C500 vs P900

[Guest silent_bob]

Guys and Gals,

Im due for an upgrade in about a months time and I dont know what to go for. I currently have an E200 and like it alot except for the shocking battery life!

Im thinking of upgrading to the C500 or the Sony Ericsson P900. I think I can get the C500 free but would have to stump up lots for the P900 (which im willing to do).

what do you think I should go for? I use my phone mainly for email and msn messenger, and both phones will do this.

Any opinions are welcome :)

Al

[Guest zeta101]

no offence intended but isnt it obvious?!:P

The c500 is free, its not a huge brick, it has email and msn and its much newer (and better looking IMO) than the p900...:)

[Guest silent_bob]

yeah but im having doubts after reading the c500 bug thread :)

[Guest duncan888]

I've got a P900 in my draw doing nothing. Thats what I think about the P900

[Guest silent_bob]

I've got a P900 in my draw doing nothing. Thats what I think about the P900

So its that good a phone then! What phone do you have at the moment if you dont mind me asking?

Al

[Guest rolywalter]

I just faced the same choice and I went for the P900. It's a fantastic phone, and the quality of everything is... impressive. More impressive than the E200. But there are a few things that are driving me MAD and I'm tempted to sell it in favour of the C500:

- storage card only goes up to 128Mb which means not many MP3s and it won't play WMA files so I'll have to convert them all

- Doesn't sync categories from Outlook. I'm was a heavy user of PowerTools which I used to help me organise my work. The task manager on the P900 isn't nearly as good as powertools and 3rd party applications just don't seem to be as good as the smartphone apps.

- I think it's quicker writing emails using T9 than the handwriting recognition.

- Calendar is easier and quicker to use on the SPV

- cradle is a bit annoying

However, on the plus side for the P900

- Opera web browser is fantastic and actually makes it worthwhile using the web - much better than SPV

- Big screen, great for viewing attachments and long emails. In fact, it's a complete joy to read emails. If you're rarely at your computer, this could be the winning factor.

- Everything just works brilliantly, and great battery life

- Don't be too put off by the size, it seems to fit my pockets okay.

- good resale value on ebay

Factors I've ignored because they're irrelevant to me personally:

- MSN messenger

- Games

- Fancy stuff like downloading ringtones etc.

- photo quality / videos / MMS

For me as an IT consultant it offers little more value in practice than the SPV. I think the ideal combo is a tiny phone e.g. C500 with a tiny bluetooth laptop, rather than trying to merge these devices into one. I love gadgets but I have no time for useless ones - I tried the XDA 2 as well - doesn't fit in a pocket, therefore useless. I think if you're going to use these things to type lengthy documents then you need a keyboard. In which case, think about how having one of those will affect your decision. MPx anyone...?!!

[Guest fphillips]

Unless you are a game player the bugs are pretty minor and the C500 is fantastic. Havent found any problems at all although it did hang once and I had to remove the battery to restart it.

[Guest silent_bob]

cheers for the info rolywalter, I was leaning towards the P900 already so I think I'll go for that. Im not big into games or taking pics / video, I would rather have a phone that is capable of displaying a web page at a decent size, unlike the E200.

Al

[Guest M@rtin]

I've currently got a P900 and it's a great phone, but I can't wait to get a C500 as well! The P900 is great for when I'm at work, as the touch screen is great for using as a mini PDA and means I don't have to carry around a Pocket PC/Palm. I work in IT Support and frequently use it for taking notes of contacts, IP settings, reminders, PC serial numbers, etc. and I don't think a T9 handset would be fast enough as a lot of stuff I type is just number or letter sequences.

I want the C500 for when I'm not at work, as the P900 is a bit bulky to carry when stuffed in a pocket - I use a belt case at work but don't want to look like a geek when I'm off duty! I'd rather just stick my phone in my pocket when I'm going out, but still have access to all my contacts/outlook info, and passwords via SplashID, etc. The C500 will fit the bill nicely, I just wish Orange would hurry up and get them back in stock :)

[Guest supermoocow]

I had a P800 for over a year after using a phone/pda combination. I am now using a c500 & really enjoying it. Its a little difficult changing to a keypad again (how do u add a carriage return?). The pda functions are not as good however im sure i can live with it. The size of the c500 is a def bonus. Go 4 the c500. Posted from my SmartPhone!

[Guest supermoocow]

I had a P800 for over a year after using a phone/pda combination. I am now using a c500 & really enjoying it. Its a little difficult changing to a keypad again (how do u add a carriage return?). The pda functions are not as good however im sure i can live with it. The size of the c500 is a def bonus. Go 4 the c500. Posted from my SmartPhone!

[Guest ferret]

I had a P800 for over a year after using a phone/pda combination. I am now using a c500 & really enjoying it. Its a little difficult changing to a keypad again (how do u add a carriage return?). The pda functions are not as good however im sure i can live with it. The size of the c500 is a def bonus. Go 4 the c500.  Posted from my SmartPhone!

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[Guest Pondrew]

- storage card only goes up to 128Mb which means not many MP3s and it won't play WMA files so I'll have to convert them all

Ok, why are people at work refuting my suggestion the P900 can't handle memory sticks above 128meg? I'm being told that using memory stick duo it can handle upto 1gig?! :?

