Nokia 9210i Communicator
The Nokia 9210i Communicator is designed to do what the name suggests -- allow people to meet all their communication needs while on the move.
In addition to the normal mobile functions, the 9210i has WAP, Internet surfing, email and fax. It is a sizable phone, weighing in at 244g and measuring 158x56x27mm. This is to allow space for the PDA functions, which are accessed by flipping the phone open to reveal a keyboard and screen.
Flipping open the phone reveals a fairly spectacular screen atop a keyboard. The keyboard has the normal keys and a few others. "Chr" gives access to a special character menu, and across the top there is a series of buttons that take you straight to various menus such as Desk, Messaging, Contacts, Calendar and Office. It's a pretty fast navigation layout. Another useful aspect is the shift key, which differs from a computer keyboard in that when you press it the next key you press is 'shifted'.
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The messaging menu allows you to send and receive email, SMS or fax. The email client supports normal Internet standards such as SMTP, IMAP4 and POP3. The fax and email clients have a very standardised look to them, and for the most part the SMS client is similar. However, it lacks an indication of how many characters you have used, and therefore how many SMS messages will be sent to convey the information.
Browsing-wise you have two options, WAP and standard WWW. Since WAP was designed specifically to allow mobiles with small screens to search the Internet, and the 9210 has a large colour screen, we can't see any compelling reason to use it. The WWW feature allows you to dial into an ISP and browse the web in much the same way as you would on your computer. This sounds pretty cool, but if you're paying mobile phone rates you'd want to know exactly where you wanted to go. Nokia also warn about the dangers of downloading viruses.
In the "office" menu of the PDA there is a file manager, presentation viewer (for PowerPoint), a spreadsheet program and word. Nokia claim they are compatible with most Microsoft versions, but not all formatting would be supported. We couldn't open the word program as it closed on us immediately, and we couldn't find any way to repair it.
The phone functions on the outside of the device are mostly for convenience, since all the phone functions are accessible from the PDA section. When the phone is flipped open the phone section on the outside switches off and the PDA inside switches on, and vice versa when the phone is closed.
The phone has the standard 12-keypad, two soft keys, answer call and reject call buttons and up/down arrows. In addition is has a button that takes you straight to profiles and another on/off button. There's a flip open aerial on top, which we mostly left in. One odd (very odd) aspect is the microphone and earpiece, which are located on the back of the phone.
We found the volume to be a bit soft during conversations, even when we spoke into the back of the phone. Eventually we worked out that the arrow keys on the PDA control the phone volume.
The phone menu doesn't have many options, just messages, call register, settings, call divert and infrared. We found it odd that you can send and receive picture SMS with the phone, but cannot view them. Also, the SMS function doesn't have predictive text, which is practically standard in modern phones.
We found the battery life of the phone to be excellent. It's advertised as 4-10 hours of talk/data/fax time and 80-230 hours of standby. In our informal testing, it lasted from 5pm Tuesday to 8pm Wednesday the following week, a staggering total of 195 hours.
The real challenge for the 9210i are the newer wave of devices such as Handspring's Treo and Sony Ericsson's P800 Smartphone, both of which incorporate PDA functionality into much more portable units. Nokia may have been the first into this territory, but being first doesn't matter in a market where customers don't want first -- they want best.
Nokia 9210i Communicator
Company: Nokia
Price: AU$1799
Distributor: Nokia
Phone: 1300 366 733
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I have read mainly positive reviews and comments about the V70. I decided to buy one. What was I thinking?
The phone is a disaster, if it were not for its looks, I would never have bought it.
For an expensive phone, the features are shocking!The phone book is hard to use, the key's on the keypad have become almost unuseable (from only 6 months of use), the screen is hard to see and the 2 or three lines of text is just not enough.
The games, well, can you actually call those applications games? And I have found that no ringtone download sites will download to a V70. There are no web pages which show you the notes to put in your phone, for a V70. 30 spaces for your own ringtones wasted!
The V70 is no where near loud enough as it should be. Even on the maximum ring volume setting, I and everyone around me cannot hear it ringing if we are in a medium density area, such as a mall. And the vibrating alert just makes a sound, you can barely feel it vibrating when it is in your pocket.
The last awful feature I have found since I started using the phone 6 months ago, is that that stylish rotator, blocks the antenna. My phone is constantly dropping calls, people I am calling sound robotic, as do I they tell me. All because the rotator sits in front of the antenna!
Better luck with the new V70i Motorola!