The Nokia 8850, A Decent GSM Phone (Nokia 8850)

Member Name: Mnehr

Product:	Nokia 8850
Date:	03/01/03 (867 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nokia is still moving in a good direction

Disadvantages: Button ergonomics and less than advertised battery life

The Nokia 8850 is Nokia?s EGSM model that works on Europe?s 900/1800mhz system. The 8850 is an almost identical phone to the widly popular 8890 sold here in the US on Cingular?s GSM system. As Cingular and AT&T move into the EGSM/GPRS system, I believe the 8850 will quickly be adopted here in the States. The 8850 has actually been a ?staple? phone in Europe for quite some time but I have been able to use both this and the 9290 here in the US while I am testing a soon to be released GSM/GPRS system. From checking, the 8850 should be available as a step-down offering to the 8890, specifically sold at GSM carriers who use SIM enabled service.

Size and Ergonomics
Normally I have not been much of a fan of how the Nokia phones feel when talking on them. My main phone for use is the Motorola V60 and I have become spoiled to its size and shape. I was surprised however, to find the 8850 felt almost comfortable to talk on for long periods of time. At about four inches by two inches by one half inch, and 3 ounces, the 8850 is actually a quite small and light phone. The face on the 8850 actually slides down instead of ?flipping? open or having the keys exposed as with many other cell phones available.

One feature that I am quite impressed with in terms of the sliding face is how it integrates with the ?keypad lock? feature. The keypad lock feature protects any mis-dials from happening due to keys actually being hit.
When one slides the face down the keypad lock is automatically turned off. When the face is slid back up you can lock the keypad with the top keys. Even with the face slid closed, you can still use voice activated dialing to make calls on the phone.

As with most Nokia phones, I do not like the size and shape of the buttons. The alpha-numeric buttons on this phone have a distinctive long, narrow shape that, while it looks interesting, forces one to be more careful that they do not dial to quickly and ?fat finger? the numbers. T
he one positive concept on the buttons of this phone is that they are raised out further than most other phones I have tried. This is somewhat helpful when you need to dial the phone with out actually looking at the keypad.

Function and Features
The main part about this phone that I am disappointed in is the life of the battery. On an average I only got about 48 hours standby time and 3 hours of talk time. When comparing these numbers to the average low-cost phone one can buy, the phone almost seems obsolete in its battery performance. To put this in comparison, the Motorola v60 that I use most is still averaging almost twice that standby time and the same talk time, even though the phone has over ten thousand minutes on it.

In this day and age, safety is of major importance in using a cell phone. The 8850 helps make cell phone use safer, not only by allowing the use of a hands-free microphone, but also with a functional voice activated dialing feature. The voice activated dialing allows the user to assign a ?voice command? to your first eight speed dial numbers stored and dial just by saying the assigned command. I attempted to use the voice tags on the 8890 and had nothing but problems. The 8850, however, seems to have some improvements that made the mic much better at picking up my voice command.

The phone book will hold up to 500 names (250 in actual memory and 250 on the SIM card.) While having a large phone book is helpful in keeping numbers you normally cannot remember, I generally like the phone book feature as a way of quickly dialing a number. In an average Motorola phone all one needs to do is hit RCL and the location to pull up a number or hold down the associated number for a couple of seconds. On the Nokia however, the process involves hitting the select key, then pressing the left select key for search, then hitting the scroll key as many times a necessary to find the person you are looking for. One can also use the
search key by hitting the first few letters of the entry?s name, however, using the alpha numeric select to create letters is quite time consuming. I would not suggest expecting the phone book of the 8850 to be any sort of time saver for anyone unless they store more numbers than they can remember or keep written on a card in their wallet. It is actually faster to pull a card out of my wallet, find the number, and manually dial it, than it is to find an individual in the phone book on the 8850.

In addition to the aforementioned features, the Nokia 8850 also has a calendar, calculator, alarm clock, and business card feature. Most of these features I did not use too often, but like many of the other features, the time and complexity it takes to access and utilize these features completely defeats the purpose of having them in the first place. The 8850 also has Nokia?s typical games including the ever popular Snake.

Service and Quality
The Nokia 8850 is made to work on the 900/1800 MHz GSM network. While this network is quite extensive in Europe, it is only now becoming even competitive in the US. AT&T and Cingular both have been replacing their outdated TDMA networks to a new GSM network. If, however, you are only using your phone in the US, I would suggest trying out any GSM service carefully before buying it. Check for the CDMA network carrier in your area, and compare their service to the GSM carrier. The CDMA build-out is much greater and for the most part, will offer a larger and more seamless coverage. In some cities, however, the CDMA networks are quite overloaded and the GSM service may provide a better quality of coverage.


Overall
If you find yourself in a situation where you will have to travel a lot to Europe, or you are in a city where the GSM wireless service is the best available, the 8850 may be a viable option. The biggest advantages to the 8850 are the improved voice activated dialing and sliding keypad cov
er. The biggest disadvantages are the limited GSM service in the US, the battery life, and the ergonomics of the buttons.

If you need a GSM phone, I would actually suggest looking into the Nokia 8890 if you like the style. If you want to purchase a GSM phone with similar features but at a lower price I would suggest the Nokia 3390 or Motorola T193. I still feel, however, that in terms of quality, the best GSM phone available in the US right now is the Motorola V60g. You still will not go wrong with the 8850, however, I feel that you really compare this phone with the aforementioned phones before making your final decision.

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