The Sony Ericsson P970? (Part II)

So we have another contender for the rumored smartphone that may come to be known as the Sony Ericsson P970/P980 (you know, the stripped down version of the Symbian-powered P990). In this iteration (which looks a lot more real than the last claimant), the device takes on more of a Treo/hw6500 form factor, although the keyboard arrangement looks even stranger than that on the Blackberry 7100 series. No more deets yet, but we'll tracking this one with our usual ferocity. Read on for a comparative pic with a W800...

[Via Club SonyEricsson]

[Fred J. @ Jan 13th 2006 3:12PM]

Freaking sick.

[ubersonic @ Jan 13th 2006 3:19PM]

Its smaller without wifi, but really, why buy a phone without wifi? You'll miss out a lot by not using wifi/sip where available.

[GIna @ Jan 13th 2006 3:28PM]

So Fake! I mean, come on! There isn't even a directional keypad!

[anthony @ Jan 13th 2006 4:06PM]

It seems iffy, but Blackberry's don't have directional keys either, so take that how you will. The two keys that flank the 0 key, they look like softkeys. That would make for interesting use of the phone.



Personally I think it looks like a calculator...

[Joe @ Jan 13th 2006 4:19PM]

I'm holding my P900 in my hand, it doesn't have a directional keypad. You don't need one when you have something as good as SE's jog dial to navigate with.



But yeah, I'm going to save for the wifi one.

[SoopahMan @ Jan 13th 2006 4:32PM]

That's the stupidest idea for a keyboard I've ever seen.



If that's real, they should save their user's frustration and not bring that thing to market. If it's not real, then future SmartPhone Designers: You now have one more perfect example of what NOT to do when designing new phones.

[TZK @ Jan 13th 2006 4:58PM]

Looks more like a VoIP phone than anything. No directional? I dont think this is a cellphone.

[jason @ Jan 13th 2006 6:30PM]

like the look

could 2006 be the year

for wimax phones?

[xbit @ Jan 13th 2006 7:04PM]

Sony Ericsson are really on a roll right now. I can't wait for the P990 and any other smartphones they've got coming!

[Joe @ Jan 14th 2006 9:48AM]

6: Read my post above; the directional controller is the scroll wheel. It goes round and round (giving you two directions, clicks towards the front and the back of the phone (giving you two more directions) and clicks into the phone (the final direction). So, if you're after a directional controller, there's a five way one right there.



If it's not a cellphone, then it's a pretty big calculator!

[Kei @ Jan 14th 2006 12:28PM]

guys, it really is important to mention clearly that this is not a real phone image, it's a mock, which was designed by one of the members on http://www.se-nse.com

The keyboard isn't real, there was no real design so he came up with what he

THINKS IT MIGHT LOOK LIKE!

[Aesthetic @ Jan 17th 2006 12:08PM]

People, you're forgetting one thing, not only has the Pxxx series a jogdial (which is superb on most other models, though I find my p900 just a bit too wide for it to be comfy) it also has a touchscreen. Which more or less means that a directionnal button on an already cluttered keyboard is simply overkill.



However, I'm still not a believer whereas this concept is concerned. Especially the Quickshare-thingy throws me off. Doesn't seem logical, SE usually only puts Quickshare on the covers of its' low-end phones.

[Pavel V @ Jan 18th 2006 5:38PM]

Bad news, there is no more jogdial on P990. 3 direction instead 5. And , common, who needs querty on touchscreen device. The virtual keyboard actually gives all possible solutions without making divice itself bigger or/and screen smaller.

[Jordan @ Jan 18th 2006 6:00PM]

i dont understand how people are saying fake when there is an ACTUAL picture of the housing next to the w800, i could understand if it was just the computer generated picture...

[The_Magician @ Feb 15th 2006 1:02PM]

Aesthetic said "SE usually only puts Quickshare on the covers of its' low-end phones."
My P910i has QuickShare written on it (on the hinge of the flip) and it's not a low-end phone!

Also this one looks a fair bit like the M600 (http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=gb&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pc3_2_3_1&zone=pc&lm=pc3&pid=10385&esi=true) which (like the P990 and the W950) are all UIQ3.0 phones, so basically same operating system, and just picking different features to appeal to different markets (M600 messenger phone for Blackberry types, P990 for people who want everything and W950 for iPod Nano types)