For almost a year the hype has been gathering around the SonyEricsson P800, which is easily the most talked-about phone on Slashdot. It must be the most hyped handheld device since the Apple Newton.
One dealer in the UK, where it began to go on sale for as little as $300 towards the end of last week, described it to me as the best ready for market phone he'd seen, and he's probably right.
But for the real news, and why I called it 'revolutionary', you can thank Opera. This is the first handheld that does the full web - Opera's native Symbian browser is quite amazing. I think this is the beginning of the end for two quite horrible, but related ideas: repurposing content through WAP gateways or "clipping" (the Palm VII/Danger Hiptop model); and closed-garden carrier services. People want the full web, and want to go where they please - not where some phone company wants them to go. This they can now do, at a very affordable price.
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