Gone are the days of the bulky P800, P900, P910, and P990i, as the P1i is 25 percent smaller than its predecessors measuring 106 x 55 x 17mm. An initial glance at the phone makes you realize that the trademark fold-down keypad is no more. Instead the P1i holds a QWERTY keypad, with each key holding three to four characters, pressing down to the left or right side or together with the ALT key will determine which character will appear on screen.

It took a while to get used to the keypad; even those who can type at the speed of light on a keyboard may find themselves at times losing letters due to their thumb blocking the view of the small keys. But after two to three days my typing speed gradually picked up and my rate of pressing the wrong key decreased, although I do wonder if men could do as well with their larger fingers.

If the keypad is not your thing, don’t fret, as a handy yet thin stylus is stored at the P1i’s left side for writing. Inputting text using the stylus is best done together with the phone’s predictive text feature, as not only does it correct spelling, it also recognizes and stores words and phrases you often use for speedy messaging and email.

It’s hard not to admire the phone’s large 2.6” touch-screen TFT display – especially when viewing images, videos and documents – with its QVGA resolution of 256K colors. Shortcut keys can be found on both sides of the P1i, with a Jog Dial that scrolls up and down, a back key both on its left side, and dedicated camera and web keys on its right.

The P1i was meant for you to do work on; with Quickoffice pre-installed on the phone, users can open and edit MS Word, MS Excel and MS Powerpoint documents. There is also a PDF application for viewing PDF files. When reading or editing documents, you can set the screen to landscape for a wider working space, as well as zooming in on text for easier reading.

Opening up two- to three-page Word documents takes under ten seconds; while closing the file, users automatically have the option of saving a copy of the file or the original.

Part of working is how you plan your time and store your ideas. The P1i’s calendar can be viewed in monthly, weekly and daily tables with appointments, reminders, with all day events and anniversaries being stored and displayed.

Other applications to help organize your daily routine are the Tasks and Notes applications. The Task program lets you enter events and things you must do that don’t carry a lot of information; while Notes lets you jot down any ideas or small pieces of information you might need.

My favorite aspect of the Notes application is that apart from writing down your idea, you can also make a sketch of it using the stylus, This is especially handy if you want to copy a section of a map or quickly write down some figures to calculate later.

Other tasking related tools include a calculator, unit converter, sound recorder and business card scanner that sorts out and inputs data from pictures taken of business cards.

Running on the v9.1 Symbian OS, the P1i’s interface is UIQ 3.0, which is a customizable stylus-based user interface. Besides the expected clock, date, signal strength and battery icons, standby mode also offers a drop-down Today menu that shows current Calendar events, message and email inbox, missed calls and unfinished tasks.

A shortcut bar appears at the bottom of the standby screen and allows quick access to the Calendar, contacts, web browser, messaging and the main menu, all of which are big enough to select with a tap of a finger. If these five choices aren’t enough for you or you prefer a shortcut to a different program, press the grey arrow to expand the shortcut menu to display a further ten shortcuts for personalization.

At the top left-hand corner there are two arrows, this is the icon of the handy Task Manager. By tapping it a menu pops out displaying the options of setting the time, selecting volume levels, managing connectivity and creating a new message, email, contact, etc.

As for the P1i’s main menu, you can choose from two different views such as an icon grid or list. For changing of color schemes users can personalize their P1i in the settings menu.

There is no shortage of memory on the P1i as it has 166MB of flash memory and 128MB RAM, further space is available by popping in a Memory Stick Micro M2 card into the phone’s memory slot. Files stored on the Sony Ericsson P1i are sorted depending on whether they are saved to the phone’s memory or the memory card.

When it comes to managing your business calls – besides filtering out unwanted callers – the P1i lets users send a predefined SMS to people they reject calls from, or automatically schedule a call-back event in the calendar when they are unable to answer.

Connectivity-wise the P1i is a 3G-enabled phone. Other wireless options include IR, Bluetooth, GPRS, and Wi-Fi. Its integrated connection manager lets you prioritize certain connections; for example, when you have multiple connectivity accounts running at the same time, such as Bluetooth, WLAN and 3G, you can choose which connection you want to prioritize.

Websurfing is done using the Opera 8.0 Web browser that bears HTML, XHTML, Javascript, frames, CSS and TSL and SSL security protocols. Like document viewing, the screen can be viewed either portrait or landscape and can be zoomed in on for a full-screen view. To save space and cost, you can program the browser not to display heavy MB images.

For email you can rely on POP3, IMAP and SMTP to deliver and retrieve your messages; however by default it only downloads the email header, you have to change the settings for it to automatically download the whole message.

Of course the Sony Ericsson P1i isn’t all about business, it offers music, video, imaging and gaming features too. Using the same music player as found on Sony Ericsson’s Walkman-branded phones, the player displays on-screen controls just big enough to finger tap between and pause tracks. The player can be minimized to allow you to run other applications.

To go back and skip songs, just tap on the music icon that appears next to your signal strength icon. However once you select the music icon, whatever you were working on will save and close itself immediately. Other music functions include a stereo FM radio that can store up to 20 preset radio stations and a MusicDj application that lets you compose your own ringtones.

Equipped with a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash, it snaps up 2048 x 1536 resolution images and 320 x 240 pixels at 15 fps videos. The camera offers a 3x zoom, video, frame, burst and still shooting modes, a choice of VGA, 1, 2 or 3 MP resolution, Macro or normal focus, auto and preset white balance settings, effects, fine, normal or economy quality shooting, night mode, and self timer.

When browsing through images in full screen they are automatically rotated for better viewing and easier sharing. A secondary VGA camera is placed at the front. However this camera can only be used for video telephony and not for shooting portraits of yourself.

The P1i has two pre-installed games to help you pass the time while waiting for your next meeting. The first is a Java-based game called QuadraPop and the second is Vijay Singh Pro Golf 3D first seen on the P990i.

Powered by a BST-33 950 mAh Li-Polymer chargeable battery a single charge should last you between two to three days depending on how many calls you make and what applications you regularly use.

All in all the Sony Ericsson P1i is impressive. The form alone is stunning, but when you consider all the things it can do, you may think twice before bringing it with you on vacation.