No more P990.

It has been a good while since I had gone to bed at 2 in the morning after playing with this SE baby!

I really want to love this phone and keep it forever and ever, but I have misgivings about it after the first night. It has been a great experience overall from a multimedia standpoint with music and pics, but the interface navigation leaves a bit to be desired. It is very sluggish compared to the Treo 680 and can be quite a chore to carry out the most simplest of tasks like silencing the phone. Another fault is with the screen size, for although the p990 and Treo may have close dimensions the latter seems to be much bigger and easier to work with. The size and weight of the p990 gives it a cheap feel while the heavier Treo is more robust and solid like a Nokia. Unfortunately I have come to find out that the text bar glitch is still present even in the DataViz app, so I will not be paying the extra $50 to upgrade. Another interesting fact I have found is that the DataViz app takes up much more memory than the installed Quickoffice app, which in turn may have a negative effect on processing speed. In comparison the fonts of SE may be more visually appealing but the plain Palm fonts, though chunkier, still are easier to read. Using the third party app p990iCal is not a pain to use but does take a couple more steps than the bluetooth synching of the Treo. The calendar is unimpressive and the narrow screen real estate makes it too small while the Palm is clearer and even allows color-coding for scheduled events. I never realized just how small and narrow this screen is to the square Treo 680 and I took for granted the speed at which I navigated with the direction pad. Having the Palm begin with a menu screen may not be as gorgeous as having a nice wallpaper picture, but it sure saves time in accessing the appropriate app. Having that new phone app with integrated contacts is easy to miss when I have to deal with the two separately on the SE, and the included DataViz is easier to access and manage. Call me crazy but I don't remember my last p990 feeling so plasticky, and I will even go as far as to say that the once-metallic frame of the screen has been replaced by plastic.

I really have to sit down and get my smartphone priorities in order at this moment. When was the last time I used a phone for its camera since that Fort Lauderdale trip? How often do I look back on those pics or videos I had taken with my old N93 or E61i? Do I want a flashy device only to settle for its great features and shortcomings or a plain one that is more mainstream, efficient and bland but gets the critical jobs done just the way I like it? Maybe I'm just getting too old for this techie stuff or just too damn tired going from one gadget to the next. Maybe I really am an enterprise user and not a multimedia user or hybrid like I claimed to be...maybe Nokia has the right idea after in having an Eseries and Nseries.

Either way, it may hurt to give up this thing for a second time and say goodbye to all its features, but my priority is writing and Mac compatibility and the Palm Treo 680 has been the only one to fully support that out-of-the-box. It may not be the flashiest device amongst the techie generation, but for me it's the absolute best.

At this point I shall return this P990, look for the overnight arrival of my Treo 680 and await the release of the Nokia E90. I may have claimed that the Treo is the best device for me, but that doesn't mean that I can't play with a new toy every now and then.