The Nokia 6210 Navigator is a Symbian S60 3rd Edition mobile phone with feature pack 2 and is the successor of the Nokia 6110. Nokia announced this phone is the 3GSM Conference that was held in the month of February 2008. As the name suggests, this phone focuses more on the navigational aspect of a mobile phone and makes sure that you reach the place you are looking for. The phone is sleek with a slide out design, has 3.2 mega pixel snapper, 2.4 inch QVGA display, built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS, Nokia maps and host of other features including 6 months navigation license. The phone looks sleek, feels good in hand and the interface is really responsive thanks to the 64MB SDRAM that is packed inside. This is are just some of the things that I wanted to highlight before I will be your navigator and take you through the world of Nokia 6210 Navigator and show you what it can do and what it cannot.
The Nokia 6210 package includes:
- Nokia 6210 Navigator
- Stereo Headsets
- Mobile charger
- microSDHC memory card
- USB Cable
- CD-ROM with PC Suite and Map Loader Application
- User Manual
- Navigation Maps License Brochure
Interesting Features of the Nokia 6210 Navigator:
- The phone comes with GPS, A-GPS, Nokia Maps and you avail 6 months of Navigation free
- Quad band 3G - Alas, there is no 3G as of now in India but they day is not far when there will be 3G in India
- Symbian OS 9.3, Series 60 3rd UI with FP2
- 3.2 mega pixel camera with auto focus
- Stereo Fm with RDS Technology
- Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
- 120 MB on board memory, 8GB expandable with microSDHC card
- 64 MB RAM, which is really impressive
- UI is pretty fast and responsive
- Accelerometer and sensor
- Front camera for video calling
- User can easily browse through applications that are open on the phone at any given point of time
Design and Build:
The Nokia 6210 is a sleek slide phone with ergonomic features. It is easy to handle and take calls. On the right hand-side of the phone you will find volume control and camera buttons. At the click of the button you can click pictures by the phone's 3.2 mega pixel camera. On the left hand-side you will find micro USB socket and a slot for microSDHC card. According to me a slider phone has to be somewhat sleek and slim, if its a thick then it turns me off. But the Nokia 6210 will not disappoint you, this sliding gadget is slim and feels good in your hands. You might find the slider somewhat slippery while taking a call or accessing the keypad. There should be a small ridge which will be helpful in sliding the keypad.
The top row of the keypad is hard to operate especially while writing messages due to top slider. The row seems pretty crammed up. The slider has a D-Pad with 4 way navigation, with Call Accept and Call reject keys on the left and right side respectively. The Symbian Menu key and the clear key are somewhat lifted up from the main pad, which makes easy to find and operate. There is a four pointed star just below the key pad, which resembles a compass and that is its purpose. It is the key to operate Nokia maps. Pressing the key activates Nokia Maps application and till the time the maps application and GPS are running the star will blink in slow rhythms. Other keys in the keypad are easy to operate except the front row, about which I have mentioned above. Also, the kind of plastic that is used looks cheap and while operating the keys do make some kind of sound which is not music to your ears and you might feel that the keys will fall off. The back side of the phone has camera, which does not have a lens cover and a flash which is covered with frosted plastic. The camera is very much vulnerable to dust but as it is situated somewhat on the inner side it wont get scratched even you keep the phone with camera down.
The top side of the phone has two sockets, one for a 2.5MM audio jack and one for the charger. On the bottom there is a button that can be used to remove the back cover. Make sure you have lot of patience when you are planning to remove the back battery cover. The cover is very tight and a tough nut to crack. For the first time when i was trying to remove, it took me almost 5 minutes. You need to do it slowly, without putting much pressure on it, otherwise you might end up breaking the cover. Otherwise the phone feels light and the build is pretty strong. The phone's back lighting is really nice and operating the phone is no light condition will never be a problem. Overall build quality of the phone is really nice and its feels good in hand, that's what matters. However, in the future versions of Navigator phones the quality of plastic should be improved.
Display and User Interface:
The phone has a 2.4 inch QVGA display with 16 million colors. Like all the Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition phones the display is crisp and the big screen of the phone makes it look good. The phone has an accelerometer but it does not have landscape mode, accelerometer is essentially used for navigation system. The menus are clearly visible but the font size is small, which might be a problem for some people. But once you enter into a particular menu, the sub-menu has nice big font, which is easy to read.
