Review Nokia 8910

Until recently Nokia had only one expensive fashion phone – Nokia 8850, which had the same features as cheaper models, but individual design. It was made of magnesium alloy, which reduced weight of the phone, but remained a metal effect. The second peculiarity of the phone was a sapphire glass. Design of the phone was developed by a famous designer – Frank Nuaro. The handset was successful at that time; prices for 8850 had been slightly reduced and provided good sales during several years.

Nokia 8910 is a successor of 8850. It also has several peculiarities. First of all, an exterior is made of titan. Till this time none of the manufacturers could produce such phones in large quantities. It is too difficult and prime costs are very high. Two years ago Ericsson demonstrated a possibility to produce such kind of phones and introduced a limited edition of Ericsson R320 (50 phones). Some think that Motorola v60 has a titan exterior, but they mistake, it is made of anodized aluminum. So, Nokia 8910 is a unique phone.

Using of titan defines a concept of this phone. For example, one of the available colors is titan and the second one is just black. The phone has compact dimensions (103 – 140.5x46x20 mm); it’s handy. But if to compare it with 8850, you could find that a new phone is a little bit larger. Weight of the phone is 110 grams. Of course, it is not typical to the fashion phone, but it is a payment for a titan exterior (there is only one plastic part which is covered an antenna; it is placed on the rear part of the phone). Titan layer is rather large and I doubt that exterior could be broken if the phone falls down. Rather display or electronic parts could be damaged.

The other unique solution is an opening system. There are two keys on the sides of the phone. If you press them simultaneously, the phone is automatically slid. It is very effective and attracts attention of other people. Unfortunately, sometimes these external keys can be pressed automatically if the phone is worn in the pocket. In this case keys of the keypad (internal keys) can be also pressed in spite of manual keypad lock.

IR-port is placed on the right-hand side, it is almost invisible.

Nokia 8910 has a chromium-plated keypad. Send/reject keys, scroll keys and 2 soft keys are positioned under the display. They are very handy. On the contrary, alphanumerical keys are not so comfortable, especially low row of keys. It’s not a problem as you’ll need it only if there is “0” in a dialed phone number. Small characters drawn on the keys are not visible in all lighting conditions, as only a center row is illuminated. It is possible to dial a number in the dark, but it will be very difficult to create SMS message.

Display of Nokia 8910 contains up to 4 text lines and tips to soft keys use, it has a pastel blue backlighting. The information is clearly visible in all lighting conditions.

A battery is covered by a rear cover of the phone. It can be removed if you press a small fixator (when the phone is open), which is placed on the left. It’s easier to do it with a help of any sharp thing (pen and etc), although may be you could do by a finger. The phone is equipped with BLB-2 battery, which was used in older phones, for example Nokia 8210. It is a lithium-ion battery of 750 mAh capacity. According to the manufacturer, it could operate up to 100-300 hours in the standby mode and up to 2-4 hours in the talk mode. In reality the phone operated about 5 days (in case of 40 minutes of talking and daily use of such applications as alarm-clock, reminders, games). In case of 2 hours of talking and using only alarm-clock, the phone worked about 2 days. It’s a good result. Engineers could reduce power consumption and it became possible to equip the handset with a lithium-ion, not lithium-polymer battery. Time of full re-charging is more than 2 hours.

Menu

Nokia 8910 has the same set of features as other models of this manufacturer. If you are interested in detailed description of available functions, read review of Nokia 6310. Below you could view the main differences of this phone from 6310.

Phonebook doesn’t have any considerable differences, the only hew thing is a possibility to view phone number recorded in both memories (SIM-card and phone memory) simultaneously.

Messages. The same as in 6310

Call Register. The same as in 6310.

Profiles. The same as in 6310.

Settings. There is a new possibility to set screensavers, for example, analogue or digital clocks. Others capabilities are the same.

Games. There are 4 pre-installed games in the phone: Snake II, Pairs II, Bantumi and Snowboarding. Users of other Nokia’s handsets know them very well. There is a possibility to connect to games-services. To do it you should register at Nokia’s site.

Calculator. It's a standard one, so, no comments

To-do list. Up to 30 records with small notes (up to 50 characters) can be created. It is possible to set a priority level (high, low, standard). You can move this text to a calendar. It’s very convenient.

Calendar. Phone memory allows to save 100-250 records (depending on notes length). You could set a reminder and due date (all old notes are deleted after indicated period of time). There is only daily calendar view in this handset. Weekly and monthly views are not available, probably, because of the screen resolution. We think that this phone has a cut version of a calendar, as monthly view is really necessary and frequently used function.

IrDA. Activation and deactivation of IrDA.

Bluetooth. I’ve already mentioned that 8910 and 6310 are very similar handsets. They also have the same problems. Bluetooth connection is failed in Nokia 8910 like it was in Nokia 6310. When you use a headset, you could notice only a new record in the list of compatible devices. But you can’t set either automatic or manual connection with other devices.

Extras. One can find voice memo function in this menu. You could record up to 3 minutes of talking (number of records is unlimited). It is possible to play one or another record, name them and delete them. If you like to turn on voice memo in the talking mode, press twice on the left soft key, to turn it off – press right key ones. You can easily get used to this control.

Up to 5 voice commands to enter several menu items (which are pre-defined) can be added here too..

There is also a countdown timer and stop-watch (up to 20 intermediate records) in this menu. Countdown timer is not displayed on the menu in the standby mode, you can see only its icon. To view the result, enter a menu.

Wallet application is missed in this phone (on the contrast to 6310).

Services. Wap-browser in 1.2.1 version, which has standard features. You can also set wap-over-gprs.

Impressions

Traditionally Nokia 8910 has an excellent sound an reception quality. Loudspeakers are very loud, but volume can be adjusted only with a help of scroll keys in the talking mode, what is not very convenient. As in older models, there are 35 ringing tones in the phone. Vibrating alert is rather strong in spite of titan exterior.

There are some peculiarities of Nokia 8910 which you have to know. First thing that you should remember: the phone continues to ring about 2 seconds after opening, don’t forget about it when you get the handset to the ear and begin to speak. Secondly, you can’t reject a call without opening a phone as all keys are hidden inside. Hence, we don’t recommend you to set an automatic answer, otherwise, it will almost impossible to reject a call.

My impressions are ambivalent. On the one hand, there are many shortcomings in this phone (bluetooth and etc.), on the other – using this phone, you will definitely stand out in the crowd due to the way of opening. Idea of fashion phone is completely realized here (but titan cover resembles plastic instead of metal).

Nokia 8910 has been in sale since July 2002. First price was about 700 USD. Price of it hasn’t been changed considerably, as mostly a titan exterior defines it.

This phone was rather popular among customers. We can recommend Nokia 8910 to those who don’t need functions of the businss-phone, just a fashion accessory.

Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Translated by Maria Sennikova ([email protected])

Published — 31 March 2003

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