| Nokia 8910 |
| General |
| Network | Gsm 900 / Gsm 1800 |
| Announced | 2q 2002 |
| Status | Available |
| Size |
| Dimensions | 103 X 46 X 20 Mm, 83 Cc |
| Weight | 110 G |
| Display |
| Type | Monochrome Graphic |
| Size | 4 Lines |
| | - Gray Scale
- Bright White Backlight
- Dynamic Font Size
- Softkey
- Screensavers |
| Ringtones |
| Type | Monophonic |
| Amount | 35 Fixed, 5 Over-the-air And Composed |
| Customization | Download, |
| Vibration | Yes |
| | - Ascending Ringing Tones
- Personal Alert Tones |
| Memory |
| Phonebook | 500 Names X3 Numbers |
| Call Records | 20 Dialed, 10 Received, 10 Missed Calls |
| Card Slot | No |
| | - 3 Minutes Voice Memo
- 3 Phone Numbers Per Name
- 150 Text Messages
- 15 Voice Dial Numbers
- Message Templates |
| Data |
| Gprs | Class 4 (3+1 Slots), 24 - 36 Kbps |
| Hscsd | Yes, 43.2 Kbps |
| Edge | No |
| 3g | No |
| Wlan | No |
| Bluetooth | Yes, V1.1 |
| Infrared Port | Yes |
| Usb | |
| Features |
| Messaging | Sms |
| Browser | Wap 1.2.1 |
| Clock | Yes |
| Alarm | Yes |
| Games | 4 Games (snowboarding, Snake Ii, Bantumi, Pairs Ii) |
| Colors | 2 - Natural Titanium And Black |
| Languages | Major European And Asian Languages |
| Camera | No |
| | - T9 For 10 Languages
- Calculator
- Calendar
- To Do List
- Voice Record
- Voice Command
- Mobile Chat
- Titanium Casing
- Downloadable Game Levels
- Profile Selection |
| Battery |
| | Standard, Li-ion 830 Mah (blb-2) |
| Stand-by | 100 - 300 H |
| Talk Time | 2 - 4 H |
|
Nokia - 8910Elegant movement with the Nokia 8910
Major Differences
Titanium exterior casing
Automatic opening mechanism
Built-in Bluetooth support
WAP over GPRS
4-level greyscale display
Picture messaging and mobile chat support
T9 predictive text input
Internal dynamic memory for organiser features
Voice functions (commands, dialling, recording) Problems/Issues?
Opening mechanism wearing out over time?
Battery times degraded when Bluetooth is activated
Sales package (should contain):
1 x 8910 handset (NHM-4)
2 x Li-ion batteries @ 750 mAh each (BLB-2)
1 x HDC-5 headset
1 x travel charger (ACP-8 type)
1 x 8910 desktop stand (DCV-4)
1 x Nokia 8910 PC Suite CD-ROM
1 x 8910 user guide
1 x leather case (clip-on belt type)
Overview
Nokia’s latest replacement for its very-successful 8850 flagship phone is truly something elegant and worthy of being a successor. On first glancing at the 8910, it may not raise any eyebrows - but once you activate the automatic opening mechanism by pressing both side buttons, the question of “why” is immediately answered.
If you’re a previous user of an 8850, most should welcome this replacement - as it incorporates some of the newest features available. Although opening and closing the phone will take some time to get use to, at the end of the day you know that you have something truly different in your hand.
New/outstanding features
One of the features that I welcome the most on the 8910 is the built-in Bluetooth support (which I use as a habit now) - allowing me to wirelessly connect devices to the phone. The phone also sports new software, similar to the one used on the 8310, where battery life and audio quality have been significantly improved from its predecessors. Other additions include a high-resolution greyscale screen, a first for a Nokia phone, and the automatic opening mechanism that replaces the old slide concept found on the 8850.
Physical aspects
The 8910 come in two available colours - natural titanium and black, where the look and feel for each individual colour tends to be unique in its own way. So choosing the right colour for you is somewhat important (that’s if you’re considering using it for some time to come). I truly admire the titanium material that the 8910 is encased within - which makes the phone truly very nice to hold.
For those who are wondering whether the phone opens upwards or downwards (7110?) after activating the automatic opening mechanism, the answer is up. Depending on how hard you depress onto both side of the phone’s casing, you can actually control the speed of the opening sequence. The harder you squeeze, the slower it ejects. But don’t grasp it too hard - as the rails the slider works off will start to wear over time.
Although the 8910 is longer when opened, an advantage I found is that operations can be performed without having to position the phone at a set position so that it won’t drop. Being able to comfortably grasp the bottom half of the 8910’s case with my inner palm gives me greater freedom of movement when it comes to typing SMS messages or just simply talking on the phone.
One issue I found with this phone was the keypad. It may seem tactile enough - but if each key were raised from the casing and spaced out slightly more, input accuracy can definitely be improved. For example, those people who have come to learn to type quickly using T9 will find the 8310 keypad a better choice in this regard.
