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What's new in my pocket computers pages?
Friday, October 15th : Ricoh RDC i-700 received
Device securised this morning! No page for it yet; will be one some day.
Wednesday, September 15th : Sharp MI-10 added
Created a page for the Sharp MI-10 i've received.
Friday, July 23rd : new homepage, new machines listed
My collection reached 49 units yesterday as i've received 2 new watches. Added them to the list (no pages yet) and changed the homepage to a weblog format.
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This feature will soon be available
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Nokia 9210 Communicator
With 16MB MMC Card
Computerized cellphone
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** THIS ITEM IS NOT FOR SALE! **
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A USER MANUAL
or IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A RESELLER/REPAIR STATION,
I'm sorry, but I will not reply to user manual requests or to dealer location inquiries anymore.
Please read my FAQ page that might help you if you have any of these questions in mind.
Feel free to contact me for any other question or comment regarding this machine!
This picture, from the Nokia website, only shows the device in PDA mode. The phone display and keyboard are on the back of the PDA screen panel.
Special features :
- Just like the 9110, it's a James Bond device!
- The screen and power consumption are great; the web browser is powerful
- Enhanced GSM data bandwidth
Weak points :
- Using the same casing as the 9110, it's huge and heavy
- Messaging applications are quite buggy
- What makes google go wrong on the device? That's too bad...
Related machines in my collection :
Earlier model from Nokia :
 Nokia 9110 communicator
Computerized cellphone :
 Sharp MCG-1 Communicator
Ancestor computerized cellphone :
 IBM Simon
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Ok, until some newer product ever convince me that one can have a cellphone, a complete and pleasant to use alphanumerical keyboard, a standby time over 1 week and a web browser with integrated internet access in a single package the size of a (enormous) cellphone, i'll stick with this one as being one of the most complete and usable in it's kind.
However, coming from the 9110, i was quite disappointed with the lack of some excellent features that i didn't find on the 9210.
But let's start with the good sides! What is immediately appealing is the excellent color screen. Even if it's not a 65K color screen (only 4096 here), it's bright, crispy, and offers a very wide viewing angle. On the other hand, tho, direct sunlight exposure may make the display completely unusable.
I also appreciate the enhanced GSM data access (HSCSD), and, overall, i like the unit enough to use it as my main cellphone for over 1 year as i write this.
Being a grown-up version of the 9000 and 9110, it also includes several features such as word/excel compatibility and SyncML, which make it a more serious, business-oriented machine.
Now, as i said, "upgrading" from the 9110 to the 9210 was also a matter of letting go interesting features i'm still missing.
Well, the 9210 focuses more on documents handling and productivity than it's predecessors which were mostly communication devices, and there are plenty of features i never use in the 9210. Handling word/excel documents on the go is no use to me, so i won't discuss that whole part at all.
What i've primarly acuired this device for is the enhanced, HTML 4.0 compatible web browser. I also expected to find the other usual applications (e-mail, sms...) in enhanced versions.
Well, if the Web browser easily catch up to my expectations, the messaging apps appeared to be significantly less usable (to me!) than the 9110 versions.
Switching to the Symbian OS for this device, Nokia integrated an e-mail client similar to those which can be found in other Nokia Symbian cellphones. The usability is way different to what i was used to on the 9110... One important and sadly missing detail is that it is apparently no more possible to check a message size before downloading it (my apologies to Nokia if there's an option somewhere that i never found, but then again, why wouldn't it be more easy to find?!). Next, deleting a message on the device means it will also be automatically deleted on the mail server as well. Forget about keeping just a few selected messages on the Nokia and getting all the others on your desktop, you'll have to keep all the downloaded messages on the 9210 as long as you don't safely download them on your desktop.
This takes a little practice getting used to, but more annoying are the numerous bugs and glitches in the messaging app...
On the e-mail side, i've made several attempts to configure and get my e-mail from 2 different accounts on the same ISP, and i got a very irritating error every time : "the message already exists". Even more annoying are the SMS bugs and notices : sending a SMS will sometimes just not work, and you'll have to reboot the machine in order for the SMS to ever leave the outgoing box. When you miss an icoming call, there will be an alert box for each voice mail messenging and missed called. The alert boxes will accumulate on the PDA screen and stay there as long as you don't manually close them one by one (even if you dismiss the notices on the telephone display).
I also loved the SMS reception notices on the 9110 : the sent SMS list had a small note indicating if the SMS had been properly delivered to the recipient or not. Well, the 9210 still has the notice feature, but instead of keeping the information in the sent list; it will just display the notice for a short time, so that if you're not paying attention at the display at the exact time when the notification arrives, you'll never know that it ever arrived.
| Processor : | 32 bit ARM9 |
OS : | SYMBIAN |
| RAM : | 16 MB + 8 MB execution? |
ROM : | 16 MB?? |
| Graphic display : | 640 x 200 |
Text display : | variable fonts |
| Display : | 4096 colors |
Input : | Keyboard |
Built-in Applications :
Complete cellphone abilities with voice recorder; Symbian operating system, email, WEB browser, SMS manager, file wiever (supporting dozens of text, graphic and data file formats) text editor, contacts directory, scheduler, desk accessories, IR digital camera connectivity...
Open to other applications :
Yes
Ports :
- One memory card extension port (MMC) (16 MB Card supplied)
- power supply entry
- PC connector
- IR connection for data transfer and modem access.
- Radio modem (GSM)
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As a conclusion, i would say that most of the comments i make on the device make it clear that the "pionner" orientation of the 9000/9110 as communication tools are now completely integration in our vision of what a communication tool should be. So, well, the comments on the 9210 mostly deal with usability and user interface issues. Of course the 9210 could have GPRS, bluetooth and/or WiFi and a sensitive screen, and that would make it better on the hardware side and bring a potential to an improved user experience. But mostly, the 9210 illustrates an era when mobile communication technologies are now something we're used to and from which we just expect ease of use.
Clearly, the 9210 is not actually pioneering in any way. It's just an elegant answer to a whole bunch of mobile communication needs, with it's usual share of bugs, that is.
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