usability of Nokia 9210, 9290

Hmmmm... I think if you take a look to this forum you�ll find tons of comments about comms, hehehe...

Regards!

I dont actually own a 9210, but as a general comment I think people think that usability wise it is preety good. Its not perfect. It has unparalleled integration between the phone and the PDA, and Symbian have always been good on usability.

The thing is most people have no trouble picking up how eveything works even without reading the manual - hjow many completely new OS can you say that about?

If Windows weren't so dominant on the desktop, the PPC would be hard to get to grips withs (and when I've tried it, its not as obvious as EPOC). Palm is similar, but as an OS its much simpler and lacks the complexity of Symbian so one would hope it would be easier to use.

Just my 2p

Rafe

I thought long and hard before dumping my PocketPC and I don't regret it at all.

The 9210 is so usable, I can't believe it!

Here is a simple comparison of what I can do on my Nokia that I couldn't on my PocketPC;

PocketPC & Nokia9210
================
* Play Games
* Use in direct sunlight (tho' 9210 kicks ass)

PocketPC Only
==========
* Sketch Pictures
* Listen to CD Quality MP3
* Bump up the memory by more than 128Mb

Nokia9210 Only
===========
* Easily check and write e-mails without fussing with cables or lining up devices
* Easily browse the web without fussing with cables or lining up devices
* Easily browse WAP without fussing with cables or lining up devices
* Easily send & receive SMS without fussing with cables or lining up devices
* Easily send & receive FAX without fussing with cables or lining up devices
* Spell check my documents (though PPC2k2 has caught up and now supports this)
* Embed objects into a Word document (not only pictures but spreadsheets and more)
* Easily upgrade applications (apart from firmware upgrades, the 9210 can easily have Word and Sheet upgraded.... try doing that on a PPC with as much ease as running a setup file)
* Easily keep contacts syncronised between my PDA and my phone (this was a real pain when I tried to use my PocketPC for contacts)

This list is hardly complete, but just some stuff I've noticed.

What do you wanna know? It is my first pda so any comparisons made are just from playing with friends pdas....

1) Looking at it
The unit itself looks good, the front has all the usual Nokia buttons and the screen has the usual widgets. The Light blue LEDs add a touch of class over most other phones. To be honest people have looked impressed at it before I've opened it up.
Once open the first thing you'll notice is the screen, this has an AMAZING field of view which outstrips my IBM Thinkpad T21 in both clarity and angle. Compared to other colour PDAs (I've used Compaq Ipaq and Casio Cassiopia), the screen though not as bold, is again far nicer to look at. The keyboard which although looks small, is about the same size as the old Psion Series 3 and is perfectly usable with 2 hands, though easier with one.

2) How it handles.
I take it you've used a Nokia phone at some point in your life, and hence shouldn't have any trouble with the phone side, it's just as straight forward.
Inside is a different matter, if you have grown up with a palm or PocketPC or psion then you are used to touchscreen (I've never liked that, but then I'm a bit old skool), this will cause you problems as you will be tapping that screen to run applications. As this is my first PDA I've not suffered that problem. The best comparison I can find to using the 9210 PDA is when you used to run Win 3.1* without a mouse, and had you use the arrow keys to navigate round Program Manager(I bet that shows my age more than I'd like). Imagine, if you will that Desk, Internet, Office, and Extras are your sub-windows in program manager, it's then dead easy to use. The tightly integrated Calendar, Phone Book, and SMS makes it a joy to use as there is no fiddling with connections. You can send an e-mail to someone as easily as call them.

3) Compatibility.
This is amazing and much better than I expected. Although some formatting is lost by Word and Sheet, the ability to edit basic files on the move (or in lectures) is great, also the presentation viewer lets me view lecture slides when and where I want. As for the web browser, again it's good, I've noticed hiccups on some sites but nothing worth complaining about. The WAP browser I can't describe as I uninstalled that thinking, "why have WAP when I can use web?". After that the 3rd party software coming out is great, and I hope to add to that as soon as my uni time table allows me enough free time to sit down and learn the Nokia APIs.

4) Bugs.
There are bugs, sorry to say this, but there are. Most have work arounds, and if you ask a question someone on here should be able to help. I can't give a list as different Firmware versions behave differently, if you are lucky and get one with Firmware 4.13 installed, it sounds like you will be sitting pretty.
I know my phone is 3.57 and that has a bug with the PC Suite but that has a simple workaround and is mostly stable.

I hope that helps you make a decision over whether or not to buy the phone, I've got stressed at it at times, but I don't regret buying it. I wouldn't be lost without it, but life wouldn't be as easy or as fun.

Flipside

I work on a support line involving a lot of 9210 calls.
A caller told me he had purchased a memory card designed from a US site for a camera of 256MB and assured me 512 is very soon.

He paid �85 UK for his 256 Memory card.

Better than the Nokia card ? Certainly a better deal.

might be a SD card that is the same size but a little thicker and can therefore not be used in the communicators MMC slot...

Usability? I have extensively used (and programmed) the Pocket PC and the Nokia 9210...

9210 Pros
---------
- Superior wireless integration (as covered by previous poster)
- Keyboard based
- Excellent battery life
- Excellent clear screen
- Excellent contact searching
- Excellent UI that inherits a lot of good ideas from the Psion Series 3/5

9210 Cons
---------
- Direction control difficult to use - each direction really needs to be a different key rather than being one rocking key.
- USB or Ethernet connection to PC not possible (slooowww backup!)
- Apps are slow
- A few annoying bugs in the OS (e.g. 9210 dies for no reason)
- Not enough memory to run some programs (Java also not really practical)
- No real-time debugging possible on the device (for development)
- Difficult to program compared to Windows CE (need more code to do similar thing)
- Poor sound quality (and mono) for music (MP3)
- Web browser has very poor standards/script support and is extremely slow
- Low number of 3rd party apps (100 or so compared to 1000 for Pocket PC)
- Wireless/standard PDA apps not supported e.g. Audible eBooks, Avantgo
- PC side software is slightly buggy

Which do I use most? The 9210 as it has a keyboard and it is *much* easier to use
to collect email. I can live with the 9210 cons and the Pocket PC also has a few of it's own cons.
It depends on your priorities!

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http//4-communicator.com<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by 4Communicator on 2002-01-18 0045 ]</font>

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