| Nokia 9300i Communicator Smartphone Review | Today's Top Stories | ||||||||||||
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(Review) - While Nokia may not have hit wonders like the Motorola RAZR or LG’s Chocolate in its product line, its phones pack a plethora of features with latest technologies to wow you. Take the Nokia 9300 smartphone, for instance. The 9300 is a direct competitor to Palm’s Treo and RIM’s BlackBerry offerings, and we must say, Nokia has a fairly durable solution on its hands for executives on the go. The exterior of the 9300 is a standard mix of silver and gray that yells the productivity factor of the device. It’s clearly not a spicy device that’s looking to impress bystanders; however, the flip open display of the 9300i is one of a kind. The front of the smartphone is equipped with a LCD display that supports 65k colors and 128x128 resolution. We can’t say we are too impressed with the interface. It’s too bland, boring and uninteresting. The least Nokia could’ve done was update the interface to make it look somewhat modern, but unfortunately they chose otherwise. As much as we dislike saying this, a lot of entry level phones from Motorola and Samsung have better looking interfaces than the 9300i. With that out of the way, the real magic of the 9300i isn’t revealed until you flip it open to reveal the "real" LCD display. The communicator display supports 640x200 resolution, active transflective color display, 65k colors and adjustable brightness control. The amount of workspace you get with the communicator display is downright amazing. For reading webpages and documents, it beats the Treo and BlackBerry hands down. You don’t have to scroll as much as you would with other devices. Furthermore, the applications suite you get is incredible. You are essentially getting a portable suite of Microsoft Office with a few other applications to get some work done wherever you are. Typing a report or editing a spreadsheet was a pleasure, but Powerpoint editor was substandard. Even though it’s possible to create an entire PowerPoint presentation on the 9300i, it’s as tedious as it can be. Unless you absolutely need to make a quick presentation, we wouldn’t recommend the 9300i for such tasks.
The communicator interface is exceptional. The keys are properly spaced and very soft to type on. There is a slight learning curve to the 9300i though. But since nearly all smartphones have their own OS with a differentiating set of features, the learning curve is to be expected. And obviously, the more features you have in a device, the longer it will take for you to get used to them and familiarize yourself with them intimately. After you get used to the OS, you should see your productivity incline. With the 9300i, we would love to see a stylus. The quick launch and shortcuts are helpful, but since the phone is so packed with features, it would be helpful if we could quickly go through the menus, especially in Microsoft Office, to be more efficient. Other standard features, such as video and audio playback, JAVA support for games, text messaging, e-mail, multimedia messaging, alarm clock, calculator, fax and a host of other options are all available as well. Unfortunately, the onboard storage is limited to 80MB, so from a multimedia perspective, you are really limited to what you can do unless you bring a separate MMC card for additional storage. Weighing in at 167g with 132x51x21mm dimensions, the 9300i is definitely bulky. You see, the front of the phone had to be extended to contain the length of the communicator display. Therefore, the bottom of the phone is part of the extraneous extension that makes the 9300i look old school. And since Nokia went after durability, the thickness and weight also went up considerably. You will absolutely notice this phone in your pocket. According to Nokia, the talk time is rated between 3.5-8 hours, while the standby time is between 170-230 hours. We couldn’t test the standby time, though our talk time ranged from 4 hours to 7:57 hours depending on how much we used the communicator feature. If you are constantly checking e-mails, replying and working on documents, don’t expect the talk time to go anywhere near the rated 8 hours limit. That’s purely if you are using the phone for talking. Of course, if you use the multimedia features, the battery life will further drain the talk time. Personally, we would recommend that you stay clear from overexerting the device with entertainment unless you know you could easily recharge it or you are sure you won’t need it anytime soon. The Nokia 9300i is an exceptional phone if you are looking to get a lot of work done while traveling, but it has its drawbacks. The interface could definitely use some work, the keyboard could use backlights to make it easier to work in a low light environment, and WiFi support would be stupendous. It’s definitely not an entertaining phone with a camera feature and whatnot, but if you are an executive on the go, you will definitely appreciate its applications suite. At the end of the day, if you don’t mind the bulky and a slightly outdated style, it may very well be the most rounded, yet unpolished, smartphone in the market, available immediately for $600. |
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