Product Reviews

Mobile phones have long been as much a fashion accessory as a tool, but perhaps it's gone too far. The Vertu range of premium mobiles announced last year was more jewellery than gadget. Fortunately, Nokia's 8910, currently only available as an import, sits somewhere in between - it looks great, but not at the expense of features. In fact, it's one of the more fully featured Nokias we've seen so far.

Apart from being an import, the main reason the 8910 is so expensive is that it's constructed of titanium, the metal of the moment. It's certainly sturdy and exudes quality manufacturing; a titanium shell protects the keypad when not in use. Depressing chrome-effect keys either side of the phone allows the main body to slide upwards automatically. It also looks reasonably impressive if you're after posing value. The small mono screen may appear a little understated in these days of colour, but the soft backlight makes it bright and readable in most conditions. The sense that the 8910 is a deluxe package is further enhanced by the inclusion of two batteries, a hands-free kit and leather belt pouch.

Although the keys are quite small - the price you pay for such a diminutive form factor - they're not that difficult to use unless you have wide fingers. As we've come to expect from Nokia, the menu structure is easy to navigate using the up and down keys plus two selection

With Tegic T9 text prediction available for SMS messages, the 8910 is generally intuitive. This also goes as far as the more cutting-edge functionality. Getting the 8910 to talk to a Red-M Blade Handspring Bluetooth adaptor (see Reviews, issue 92, p134) proved easy. The phone asked for the pass key on first connection and worked seamlessly from then on. The handset functioned well as a GSM modem via Bluetooth. It also has GPRS and HSCSD data functionality built in for faster 2.5G connections, as well as the ubiquitous WAP browser. Should Bluetooth not be an option, there's also infrared to fall back on, and we were able to hook this up to a notebook successfully. Nokia claims up to 300 hours' standby and 120 to 240 minutes' talk time. We found the phone lasted four days on first charge with mild usage, which is consistent with the company's claims.

Integration with a PC was where the 8910 showed the weakness it shares with other Nokia phones - the Nokia PC Suite 4.52 software. The range of options for managing phone settings is extensive, but you can only use it with the infrared or Nokia's own Bluetooth Connectivity Pack. This is a shame, as more notebooks with Bluetooth built in are now available. I also found it unstable, crashing too often for comfort. Those wishing to use the 8910 as a GPRS or HSCSD modem via Bluetooth would do better to set it up manually rather than via a Wizard.

Unfortunately, the 8910 is also only dual-band GSM, with no support for GSM 1,900 in the US - a real omission in a phone that costs so much. This lets down what would otherwise be a mobile with the functions and build quality required of a regularly used business phone.

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