The user interface is the typical Symbian S60 interface with well placed menus and a Symbian menu key to activate the phone menu. When the phone is in active stand-by you can have your favorite application on the home screen. They can be arranged horizontally or vertically. The vertical arrangement of application on your homescreen does not look good and it seems that the phone has crashed, so better to have your favorite applications on the home screen in a horizontal format. One more good thing is that, no matter in what menu you are into you can quickly have a look at the other applications that are running on the phone and switch between different applications.
The User Interface of 6210 is pretty responsive and the menus seldom get stuck while you are operating them. Also, if you forget to close any menu by mistake, the phone will show a "loading" kind of icon beside that menu, which tells you that the menu needs to be properly closed. This is sometimes helpful cause if you forget to close any application, say GPS, it will drain your battery.
When it comes to customization, the Nokia 6210 can be customized to suit your needs using the four themes that come by default. The icons can be arranged into a grid, Horse shoe and a V-Shaped format. Though these formats are there but the grid format looks really good as compared to the horse shoe and v-shaped format. They are not appealing.
The user interface is the typical Symbian S60 interface with well placed menus and a Symbian menu key to activate the phone menu. When the phone is in active stand-by you can have your favorite application on the home screen. They can be arranged horizontally or vertically. The vertical arrangement of application on your homescreen does not look good and it seems that the phone has crashed, so better to have your favorite applications on the home screen in a horizontal format. One more good thing is that, no matter in what menu you are into you can quickly have a look at the other applications that are running on the phone and switch between different applications.
The User Interface of 6210 is pretty responsive and the menus seldom get stuck while you are operating them. Also, if you forget to close any menu by mistake, the phone will show a "loading" kind of icon beside that menu, which tells you that the menu needs to be properly closed. This is sometimes helpful cause if you forget to close any application, say GPS, it will drain your battery.
When it comes to customization, the Nokia 6210 can be customized to suit your needs using the four themes that come by default. The icons can be arranged into a grid, Horse shoe and a V-Shaped format. Though these formats are there but the grid format looks really good as compared to the horse shoe and v-shaped format. They are not appealing.
The overall quality and experience of the display and User Interface is very much appealing and your money wont go waste. The UI is very much responsive but needs to be known thoroughly before you start getting your hands on customization of you phone.
Call Quality:
The Nokia 6210 has a built-in accelerometer that gives you turn to mute functionality when a call is coming. Call quality is awesome and the reception from the end of the person who is calling and the person who is talking the call is crystal clear. Being a slider phone you can customize the slider movement to take or reject calls. Overall call quality is good except you are experiencing problems with your operator's signal strength. The quality of the speaker phone output is really good and you can easily have a small conference using the 6210's speaker with 2 to 3 people, given the condition that only one guys speaks at a time ;-)
The Nokia 6210 has a built-in accelerometer that gives you turn to mute functionality when a call is coming. Call quality is awesome and the reception from the end of the person who is calling and the person who is talking the call is crystal clear. Being a slider phone you can customize the slider movement to take or reject calls. Overall call quality is good except you are experiencing problems with your operator's signal strength. The quality of the speaker phone output is really good and you can easily have a small conference using the 6210's speaker with 2 to 3 people, given the condition that only one guys speaks at a time ;-)
Multimedia Features:
With 8GB of memory the Nokia 6210 is a multimedia delight. The phone comes with a headphone and 2.5MM audio jack. You can create M3U Playlists and add files easily to the playlists you have created. The phone supports MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA audio formats. One good thing is that your files are automatically sorted based on Artists, Genre, Album and Composer. The company provided headphones are not that great in sound quality and might fail to impress the audiophile within you. The phone comes with a 2.5MM jack, which is not a standard jack a 3.5MM jack would have been great for this phone. You will use the headphones a lot when you are doing voice based guided navigation. The USB interface makes it easy for you to transfer the songs and the in-built speakers are OK, not that great. Being an A2DP Bluetooth supported phone, you can use Nokia 6210 with your Bluetooth headset and enjoy the music. Pairing the phones with other Bluetooth enabled headsets was never a problem. One thing I have observed in Nokia phones is that, Bluetooth pairing is always very smooth.
