Cingular Launches Nokia's 9300 Communicator in US

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mobiletracker.net/archives/2006/03/27/nokia-9300-cingular' target='_blank'>http://www.mobiletracker.net/archiv...a-9300-cingular</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Cingular has officially launched the Nokia 9300 Communicator for direct consumer sales. The carrier has been selling the phone to its business customers since November. The 9300 is one of Nokia's Series-80 devices and has an extensive feature set."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20060328-Nokia9300.jpg" /><br /><br />Try as I might, I can't get excited about this device. After having used several WM5 Pocket PCs, including the JasJar and the Treo 700w, and having played with my colleague's XV6700, I don't see what's interesting about this device anymore. Phone Scoop has a good <a href="http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=607">feature list</a>, and the Cingular version doesn't have WiFi, Symbian is not known for its syncing prowess (from what I've heard, even ActiveSync is better), and the form factor seems awkward to me. On the other hand, it is reasonably cheap, has a decent screen and is bundled with Blackberry Connect. Does anyone have one and/or is planning to get one, and why?

[TheZodiac]

No WiFi, no thanks.

[JvanEkris]

A collegue of mine had one on trial about a year ago (it really is an old model..). He dumped it in favour of the SonyEricsson P900, and he recentrly switched to the Imate K-Jam. The Nokia was a huge brick, heavy and did not have a touch-screen. The only way to navigate was the small joystick-linke thingy on the side. But that was so crappy it was unusable.

Jaap

[fone_fanatic]

your saying thats BULKY? try the 9500!!! and why do these phones get stripped of Wi-Fi when they come to the US? I used to use a UIQ, the 9500, used it for about 2 weeks and returned it, then went for a p910, then something else.. anyways i stumbled upon the jam, and now i'm hooked on Windows mobile, got a k-jam now.

[Michel]

I bought one less than a month ago; to make a not-so-long-story shorter, I returned it after 10 days, after having used it only for exactly 1 week.

The reason? When I realized it doesn't sync Outlook notes it was bye-bye. I really wanted to like it, I was away from home for a few days and decided to only bring the Nokia but after the 3rd day I was sorely missing my Treo 650.

Pros: very stable; multitasking (hey, I use a Treo :) ); comes with some very nice apps; nice screen

Cons: not a fully functional series 40 phone in when closed; no vibration; the joystick (should really be called "pain-in-the-***-stick"); bad use of the screen

[Janak Parekh]

no vibration
8O They still haven't gotten vibration into the Communicators? I don't get that at all. :?

--janak

[Jason Lee]

I really thought about getting the original model of this. Way back before there was such a thing as a pocket pc phone...

[Mark Kenepp]

your saying thats BULKY? try the 9500!!! and why do these phones get stripped of Wi-Fi when they come to the US?

The 9300 never had WiFi. The newer 9300i and the 9500 have Wifi. It took this long for Cingular to release the 9300 so I would suspect that it will take another year for the 9300i (don't hold your breath).

I started my PDA experience with EPOC (Actually I started with a Palm Pilot Pro but I never really used it) and have always been a big fan of Symbian.

I still have my MC218 sitting on my desk all through the day and am interested in the Nokia Communicators partly because some of the software I use on my MC218 is available for the Symbian 80 platform.

I did end up getting a T-Mobile SDA instead of the Nokia 9300i partially due to the price and partially due to Server ActiveSync. Probably will look into the Communicator line again when the next generation comes out.

[pocketpcadmirer]

has a decent screen

I have used both 9500 and 9300. I think the ratio between the height and width of the pixels is not appropriate. It is 640*200 !! Odd. Throw a ppt presentation file and it is not even able to display it full screen :lol:

It is only good for excel stuff, IMHO

Sunny

[rickmahn]

The real news is BlackBerry Connect. Finally a US carrier is selling and supporting a device with BB Connect pre-installed.

I hope this bodes well for future releases of BlackBerry Connect for Windows Mobile and Palm.

[isajoo]

this thing look like my old casio databank from the 80s... nokia really should get help in designing a good functioning device... only reason people would buy is for the blackberry option...but then why not just get a blackberry?

[r@dimus]

The real news is BlackBerry Connect. Finally a US carrier is selling and supporting a device with BB Connect pre-installed.

I hope this bodes well for future releases of BlackBerry Connect for Windows Mobile and Palm.

My thoughts exactly. I suspected that the reason we never saw any Blackberry Connect gear here in the US was because the carriers were waiting for the NTP suit to wrap up. Now that it has, it's encouraging to see another BB option other than a RIM device. And if you're like me, a PPC junkie working for a place that has installed BES as the ONLY wireless remote mail option (in other words, "no we're not buying you a phone with Bluetooth so you can remote into the network with your PPC when you can have a Blackberry") than stuff like this is a welcome change from the tyranny of RIM devices.

What's so bad about RIM's devices you ask? Well, for one none of the Bluetooth Blackberry's support being used as a modem via Bluetooth. The closest RIM gets to this is USB tethering with the 7130 and maybe the 8700. To date Bluetooth is only for handsfree stuff. Think Outside has a Bluetooth Blackberry keyboard, but that's about it.

To date, Blackberries don't make very good phones either. If your device is part of a BES system, and the security policies are in effect, your Blackberry needs to have a password typed in to unlock it. For the email and PIM purposes, this is completely understandable. But for using it as a phone you still have to type in the password. Also, none of the Blackberries have the standard telephone alphabet printed on them (which is also understandable as there is just no space to print them) and this is a problem if you ever have to dial phone numbers that are given in letters. Like 1-800-COMCAST for example.

If the Nokia 9300 can act as a Bluetooth modem, this changes.

[Kacey Green]

yuk, a Nokia on PPC Thoughts, darned thing doesn't even run Windows Mobile