30.Minutes.With.9300

I managed to get a glimpse of my colleague's Nokia Communicator 9300 this evening. At first glance, you can immediately notice its sleeker and smaller design as compared to big-brother 9500. The phone also feels nicer to hold and doesn't look that big when answering calls.


Top view - nice button designs

It doesn't come with a camera and is not equiped with Wi-Fi. You can consider this as a lightweight 9500. The display in the panel inside looks sharper than the 9500 with less noticeable fine-pixels. The user interface (same as 9500) looks better than the 7710 - more for professional use rather than casual fun. I quite like its interface, especially the icons.


Opened up 90 degrees

It can be opened up to 180 degrees which makes it easier to hold. The navigational pad also feels better than the 9500. I can operate this phone faster than the 9500.


Opened up 180 degrees

The keyboard does feel a little difficult to type. I see my colleague struggling a little with it. And in 90+ degrees opened up (like a notebook), the phone sort of loses its balance and kept falling backwards. I guessed it must be due to the lighter weight of the base.

Application wise, it is the same as the 9500. The File Manager looks better than the one in 7710 where it has a Windows Explorer style split pane. All the menus also look better.

My colleague tried to 'showcase' the music playback quality and this is where the fun begins. Since he has not worked with a 7710 before, he was kinda amazed with the music quality of the 9300. He played an mp3 and wallop full swing volume.

Then I demonstrated the 7710's music playback capabilities with my favourite M2M song with a bar less than full volume and knocked his 9300 flat. He was laughing when the song first played but was speechless when the bass kicks in.

He then asked me to bluetooth over a trailer to test. The 9300 plays the trailer in a reduced size (but able to increase the size) as compared to the 7710 but it lags (Freezes and jerks frequently as the movie plays). My colleague then surrender. 7710 is no doubt the winner in multimedia functionalities among the two phones.

I will say that this phone is very nice for corporate ladies. The missing camera will make it a serious work phone than a fun phone. The only thing I like about this phone is the Series 80 interface which is very fine as compared to my Series 90 UI. Other than that, there is nothing much for me after being addicted to my 7710 - the screen is still smaller and less sharp as compared to 7710.


Desktop stand


Back of the phone


Bottom view - thickness compared to a finger.

That's all for now. Coming up next should be the 6630 (if my colleague changes phone again).