Sony Ericsson P990
Encyclopedia
Sony Ericsson P990 is a smartphone
and the successor of Sony Ericsson P910
. The phone uses the UIQ
3 software platform, which is based upon Symbian OS 9.1. It was released in August 2006. The P990 has a numeric keypad that flips open to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard below the display, on the phone itself. This is a change from P910 where the keyboard is on the flip. The flip itself can be attached or detached using the screw and screwdriver found in the box. The phone is a UMTS (3G
) and tri-band GSM phone supporting video calls through its front VGA camera. The touchscreen displays 262,114 colours (18-bit colour depth) with a resolution
of 240x320 pixel
s. It also comes with a 2.0 Megapixel
camera featuring autofocus
and an FM/RDS radio. The P990 runs the Nexperia
PNX4008 ARM9
208 MHz processor from Philips
.The screen despite a smaller length (2.8 inch) than its predecessors is actually larger in area because of the increased resolution. The phone also improves over the P910 by including support for Wi-Fi
, allowing users to connect to 802.11b wireless networks. You can browse the Web using the built in Opera browser. Additional features includes RSS feeds, online video streaming, Java ME support and Handwriting recognition.
P990 was the major smartphone device launched after P910. It had the latest UIQ user interface 3 which was completely incompatible with previous device applications. Like of P900 and P910 so new applications have to be written hence device did not have as many applications as older devices had.
The major issue of P990 was RAM which was much less (64MB) of which device used 48MB in start up (OS) and only 16MB was available for the user. This caused the phone to work slowly and crash frequently. Running multiple applications simultaneously was not possible due to lack of sufficient RAM. The latest update increased the available RAM which solved the most of the problems.
Network hang is the most prominent problems seen on P990. When the phone is kept idle for a certain time, the signal gets dropped. Only restarting the phone solves this problem. During the network hang, the phone seems perfect, but sms and calls are dropped.
After the latest update, the phone seems more stable. The latest firmware is R6E28 of both Generic World 1 and Generic World 2. Lot of issues were addressed since some branded phones were not allowed to update.
It was then possible to change the CDA
of the phone with the use of third party software like XS++.
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
and the successor of Sony Ericsson P910
Sony Ericsson P910
The Sony Ericsson P910 is a smartphone by Sony Ericsson introduced in 2004 and the successor of the Sony Ericsson P900. The P910 has a full QWERTY keyboard on the back of the flip The biggest change from the P900 to the P910 is that the P910 now supports Memory Stick PRO Duo and the phone's...
. The phone uses the UIQ
UIQ
UIQ by UIQ Technology is a software platform based upon Symbian OS. Essentially this is a graphical user interface layer that provides additional components to the core OS, to enable the development of feature-rich mobile phones that are open to expanded capabilities through third-party...
3 software platform, which is based upon Symbian OS 9.1. It was released in August 2006. The P990 has a numeric keypad that flips open to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard below the display, on the phone itself. This is a change from P910 where the keyboard is on the flip. The flip itself can be attached or detached using the screw and screwdriver found in the box. The phone is a UMTS (3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
) and tri-band GSM phone supporting video calls through its front VGA camera. The touchscreen displays 262,114 colours (18-bit colour depth) with a resolution
Display resolution
The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection...
of 240x320 pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s. It also comes with a 2.0 Megapixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
camera featuring autofocus
Autofocus
An autofocus optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus fully automatic or on a manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system has to be done manually until indication...
and an FM/RDS radio. The P990 runs the Nexperia
Nexperia
Nexperia is a class of semiconductor products from NXP Semiconductors : a highly integrated, programmable system-on-chip ....
PNX4008 ARM9
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
208 MHz processor from Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
.The screen despite a smaller length (2.8 inch) than its predecessors is actually larger in area because of the increased resolution. The phone also improves over the P910 by including support for Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
, allowing users to connect to 802.11b wireless networks. You can browse the Web using the built in Opera browser. Additional features includes RSS feeds, online video streaming, Java ME support and Handwriting recognition.
Popularity
P990 was adopted for business and personal use. Office which includes Word, excel and pdf support comes installed with the firmware itself. New features like Business card scanner and Front Camera attracted lots of consumers.Problems
- New Interface
P990 was the major smartphone device launched after P910. It had the latest UIQ user interface 3 which was completely incompatible with previous device applications. Like of P900 and P910 so new applications have to be written hence device did not have as many applications as older devices had.
- Less RAM
The major issue of P990 was RAM which was much less (64MB) of which device used 48MB in start up (OS) and only 16MB was available for the user. This caused the phone to work slowly and crash frequently. Running multiple applications simultaneously was not possible due to lack of sufficient RAM. The latest update increased the available RAM which solved the most of the problems.
- Network Hang
Network hang is the most prominent problems seen on P990. When the phone is kept idle for a certain time, the signal gets dropped. Only restarting the phone solves this problem. During the network hang, the phone seems perfect, but sms and calls are dropped.
Latest Firmware
Sony Ericsson updated the firmware which made OS reduce its size up to 2MB and gave the user 17MB of memory to use. There were improvements seen in the phone after the software update. The phone seems stable after the latest update.After the latest update, the phone seems more stable. The latest firmware is R6E28 of both Generic World 1 and Generic World 2. Lot of issues were addressed since some branded phones were not allowed to update.
It was then possible to change the CDA
Cellular Digital Accessory
A cellular digital accessory number identifies the software version and customization of a Mobile phone.Customization, among others, relates to operator-customized startup and shutdown videos, user greeting, web browser's home page and preinstalled bookmarks and also language packs that come...
of the phone with the use of third party software like XS++.