Very good bulky phone. Review on Nokia 9500

Today I went to nokia dealer and experienced nokia 9500. I also saw sony ercisson p910i. As on today Prices for both phone is nearly same here in India. Around Rs.40,000. US $888 with bill and warranty. To be honest, Nokia 9500 is available around Rs.40,000 with bill and warranty and P910 is available for Rs. 38000/- with bill and warranty.

The first thing I want to say about Nokia 9500 is that its big and bulky phone. Its almost size of my t.v. remote control and is pain to carry around. Ok so lets get started with my review.

We opened 9500 from box and powered on 9500. Setting up phone was very easy and 30 seconds job. Box contained Phone, Battery, Manual, Memory card, charger and USB Cable with Cd Rom containing Nokia Suit. Since the time I got this baby in my hands. I went through all the functions of this phone and let me tell you I am very very impressed with functionality of nokia 9500. I was testing it for more then 30 minutes. Here is what I found about this phone.

Feeling:

Out side keyboard didn't appeared too good to me. While you press the middle button it doesn't feel as good as you feel with nokia 6610 or nokia 3100 phones ( I have these phones so I am comparing with them). When you dial on front side of phone it feel very plasticky. Phone color was dark gray and has plasticky feel but I think its panels can be changed. Outside is normal like any other nokia phone except its menu interface is slightly different. it has select key in the middle but you will adopt this within minutes.

Internet browsing:

Though it has no touch screen, internet browsing experience appeared good (note I wasn't able to actually browse web sites because demo peace was not hooked up to internet). Cursor is handled through 9 button joystick key on keypad. It has book mark etc., check nokia web sites for list of features.

Email:

Let me tell you, it has fully featured email client application in it. I went through email functions and they are similar as you use on your computer in outlook express. Overall its very good for email communication.

Contacts:

Its contact application is very good. you can have almost all fields you can think and you can also add additional contact fields in this phone. You can also attach photo id to a contact (i think this will be displayed on outer screen when contact calls you). There is also notes section and file attachment section for contact. When phone flip is closed you can access contact on outer screen like you do normally in nokia phones.

Scheduling, Calendar, Tasking, TO-DO:

I wont' go much in details regarding PDA functions of this phone. But I just want to tell you it has ALL and every PDA function listed above are very useful for your scheduling. You may go through nokias web site for more information on this one.

Camera:

Camera quality appeared OK and is not good when you compare it with phones like 7610 or Sony Ericsson s700. (it has poor 640x480 VGA quality pics). However don't get me wrong here, its camera is comparable with Nokia 6600. When I said poor quality I compared it with today's modern camera phones. After all its not a camera phone, its a communicator and camera is not an intended function for this phone. Every other thing also appeared fine. Camera button is also outside. You just need to turn on camera through menu and focus and press middle button to take pic. I think it should be having some kind of shortcut key to turn on camera but I was unable to find it because I was testing it on sales corner.

Ring Tone and voice recorder:

Ring tones was loud but I was unable to find vibrator function (may be its not there in phone). In this phone you can play wav, midi, polyphonic, mp3 and voice recorded ring tones. Clearly nokia advantage. It also have voice recorder in which you can record voice memos and can also records phone calls. I read the manual about phone recorder function and its says both users will hear a beep sound every 5 seconds informing them call is being recorded. This is bad if you want to hide this from caller. I think you should be able to find 3rd party symbian recorder application on internet.

Office Applications:

It can display Microsoft Word, Excel documents and can also play Power Point Presentations for you. You can also write your own documents in it. Document editor supported fonts and pictures though I did not tested it much.

9500 GISMOS:

Let me tell you, it has EDGE,GPRS, WiFi. With EDGE you can watch t.v. clips, video etc., on phone because its speed is fast (around 360kbps search net for exact speed I don't remember at the moment). EDGE is faster protocol then GPRS and surfing should be faster in EDGE phones. As of today Hutch, Orange and AirTel is offering EDGE services. WiFi helps you to connect to Local Area Network (LAN) in your organization or in your office environment or at HOT SPOTS (i think not available at the moment in India but some cyber cafes and airports offer this service). Once you are connect to LAN you can sync your files with your network or you can access internet with very high speed through your office network or at HOT SPOTS.

It also have Bluetooth and IrDA. With Bluetooth you can connect to computer, use your phone as modem, sync information, connect to other Bluetooth enabled phones and devices. Possibilities are really endless.

It has all the future technologies and is best for Corporate executives and techy people.

I can really go on and on writing about this phone but I think you don't like reading it. :) so lets end it here.

Drags:

1) It has only 65K Color display (standard and actually its good) but nokia should introduce better display like 252k in P910.

2) No touch screen.

3) Bulky and Huge. But I think this is because it has 640x480 display screen inside the phone which is big.

Conclusion:

This phone is very good for executive people who want to manage their contacts, PDA functions, access office documents like WORD, EXCEL, Power Point presentations, access internet, browse web sites, access email accounts etc. The only negative point I see about this phone is that, its big and bulky which might prevent me from buying this phone and rather go for SE p910 phone.

If you don't mind its size and bulkiness then overall functionality of 9500 is very good and worth buying. Alternatives to this phone are SE p910i who's screen display is ummmmah extremely good and its touch screen, small, sexy looking phone. Treo 600, Blackberry from AirTel.

If you find this review useful and have something to say please leave your comments. I really read all comments on my review which helps me write better next time. Take Care and enjoy.