Always been a fan of Sony Ericsson phones but my bloody Service provider keep giving me Nokia phones! ARGHH!!! I WANT A Sony Ericsson P990i !!

Sony Ericsson P990 : Sony Ericsson emphasized its continued commitment to Symbian OS with the announcement of its next generation smartphone to the global development community. The Sony Ericsson P990 will be the first commercially available smartphone to adopt the enhanced Symbian OS version 9.1 and UIQ 3 software platform. The P990 UMTS smartphone is Wi-Fi enabled, has a 2 Megapixel camera with autofocus and features a new hardware keyboard beneath the flip-down keypad. The Sony Ericsson UMTS P990 will start shipping during Q1 of 2006. The UMTS P990 is the next in a line of successful Sony Ericsson smartphones, the P800, P900 and P910, and is based on the same proven concept and recognizable form factor.

Some of the higlighted features includes :

Business Card Scanner - This is how it works, you take a photo of a calling card, the 990i built in character recognition software will identify the text and then store it in your contact list.

Security - Partnership with Mcafee proved useful in time like this, Mcafee Viruscan and firewall mobile to protect the well being of your 990i

Other new features include automatic time zone change to the Calendar diary and updated PC sync software with extended synchronization possibilities. Additionally the 2 Megapixel camera with autofocus, digital zoom, photo light plus the bright TFT screen and video recording provide a high quality imaging experience. In a separate announcement today, Sony Ericsson Developer World and UIQ Technology outlined their plans to support UIQ 3 developers. Developers can program in C++ or Java to create powerful professional and personal productivity tools for the Sony Ericsson UMTS P990. The smartphone is based on Java Platform 3 (JP-3). It supports four new Java Specification Requests (JSR’s) including Web Services (JSR-172) and is the twentieth phone from Sony Ericsson supporting Mobile Java 3D, demonstrating the company’s leadership in this new technology.

Standard Java applications can be run with either the flip-down keypad open or closed. The P990 smartphone will be commercially available in Q1 2006.
Sony Ericsson UMTS P990 specifications
- Operating system - Symbian OS v9.1, Software platform - UIQ v3.0
- Size - 114 x 57 x 25mm, - Weight - 155g with battery and flip keyboard
- Screen - Large 2.8 inch QVGA (240 x 320) touch screen with 262 k colours
- Supports landscape view for camera, video imaging and browsing
- Interaction - Using touch screen, 3 way Jog Dial and dedicated buttons
- WLAN - 802.11b compliant, Bluetooth - Includes car handsfree profile
- Infrared - Yes, USB - Yes and charging via USB
- UMTS - E-GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900 and UMTS 2100
- Application memory - Up to 80MB user free memory
-Camera - Integrated 2 Megapixel CommuniCorder
- Video telephony, Media player - Supports playback, streaming and playlists
- Activity menu - Customizable top level menu, Upgradeable - Via Sony Ericsson Update Service
- FM/RDS radio - Yes, Browser - Opera browser (version ‘8′) supporting frames and javascript
- Push email - Prepared for all major e-mail solutions including Research in Motion (Blackberry)
- Messaging - SMS, MMS and email, Editors - Microsoft Word and Excel
- PIM applications - Contacts, Calendar, To Do, Jotter for notes and sketches
- Converter, Stop Watch and Timer, Viewers - Microsoft Excel. Word, Powerpoint and Adobe PDF
- Themes - Easy personalisation of animated icons, screensavers, wallpapers and skins
- Speaker phone - Yes, Flight mode - Includes option to turn Wi-Fi on
- Memory Stick - Memory Stick PRO Duo slot for up to 4GB removable memory. 64MB supplied
- Local and remote synchronisation - via SyncML, Business telephony - Yes
- Java ME platform support, Voice memo and Calculator.

Price is still not available at the time of this article.

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