Search Feature:
On the stand-by homescreen you will see a option to search the Internet as well as the phone. This Search option helps you in searching the web. You can choose between Google, Yahoo! and Live Search. Apart from searching the Internet, you can also search the phone contents using Nokia Search. The option lets you search through all the content including, Music, Contacts, Calender, Messages, E-Mail messages, Bookmarks, Images, Videos, Landmarks, Applications and Notes. With more than 8GB memory on-board, this option is pretty handy and I personally liked it. Being on the homescreen makes it easy to access and you don't need to open each and every menu to find you are looking for.
Internet Experience:
The Internet browsing experience on the Nokia 6210 was good. The pages load fast and the resolution is crisp and clear. It is also easy to scroll through pages and due to the built-in accelerometer the pages rotate as you rotate the phone. Also, you can shrink the text, zoom in and zoom out to improve your browsing experience.
The Internet browsing experience on the Nokia 6210 was good. The pages load fast and the resolution is crisp and clear. It is also easy to scroll through pages and due to the built-in accelerometer the pages rotate as you rotate the phone. Also, you can shrink the text, zoom in and zoom out to improve your browsing experience.
Imaging, Radio and Video:
6210's camera is not that great. Considering the fact that it is a 3.2 mega pixel camera the output is ok. The camera has auto focus, LED flash but you don't have any lens cover for the camera's lens and the lens is prone to dust and finger prints. The phone has FM radio with RDS. Using the radio was cakewalk and there was no problem while tuning into popular stations. Like most of the Nokia phones, the FM radio on Nokia 6210 has a very simple interface, I really liked it and one feature that appealed to me was automatic scanning of available stations in your vicinity. This is really helpful in finding out stations in your nearby area. For video playback, you have Real Player in the Nokia 6210. The player can be adjusted to play videos in both, portrait and landscape mode. The video player lets you play videos in full screen mode with the soft key buttons hidden. The built-in accelerometer will make sure that your videos automatically change from portrait to landscape mode and vice versa, but this sometimes is really irritating.Video quality is also good. The camera can take Videos at 15fps in VGA mode and saves the video in MP4 format. Check out the sample photos taken from the Nokia 6210. Nokia 6210 Navigator is a phone with built-in GPS, so it should ideally have a functionality of geotagging the pictures, which surprisingly is missing in the phone. I think, the future versions of this phone should have this functionality.
Nokia 6210 Camera Photos:
Organizer:
Some of the interesting applications that you will find under Organizer menu are, Calender, Quickoffice, Adobe PDF Reader Light Edition and the Zip Manager. The Calender is the same as you might have seen in other Symbian devices of Nokia, the Zip Manager is a very handy application and helps you open compressed zip files. The Quick office application is helpful in opening Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. The application can only handle files if they are done in Office 2003. You can also edit Office 2007 documents but you have to buy extra license for doing that.
Some of the interesting applications that you will find under Organizer menu are, Calender, Quickoffice, Adobe PDF Reader Light Edition and the Zip Manager. The Calender is the same as you might have seen in other Symbian devices of Nokia, the Zip Manager is a very handy application and helps you open compressed zip files. The Quick office application is helpful in opening Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. The application can only handle files if they are done in Office 2003. You can also edit Office 2007 documents but you have to buy extra license for doing that.
Connectivity:
This phone has all connectivity option except Wi-Fi. It has got USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP. The phone has Quad band GSM/EDGE/GPRS with HSDPA 3.6 mbps support. The Bluetooth pairing is pretty fast and the browsing Internet using EDGE network is also fast.
This phone has all connectivity option except Wi-Fi. It has got USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP. The phone has Quad band GSM/EDGE/GPRS with HSDPA 3.6 mbps support. The Bluetooth pairing is pretty fast and the browsing Internet using EDGE network is also fast.
Gaming:
Nokia 6210 comes pre-installed with three games, Marble, Jelly Chase and Brain Champion. The Marble Game is the age old shooting game but here you have to shoot similarly colored marbles into the incoming marbles and you gain points. The game is simple, fun and good time pass. The other game Jelly Chase did not appeal to me much as it is a accelerometer game and I was getting confused playing it. The third game, Brain Champion, is a good quiz based game and will keep you occupied. The game offers you quizzes in different areas and are fun to solve.
