Sexy, small, slim & sophisticated (Nokia 6210)

Member Name: Technical Tobes

Product:	Nokia 6210
Date:	01/04/01 (2132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good looking, feature rich & reliable

Disadvantages: Screen not as good as it could be & a few niggles with the phone software

I recently bought my 6210e as an upgrade to my, now rather ungainly looking, 7110 and I have to say, I love it!
Of course, no gadget is a perfect gadget and I am very good at picking faults with things, but before I do, let me first give you a summary of this phones features and it’s better points...


//###// SPECIFICATIONS & FEATURES //###//

/#/ Size /#/
The 6210e is tall and thin, about the same height as the 7110 but very thin. The big plus point is that it has no aerial which makes it much more compact.
Actual dimensions are: 129.5 x 47.3 x 18.8 mm, 95 cc and it weighs 114g with the standard battery.

/#/ Battery /#/
The standard battery that comes with the 6210e provides talk time of up to 3.5 hours and a standby time of up to 8 days.
You will need to charge the phone for at least 16 hours the first time you get it. This is often where people go wrong, a full 16 hour charge will make the battery hold charge for much longer but since the phone comes up with ‘Battery Full’ after only a few hours, many people just stop charging then not realising that it is still trickle charging & thus do gain the most out of the battery.

/#/ Memory /#/
The phone has, as with the 7110, a very large memory capacity which will let you store...
- Up to 500 names in phonebook (3 numbers and 1 text) or 5 numbers and 3 texts.
- Up to 150 text only messages, 50 picture messages, or any combination of these.
- Up to 220 calendar notes.
It should be noted however, that often (and certainly with Orange), the phone comes setup to use the very limited SIM card memory as opposed to the Phones memory, which amongst other things will not let you store other information such as address, email address etc in your address book. Phone memory can be selected via the ‘Options’ menu under the ‘Address Book’ view.

/#/ Display /#/
The display is a rather modest
green illuminated 96x60 pixels that gives you (excluding the header & footer used for status & menu info), 3 lines of text in the big font (i.e. menus etc) or 4 lines in the smaller font (i.e. for text messages etc).

/#/ WAP /#/
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) allows you to access some cut-down website’s on your phone, good for email, stock market, news & weather type stuff, but that’s about it.
WAP is a real pain in the rear to setup and typing in a web address on a phones keypad is not exactly fun!

/#/ Voice Dialling /#/
Voice dialling for up to 10 numbers, simply record yourself saying ‘Mum’ or whatever, then you can dial ‘Mum’ by simply speaking into your phone while holding down the ‘Names’ key.
Works okay providing you use the same voice as when you recorded it, but more of a gimmick than of any real use!

/#/ Predictive Text Messages /#/
All new phones have this ability, which makes it much easier writing text messages. Basically to write the word ‘hello’ you’d press keys 4,3,5,5,6 once rather than 4 twice, 3 twice, 5 three times etc. This works really well, although takes some getting used to to start with.
Strangely, once you start using it, it becomes easier to write full words that abbreviations!

/#/ Picture Messages /#/
All new Nokia phones are starting to do this; basically you can send a graphic as or in compliment to a normal text message. The phone will only store 10 graphics and built in ones are a bit crap so you’d need to download some more to make any real use of it. Novelty value really, and will only work to other phones capable of receiving picture messages (naturally).

/#/ Profiles /#/
This is a really useful feature of the more recent Nokia phones. Basically you can assign different people to different groups, e.g. Work, Personal, Family etc. Each of these groups can have a different
ringtone, caller graphic (displayed on screen when they call you) and various other settings. Different profiles can be quickly selected via the power button, which makes it easy to switch between them. Several common profiles are already setup on the phone, including ‘Silent’, ‘Outdoor’ – where all the ringtones etc are really loud, ‘Meeting’ which has a quiet & discreet ringtone, ‘Pager’ and ‘Headset’. I setup my own called ‘Holiday’ which only alerts me to call from friends & family – all business can wait, ha ha ha!

/#/ Calendar /#/
The calendar on the 6210e is a fair bit better than on previous models with specific options to allow birthdays, meetings, calls and general notes with reminders for each (bar the general notes).

/#/ Customisability /#/
The 6210e is highly customisable, you can change the operator logo (graphic displayed on the main screen), picture messages, caller group graphics, ringtones and even updates to the phone can be received via an SMS message!
To customise these however, you will either need to find a good website (or company) that will send you new graphics or ringtones (normally at a cost) or, have an Infrared or data cable connection to your PC with appropriate software so that you can do it yourself. My website has loads of graphics, software etc if you do have a direct connection to your PC.

/#/ Data Functionality /#/
As above, you’ll need either an infrared or data cable connection (via serial port) to your PC to make use of these functions. I have both, the data cable cost me £24.99 from mobiles.co.uk, although beware, when I first placed the order it cost £19.99, then they called me stating it was now £24.99 and two days later when a friend tried to order it had turned into £29.99!
Anyway, once you have this setup, you can then do the following...
- Synchronise / edit your address book
with your PC (Outlook, Schedule and Notes are supported).
- Upload (and download) new graphics & ringtones.
- Use the phone as a modem. This is unlikely to be needed by most, but should you be looking for a portable high speed internet connection, this is (at the time of writing), the only phone on the market to support up to 43.2kpbs for an internet connection, most others will not go above 9.6kpbs (painstakingly slow) or 14.4kbps (slow). Of course, there is a catch with this and one many operators will not point out, by default you can send not receive data information. To be able to receive (i.e. use the internet), you have to subscribe for data services (Orange - £5 per month). Further more, if you want the 43.2 capability (which uses a HSCSD or High Speed Circuit Switched Data modem), you will need to subscribe to this service with your network operator. With Orange this costs a lot (£25 a month I think). Of course I can only speak for Orange, other operators may charge different amounts.
There are some things you can do without the connection to your PC, you can send and receive address book or calendar entries to from other compatible phones via infrared (even works on non-Nokia’s, I tried it with a Siemens SL25 to 6210e which works fine). Oh, and you can play 2 player snake!


/#/ Other Features /#/
- Dual band (GSM 900 & GSM1800) allowing use in Europe (not the US however, you’d need a triple band phone for that – very hard to come by!). Note: You’ll need ‘roaming’ activated via you operator before you go abroad.
- Vibration alert.
- Infrared port.
- Real-time clock with backup battery.
- Internal antenna.
- Alarm clock.
- Calculator.
- Currency converter.
- 3 Games – Snake II, Opposite & Pairs II.



//###// GOOD POINTS //###//

Okay, you probably know what are the good points by now, but let me
just list the points I most like...

#01# Good looking!
The phone is small and light, but not so small that it’s hard to use. Having no antenna really improves the look.

#02# Feature rich
There are so many feature in this phone it can virtually replace your personal organiser. Of course this may not be such a good point for non-gadget lovers!
This good point covers a lot of good points all in one, specifically the user profiles & calendar.

#03# Build quality
The phone is really well put together, whereas phones like the 7110 feel a bit flimsy, this one is solid, it just feels really good – you’d have to handle one to know what I mean!

#04# Data capabilities
The most advanced data phone currently on the market – the only choice for business users wanting to stay connected to the office while on the move. Hence why, I’ve just ordered several for work!

#05# Speech quality
Despite having an internal antenna, the speech clarity is perfect and has a very loud top volume.



//###// BAD POINTS //###//

I’m not one for shying away from bad points just because I really like a product, nothing is that perfect so here is my list of bad points to the Nokia 6210e...

#01# Screen
The screen is a bit crap really – if compared to other phones (the Siemens SL25 for example). What really makes it look a bit crap is the fact that it has a small honeycomb mesh across it, which while not obviously noticeable, does distort some of the finer graphics. Why on earth Nokia have done this I really do not know, it’d be much better like the 7110 was (i.e. no mesh). Also, the backlight is a bit dull and old fashioned, a new blue lit or something would have made the phone look really really sexy!

#02# Calendar notes – no reminders!
What is the point in making a general note if it doesn’t let you know about i
t on the day. There is no option for making a general ‘reminder’, so if, for example, you want to be reminded that it’s say casual clothes day at work on Friday, you have to make an ‘appointment’ with your casual clothes at 7am since a general note will not actually remind you!

#03# Unpredictive text!
Why oh why oh why do all the latest phones not have predictive text in normal name entry etc screens, only in text messages. Surely it’s not that hard to just allow the predictive text to be everywhere! Would make entering web address a lot lot easier!

#04# Height
The phone would look much better without the big head it’s got above the screen, this makes it look bigger than it actually is.

#05# I want more features!
Okay, this phone may have almost every feature under the sun, but I still want more. Other phones have them so why not this one? Examples: Auto keypad lock after so long without any input. Auto switch off & on at pre-determined times, e.g. at night / in the morning. Auto profile switching, e.g. ‘Silent’ during work hours, ‘general’ all other times.

#06# Sending of logos & ringing tones.
You can do it – if you have the right software and your phone is connected to your PC, why then can’t you send logos and ringtones from the phone itself? I suspect this is a ploy to get you to pay for them!



/###/ CONCLUSION /###/
What can I say, a darned good phone overall (my nit picking aside!).
Not available on pay as you talk (yet) so you’ll need a contract to get it, costs around £100 or £40 if you take out a new contract (Orange anyway). Oh, and it’s available in 3 colours, Black Night, Grey Dusk and Red Sunset.
A must have for all those gadget lovers & business users.

Out of interest, if you want a big range of graphics, ringtones, software and secret codes for this phone,
have a look at my homepage – although you will need a direct connection to use the graphics etc. The secrets are of most use, including one that will transfer all your phones data across to a compatible model (that’s what I did when getting this phone from my 7110).



Hope this proves of use to you, or at least an interesting read!
Many thanks for reading and in advance for rating. Any comments much appreciated.
Cheers, TT.

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