Nokia 6210 Navigator

GPS handsets are catching the fancy of consumers due to convenience they offer when you get lost in middle of nowhere. Nokia has stepped up to the task and brought out a series of cellphones under the “Navigator” brand name. Nokia 6210 Navigator is the latest cell phone to join the bandwagon. Apart from GPA, Nokia 6210 has good specifications as mentioned below.

Nokia 6210 Navigator specifications :

• Dimensions : 103 x 49 x 14.9 mm
• Weight : 117 g
• Display : 2.4″ TFT display with 240 x 320 resolution
• Camera : 3.2 megapixel with autofocus
• GPS : Built-in GPS receiver
• Radio : Stereo FM Radio with RDS
• Card slot : MicroSD
• Connectivity : GPRS, HSCSD, 3G.
• Bluetooth : v2.0 with A2DP
• USB : v2.0 miniUSB
• OS : Symbian OS 9.3, Series 60 UI
• Approx. price : $400

Nokia 6210 Navigator is an upgrade to the Nokia 6110 Navigator which was released last year. Nokia 6110 Navigator is still quite popular among the people and it has a decent specifications and a great GPS navigation solution. Nokia 6210 Navigator has upgrades ranging from accelerometer to latest symbian OS.

The box contents do not lend any surprises with the standard accessories lined up inside the box. USB cable, DC charger, wired handsfree, manual, CD and a 1GB microSD card. An in-car charger should have been there in the box considering the nature of the device.

The design of the phone is much similar to its predecessor but it slimmer. The keys have also got a rejig but apart from that there is not much noticeable difference, although I preferred the overall looks of the Nokia 6110 navigator more. The phone is light weight and the sliding mechanism is sturdy and smooth.

You can find the video call camera at the top right used for making video calls over 3G networks. Just adjacent to it is the ambient light sensor. The D-pad is quite big and is flanked by soft keys on either side. You also get a dedicated key for launching the GPS navigation software which is in the form of a star.

The keypad has aptly sized keys which offer tactile feedback and a boon for SMS junkies. The phone has a 2.5 mm jack instead of a 3.5 mm one, leaving you to the mercy of the adapter. Right side has the volume rocker and the dedicated camera key. Left side which is usually bare has the mircoUSB and the card slot.

The display is a 2.4″ TFT with QVGA resolution. The display clarity is great and so is the visibility under sunlight. The auto-rotate sensor turns the screen to landscape mode automatically. The call quality of Nokia 6210 is crystal clear and no disturbance at all. The speakerphone is quite loud and you would not face any problem hearing the ringtone even in noisy environments.

The music player has become a standard on almost all Nokia Symbian 60 devices. It supports a wide variety of formats such as WMA, MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and also M3U playlists. Songs can be added directly via USB or using Nokia PC Suite and they reflect when you refresh the music library. You can sort songs by albums, artists, genre, composer, podcasts and playlists. With the A2DP profile, you can play songs wirelessly over a stereo bluetooth headset. The audio quality is good and comparable to what is offered in Nokia N series.

Real player is the default video player and works in both portrait and landscape mode. You are better off with installing a third party video player which supports more formats and offers better functionality. FM radio is also available in the form of Visual Radio. It also has RDS support and can automatically scan for channels. The interface is simple, clean and functional.

Nokia 6210 comes equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus. and LED flash. No lens protection leads to fingerprint smudges all over the lens. The image quality of the camera is great and comparable to Nokia N73. The images produced are well saturated, have low noise and good amount of detail. Geo-tagigng surprisingly isn’t available putting the inbuilt GPS functionality to shame. Video recording is possible at VGA resolution but the frame rate is limited to 15fps.

Web browsing on the Nokia 6210 is a pleasure due to the great inbuilt browser. Nokia browser has almost all the features that you desire and auto-rotation of the screen is the cherry on the cake. The web page fits perfectly both in portrait and landscape modes. A mini map of the web page is also generated which leads to quicker navigation around web pages. Search function also comes in-built into the browser allowing you to search for text, phone numbers, email addresses and VoIP address. Page zoom levels can also be adjusted but sadly the browser does not support full screen view mode.