Nokia 6210 comes pre-installed with three games, Marble, Jelly Chase and Brain Champion. The Marble Game is the age old shooting game but here you have to shoot similarly colored marbles into the incoming marbles and you gain points. The game is simple, fun and good time pass. The other game Jelly Chase did not appeal to me much as it is a accelerometer game and I was getting confused playing it. The third game, Brain Champion, is a good quiz based game and will keep you occupied. The game offers you quizzes in different areas and are fun to solve.
Navigation and Maps:
Using navigation on the Nokia 6210 was initially fun for me but then I got bored. The phone comes with Nokia Maps 2.0 and the software is provided by Navteq. Navteq was recently acquired by Nokia. Additional maps can be downloaded using Nokia Map loader. When you initially start the software, it will ask you which connection you want to use to connect to the GPS satellite. The default view is your last location. The compass does not start immediately, you have shake the phone a bit and then it will start. The navigation is not that accurate but its good. When giving your location it will be 70 to 80% accurate. Also, if you want the map to be shown properly you have to go out in an open space where it will be connected quickly. If you are inside your home or car then it will take a lot of time for you to figure out your location and navigate accordingly. For in-car navigation, this phone is a strict no no, yeah, while walking on a road it will be pretty helpful to you. Once the GPS is connected properly you will find no problem in navigation, the connection stays put properly and does not drop in the middle unless you move into a very closed place.
Maps can be viewed in four different modes, Normal Map, 3D Maps, Satellite Vision and Hybrid. The four different map modes are given in order to assists you in the way you are moving around. If you are just walking the Normal Map mode is very helpful and if you are inside your car then 3D mode helps. Also there are customizable icons that can be put on the map like icons for house, airports, railway routes, amusement parks etc. The overall Navigation experience on the Nokia 6210 was really good.
Maps can be viewed in four different modes, Normal Map, 3D Maps, Satellite Vision and Hybrid. The four different map modes are given in order to assists you in the way you are moving around. If you are just walking the Normal Map mode is very helpful and if you are inside your car then 3D mode helps. Also there are customizable icons that can be put on the map like icons for house, airports, railway routes, amusement parks etc. The overall Navigation experience on the Nokia 6210 was really good.
Conclusion:
When it comes to rating the phone. I think Nokia 6210 can be given 6 on 10 on Design and 8 on 10 in Performance.The Nokia 6210 is a smart slider Symbian phone with a host of interesting features. It has evolved a lot over its predecessor the Nokia 6110. The music player and the speakers are really impressive and the Navigation features are also good. The cheap plastic should be replaced and the problem of the first row of alpha-numeric charecters getting crammed up should be solved. Though the camera output is good it does not have a lens cover and that might damage the camera further. The Nokia 6210 is a good buy for someone who wants a multimedia mobile phone with built-in accelerometer. However there are still some improvements in this phone that are needed badly from Nokia's side.
12:07 PM
Great review Vikram .. Would you recommend any one to buy this phone ?
IS it worth the money ?
2:28 PM
@Varun - Thanks for your feedback Varun, yeah this phone will be a good buy. At present you will get it for around 15,000 Rs. I think its worth the money.
9:58 AM
I've been using this phone for 5 months now and I would say it's a good buy. I was a SE K750i user and i'm really a big fan of that phone (until it got stolen). Adjusting to a nokia is an issue for me.
Overall, it's a responsive phone with good software for syncing with the PC. Going online with this phone is also great. I do recommend using Opera Mini though. As for the music function, it plays great and syncs with Winamp or Windows Media Player (Highly advice against using Nokia Music as it's really slow). However, album art doesn't display properly for some reason.
I like the accelerometer function but I disabled it to prolong battery life. So far, I haven't have a use of it so it's quite a pity. I wish they would enable the "shake" function for the music player just like SE latest walkman phones.
As for third party software, I find it hard to look for free symbian softwares that are useful. most of the 3rd party softwares are geared to work on N95 and not on this phone although they both run S60 3rd edition.