User Interface
The standard Nokia user interface is adopted for the 8910, with the only difference being the adoption of a greyscale screen that displays icons and graphics with different shades of greys. This can be fully appreciated while playing the built-in games on the 8910 - where the use of pixels to depict greys is a thing of the past.
Making and receiving calls
When the cover is closed on the 8910, one has no access to any buttons except for the power switch (on the 8850, you the two soft keys and answer/reject buttons were exposed). If, for example, you just wanted to read an incoming message or take a call without having to open the cover, this is not possible on the 8910. If you have a headset, then you are still able to take a call and initiate voice dialling without having to make contact with the phone.
Messaging
Sending SMS messages on the 8910 is similar to any recent Nokia models, and is made easy with the highly-efficient T9 predictive text system that also allows the addition of frequently-used words that are not found in the built-in dictionary (most other phones don’t seem to realise we do use other words frequently as well!) Another convenience available is the ability to save SMS messages into the phone’s memory (combination of up to 150 text and 50 picture messages) in addition to the SIM card memory.
Unfortunately, as mentioned previously, the keypad design on the 8910 is an issue when it comes to typing messages with greater speeds.
Battery life
I was able to get around 3-4 days’ worth of standby from average use without activating Bluetooth, which drains the battery quite significantly. With Bluetooth enabled and paired with a Motorola Bluetooth headset, I was able to get just slightly over a day’s worth of usage. The more you use the Bluetooth feature, the less time you are going to get out of a single battery. It’s a good idea that Nokia has included an extra battery in the sales package, just in case.
A tip for Bluetooth headset users - customise a profile for headset usage and have the phone use that instead of using any profile, and disable warning and keypad tones. If you have the keypad tones enabled while using the Bluetooth headset, you will find the battery life of both batteries (phone and headset) significantly degraded. Each time a key is pressed on the 8910 an audio link is opened and closed - which ultimately consume more battery power. Another power conservation tip is to disable the Bluetooth feature when you are not using it.
Major differences...
Titanium exterior casing
The 8910 is the first mobile phone to use titanium for its external casing. Light as aluminium and strong as steel, it gives the phone a sense of style while at the same time offering a higher level of protection from shock and scratching.
Automatic opening mechanism
By depressing the buttons on both sides of the 8910’s case, this activates the automatic opening mechanism - which ejects the phone from its cover. Closing up the phone once again only requires pushing the phone back into the slot, where it would lock back into its standby position. The mechanism is an innovative replacement for the 8850’s manual slide concept.
Built-in Bluetooth support
The 8910 comes built-in with the Bluetooth support feature, allowing for wireless communications between compatible external devices - such as headsets and computing components. Be aware that this feature does consume the 8910’s battery life quite significantly when enabled.
WAP over GPRS
Now you can access the Internet from your mobile phone with the built-in WAP browser. GPRS also allows high-speed access without the need to dial into a server.
4-level greyscale display
The standard black and white LCD screen has been replaced with a 4-level greyscale screen allowing the display of icons and graphics with higher levels of detail.
Picture messaging and mobile chat support
Out and about and not anywhere near ICQ? Try using the mobile chat feature, which provides a dialogue of the continuing conversation. When words start to become kind of bland, the 8910 gives a user the option of also sending a picture with a short message via picture messaging.
T9 predictive text input
The T9 predictive text input system allows a user to spell out words with single taps on the keypad, without the need to repeatedly tap the correct letters to spell the entire word. For words that are not found in the built-in dictionary, these can be added on demand.
Internal dynamic memory for organiser features
The internal phone memory of the 8910 is shared amongst several features of the phone - including the multi-entry phonebook, SMS messages (text and picture), calendar and to-do list.
Voice functions (commands, dialling, recording)
Voice functions become especially useful if you don’t feel like opening and closing the phone all the time while using a headset (especially true when you can’t access any buttons without doing so!) On top of voice dialling, a user can do voice recordings (as memos or during calls) and utilise phone features by a touch of the button.
Problems/Issues?
Opening mechanism wearing out over time?
Many may be doubtful as to how reliable the automatic opening mechanism really is. What will happen when you open and close the phone over and over? So far, after using the phone for more than two weeks, there hasn’t been any major upsets (thanks to a solid cover and internal slider design) - except for the fact that the phone is ejecting somewhat faster than before.
Battery times degraded when Bluetooth is activated
Having Bluetooth on full-time tends to significantly degrade battery life. This situation is especially evident on the 8910, where average standby times can be lowered by around 50% if Bluetooth was to be turned on all the time. A Bluetooth timeout option, similar to ones found on the Ericsson T39m and T68m phones, isn’t available on the 8910 - where the only options are ON or OFF.
In Summary
All up, the 8910 passes all the requirements to become the successor of the 8850 and to acclaim the title of Nokia’s flagship premium phone. While the phone may come with very similar features than those found on the 8310, what really matters is the whole package - a titanium-encased phone with a rich set of features, plus Bluetooth. I am pretty confident that most 8850 users who are considering upgrading to the new model will be happy with what the 8910 has to offer. |
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