and someone calls, it goes straight to voicemail. Fine. But it doesn't actually TELL me I have any voicemails. Can someone have a go at this and see if they get the same. I have 19 voicemails the other day that I had no idea were there. My old P910i used to get a text saying call 121. Not sure if this is a phone settign error or a glitch or something to do with VF Bonno Estenté
October 27, 2006 at 05:30 PM Well the tomtom is working a charm, and have now added some celeb/comedy voices.. a full postcode search, and speed camera database.... changing the default beeps for voices is proving difficult so far, as Tomtom have gone with a proprietery format for POI'S... other than that, the P990 is running very stable, and only had the one low memory error.. Still not able to read sms messages, and so far, it looks like I am the only one who has this problem.. Looking forward to the new firmware, expected in week 48.. end of November. John
November 01, 2006 at 09:59 PM I too gave up on the SE990i. I was unable to update the firmware using updater (crashes) and had to change the phone through VF. Much less bugs but I cannot keep changing the phone to get upgraded firmware. VF say bug will eventually be sorted. I have had the VF1605 for 10 days. The phone is excellent but already I have noticed that the receiver switches itself off, expecially after entering a poor reception area. You have to reboot the phone to get the signal but meanwhile you have lost lots of calls. HTC do not support the 1605 and vodafone have no means of upgrading firmware without sending the phone away - same as SE. Anywone else had similar problems?? THe VF helpdesk suggested removing the Sim card every morning for 10 minutes and not leaving the phone on 24 hours to avoid this problem, forcing the phone to reconnect??
November 03, 2006 at 01:30 PM Hi MikeB IO haven't found that problem with mine. I travel from Bognor to London every day on the train and the receiver is constantly losing the signal at weak spot, but it always kciks back in again Sounds to me like a dodgy handset? I have two things I'm looking into now (BTW - VF replaced the faulty handset no problem. My little friend there is a star!) I got Tomtom 5 running but I am having problems with the bluetooth gps. I've been through all the blgos that say set the incoming port as 8 and the outgoing blah blah blah. The problem is that it works, but then if I close tomtom and restart it, then I need to unset and reset the ports to get it to pick up the GPS again. Still investigating. The other thing I want to do is find an app that allows me to read files from my ipod via the usb socket on the phone. It would be a real boon to have a 40 gig drive full of movies etc hooked into the little sucker.
November 03, 2006 at 07:02 PM Hi Terry, As I said earlier, I'm running TomTom 6 on the P990, and although there is little difference between 5 & 6, I am having no problems whatsoever with my Holox BT-321 receiver.. just select "other" rather than the tomtom reciever, and thats it.. no com port selecting or anything.. it just works. John
November 07, 2006 at 06:30 PM S'ok chaps - I sorted it. I needed to upgrade from v5 to v5.21 and everything went swimmingly. Still no issues apart from the annoying lack of voicemail notificatiopn by text. I still keep finding messages people left me two days ago. I have the current app list running FYI Pocket Informant 2007 SPB Serials SPB Pocket Plus SPB Backup SPB Weather Tube2 pocket streets WorldMate Pro Resco file explorer with reg editor plug in TomTom I am also using the Jabra JX10 BT Headset with exellent results. ttfn
November 20, 2006 at 01:08 PM some body help me to install MUMSMS in my p990i