Counterclockwise: Sony Ericsson and Symbian UIQ, the early days of the touchscreen smartphone
- ?
- Anonymous
- 8qH
- 02 Feb 2023
I'm still using my old P1i. :-) 3G disappeared last year (2022), but it works OK as a phone and basic e-mail, or Opera Mini when really need (e.g. a quick check of the weather). UIQ3 is well designed, especially on P1i with the Home, Camera and Back buttons on the sides.
(I used Android phones for 7-8 years, before returning to this. It still had my old SMS-es from 2014.)
- D
- AnonD-632062
- 3Y1
- 14 Jun 2017
Oh, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic! A very popular phone in it's time!
- D
- AnonD-655518
- nG7
- 12 Jun 2017
Good old days were design was design and each month saw improvements everywhere as things evolved, but most of all design.
- D
- AnonD-662913
- ijn
- 12 Jun 2017
have been using sony ericsson k600i - k618i - satio, meanwhile at that time satio was the best camera phone, using it from 2009 until 2012 (display problem, repaired it and broken again)
so much cool they have brand like walkman and cybershot. so unique design not like nowadays phone.
- D
- AnonD-59730
- xL3
- 12 Jun 2017
Those were amazing designed phones from Sony Ericsson... good old days
- X
- XBR
- 39x
- 12 Jun 2017
I used to think the x1 was huge.. but holding it now its just so tiny..
- ?
- Anonymous
- XQQ
- 12 Jun 2017
AnonD-558092, 11 Jun 2017Before, companies tried to innovate and be different from c... moreAll major companies in world except Apple are from Asia. Some do innovate(moto mods edge sense dual cameras etc.)
- M
- MichaelHB
- LDc
- 12 Jun 2017
I had the P1i, a really solid phone, in my own opinion: The best UIQ phone ever.
3 Mpixel camera, touchscreen, keyboard, stylus, double led, huge battery. all personallity found on symbian, dedicate camera buttom, handly phone, nice design.
I miss that age, when phones really had personality.
- ?
- Anonymous
- mTn
- 12 Jun 2017
gyf, 11 Jun 2017You forgot t mention the Sony Ericsson Satio whih came out ... moreYeah, that's the problem with most non iPhones from that era. They only used broadcom ARM-designs which were too slow. All those cell-phone manufacturers kept milking out that lame ARM11 cpu which just didn't have the grunt for serious webbrowsing which was on most of these device the only let-down. All other stuff ran pretty good. I still have my Nokia 808Pureview which can be considered the very last Symbian phone ever. And it runs great except webbrowsing (particularly javascript infested pages run like snails). But everything else runs great. Due to it's relative low screen resolutions games run smooth, the Belle UI is fine (and looks great), still imaging is still the very best ever helped by custom silicon to do lightning fast hardware downsampling etc... That phone ran the last ever single-core ARM11 designs but at a whopping 1.3Ghz. But the world has moved on and unfortunately not for the better. :-(
Android looks fugly today. And newer revisions have more fluf than ever. Resources are wasted on ridiculous high screen resolutions and awkward screen ratios. Games need more processing power and run worse on newer devices than on some older designs. And common features are dumped like old clothes while still loved and used by millions of consumers (3.5mm jack). All for the sake of (yearly) change.
The world IS gone crazy thanks to just a handfull of influential morons whom decides what features the next phone should have or have not. While it used to be us whom pushed handset makers into what we wanted. IMHO common sense died when Symbian died.
- A
- Aadrian
- 3YQ
- 12 Jun 2017
Interesting. I have used many Sony Ericsson phones, among them was also the first Xperia, the X1 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia ray. Then I made the switch to Windows Phone and never regretted it.
- ?
- Anonymous
- mTn
- 12 Jun 2017
That Experia X1 looks way better than anything else even today. Especially the black version with the lit keys both keyboard and front. And it looks so small compared to today's 5,x" devices of today.
Why don't they make them like that anymore? They could make an awesome device with today's tech and that form factor. A 2017 version of this phone would be fantastic. Use the exact same style buttons et all but with a 5.2 or 5.5" screen instead. And with that thickness you could today use a +4000MAh battery, couldn't you?
The styling on that device is simply gorgeous. Brushed aluminum and chrome (I reckon they used real chrome and not chromed plastic). Does anyone still have one of these?
- D
- AnonD-649760
- X{k
- 12 Jun 2017
I always love Sony because it's designs and great great built quality. I had k700, w550,w850, p1, x1, vivaz, xperia x10, xperia TX and now I have xperia z5 permium.. I love you Sony
- g
- gyf
- vxQ
- 11 Jun 2017
You forgot t mention the Sony Ericsson Satio whih came out before the iPhone and was let down by its sluggish ui
- ?
- Anonymous
- 0v$
- 11 Jun 2017
Peter-B, 11 Jun 2017Those run Symbian S60, not UIQ.Thank for that correction. And P1 caused a major nostalgia flashback. Damn, that was a awesome phone.
- ?
- Anonymous
- tCV
- 11 Jun 2017
No pda? Like htc, hp, xda or O2?
- ?
- Anonymous
- tRf
- 11 Jun 2017
Yes, the Sony Ericsson era was pretty damn solid...
- R
- Raphi7
- 3V1
- 11 Jun 2017
Anonymous, 11 Jun 2017Unfortunately the chances of a different form factors like ... moreWell the keyone just launched so we must wait before making and opinion and the priv was the first bb android smartphone so it had bugs and hardware issues and it was super tall and i think had limited availability wich made it unpopular...........the keyone fixed a lot of those issues and has regular security updates but we must wait before we can judge it...........
- D
- AnonD-625430
- U{r
- 11 Jun 2017
Very nice article. All these different form factors have faded and all we have these days are rectangular slabs.. Those were days..
- D
- AnonD-434295
- yMa
- 11 Jun 2017
Akinaro, 11 Jun 2017If Sony would have find their balls and remade Xperia X1 wi... moreAgree with you mate. Xperia x1 was the most complete smartphone. I owned it for more than 1 years and been able to run android eclair and donut. And when you just look at it, just beautiful.
Break my heart when someone stole it.