On 21 November 2000 during Nokia Mobile Internet conference in Prague (Czech Republic) Nokia presented a brand new Communicator called 9210. In this description you won't find any promotional bla-bla like "first multimedia device in the world for everybody". We will only give you facts and technical data and tell you what is hot in 9210 and what is not.

New Communicator is said to be available in first half of 2001. Main differences - compared to its predecessor N9110(i) - are: high resolution color TFT display (4096 colors), Symbian OS 6.0 operating system and 32-bit RISC CPU based on ARM-9. Great news is that N9210 is equipped with real SDRAM memory (8 MB of the operating memory), which is much faster than EDO memory used in previous models. MMC support has been improved, too - now you can insert and remove memory cards while PDA is on and working (so they can be used as removable "Plug&Play" disks). N9210 is (finally!) a dual band phone, supporting EGSM 900/1800. Nokia finally made a move everybody was waiting for, but it's a pity that they didn't make it a real mobile device by supporting also GSM 1900 band (like in tri-band Motorola phones).

The most sad thing about N9210 is that it doesn't support GPRS. N9210 only supports HSCSD with transmission speed up to 43,2 kbps. This is really hard to understand, since GPRS is already supported by many GSM networks and newest Nokia phones. The most probable reason is lack of GPRS support by the Symbian OS 6.0. New version 6.1 which is said to be available in the second half of this year is said to be GPRS and Bluetooth ready.

Let's take a look at the system. First of all we should thank Nokia for dropping GEOS. Symbian OS is a much better operating system and it just gives PDA a new life. Symbian OS is equipped with Personal Java language support. Such platform will support hundreds of applications from different software houses and will be a much better environment for developpers. The system supports a very long list of popular file types and contains several applications compatible with their PC equivalents, like Word, Sheet (spreadseet) or PPView (PowerPoint presentation viewer). There is also a WWW browser (with frames support) and WAP browser (supporting color images). New OS also supports playing color video clips and setting custom desktop wallpapers. Unfortunately, there is still no MP3 support while RISC CPU and much more powerful system should be enough for this. N9210 includes Mobile Real Player by Real Networks, which provides full support for Real Audio and Real Video files! New Digital Recorder allows recording long files (only limited by available "disk space") with chosen quality/compression ratio: Normal/Compressed. The former setting (best for recording music) offers better quality but uses more space, while the latter one (suitable for voice recordings) allows recording longer files. Video player is really great: clips are smooth and the voice is clear.

How does it look like? It seems, that someone used a CAD program with N9110 model loaded and moved his mouse a couple of times to make it look more modern: almost the same weight and dimensions, same phone keyboard with new function keys (but in the same place and with similar shape) and the 6210's phone display with very nice purple backlight (there are also versions with green and white backlight). However, it doesn't change the fact, that new Communicator looks very stylish and "on time", thanks to the silver casing. The phone connector is exactly the same as in previous model, but it is located a little bit lower, which makes some of the N9110's accessories (car kit and desktop stand) incompatible with N9210.

A little bit of technical stuff: battery provides approx. 230 hours of standby time and 4-10 hrs of talk time. The device is equipped with MMC cards slot, which enables main memory expansion and installation of additional applications (16MB card with preinstalled programs is included in the package). N9210 can exchange data with other devices (like computer, digital still camera etc.) using IrDA, IrTran-P and DLR-2L serial cable. This cable (and the whole serial interface) can only be considered a big mistake. Did N9210 designers forget about very popular and much more advanced USB interface, used in most of the modern electronical devices, like for example digital still cameras? Fortunately, transmission speed using DLR-2 cable was boosted to 115,2 kbps (max throughput of the serial interface), which makes it much faster than in N9110... Nokia 9210 is a first device in the world supporting SyncML, allowing easy and quick synchronization of contacts, Calendar data and to-do lists. Improvements have also been made to the power management and internal keyboard: keys are bigger and arrow keys have been replaced by a "device" providing fast and comfortable cursor control. N9210 has different blue application keys: there are eight blue keys providing access to the following "folders": Desk (Desktop), Tel (speaker phone), Messaging (Fax, SMS), Internet (WWW, WAP, E-Mail), Contacts (contacts database), Calendar, Office (office applications - Word, Sheet, PPView), Extras (additional applications installed by user). Menu key was moved from the left side of the display to the keyboard. The same happened to Zoom key: it was "divided" to separate + and - keys, accessible via keyboard together with Chr key. Screen contrast can be adjusted using Chr + Space.

• high resolution (640x200), color TTF display (4096 colors)
• Symbian operating system v6.0 with Personal Java support (stability, good performance, access to wide range of 3rd party applications, much better platform for developpers)
• multitasking
• 32-bit RISC CPU based on ARM-9 running @ 52 MHz
• dualband 900/1800 MHz phone
• longer standby time - up to 230 h
• better WWW browser with support for frames and tables
• HSCSD transmission up to 43,2 kbps
• support for many file formats used on PC and Mac computers
• office applications compatible with MS Office programs
• better synchronization, conversion and data exchange with PC
• UI can be customized by user (wallpapers, panel backgrounds, color schemes)
• support for multimedia
• included 16MB MMC card
• better PDA keyboard
• better WAP browser with support for color images
• modern design
• built-in Mobile RealPlayer, providing support for RealAudio and RealVideo files
• support for Unicode fonts

• no GPRS support
• serial interface (DLR-2L cable) instead of common (and much faster) USB
• no 1900 MHz (triband) support - limited mobility