Well I finally was able to get my hands on one of these. My first initial reaction was that it was surprisingly not as big as I had thought. In comparison, its about the same size as the N-Gage when its sideways.
Lets start first with the basics. The Nokia 9300 is a series 80 device running the Symbian 7.0S OS. Fortunately with this phone Nokia didn't do any MMC changing to the regular MMC's will work.
The "cover phone" as its called, or main phone has the series 40 layout which isn't so bad. There are only 5 menu functions with animated display. The 4-way navi key is really cool compared to the joystick and press pad types on the 66xx/36xx. The center button is the menu key and the scroll button is very very easy to maneuver. Another thing that most Nokia users might appreciate is the easy power button. Yeah I know that sounds weird but you wouldn't believe the amount of people, myself included, who had problems just turning the phone on! (thinks back to the 3390 days) One of the things missing is the t9 input, which I guess really isn't a big deal because it has a qwerty keypad.
Now to the PDA:
Powering off the cover phone will still allow the PDA to function once open. Talk about a compact desktop!! Everything you need is right there, well, at your fingertips. The one thing that stuck out was the connectivity functions. On the keyboard there is a chr (character) key. The character key is highlighted in blue and the character key colors correspond. You can activate Bluetooth, Infrared, Sync and Zoom function just by holding the chr key and the corresponding character. Simplicity at its best. Another cool feature are the 8 keypad short-cut . At the top of the keypad you have all of the menus that are located on the screen itself, but just a quicker way of getting there. Desk, Telephone, Web, Contacts, Documents, Calendar and a "My own" key which allows you to attach your favorite program to this key for quick access.. There are also 4 command keys located near the screen display which are used when the option is located near that targeted key.
The screen is amazing. Very crisp images and options to change the backgrounds. Since this is targeted towards professionals there aren't any weird wallpapers. Just nice basic layouts. It also has a standby mode which shuts the screen down when not in use.
The internal 80mb memory was enough for me to install a bunch of apps and documents such as the Settings Wizard (why doesn't NokiaUSA have this?) and Adobe Acrobat Reader and some mp3's. the Office tool comes with everything you need to use for personal productivity. Document, Sheets and Presentation. According to Nokia's specs, the device supports the most common features of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel (MS Office 97 or later).
The sound quality is excellent compared to my N-Gage for playing music. The call quality is also clear. The 9300 has a voice recorder which records for as long as the memory can hold, seriously. I turned it on and recorded almost 30 minutes of nothing!! I had walked away from it and forgot about it. Opening up the phone while in a call automatically activates the internal speakerphone, so there are no loudspeaker buttons to push in order to turn it on.
The 9300 is also a pop-port device which I really don't care for. I find it scary that the pins can get dusty. USB connection is also available for the device if that be your choice.
I know the one thing that I left out which is probably what everyone wants to know and that's the EDGE speed. Unfortunately EDGE is not available in my area with Cingular so I wasn't able to test that, but I did notice that GPRS speed was much faster than on my 6600.
Ok, so basically in a nut shell this device is definitely a step up from the normal series 60's that I've played around with. Although targeted towards professionals, I as a college student could definitely see myself using this communicator on a daily basis. Especially the voice recorder as a back-up to note taking. The size isn't a problem for me and the keypad is easy to thumb with.
I didn't want to bog down my post with images so I've listed the photos in my gallery on my weblog
Further specs and information can be found on Nokia.com
regarding the "cover phone", I had heard that on the 9500 you really can't do anything with the outer phone, such as compose messages or whatnot. Is this also true with the 9300?? Can you give a breif summary of either functions that you can or can't perform using only the cover phone? Is it basically like a 6010 slapped on the front of a laptop or are there limitations? You mentioned only four menu options?
Originally posted by Rcadden regarding the "cover phone", I had heard that on the 9500 you really can't do anything with the outer phone, such as compose messages or whatnot. Is this also true with the 9300?? Can you give a breif summary of either functions that you can or can't perform using only the cover phone? Is it basically like a 6010 slapped on the front of a laptop or are there limitations? You mentioned only four menu options?
The cover phone does everything similar to the series 40's. There are 5 menu options, not 4. Messages, Call Log, Contacts, Profiles and Settings.
You can compose sms messages only.
Right. Also the 9500 has WiFi, and I think something else I don't remember. If I do go, it'll be for the 9500, I'm just debating. Plus even if I get a good price for my 6620, that's still over $600 bones down the tubes. Hard to explain to the gf when you're ditching dates to "save for 'future expenses'"
I found a 9300 here in Manila and it seems to be working great. I can retrieve email on t-zones and my bellsouth email account just fine here. I was just a bit concerned that it's an Asian version because the auto setup stuff only refers to places over here. I realize this is a dumb question and I should be able to config the thing to work just fine in the U.S. on TMO but I thought I better check before I leave and discover I have a paper weight.
By the way, I love this phone so far, just hoping I can make it work as well in the U.S.
Originally posted by phjnky I found a 9300 here in Manila and it seems to be working great. I can retrieve email on t-zones and my bellsouth email account just fine here. I was just a bit concerned that it's an Asian version because the auto setup stuff only refers to places over here. I realize this is a dumb question and I should be able to config the thing to work just fine in the U.S. on TMO but I thought I better check before I leave and discover I have a paper weight.
By the way, I love this phone so far, just hoping I can make it work as well in the U.S.
Thanks for any replies.
You should be able to. You said it yourself -- you can manually config it to work on tmobile US
Originally posted by abhi Its a nice smartphone, but its just too expensive!! 35K Rs.(abt 700$) seems too much for it.
It's all a matter of perspective I guess. I went through London the other day and spent a few hundred pounds and have nothing to show for it, even the memories are fading.
Originally posted by phjnky It's all a matter of perspective I guess. I went through London the other day and spent a few hundred pounds and have nothing to show for it, even the memories are fading.
I didnt mean it in that way. What im saying is that, for a price of 700$, i'd be more inclined towards buying a 9500 rather than a 9300. Its got the added advantage of the cam and wi-fi.
Nokia shd have marketed it at a lower price, imo.
I am still keen on buying this phone, but i cant justify spending 700$ for it.
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