The GPS works great but I prefer using Garmin's MobileXT instead of the built-in Nokia Maps 2.0 as Nokia charges for monthly voice navigations and the maps are just not as updated as Garmin's.
I find the camera a bit slow (takes >3 secs to take a shot) and the flash overexposes especially during indoor shots - somehow I missed my k750's camera because it's fast (2 secs) and I do not have to turn off the flash nor do I have to worry about blurry pictures if I disable flash eventhough it's just 2.0 MP.
The keypad is my main grouch as it is flat and I can't do "blind typing". Messaging is a little slow in this sense as I keep pressing the wrong buttons (my asian hands are not too big).
However, if given a choice again, I would still buy this phone as it really looks awesome and just feels so good in my hands while being slim (which matters a lot for me). It attracts attention and not many people own it so that makes it all the more special.
9:59 AM
I've been using this phone for 5 months now and I would say it's a good buy. I was a SE K750i user and i'm really a big fan of that phone (until it got stolen). Adjusting to a nokia is an issue for me.
Overall, it's a responsive phone with good software for syncing with the PC. Going online with this phone is also great. I do recommend using Opera Mini though. As for the music function, it plays great and syncs with Winamp or Windows Media Player (Highly advice against using Nokia Music as it's really slow). However, album art doesn't display properly for some reason.
I like the accelerometer function but I disabled it to prolong battery life. So far, I haven't have a use of it so it's quite a pity. I wish they would enable the "shake" function for the music player just like SE latest walkman phones.
As for third party software, I find it hard to look for free symbian softwares that are useful. most of the 3rd party softwares are geared to work on N95 and not on this phone although they both run S60 3rd edition.
The GPS works great but I prefer using Garmin's MobileXT instead of the built-in Nokia Maps 2.0 as Nokia charges for monthly voice navigations and the maps are just not as updated as Garmin's.
I find the camera a bit slow (takes >3 secs to take a shot) and the flash overexposes especially during indoor shots - somehow I missed my k750's camera because it's fast (2 secs) and I do not have to turn off the flash nor do I have to worry about blurry pictures if I disable flash eventhough it's just 2.0 MP.
The keypad is my main grouch as it is flat and I can't do "blind typing". Messaging is a little slow in this sense as I keep pressing the wrong buttons (my asian hands are not too big).
However, if given a choice again, I would still buy this phone as it really looks awesome and just feels so good in my hands while being slim (which matters a lot for me). It attracts attention and not many people own it so that makes it all the more special.
10:03 AM
@gary - Thanks Gary for sharing your review with us. Yeah you are righ, its slim and slider form factor appealed to most of the users including me.
5:42 AM
Can the annoying 'shutter sound' be turned off allowing silent picture taking.
Mike
9:34 AM
Yeah it can be turned off from Camera - Settings.
10:51 PM
Hi Vikram,
My camera has no option to remove or alter sound settings in the camera-settings mode.
Do you know any other menu it may be in?
If not thanks for trying, it is a pretty good phone over all.
Mike
12:29 AM
i have nokia 6210.it's cool
11:08 AM
you can turn off the sound by activating silent mode in your profile. that's how i do it usually. no luck to turn it off within the camera menu
1:04 AM
hi vikram..... this is avi ..... i am eager to buy 6210 coz of its "GPS" feature .... well i live in lucknow, uttar pradesh ....will this navigator phone will be of my use ....and for navigation feature gprs service is required..?
reply soon.........!
10:18 AM
YEah GPRS geature is need for the application to go online and get updates and it will certianly work in UP
10:56 AM
well 6210 has pre-loaded map does it have lucknow's map also ...? will the phone require gprs very time when i will use the navigation feature or just for updating process ..?
and howz the battery back-up...?
thnks for the rpy....!
9:49 PM
I guess it should have Lucknow's map man..as it is a big city, if not you can download it. Yeah it uses GPRS to get connected dowlaoad maps, driving directions etc
4:12 PM
Hi..
i bought this mobile just for its navigation option and its stylish look..
wow..
great phone to handle....
6:09 PM
@kartik - good that you liked the phone. Its a nice phone and the navigation is worth the money you will shell out for it...