Sony Ericsson, P1i

PREVIEW

Sony Ericsson’s P990i was a feature packed fella – Wi-Fi, QWERTY keypad, touchscreen – you name it, he did it. But it showed. Every time you went away on business you had to book it an extra seat on the plane.

So in the spirit of Marjorie Dawes’ Fat Fighters, Sony Eric has put its flagship smartphone on a dust diet and come back fitter than ever.

The new P1i is 25 per cent smaller than it’s older brother, but still as well equipped as a pinstriped Swiss army knife. You’ll get Wi-Fi, 3G, a full QWERTY keypad and VoIP capabilities all running on a UIQ OS.

Mini-QWERTYphobes have the option of handwriting recognition on the 2.6in touchscreen and it’ll come with 160MB of built-in brains. As with most Sony Erics you’ll be able to stash some extra in the MicroSD slot should you run out of space.

But don’t let your mind stray too far from business; there’ll be plenty of time for fun at the weekend. The P1 gets a new hint of fruit with support for BlackBerry Connect email and a business card scanner that imports all details directly into your contacts.

When the weekend does finally come, the 3.2MP cam will cope with some casual snapping, there's wire-free music via A2DP Bluetooth, and for fans of the wireless (no, the old kind) there’s an FM radio too.

We’ll have a review for you as soon as one hits our briefcase.

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Nokia E61

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