Design and Ergonomics

Unlike its predecessor the 9290 Communicator, the Nokia 9300 is a smaller phone and is pocket-able. When closed, the 9300 is the same length as the Nokia 3650 and is slightly narrower in width. The Nokia has a muted silver housing with a shinier silver front cover which you can change to personalize your phone. Another improvement from the 9290 design is now you can talk with the front cover facing your mouth. You will find an 128 x 128 color display on the cover which runs the equivalent of Nokia's Series 40 user interface (Series 40 phones comprise Nokia's mid-tier offerings). Also up front are a 5-way directional pad, two menu buttons, call send and call end buttons and a large number keypad below the display. The d-pad and the buttons are easy to press and the number keys are spacious. Above the display, you will find the earpiece holes and power on/off button. The bottom half of the clamshell houses a large IR port, Pop-Port connector (for syncing and wired headsets), the mic and power charging port. The back of the phone has a large battery door. You can open it to access the battery, the SIM card and the MMC card slot. The MMC slot is hot swappable and Nokia provides a 128 MB MMC in the package with the 900MHz non-Cingular version only. The MMC slot is capable of taking up to 2GB MultiMedia Cards and works with the newer MMC Plus cards. Next to the battery door, you will find two long rubber feet to prevent the device from sliding on smooth surfaces when typing on the keyboard. There's a slight hump on the Cingular version which houses a larger antenna which improves reception.

The Nokia 9300 uses two strong and thick hinges to connect the cover and the keyboard halves. Open the clamshell, and you'll see the wide screen 640 x 200 transflective display (4" diagonal) that's bright and provides good viewing angles. Four command buttons live on the right side of the display, and they provide shortcuts to different functions depending on which application you're running.

The QWERTY keyboard extends almost the entire length of the phone and has a dedicated number key row. The keys are slightly domed which makes typing easier, though there's little tactile feedback when keys are pressed (no clicks). The keyboard feels comfortable to type on though it is too small for true touch typing. You can however use two or three figures to type while keeping the device on the desk, or thumb type while holding the device in hand. In addition to the number and letter keys, you will find 8 application buttons up top that can launch Desk, Telephone, Messaging, Web, Contacts, Documents, Calendar and My own applications. You can assign the My Own button to launch the application of your choice. Note that while the front keypad is backlit, the QWERTY keyboard isn't, so you'll need to angle the display so its light bounces off the keypad when typing in dim or dark locations. The Series 80 UI offers many keyboard shortcuts, including Chr-n (create a new entry), Chr-e (exit) and shortcuts that are specific to a given application. For example, Ctrl-b bookmarks the current web page in the browser and Ctrl-r reloads the current page. The device uses shortcuts commonly found on Windows and Mac as well: Ctrl-a (select all), Ctrl-c (copy), Ctrl-v (paste) and so on. These pervasive, consistent and generally easy to memorize shortcuts obviate the need for a touch screen and in fact speed up work on the device.

On the top right corner above the keyboard, you will find a dedicated loudspeaker and on the bottom right a joystick control that can move the cursor on the screen and selects items when pressed. This kind of joystick isn't commonly found on phones, but the joystick on the 9300 works well with all the built-in applications, particularly the web browser where it acts like a mouse (useful since Nokia Communicators lack touch screens). If you have used an eraser stick pointer on a laptop, then you will feel right at home with the 9300 whose joystick is meant to act as a mouse replacement. But if you are a southpaw, you likely won't appreciate it's rightie-centric location. And in all cases, it will take a couple of days to become proficient at using this novel pointing device. For those who just can't adjust, the 4 arrow keys beside the pointer are there as a backup.

Phone Features

The Nokia 9300b is a tri-band GSM mobile phone that operates on the 850, 1800 and 1900 MHz bands, while the European versions (Nokia 9300 and 9300i) run on the 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz bands. Cingular offers the 850 MHz version in the US since they use both the 850 and 1900MHz bands.

The Cingular Nokia 9300 has good reception on the 850 and 1900 MHz bands. It's not as strong as the Nokia 6682 which is one of the many Nokia GSM phones with outstanding RF. Typically, the 9300 gets one less bar than the 6682 (on a scale of 1-7 bars). The 9300 beats the Audiovox SMT5600 and Cingular 2125 and is in a close race with the Cingular 8125 Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone. The phone's antenna is under a very subtle hump on the bottom beside the battery door and you will notice the phone drop down a bar when you hold it with both hands in open clamshell mode for typing. That said, most users will hold the phone to their head with the phone in candybar mode and then the antenna is unobstructed.

That ever so slight hump must make a difference, because we found that the "humpless" Euro 9300 had surprisingly weak reception on the 1900 MHz band using a T-Mobile SIM in the US. The import version does OK in strong signal areas but isn't as eager to make the best of a weak signal, unlike most GSM Nokia phones. Nonetheless, it never dropped calls, even in weak coverage areas, and voice clarity was good. If you're a US T-Mobile customer who doesn't really need 850MHz, we suggest you get the 9300b if you can find one unlocked, rather than buying an import 9300 just for reception's sake and also for a better web browsing experience (more on that point later).