[Guest supermoocow]

p800/900 are hardware limited to 128mb. p910 will allow 1gb. Posted from my SmartPhone!

[Guest duncan888]

So its that good a phone then! What phone do you have at the moment if you dont mind me asking?

Al

I'm using the Nokia 6600 at the moment, waiting for either i-mate 3 or MPx220 as I don't want to be on the Orange network. Orange signal sucks where I work.

[Guest supermoocow]

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:) Cheers, been a while since I had to use a keypad...

Mmmm I do miss the opera browser though but its great walking around with a phone in my pocket thats small & people do not miss-interprete as me being pleased to meet them :shock:

The lowdown on p900 is that its a great phone, lots of features, good pda phone mix. Bad points are size and categories not being synced correctly!

C500 still playing with it but overall great :P keypad is great for one handed operation however a little tiring compared to touch screen.

C500 is a bugger to get activsync over bluetooth working (still haven't), p800 worked first time in this capacity.

C500 doesn't have GPRS monitor out of the box and doesn't seem to have an sms counter either.

C500 is free! p900 is def. not!

If I were buying a convergence device it would be an xda type rather than p900 as I would be buying it for pda. Otherwise c500 + pda again.

This means for work I use pda for meetings/docs etc. and can use the c500 if out and about for reference and adding a few items to pda.

Just think for the cost of p900 you could buy a pda! 2 for the price of 1 8)

[Guest glynton]

I've had a P900 for 9 months, just updraded to a C500. Paid £100 for my P900 upgrade, paid nothing for my C500. P900 i got bored of after a month. The games are great, visually, but user interface is crap. P900 is great for web browsing, and is something i'll miss, but i hear that Opera are developing a version for Smartphones which sounds promising. Things i hate about the p900 is the limited functions available via the keypad. If you start typing an SMS then want to come back to it later, you have to open the flip in order to get to the right SMS folder. It's size isn't too much of a problem, but make sure you get a screen protector. I've had my C500 for a few days now, and i'm very pleased with it. Certainly has some very competitve features and for the price it's very rewarding. I like to use my mobile for watching Vids, and this is by no means free and easy on the P900. Overall, if you can afford the P900, it's a high quality device, but the C500 is much better value for money.

[Guest spvdk]

I bought the original SPV and P800 at about the same time, when they were both brand new. Back then the SPV was inferior, at least for my usage, but now it isn't so anymore. While SE has been so very, very busy redesigning the keyboard TWICE during only two years, HTC has been goofing off and just done a few new phones instead... :-)

I have been using the P900 since the start of the year, but it's beginning to feel a bit old. So a few weeks ago, I bought a C500. This only confirmed that the lack of interest from SE in their top end device is really beginning to show. For example, try watching a movie on both devices. P900 will only run mp4 natively, but you can get Smartmovie, which allows you to run Xvid files. At least that's a start...

To get a movie(clip) running on the P900, you have to downsize it for this slow device. Bitrate at 160 tops, and don't go above 15 fps. Now transfer your movie to both devices and run it. Even if you format the movie pixel size (208x320) for the P900, which mean the C500 will have to resize, the C500 is still far smoother. It also has the resources to dither! If you wanna humiliate the P900 further, try running a standard movie clip, without formatting it for the P900 first. Slideshow...

But on the other hand, the C500 has an unbelievable bad MMS implementation. What are they thinking? Even though it is capable of transferring pictures, voice and video, there's so many bugs that only the pictures actually work! We need a new firmware, and we need it fast!

The P900 crashes ever so often when using T9. I also agree that it’s very frustrating to have to open the flip to continue writing, if you for some reason had to pause. Besides, the T9 is incredibly slow. If you are below the age of 80 and still can move your fingers without arthritis kicking in too badly, the P900 is too slow for you!

The 128MB max memstick size for the P900 is not hardware related, as we used to think. It’s perfectly able to run the Duo Pro sticks, if only SE will update the firmware. They won’t…

With the Opera browser for C500 already here, though only in an alpha build, the future for the C500 is looking quite nice, since this is one of the main selling points of the P900.

Why haven’t the P900 owners got access to read html emails? Is SE surprised that owners of their expensive business phone want to use it to read emails? They really need to get a grip on reality.

To me the positive sides of the P900 is

Wayfinder Mapguide (only the maps, not the complete GPS system)

Big touchscreen

…and all the software I have licensed over the past two years :-)

As it is, my better half has taken control over the C500. I could use the C500 even though the screen is untouchable :-) and small(ish), but I really use MMS too much to want to give it up. How come a smartphone can't do what a standard phone can? ^_^

P.S. Sorry for rambling. I'll shut up now :-)

[Guest Chaser81]

I had a P800 for about four months, and then switched straight away to a P900 when it was released. Loved it to bits but when the C500 came out I nabbed one and sold the P900 to my friend. I have dabbled with the MS Smartphone OS before (Had an original SPV and an E200), but they never before had the stability and the battery life to compete on level pegging with devices such as the P900. I have to say though that the C500 is more useful to me personally than the P900. I find its calender and contacts system invaluably better than Symbian's.