Coming to the main features of this cell phone : GPS! The software included by Nokia to control the GPS is Nokia Maps 2.0 which is a surprise as the Route 66 application that came bundled with Nokia 6110 Navigator was brilliant. There is also an inbuilt compass which does come in handy sometimes. The dedicated GPS key illuminates as soon as you get a satellite lock. You have the option of loading maps on the go like Google Maps or download the whole map on your PC and then transfer it on to the mobile saving you the GPRS charges. Sadly auto rotation does not work in Nokia Maps 2.0 as there is no landscape mode to view the maps. The GPS receiver is sensitive and gets satellite lock even among tall buildings. In-car navigation provides turn-by-turn directions and visual guidance. There are four different modes to view the map : Hybrid, Satellite, Map, Map 3D. Points of interest are also mentioned on the maps, a great asset and are divided into categories neatly. Overall the GPS experience was great and it lived up to the expectation.

Pros :

• Good keypad
• Great display
• Loudspeaker volume high
• Music quality good
• Great camera
• Excellent GPS
• Amazing web browser

Cons :

• Small display
• No Wi-Fi connectivity
• No lens cover
• No geotagging
• VGA recording at 15fps

Final Thoughts

The Nokia 6210 Navigator is a good handset to invest in to put it straight. It has a great camera, good music quality, excellent GPS functionality and amazing web browser which will please a lot of people. Small display and no Wi-FI connectivity are its two major shortcomings. Overall if you are want great GPS functionality then this cell phone is a great investment.

My Rating: 3.75/5

Sony Ericsson C902

The Sony Ericsson C902 is the latest Cybershot from Sony Ericsson and the first of the ‘C’ series Cybershot phones. It is, in a way, the forerunner to the much awaited C905 - The first 8.1 MP camera phone from Sony Ericsson. Yet it does manage to hold out its own and has created a decent fan following. It takes over from the K850i which was moderately successful but was dogged down by many controversies and finally defeated by the Nokia N82 which reigned supreme in the 5 MP category. It aims to compete with the Samsung G600 and the Nokia N82 and the upcoming Nokia N96 and Motorola Zine ZN5. It is slim, sleek and light and has a very simple yet stylish design. It is officially, the slimmest 5 MP cam phone to date. In this review, we check out its features, its pros and cons, and whether it does manage to please its targetted audience - the cam junkies.

Sony Ericsson C902 Specifications:

• Dimensions : 108 x 49 x 10.5 mm
• Weight : 107 gms
• Display : 2.0″ TFT, 256K Colors, QVGA 240 x 320 px.
• Camera : 5 MP Cam (2592 x 1944 px) with LED Flash, Auto Focus, Image Stabilizer, Secondary
• videocall cam
• Memory : 160 MB Internal memory
• Connectivity : GPRS Class 32, EDGE Class 10, 3G HSDPA, USB 2.0
• Bluetooth : Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• Price : $480 (Approx)

Other Key Features:
8 camera touch keys, Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS, MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, TrackID music recognition

Design and Display

The Sony Ericsson C902 scores rather high on the design front. At dimensions of 108 x 49 x 10.5 mm, it is a sleek, slim and stylish phone. It does weigh slightly more relative to its dimensions - about 107 gms. It has a normal candybar form factor and is encased in a metal body. It has a glossy finish in the front faces which adds to its style.

The display is a characteristic Sony Ericsson - 2.0″ TFT, 256K colors with a resolution of 240 x 320 px. Sony Ericsson desperately needs to improve it’s device displays and add bigger, better displays with more colors. Coming back to the C902, the display is nothing impressive, just the normal type. What does impress, are the 8 touch sensitive camera keys add to the sides of the display. They can be used to switch between and adjust many settings like gallery, autofocus, shoot modes, timers and flash mode. The display is good with optimum brightness and contrast, nice vibrant colors and good sunlight legibility.

