Nokia 8290 Review

Good Points
Compact, stylish, fits in pocket.

Bad Points
Display flaky, reception not so good.

General Comments
I echo the complaints of other reviewers about the display on the Nokia 8290 mobile phone. After several months of usage, the LCD either goes off completely (while the phone still functions -- of course if you can do the hard work of using the phone blind-folded) or displays some garbage. It sounds like a contact problem between the board and LCD. Like another reviewer said, keeping it in your pocket seems to give rise to flaky display. I have also seen higher temperature conditions like direct exposure to sunlight causes the display to go off. So it's either the pressure on the display or the temperature or both. A few months ago my wife and I were lucky enough to take over a pair of 8290's from friends who switched to a non-GSM provider. I immediately dumped my original 8290 and the display didn't fail me yet. However, my wife was frustrated this time around because she started experiencing the flaky display. In summary, Nokia seems to have failed on this model badly. It's ironic how a technology company stumbles on mundane design/manufacturing problems. If you buy this phone with cash (as opposed to with rebates that come with contract commitments), you will need phone insurance protection because there is a 50% chance that it will fail and you will need a backup GSM phone while you try to get it replaced/repaired under manufacturer's warranty. The fact that cellular providers don't offer 8290 via service contracts any longer indicates that they have already taken some heat from disgruntled subcribers. It's a bad thing that product recalls are not mandated on the wireless phone industry yet...