Sony Ericsson P800

Here’s Sony Ericsson’s first smartphone, the P800 — which I trialled for about a week in June, 2003. A gallery of photos taken with the VGA camera ’round back was one of the last things I posted on my first-ever blog. These two press photos were pooched from PDAStreet.

Note that the number pad was on a hinged panel that could be folded down or taken off completely, revealing a touch-screen underneath. The phone was powered by UIQ, Sony Ericsson’s fork of the Symbian mobile operating system. Years later I would come to appreciate the power of Symbian and S60, but back then I remember a distinct lack of sync options for Macintosh computers. Also, this beast of a phone had a price tag to match.

Here’s Steve Punter’s review of the P800 from December, 2003.