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“People call the nokia 9210 'bulky' or a 'brick', but...”

written by Francis. on 17/01/2002

Good Points
Colour screen with excellent resolution and the best contrast I've seen on any PDA. It doesn't compromise battery life unlike Ipaq with such a bright resolution. Other strong points are, excellent text messaging, fax facility and ability to use as fax modem for laptop too by infra-red. Good software that covers the key PDA functions that most people need. Excellent build quality. Superb wireless integration.

Bad Points
Slower than latest generation of PocketPC applications. Lack of any touchscreen options or handwriting recognition. Looks bulky when closed and used as a phone. No GPRS option or upgradeability.

General Comments
People call the nokia 9210 'bulky' or a 'brick', but do they put that criticism into perspective? You cannot judge the 9210 solely as a phone, it is a hybrid product with combined PDA and mobile phone. In that sense it is still the market leader and beats the latest generation offerings of Sagem and Trium hands down, especially on mobile phone functionality, colour screen and build quality. It is longer than the Ipaq style PDA's but not as broad and takes up the same room, but then you need no mobile. I use a Genie sim-card (www.genie.co.uk) in it, therefore I get WAP access to the Genie service free 24 hours a day, no exorbitant 10p per minute charges! This is a very good phone with minor flaws and major strengths, you have to look beneath the surface to appreciate it. It's like an ugly 1980's phone closed (although it looks much better in a leather pouch with transparent cover for phone) but when opened up it looks great. If you are in it for the pose factor of having a flashy mobile forget it. If you want a wireless PDA that is solid and reliable, then it is still the best the market has to offer until the all singing, all dancing 3G devices emerge. The only other alternative, would be the sequel to the 9210. I'm amazed Nokia haven't offered GPRS, but that must mean something is in the offing. I does have the high speed technolgy for networks like Orange at 28.8 kbps. This phone is falling in price now. I got it with a mobile contract at £189.99 (1/2 price) in January. At that price, what can I say? Probably a fluke as most mobile phone shops exclude it from special offers. Try DX Communications though, ASAP if you want one, or look on the auction sites at yahoo.co.uk and ebay.co.uk for offline bargains. They are as cheap there offline and sim-free as buying one with an online contract between £330 to £400 in the high-street. Ensure they are sim-free and take all networks and not locked into Orange especially.