Does SIZE matter! (Nokia 8210)

Member Name: dannyleedsutd

Product:	Nokia 8210
Date:	25/02/02 (756 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small and light

Disadvantages: Internal Aerial

When the Nokia 8210 first was launched I was itching to get my hands on one. It looked so cool and smart and the size and weight alone were enough to persuade me to go out and buy the Phone. I got an 8210 in December 2000 quite a number of months after it's original launch. I had a Motorola Timeport which was fine but I wanted the little Nokia 8210. I was within the first 12 months of my Contract with Orange and I went down to the Orange shop in Bradford to sort myself out with an upgrade. I paid £129.99 for the upgrade and then another £70.00 upgrade fee. I know you think I must be mad but I really wanted this little baby. Our relationship started very well but after a while it turned sour and then to hatred, until I could no longer live with this cute attractive Phone. The reasons for this I will explain later but first what the Phone has to offer.


FEATURES :


Starting with the Display that is obviousley small due to the size of it, has an illuminated full graphics display, and can can display up to five lines of text, numbers and graphics. Although packed into the phone is the impressive Memory ability, you can store upto 250 names and numbers as well as what your SIM memory can hold. Fifty Calender notes can be stored as well in the Phones Memory.

Voice Recognition allows you to store upto 8 voice tags from the phonebooks memory. Voice tags are great and all you have to do is press and hold the names button and you will be prompted to speak the name of the number you wish to dial, after doing this the 8210 dials up the number and hey presto you are connected. You can send and receive 160 characters of text using the SMS. With it's built in Dictionary Data Base you can use the T9 predictive input to type a message fast, this can be turned on or off. The Dictionary has support for most major European languages. You can also send pictures as well as pictures with text to other compatible Nokia Mobile phon
es. The 3210 was the Phone that started picture messages, nearly if not all phones on and after the 3210 launch can send and receive picture messages. Games, yes Games are also included. Snake, Pairs and Rotation are pretty useful when the Train is not moving and believe me my girlfriend knows about how good the Train service is these days, as many of you will as well. Snake is the Nokia classic and probably the most addictive to date. A Calculator is there as is a Currency Converter, ideal if you are on holiday and have the exchange rates handy. Now there is a Calendar that I found useful and used all the time. You can set reminders and set the time and date you want to be reminded, I used it for reminding me about the Car Insurance and other bills I needed to pay, I used to dread the alarm going off for the reminder of the looming bills. The Smart Messaging feature can be used to access a whole range of information such as Sport, News and Lottery results etc using the TTML Browser.

I took the phone with me to Corfu in July 2001 and to my surprise was better there than in the UK. The phone is Dual Band at 900 and 1800 GSM and is extended on the 900 Band (EGSM). The 8210 does not have a composer and ring tones can only be sent to the phone via your PC or from companies that sell logo's and ring tunes. There are also many great ring tones to choose from as well as spaces for adding your own. WAP was not featured on the 8210 as this came later on its newer relative the 8310.

A great feature on the 8210 is the Infra Red port which was a factor in me buying the phone. You can connect the Phone to your PC via the IR port. Just line the phone's IR port to the one on the PC and the phone recognises the phone and loads the suitable IRDA drivers. You can send data form the phone to the PC and vice versa. Also sending names and numbers across to other compatible nokia phones is made possible using the IR. Surfing the Internet on your
PC by using IR and the phones internal modem to dial up the connection.


SPECIFICATIONS :


At 79 grams and measuring a mere 102 x 42 x 17 mm's it will comfortably fit into you shirt pocket and even your jeans pocket without looking like your excited about something you shouldn't be. A quite high spec phone for its small but cute looks. As well as the features mentioned above all the usual are included like caller display, Divert, call register etc. EFR technology is also used to improve speech quality of calls.


PERFORMANCE :


Battery life is not that great giving you 3 hours of conversation and upto 150 hours of talktime which is not that good compared to the battery performance of more modern phones. Now the reception as well I was dissapointed with, losing calls was a common occurance I often encountered. If I was on a call outside and moved indoors I tended to lose the call. The areas I had coverage with the Timeport I didn't with the 8210, which was a shame really as the phones performance didn't live up to it's good looks.


PRO'S & CONS


I bought a leather case for my new baby and when I used the phone there was a horrible interference from a buzzing noise. This was due to the internal Aerial interfering with the metal in the case. I blame the internal Aerial for the dropping of calls and the interference. The battery needing charging every other day and often even once a day. The buttons are fiddly for the guy with bigger fingers. Playing Snake and composing text messages can be a bit of a chore, but a woman would probably find it comfortable to use. One day I tried to turn the phone on and it would not power on and the battery was fully charge. I contacted Orange and there seemed to be a fault so they sent me another out using the Orange care insurance, and after a week I had to send that back again for a fading display. If you want the phone
just for it's looks like I did go out and get one because they do look nice and have a real quality look. It was simple to use though and you didn't even notice you were carrying it until you got a call or a message. This phone to me was more of a fashion item ,and it still is and every man and his dog have one. Fully customiseable you can add the front and back covers and add ring tones, graphics etc.


ACCESSORIES :


As you well know there are loads out there. Nokia Ex-press on covers are popular. The Nokia ones are quality and ensure a snug fit, but start buying cheapy ones and the feel and quality go down hill and they are difficult to fit and to take off. Chargers, desktop chargers as well as dual SIM batteries can be bought from most mobile phone shops. You can even get new LED's fitted on the phone Blue, Red, Yellow etc can all be put in. Try to avoid doing this yourself as it is quite tricky to do even though the prople selling them on the Net say it's easy. If you want to get them done they look good but get a qualified mobile phone technition to do it for you. Be warned though your waranty will be void and if you damage your phone is faulty later your insurers will probably knock you back.


PRICE :


At around £170.00 upto £230 for a pay as you go and you could get them for even lower SIM free. But the bargain is if you buy on a Contract you can get them for free virtually anywhere, with loads of goodies thrown in. I wouldn't fancy paying for one of these again and I still think it is a lot to pay for pay and go when you can get other phones with better features such as WAP, but then they don't look as good.


AVAILABILITY :


Available on all the major Networks. At first Vodafone and Cellnet brought the phone out on their networks with one2one and finally Orange started to sell them at a higher price than all the rest, nothing changes there then.
A very common phone now and everyone stocks them. Secondhand bargains can be found from your local free ads but beware they are not blocked from certain Networks as this probably means they have been stolen.


AND FINALLY :


First assess what you want out of the phone, like I said earlier if you want the looks as well as the interchangeable covers and the IR port, not to mention the size and weight maybe this is the phone for you. If you are away from home for a long period of time and want a good reception and battery life then you may want to opt for something like the 6210. All in all you will love it and keep loving it or you will grow to despise it like I did, so I would probably reccomend it to some people and not others depending what they were after.

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