A few bugs (Nokia 6210)

Member Name: elliot

Product:	Nokia 6210
Date:	06/04/01 (249 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice looking model, excellent phone book features

Disadvantages: Too many bugs in the phone's software

I upgraded my phone for £65 - a very good price for an upgrade on orange . but unfortunately, there are problems in getting your phone via a cheapie website. namely, that if you have a problem, the action you can take is limited.

the phone has some very useful features... the one i was most interested in was the ability to store several numbers for each memory entry, and the large number of entries available. i didn't buy it for the wap, which i think is simply a slow and pointless alternative to the real web.

apparently, there is a problem with the phone when connected to one2one and orange which means that the display permanently shows line 2 is diverted, even if you don't have line 2. it doesn't affect calls. apparently, nokia is aware of the problem and is working on it. makes them sound like microsoft :).

i also found that the call quality in the ear piece is not as good as on my previous model, the nk702 (aka 6130).

finally, a different problem on the phone means that the "ring once" option in profiles doesn't actually work - it just rings as normal.

to give nokia credit, an email to them was answered within 24 hours, giving me a freephone number to call for help. orange weren't particularly interested, since everyday 50 customers don't get a warranty. they told me to take it back to the retailer - not an option since it would cost me to get it to mail order centre.

i'd recommend all nokia users to join club nokia at http://club.nokia.com

not only does it entitle you to a year's freephone support (with people who really do know the product), you can also download ringtones, logos and, for the 6210, you can order a little badge to replace the little panel clipped at the bottom by the microphone. you can either design your own or choose one of a selection of quite pleasant designs. i chose a chinese character.

in addition, if you have a laptop or da
ta cable, then you've probably already found out that nokia's data suite doesn't work with this phone. you can, however, download the new and improved nokia PC suite free of charge. this also allows you to upload logos and ring tones from www.forum.nokia.com. select "product support", then "data supported phones" and then the phone model.

i feel that there are number of improvements nokia could make. they could, for example, incorporate variable font sizes, so that text can be made smaller for normal menu functions (such as viewing phone book entires or text messages), fitting more onto the reasonably-sized screen.

it's a little bit slow when you click "names" then start to type the first characters of the name you want - you're prone to dialling the digits rather than entering characters if you go too quickly.

it has a feature to copy a text message into a calendar note; however, it only copies the first two lines.

if you take the battery off, it loses a lot of the information in the wap settings, such as your username and password.

and, in common with the calculator on all previous nokia models, i still get confused when it says "foreign units expressed as domestic units" and vice versa. why can't it simply say "convert to foreign" and "convert from foreign"?

to conclude, i've always been impressed with nokia, and would be reluctant to change manufacturer - esp since i like the fact it's a company which, for most of its life, made rubber tyres in a little village in finland.

however, the bugs are annoying, and although there are service centres which you can go to get a replacement, there are only two in london which can transfer the memory entries between phones so you don't lose them. there are only two in london, so i don't fancy your chances if you live outside a major city.


- Updat
e 11/04/01:

Well, I got my phone replaced, and now it works as it should... tho i have noticed that it comes from the windoze school of software engineering. it is prone to crashing, and quite often the screen freezes and you need to switch it off and on again. maybe i'm just used to not leaving a computer on, whereas with a phone i usu leave it on all the time (albeit sometimes silent mode)...

it's easy to forget that a phone is a computer, and probably on a par with the first desktop PCs.

Summary: