After my previous post about O2 Atom XDA, I’ve decided that I should buy another PDA. You all know how hard it is to satisfy me when it comes to Gadgets. And that’s what happened to my good old O2 Atom XDA once I’ve dropped it.

Even though the O2 Atom XDA was my best choice, I was wondering whether I can have a PDA with BlackBerry features after all AirTel in India started providing BlackBerry services since 2006. Anyways, after a long search and analysis, the Sony Ericsson P990i seems to be the BEST choice. So, I went ahead to buy one for myself.

At first, I thought Sony Ericsson would easily satisfy my needs. Yes, it’s true to some extend. The Package they’ve sent to me contained everything I need to start playing around. One of the BEST things I’ve liked about this mobile is that it has both options of hardware like you can use the mobile as a complete PDA with full QWERTY keyboard or you can use the mobile as a complete Mobile+PDA with mobile phone keyboard and QWERTY keyboard. It sounded cool, but at first I thought the extra flip-flop keyboard make it look very bulky. So, I’ve got rid of that using the inbuilt screw driver and the replacement piece they’ve provided in the Package. With the flip-flop removed, it looked stunningly cool and provided me all the options I needed in a PDA. The sad part is, this one is NOT a Windows PDA. Of course, I knew it before I bought it, but what’s more, I thought their unique Symbian OS UIQ 3.0 will have loads better than a Windows PDA. But I should say I’m wrong. There is not even softwares for the new UIQ 3.0 system. Some softwares cost me very much.

As usual, I’ve put a 2 GB MemoryStick Duo Pro card into the Phone and it became the ultimate storage device. I tried installing Adobe Reader with failure. The Adobe Reader for mobiles doesn’t support Symbian 9.0 OS. My ultimate wish of a PDA that’s eBook Reader ready failed. The included PDF Reader PDF+ is not at all what an eBook reader should be. As this, the included QuickOffice is also another mess when compared to the Windows Mobile PDAs. So, I’ve ultimately lost the Application and eBook facilities that I always wanted in any PDA. Anyways, I tried the other facilities of the mobile.

The included 2 Mega Pixel camera is ultra cool and captured some nice shots even in the night time. The Business Card reader included in the phone is excellent. It saved me a lot of time by entering my Contacts. I wonder is there any software application available in Windows PDA’s to do this Job. The Sound Quality as usual to Sony Ericsson Mobiles was excellent. The bundled head sets are also very fine in quality though I felt a little disturbance in maximum volume. It surely can’t combat with Sony Ericsson Walkman phones. The Jog Dial in the left side is a cool idea. But I thought like the BlackBerry devics the Jog Dial in the right side would have been better. The return back button and the Key lock sliders were cool ones too. But all of them in the left side makes me a left handed man which I’ven’t felt much comfortable because, I’ve been more productive when I play around with my right hand as I’m a right hand man.

The Touch Screen is ultra sharp, crispy and very smooth. Unlike the O2 Atom XDA, I don’t need to give much pressure to my Stylus as the smooth surface received light touches easily. I think this is because, this PDA is NOT a surface-mounted one like the O2 Atom XDA. The voice call and video call both (oh… I forgot to say, this one comes with front-side VGA Camera for Voice Calls as this PDA is the 3G one!) offered nice connectivity and there were no disturbances in the voice clarity.

But I must say, making calls and accepting incoming calls are a mess as you have to completely rely on the touchscreen to do those things. This really frustrated me very much at last I’ve decided to try the flip-flop attached with this phone. I should say the effect is ultimately impressive. Once I’ve attached the flip-flop with the mobile phone, it provided me two interfaces. When the flip-flop closed, the mobile acted exactly as a cellphone with limited applications and more of call related services and the mobile-phone keyboard on top of the flip-flop is really very much useful. When the flip-flop is opened, it provided me the bigger screen with touch sensitivity and allowed me to use all the applications installed. This fitted me perfectly well (even though I should say, the mobile became reasonably bulky) as I’m a frequent caller.

Also I’ve been impressed by Sony’s technology of closing the touch sensitivity whenever the flip-flop is closed and allowing us to touch the screen once the flip-flop is opened. They should’ve got really good engineers.

The PDA phone of course lacked in many things as usual to any other PDA’s. The first thing being the Battery Backup again. Even though this one provided more battery backup than O2 Atom XDA, it still provided me only one and half days on full recharge. The major problem with this PDA which was NOT in the O2 Atom XDA is the memory power. It lacked so much in memory power that ultimately killed me from using more than 3 applications at a time. Even for smaller applications like Contacts and Messages, I’ve received frequent warnings saying the Memory is full and it abruptly ended the application. Many times, this leaded to crashes and even restarting of the device. I should say, Sony Ericsson MUST improve in this area very much. I don’t quite understand why all these people do these kinds of silly mistakes. When they provide all the things you need in a Mobile or PDA, why they don’t give you enough Memory and Battery Backup to play with it? It’ makes the device ultimately useless and pointless right?

That being said, please let me know your comments…