Nokia 8290 Review

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Nokia 8290
3.3 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.3 out of 5

From 0 ratings and 14 reviews

Thumb down 43% of users recommend this product

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Aaron.'s Review of Nokia 8290

22nd Mar 2002

Overall Rating

3 stars
  • Value for money
    3.5 stars
  • Reception
    2 stars
  • Features
    4.5 stars
  • Style
    4 stars
Good Points

Small, light, great menus/interface, IR port, predictive text messaging


Bad Points

Flimsy quality, display goes blank, poor reception compaired to other phones.


General Comments


When I first saw the Nokia 8290 mobile phone, I knew I had to have one. I was upgrading from a 6190 and was drawn to the 8290 because of its small size and predictive text messaging. After about 6-months with the phone, the display flaked out.

It seems that keeping the phone in my pocket causes the display to fail. I have several friends with this phone that have complained about the same problem. However, my girlfriend has had her 8290 for over a year and has not had a single problem. My guess is that it's because she keeps the phone in her purse.

Disassembling the phone and cleaning all the contacts restores functionality to the display. I know people with the 8260 and none of them have the problem with the display. It may be that the removable faceplate is not strong enough on the 8290 to keep pressure off the display when it's in my pocket. Since the 8260 doesn't have the exchangeable covers, it may be the reason why they don't have this problem.

My service provider is Cingular Wireless and their coverage in the bay area is poor. The weak signal of the 8290 doesn't help this much. I've had a Motorola Star-tac, a Nokia 6190, and a Motorola Timeport L7082. The Motorola phones got the best reception, followed by the 6190. The 8290 has the worst reception of the bunch but I continue to use it because I don't like lugging around the larger phones.

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