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For many years Nokia led the way for power users with their Communicator series. The only problem was that you felt like you were talking into a common house-brick. Also, while they boasted features that no other phones had at the time there were some glaring omissions that were common on phones supplied free under contract (such as GPRS). Sony Ericsson (SE) stole their thunder in 2003 with the launch of the P800 'smartphone'.

This long-term review covers usage over a 12 month period. The phone has now been superceded by the P900, however there are still many P800s around either in shops or for remarkably good prices on Ebay, so it's worth seeing where it can meet your needs before splashing out on a newer model.

At first glance it looks like a normal phone that's overdone it on the pork pies. At almost 60mm wide (2 1/4") it does feel rather fat in the hand, but on the plus side at least you feel you have something to grip, unlike many of today's waif-like mobiles. The blue/silver case might not also suit all tastes - its successor, the P900 reverted to a more traditional grey/silver approach, although I have no personal aversion to the look.

Navigation
The unit is supplied for use either with a flip keyboard or with a blanking plate so that you just use the touch-screen. While this is a nice idea I personally prefer to use the flip - when you are trying to dial with one hand it is much more accurate to press buttons rather than the touch screen. One minor downside is how the flip interacts with the screen - the flip is held away from the screen by two small plastic tabs either side of the screen, leaving the keys to touch the screen with a small point when pressed. The downside is that if the flip is pushed hard against the screen the tabs could snap - this happened to me once, however Orange immediately provided a replacement flip free of charge.

Navigating your way around the P800 is easy - in addition to the screen you can also use the jog wheel on the left-hand side. This is good for negotiating your way through a well-populated address book single-handed. Only after two months did I find out it was actually 5-way - in addition to rolling up/down and push-in you can push the wheel forward or backwards. For some this could prove a little tricky but can be perfected over a relatively short period of time - if you can remember which way does what! A stylus is clipped to the right of the body. I know of users that have lost several, however I put this down to their own ineptness as I'm still on my first! Fortunately the unit ships with three spares.

When the flip is open a virtual keyboard can be enabled to enter data. This is a little flddly at first, as each key is only a few mm wide, but you soon get used to it. It is certainly quicker than entering texts on a standard phone pad.

Camera
The rear of the phone plays host to the camera, however like most camera phones the quality is basic at best. This is a standard 0.3megapixel VGA camera. There was a quality issue with the first units shipped, but a firmware fix improved the quality and added a night mode. Each photo is around 70KB on highest settings - unless you simply want to take a low res snap to send via MMS leave it set to the best setting - when displayed on a TV they actually look reasonable, but if you print them out they'll either be too small or pixelated when stretched. Pictures are taken by a button marked 'CAM' on the right of the phone.

Memory
Memory has been a little bit of a bug-bear with the P800, but for most users it won't be a problem. The standard unit has 16MB RAM and is supplied with a 16MB Memory Stick Duo (which is about half the size and thickness of a standard memory stick). Many applications don't actually close when you navigate away from them - they stay resident in memory. So it only takes one rogue application with poor memory management to give you a low memory error. I've only had this occur on two apps - the Tube street map of London and Doom (yes, the actual game can be played on a P800! - it's not very playable but really shows what the system can do). To get round the memory issue all you need is a free program such as File Manager which has a 'task killer' application - close any unnecessary programs and carry on as normal. Of course, this problem is even less likely to happen if you simply install all of your apps and files on the memory stick. The P800 can also take Duo sticks up to 128MB.

OK, we've covered the outside of the P800 but what can it actually do? The telephone feature is a pretty standard affair. Many people were disappointed that there was no T9 predictive text input for SMS'ing, but I personally don't miss it. Once you start using the phone with the flip off you start to get a feel for how well everything knits together. Across the top of the screen are 6 customisable icons for quick launching your favourite tasks. I have mine set to SMS | Phone Book |Phone Dialer | Calendar | File Manager | Applications. You can use the jog dial or stylus to select each one. But it's not just about having your address book and diary on your phone. While the quality of the camera is not great it still serves as a useful device to have in your pocket. There are literally hundreds of games available, which can drastically shorten boring train journeys. But there are several other 'killer apps' out there that make the P800 indispensable:

There are plenty of sites that offer software for the P800 as it uses the standard UIQ interface that has followed onto the P900 and P910, so there are new apps arriving every day. One program worthy of mention is Worldmate. In addition to displaying world time in five cities it downloads weather from weather.com, offers currency conversion (with the latest currency data) and general units and measures conversion - an invaluable 'Swiss Army' tool to have on a P800!

Docking and synchronisation
The P800 is supplied with a USB cradle that can also power the phone. While this is perfectly functional the fact that it is USB is misleading - it transfers data at serial speeds, so backing up a full 128MB stick plus RAM will take around an hour. The original sync software that shipped had several bugs, with infuriated users trying fruitlessly to sync data - happily this has now been resolved and syncing with both Outlook 2000 and 2003 works fine for me. When the phone is connected to the PC you can actually browse the phone's internal memory and memory stick like hard drives, which is great for transferring or cleaning data.

Connectivity
This phone excels when used as part of an all-round communication solution. With GPRS and Bluetooth it's quite simple to have it wirelessly connected to a laptop, providing an instant (albeit pricey) solution to the lack of Internet access that always vexes international travelers. Infra-red is also included for those without Bluetooth. It will happily connect to POP3 accounts, leaving messages on the server unless you download, and delete them on the phone. A slight drawback is that you can only see a few characters of the email address and subject line. So, if like me you receive several hundred spam emails a day it can be a tiresome process to second-guess what is spam and what is not without downloading an opening each mail. (A useful solution to this would have been if the display could be rotated to a landscape style, but this is not possible)

Conclusion
All-in-all a combined PDA and phone makes sense now that the technology is available to deliver it. Nokia had marginal success with its Communicators, but the P800 is 1/3rd smaller, sleeker and provides a better solution. The sheer breadth of applications available, many of which are free makes this a remarkable communication and organisation tool. But of course Solitaire will be the most-used program for many! This phone receives 5 stars primarily because it will allow you to perform many tasks on the move that you would normally only attempt in an office - email, web browsing, remote server control, task lists, IM chats and more. It will be interesting to see where the PXXX series goes, but for now the baby of the family is still a worthy investment as opposed to a separate phone/PDA combination.

Supplier's web site: www.sonyericsson.com

Pro's: The Swiss-army knife of phones. Can sometimes replace the need for a laptop. GPRS, Bluetooth, Infrared and cable connectivity. Built in camera.

Con's: Battery life could be better. Case colour not to all tastes. Plastics could be more solid.