No doubt you’ll remember the Nokia Communicator – you’ve probably sat opposite some bloke in a meeting who had one, and I bet he had an air of desperation tinged with coolness about him. Cool, because he thought he had a nifty gadget, desperation because it was enormous and the battery was about to go any moment.
The Communicator, apart from the Trekker name, was a good idea and the various updates and iterations since the first model have improved many of its features and attributes. However (there’s always a however, isn’t there?), other more useful (and certainly smaller) smartphones have appeared, and people failed to see the point of the Communicator after a while.
Nokia are back with another attempt though, and a valiant effort it is too. The new 9300 is 50 grams lighter and several centimetres smaller around the waist – Nokia are touting it as “a new high-end smartphone with both beauty and brains.” The company is hoping to see it in a lot more shirt pockets, and tellingly, handbags.
The tri-band 9300 retains the original hinged format, opening up to reveal a full keyboard and a 65,536 colour screen. Navigation has been improved with a joystick for getting around menus, and eight function keys. Users can expand the 80mb built-in memory to up to 2 gig with an optional MMC card.
The new phone runs the Series 80 OS, and includes software for connecting to various email servers, browsing the internet and a built in office suite, including a PDF reader.
“The Nokia 9300 will appeal to a wide range of professionals who want powerful functionality from a data-enabled device without compromising the look, comfort, simplicity and usability of a standard mobile phone,” said Niklas Savander, senior vice president of Nokia’s business device unit. “We believe the Nokia 9300 strikes that balance in one stylish smartphone, without sacrificing the combined functionality that many people require but until now could only get from carrying multiple products.”
Where’s the camera then?
The 9300 will be available in the first quarter of 2005, though no pricing details have yet been publicised.
