Nokia 9210 & 9290 Communicators

An advanced colour smartphone from Nokia, running the Symbian platform

The new 9210 and 9290 from Nokia evolves the successful Communicator concept by incorporating the Symbian platform into a colour, and fully integrated, high-speed Wireless Information Device.

Using HSCSD, the device combines multiple GSM channels to allow connections of up to 43Kbps giving near equal performance to today's fastest land modems. This level of bandwidth means the Communicator is able to access streaming audio and video services such as BBC Online, download rich-data content such as DHTML webpages, and exchange fully formatted documents via Email in seconds.

Being able to send and receive data is only useful when the recipient can freely read or edit documents which is why the Nokia 9210/9290 supports over fifty common file formats. These range from compression formats such as ZIP and TAR, to a wide selection of standard office formats used by MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Lotus, Corel etc. Third party software can also be installed to further extend functionality and already many developers are busy working on feature-rich applications for personal and enterprise solutions. Travelling with the 9210/9290 now makes the mobile office connected.

As standard, the device boasts an impressive feature list including:

• Phone(9210): Dual band 900/1800Mhz
• Phone(9290): Single band 1900Mhz
• Networks: GSM, HSCSD (Not CDMA or GPRS though these and other features, such as Bluetooth, are anticipated for other forthcoming Nokia EPOC devices, and of course the next generation Communicator after the 9210i)

• Speakerphone for hands free operation
• Screen (internal): 640×200 12bit active matrix TFT screen offering smooth video in 4096 colours.
• Screen (external): 84×48 ancillary monochrome graphical screen on case exterior (For normal phone operation when closed) allows up to 16×5 characters on screen.
• Keyboard: 53 key QWERTY keyboard with larger rubber keys for easier input, 8-way cursor key/trackpoint, 7 application shortcut buttons and 4 navigation/selection buttons next to screen.
• Ports: IrDA, Cable.
• Expansion: Multimedia card slot (Supplied with 16MB card containing some applications with others available on CD-ROM).
• Accessories: Car stand/charger, external car antenna, lightweight ancillary handset, hands-free headset (Not Bluetooth), docking station with synch button, belt clip, clip-on webcam for video conferencing/snapshots (from third party).

• Dimensions: 158×56×27mm (closed).
• Weight: 244g.

• Battery: Proprietary 1300 mAh Li-Ion.
• Talk time: 4-10 hours.
• PDA time: <10 hours.
• Standby (on): 80-230 hours.
• Standby (off): <400 hours.
• Charging: Under 3 hours for flat charge though battery type allows problem-free top-up charging.

• CPU: 32bit ARM9 RISC processor under-clocked to 52Mhz.
• RAM: 8MB (high speed SD-RAM).
• ROM: 14MB.
• User disk: 2MB Flash internal disk (Non-volatile) + MMC expansion.

• Platform: Symbian Crystal (EPOC32)
• Applications: Telephone, Email, Fax, SMS, Word, Sheet, Calendar, Contacts, Calculator, Clock, Dictaphone, Unit converter, Digicam manager, Presentation viewer, Web browser (Symbian Web 2.2 with HTML 3.2 + SSL, though Opera is supplied with the 9210i, which has adequate memory to install and run it), WAP browser, Desktop, RealPlayer for Real Audio and Real Video multimedia.
• Viewable file formats: 123, AU, BMP, CGM, CUR, DCX, DOC, EM, GIF, HTML, ICO, JIF, JPG, MBM, MPP, NIM, PCX, PNG, POT, PPS, PPT, RA, RAM, RLE, RNG, RTF, SDW, SHW, TAR, TAZ, TGZ, TIFF, TXT, VCF, VSD, WAV, WBMP, WK1, WK3, WK4, WK5, WK6, WKU, WMF, WML, WPD, WQ1, WR, WVE, XLC, XLS and ZIP.
• Editable/saveable file formats: RTF, TXT and other plain text (MS-DOS or Windows ANSI), DOC (MS Word v6-2000), XLS (Excel v5-2000).
• Compatibility: Microsoft Schedule+, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Lotus Organizer, GS/4.0, SyncML.
• Java: Java 2 Micro Edition/Personal Java.
• Data exchange: vCard, vCalendar, SyncML.
• EPOC Connect: Full PC synchronisation, backup and more.
• Protocols (Email): IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, MIME encoding.
• Protocols (Web): HTTP 1.1, XML, XHTML, HTML 4.01, CSS, Javascript 1.4, GIF, JPG, PNG.
• Protocols (WAP): WAP 1.1, WML 1.1, WMLscript 1.1, colour graphics.

• No need for PC or existing ISP account to access Internet.
• Specialised Nokia SDK for Java/C++ as well as Symbian Crystal kits.
• Lots of enterprise solutions and other third party applications in development.

The 9210 is expected to be widely available throughout Europe, Asia and Africa by Autumn 2001 (Initial shipments due to reach stores by end of June), with the GSM1900-enabled 9290 to follow in North America by spring 2002. The 9210 will retail at around £500 in the UK after heavy subsidies (when bought with a contract). The larger keyboard and smaller form factor should make this a popular machine and the long standby and operation times provided for by the powerful Li-Ion battery should mean users won't find their machines in charging stations more often than their pockets! An actual-size image can be viewed here but for further details, including the 9210 FAQ, visit the Nokia website.

Navigation

• Nokia 9210 full scale image
• Nokia 9210 screenshots
• Psion Series 7

November 2000