The earpiece has good volume that's adequate even in noisy environments and the included headset has even better sound output. You can adjust the incoming call volume by press left or right on the 5-way d-pad when in a call. You can also turn on the loudspeaker during a call by opening the clamshell. You can make calls with the number pad when the clamshell is closed or use the Telephone app when the phone is open. The Nokia supports speed dialing, conference call, call barring, last number redial, voice recording and provides 6 profiles. You can have 8 one-touch speed dial numbers and up to 5 participants on your conference calls. The device has no built-in voice dialing software but it comes with a trial version of the excellent VoiceSignal voice recognition software which requires no training or voice tags.

All versions of the Nokia 9300 have class 10 GPRS for data with EDGE support. On the Cingular version we got some very impressive numbers using DSL Reports mobile speed test: between 140 and 175k on EDGE. Those are the best numbers we've recorded for an EDGE (or 1xRTT) phone. That's even more impressive considering that the Euro 9300 and the Nokia 9500 were unusually slow at downloading and rendering data using the web browser. On the Euro 1900MHz version, the best We got was 68k using a T-Mobile SIM (oddly, neither AT&T nor Cingular SIMs could get better than 25 to 35k, though they do have 1900 MHz EDGE in our area). So score several points for the Nokia 9300b on Cingular! The phone also worked well as a wireless modem over Bluetooth (DUN), offering very good transfer rates.

Messaging, BlackBerry Connect and Web

Email and web play big part in Nokia's pursuit of the enterprise market with the 9300. Nokia bundles a Messaging application that's the central hub for all types of messaging including text messages, multimedia messages, POP3/IMAP e-mail messages and fax. You can create, send, receive and organize all the messages in the Messaging app. The Inbox contains all received messages except e-mail and cell broadcast messages. For IM (Instant Messaging), Nokia bundles IM which works with AIM, ICQ and Yahoo Instant Messaging services. (the Euro version comes with IM+ which works with Yahoo, AOL, ICQ, MSN and Jabber). Messaging supports MMS and SMS. If your text messages are longer than 160 characters, the 9300 will break them into multiple messages with 160 as maximum number of characters (that's what most cell phones do).

Each of your POP3 and IMAP email accounts has its own mailbox in Messaging. The US Nokia 9300 comes with presets for a few popular ISP email accounts such as Earthlink, Yahoo and BellSouth. Like most phones that offer email services, you can work online or offline with the 9300 email system and it has support for attachments and printing. There are a large number of options in the email client and mail services to simulate the desktop e-mail experience as closely as possible. In additon, Cingular includes their XPress Mail service which uses your desktop PC as an email redirector and also gives you access to your calendar and files if desired.

In addition, the Cingular version of the Nokia 9300 has BlackBerry Connect push email support which works with BlackBerry Internet and BlackBerry Enterprise Server services. PDF manuals for setting up and using BlackBerry services on the 9300 are included on the companion CD. The Nokia 9300 has separate settings for BlackBerry connectivity and you must subscribe to Cingular's BlackBerry Connect data plans ($35 for 4 megs of data and $45 for unlimited data). BlackBerries are neither the most ergonomic as phones nor are the feature rich when it comes to sophisticated web browsing, attachment support, multimedia and gaming. If you're one of those folks who company requires that you use the BlackBerry service, the Nokia 9300 is a very sexy alternative. Of course, if you're not a BlackBerry user, you need not use this feature and you need not subscribe to one of Cingular's BlackBerry data plans. Likely you will want to get their MEdiaNet Unlimited plan for $19.99 per month which we used to test our phone. This plan allows you to surf the web, transfer email and watch /listen to streaming media via the bundled RealPlayer to your heart's content.

User Interface and Software

Even though Nokia has updated the OS (Symbian OS 7.0S) and UI (Series 80) versions, the menus and user interface have remained somewhat the same as the 9290. The Desk screen is the starting point to access all the applications and functions the 9300 has to offer. The menu system is easy to understand and simple to operate. The Control Panel and the File Manager make it easy for you to set up various functions on the phone and manager all your documents, photos, media files and more.

The Nokia 9300 bundles a suite of applications to work with native Microsoft Office Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. You can create and edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations with these applications. Yes, you can create PowerPoint presentations right on the device and you can input text and insert pictures, tables and shapes as well. The Document app supports tables and templates and the Sheet app supports Charts and objects. We tested various Word docs, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, all files run fine directly from the MMC card. Occassionally the word processor will alter formatting when saving documents created with Word on the desktop. Should you need complete document fidelity, consider purchasing Data Viz Documents To Go for Series 80. Other useful applications also included are Acrobat Reader, Calculator, Backup (backs up the device to an MMC card) and a unit converter.

For multimedia, the Nokia 9300 bundles Music player for playing MP3, Real Audio, MIDI and ACC files; Image application for viewing, editing (cropping and resizing) and managing your image files and RealPlayer for video playback. Voice Recorder is also included for recording and playing voice memos and phone conversations. The 9300 has Java support. Bundled games include Bounce and Pro Tour Golf. The Nokia 9300 on Cingular comes with quite a few trial versions of software as well.

