Vinit Srivastva

Sony Ericssons flagship smartphone has dropped a collar size, polished its brogues and been reborn as a sweet new BlackBerry killer.The Sony Ericsson P1 is based on the Symbian 9.1 OS and runs with the UIQ 3.0 interface. It doesn't boast some revolutionary features, but it's all about the complete set of function it offers.

Sony Ericssons P990i was a feature packed fella Wi-Fi, QWERTY keypad, touchscreen you name it, he did it. But it showed. Every time you went away on business you had to book it an extra seat on the plane.

So in the spirit of Marjorie Dawes Fat Fighters, Sony Eric has put its flagship smartphone on a dust diet and come back fitter than ever.

The new P1i is 25 per cent smaller than its older brother, but still as well equipped as a pinstriped Swiss army knife. Youll get Wi-Fi, 3G, a full QWERTY keypad and VoIP capabilities all running on a UIQ OS.

Mini-QWERTYphobes have the option of handwriting recognition on the 2.6in touchscreen and itll come with 160MB of built-in brains. As with most Sony Erics youll be able to stash some extra in the MicroSD slot should you run out of space.

But dont let your mind stray too far from business; therell be plenty of time for fun at the weekend. The P1 gets a new hint of fruit with support for BlackBerry Connect email and a business card scanner that imports all details directly into your contacts.

When the weekend does finally come, the 3.2MP cam will cope with some casual snapping, there's wire-free music via A2DP Bluetooth, and for fans of the wireless (no, the old kind) theres an FM radio too.

Well have a review for you as soon as one hits our briefcase.