Nokia 9300

...can confidently assert that the Nokia 9300 is the untouchable champion of the mobile/PDA combination and will spend the rest of this enthusiastic review explaining why the handset you currently own needs crushing into a fine powder and replacing with this gold medallist of the phone market!

The phone:
The telephone itself is the least important aspect of this handset. After all, a phone is a phone is a phone. This particular ...
...a day spent with the Nokia 9300.

My current reading book is of course on my phone. Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' doesn't even begin to take up a fraction of the 200Mb of storage space included as standard with the phone. (That is 80Mb on the handset and 128Mb on the MMC card included. MMC upto 1Gb can be purchased for the phone with talk of 2GB MMC being available soon.) So, I begin by reading an Ebook. The outstanding screen of ... more

Before I begin let me acknowledge the fact that apart from an occasional moan usually unrelated to the handset, just about everybody who reviews a mobile handset here does so with satisfaction and often a smugness indicating they really do think they own the world's best mobile phone. Well, excuse me while I reach for the smug hat because this is a review of what is quite possibly the world's most magnificent and fully functioned phone to date!

Now, obviously this is going to take some quantifying. Please allow me to submit evidence of the authority with which I write this review:
I am an IT professional who has owned at least six different mobile phones, seven different PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants or baby computers to the rest of us) and been a subscriber with at least five of the major UK mobile networks. And, all that in the last five years or so. With this in mind I can confidently assert that the Nokia 9300 is the untouchable champion of the mobile/PDA combination and will spend the rest of this enthusiastic review explaining why the handset you currently own needs crushing into a fine powder and replacing with this gold medallist of the phone market!

The phone:
The telephone itself is the least important aspect of this handset. After all, a phone is a phone is a phone. This particular telephone has the usual Nokia interface on the external screen. This enables access to names stored in your contacts database, changes of profiles to enable a silent mode and of course the inevitable dial the number and speak function. (I can predict the excitement you already feel for the phone side of this device!)

The positive aspects of the telephone are:
Support for bluetooth connectivity both to your PC and to a headset.
Quick dial buttons that are fully configurable to your needs.
The facility to set any sound as a ringtone including sounds recorded using the phone or MP3 tracks downloaded to the handset.
An outstanding quality of speaker phone when the handset is opened up.

Negative aspects of the telephone are:
No vibrate function, meaning when you switch the profile to silent during a meeting you miss every call or message.
No in built camera so although the phone can handle MMS picture messages, you have to import images from your PC if you wish to send.
Voice activated dialling sadly missing.

Now, with the phone over and done with ... what lifts this handset above the norm?

To illustrate, let me describe a range of activities typical to a day spent with the Nokia 9300.

My current reading book is of course on my phone. Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' doesn't even begin to take up a fraction of the 200Mb of storage space included as standard with the phone. (That is 80Mb on the handset and 128Mb on the MMC card included. MMC upto 1Gb can be purchased for the phone with talk of 2GB MMC being available soon.) So, I begin by reading an Ebook. The outstanding screen of the Nokia 9300 makes this comfortable on the eyes and of course with the book stored on the phone, I can read anytime any place. The screen is true colour and quite the most outstanding piece of technology. With a range of brightness settings it is usable in any lighting condition. Even in bright sunlight the screen is completely clear!

Next, on my way out the door as I leave for work, I synchronise my Nokia 9300 with my PC. Simply dropping it onto the included docking cradle and pressing the 'sync' button gets the job done in about sixty seconds. Within that minute all data on the phone contacts and calender database is merged with Microsoft Outlook on my PC. The phone takes the most recent forty e-mails over and any contact or calender changes on the PC are merged with the data on the phone.
On my way to work I reply to any e-mails that need a response. Sending e-mails on the phone is fast and easy. With Edge GPRS for data the speed of sending and receiving e-mails is astounding - many times faster than dial-up Internet access and perfectly acceptable for data on the move.
As I walk through the door into work I check the calendar program switching between day, week and month view to see what is imminent and what appointments are looming on the horizon. A quick check of the prioritised to do list confirms the most important tasks of the day.

With 200Mb of storage as standard I hardly ever find myself searching for telephone numbers or e-mail addresses as my phone has become a total database of contacts. With my regular synchronisation and the capability to schedule back-ups I can also be confident of never loosing this database.
As I take a coffee break in the morning I click the web browser and check to see if there are any new reviews on Ciao. For those of you thinking you also have Internet access on your mobile device trust me when I spout the cliche "you ain't seen nothing yet!" Due to the shape of the screen and the high resolution and colour depth the web browser really does allow easy and full web browsing and again the Edge GPRS delivers the pages fast and I mean really fast. The full Yahoo page for example comes onto the screen with all graphics in under 5 seconds!

As a demonstrastion of just how incredible the Internet functionality on this phone is … this whole article was written on the Nokia 9300 and then delivered to Ciao using the Nokia 9300! That's right … this phone is all you ever need to be able to access and use Ciao including writing the most detailed reviews!
Anyway, back to my day with this telephone. On the journey home I fire up the included Golf game … with the superb colour screen this looks not dissimilar to commercial games available for the PC. Having had a round of gold and with a few minutes of the journey left I open up the ZX Spectrum emulator (remember those days of the eighties computer?) and have a few games of Manic Miner.
Back home and of course, back to syncing the days calendar so any data developed during the day is now up to date on my home PC.

In the evening, I head off for the gym and before going download a dozen music tracks as MP3 files then using the hands free kit included with the phone package I exercise to my own choice of music.

In short, the specification of the PDA side of this phone is truly superb. The kaleidoscopic functionality will amaze you - web browser, ebook read, MP3 player - even, with addon software, the ability to watch a whole DVD on your phone!

One last word - I have NEVER has a phone with such a superb battery life. When I first purchased the phone I used it consistently for three days and the battery was still not flat! This involved the MP3 player, consistent use of the PDA side of the phone and regular phone calls and messaging. This is a normal charge for the phone and I usually recharge it about every three to four days.

The price - on contract with T-Mobile was £49.99. Quite honestly it is the best handset I have ever owned and I really do find myself wondering how I ever managed before the day I made this great purchase.

For further information on the technical specification vist the Nokia website.
 

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