The keypad feels a bit crowded with the keys thrown in very close to each other. It is a standard Sony Ericsson keypad, with a D Pad, soft keys, ‘Call’ and ‘End’ keys. THe keypad has rather subtle backlighting which makes the corner keys slightly illegible, but that shouldn’t matter much as you get used to the keypad. On the left side of the phone is the Universal port, while the right side sports the dedicated Camera key and the Volume rocker. On the back, there is the 5 MP camera with flash hiding beneath the sliding cover.

OS and Interface features

The C902 sports the usual Sony Ericsson Firmware based OS with the familiar, simple yet effective interface found in all Sony Ericsson phones, spiced up with some new features. It sports a changed menu structure which can be changed to three layouts - Grid, Rotating and Single Icon views. The interface has had quite a few visual improvements with new animations and effects. It has cooler menu transitions and icon effects, overall a much refined and responsive interface. It also sports a highly improved camera interface with 8 new touch sensitive camera buttons to access advanced camera settings.

Camera and Multimedia

It is commendable as to how Sony Ericsson fitted a 5 MP cam in that 10.5 mm slim body, even after doing away with the Xenon flash that is a must in all camera phones. The highlight of the C902 - the camera performs well with awesome shots, low noise levels and nice crisp images with accurate color reproduction. It has many advanced features like face detection, image and video stabilizer, BestPic, auto-rotate, macro mode and more. All of these can be adjusted using the 8 new touch sensitive camera buttons which are active only in camera mode. They are also useful for accessing the photo gallery and adjusting the autofocus mode, shoot mode, scenes, timer and flash mode.

It can record video at QVGA resolutions at 30 FPS, which is a bit of a letdown considering that the N82 and many other new phones can easily do VGA at 30 FPS. The PhotoFlash LED performs good, but nowhere near a Xenon Flash. The addition of the LED flash also helps in conserving the battery life considerably. The C902 sports the new improved Cybershot v2.0 interface which is quite efficient and provides access to almost all of the camera features. The bulit-in accelerometer automatically auto rotates the images when the phone is tilted. The face detection works as expected. It is a capable camera phone, the presence of a Xenon Flash would only have added to its list of features. The BestPic feature automatically takes 9 pics in quick succession so you can choose the best among them. The image stabilizer prevents blurred pics in low light conditions.

Photos, Music and Videos can be accessed from the Media Center menu. The flash based interface simply rocks. It has a new addition though, a Games section. You get the NFS Pro Street game bundled with the phone. It can be controlled using both the D Pad and the accelerometer. Sony Ericsson is trying to sell it as a complete entertainment device. The C902 also supports TV out. It also has a standard FM Radio with RDS support and Auto Scan to automatically search and save radio stations. The Music player supports the standard TrackID feature allowing you to identify songs and download them. The gallery includes a Picture editor and blogging support. The Music Interface can be set to Auto Rotate, Portrait or Landscape.

Other Features

The C902 features many connectivity options like Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB v2.0. It also has GPRS, EDGE, 3G but no WLAN. However we are not complaining as it isn’t expected in media centric phones anyways but again most of its competitors do have Wi-Fi. It has a 930 mAh Li-ion battery which delivers about 8 hrs of talktime and lasts about 2 days or more with moderate usage.

It comes bundled with a charger, earphones, a USB data cable, a connectivity CD, the use manual and a 2 GB M2 card.

Pros

• Great Design and Build Quality
• Good Battery
• Great Cam & Music playback

Cons

• Rather Expensive
• No Xenon Flash
• No Wi-Fi

Final Words

The Sony Ericsson C905 is a good buy for those looking for a great camera phone with similar music capabilities all packed together in a small footprint. But it isn’t able to better the Nokia N82 which we still consider a better option to any other 5 MP phone. It maybe lose out a bit in features but makes up for it in style and design. It is a decent buy, though if you already have a K850, we wouldn’t advise you to upgrade.

Rating : 3.9 / 5.