Like other smartphones, the Nokia 9300 has PIM (Personal Information Management) applications such as Contacts, Calendar and To-Do lists. The Contacts directory is very well integrated with your Messaging, e-mail, phone and web browser which means you can send messages, make calls or visit a web site from the data stored in your Contacts. Though the Nokia 9300 lacks a camera, the contacts application supports caller photo ID, should you wish to add images of your contacts via Outlook on the desktop or directly using the contacts app on the phone. For business users, the Nokia provides a Contact Card function where you can create business cards with photos and send them in vCard format or Nokia Compact Business Card format via SMS, MMS or email as well as beam them via IR or send via Bluetooth. Very convenient feature! The Calendar application bundled with the 9300 has some extensive features. It has not only the usual Month, Week and Day views; it also adds Weekly schedule view that shows activities in the week and Year schedule view that shows timetable for selected year. There are also Anniversaries view and To-Do list view to help you remember and manager important things on your calendar. The Calendar application also supports reminder alarms, notes for the scheduled item, repeating schedules and more.

The Nokia 9300 comes with PC Suite for synchronization with Outlook on the desktop. PC Suite used to be a dirty word a few years back (it often caused us fits of head banging) but it has grown into a very stable and full featured application that's no longer a distant choice behind Palm Desktop and ActiveSync. It gets your phone syncing to Outlook, offers multimedia transfer and even CD ripping, image management, application installation, backup and using your phone as a modem for the PC. Though iSync on the Mac doesn't yet support the Nokia 9300 (c'mon Apple!), it's fairly easy to modify iSync to support the 9300 for syncing calendar, contacts and tasks over Bluetooth (we tested it with an aluminum Powerbook G4 1.67GHz).

Bluetooth

The Nokia 9300 has integrated Bluetooth 1.1 with support for GAP (Generic Access Profile, Serial Port Profile, DUN (Dial-Up Networking), GOEP (Generic Object Exchange Profile), Object Push, FTP, SIM Access and Handsfree profiles. You can send files such as documents and images via Bluetooth or Synchronize your phone with your desktop via Bluetooth. Though the need to do so lessened as Nokia provides a USB sync cable and desk cradle as well as a hot swappable MMC slot for easy access your data. One of the biggest draws for the Bluetooth is the ability to use with Bluetooth headsets. We tested the Motorola HS820, Plantronics Discovery 640, Cardo scala 500 , Motorola HF800 car kit and the Plantronics M3500 Bluetooth headsets as well as the Parrot EasyDrive Portable Bluetooth Car Kit, all paired easily with the Nokia. The sound quality is good and volume loud. The range is very good between the phone and the headsets, reaching generally 20 feet.

Battery

The Nokia 9300 has a user replaceable 970 mAh Li-Polymer battery (model BP-6M). That's a healthy amount of power for a phone that doesn't have camera and WiFi. The battery lives under the back door next to the SIM card slot. You can charge it either using the desk cradle (if included) or the AC charger directly. Like most all smartphones, the 9300 has flight mode. Even when the phone is turned off, you can still use the device as a PDA— just open the clamshell and start using the PDA.

The battery performs remarkably well supporting the power hungry large color display, phone radio and Bluetooth. The claimed talk time is 3-7 hours, and we got 5 hours in our tests. The claimed standby time is 150-200 hours which is doable. When battery is too low, the Nokia will shut off its phone radio and still allow you to the PDA functions for quite a while. The 9300 easily runs 2 to 3 days on a charge with moderate use and even longer if you're a light user. If you're using BlackBerry push email then the device should be good for two days or three. The 9300 beats Windows Mobile Pocket PC phones by a good amount in battery life, running nearly twice as long in our tests vs. the Verizon XV6700, Cingular 8125 and E-TEN G500. BlackBerry users will find battery life comparable.

Conclusion

Like having an office in your pocket! The Communicator line are unique in providing a true phone experience that transforms into a PDA when the clamshell is open. Given the widescreen display, keyboard and features, this device is surprisingly small and can fit in a roomy pocket (tight jeans and RAZR lovers need not apply). Business users and road warriors should find the wide screen display, QWERTY keyboard and software suite attractive. Those married to the BlackBerry service will love this sexy new alternative. The Nokia 9300 is user-friendly the OS is extremely stable.

Pro: Very nice design that gives the phone a modern look. Unique and clever longitudinal clamshell design. The wide screen display and full QWERTY keyboard integrate with the phone and PDA functions very well on the 9300. Myriad keyboard shortcuts speed up everyday actions. Great set of Office applications and PIM tools at your fingertips. Messaging and web tools bundled for users on the go. Good Bluetooth performance and compatibility and syncing with your PC via PC Suite.

Con: No vibrate feature. No touch screen, which will strike veteran PDA users as odd. No WiFi on the 9300 and 9300b.

Price: approx. $299 from Cingular with 2 year contract and rebate (locked to Cingular). Unlocked 900MHz version is approx. $450 and the 900MHz 9300i (available only through importers) is higher.

Web sites: www.nokia.com, www.cingular.com