The night before PC Expo this year I found myself at a press-only event called Mobile Focus. Among the attendees were a number of mobile phone manufacturers, including Nokia. I sauntered over to the Nokia booth and was blown away by the size of a number of the phones. The one that really caught my eye was the Nokia 8290.

The 8290 is only 3.9 inches tall and 1.7 inches wide but packs quite a punch.


Here's a picture of a ball-point pen with the phone to give you an idea of how small it is. I was afraid I'd lose it so I've been tucking it into my wallet in my front pocket since it arrived.

For starters it has up to 200 minutes of digital talk time and will work on standby for up to 6 days. Did I mention that it weighs a mere 2.8 ounces with a standard battery attached? If you're wondering if the 8290 is similar to any other Nokia phones, it's actually very similar in functionality to the Nokia 8890. The biggest differences are: the 8290 allows the user to change the color of his/her covers with Xpress-On color covers, and the 8290 is a single-banded GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) phone that operates in GSM1900. The Nokia 8890, on the other hand, works in both GSM900 and GSM1900 networks, allowing it to work in up to 120 countries. So it looks like the 8290 is built specifically for the United States. No matter, since I'm in the United States right now. :)

After playing with it for a few minutes I knew I had to get my hands on my own to review. Sure enough, a couple of weeks after the event a Nokia rep sent me an 8290 to play with. The rep also shipped it with a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card already installed (it's GSM) so that I could start trying it out right away.

Here's a quick rundown of the features that this small miracle sports. I'll go into the less obvious ones later:

• Auto redial
• Business Card
• Calculator
• Calendar/event reminder
• Call alert
• Caller ID
• Clock with alarm
• Currency Converter
• Dialed, received, missed calls
• Digital Data
• E-mail
• Fax
• Internal Battery
• Keypad lock
• Mobile Originated SMS
• Multi-party calling
• Numeric paging capability
• On-screen battery indicator
• One-touch credit card dialing
• Phone Book/Contacts/Appointments
• Picture Messaging
• Profile settings
• Real Time Network Updating Clock
• Ring tones
• SIM
• Short Message Service
• Voice dialing
• Voicemail capability
• Wireless connectivity through Infrared
• print via IR
• Games
• Call Forwarding
  
  

Playing with the phone

Connecting to the 'Net
Because I'm completely obsessed with connecting to the 'Net, the first thing I tried was connecting to the Internet via infrared from my Revo. On my Ericsson I would have to scroll through and enable the IR port so I figured I'd probably have to do something similar on the 8290. I was right. In this case, you click on Menu and then Infrared and you're all set to go. Unfortunately, this is where I hit my first snag. I enabled the IR port, lined it up with my Revo, and then tried to connect. Instead of watching as the phone showed a data connection, I got the message Check Operator Services. You might think that I panicked at this point, but instead of panicking I remembered what first happened when I got my Ericsson and decided to try my own SIM card. That's actually one of my favorite features of GSM phones: you can simply change the SIM card and use your phone plan on any phone. In my case, I pay $9.99 a month for the ability to use data as well as voice, so I switched out the cards and was connected to the 'Net in moments. Apparently, the Nokia people forgot to enable data on the SIM they shipped to me. If I hadn't had my SIM card I wouldn't have been able to connect to the 'Net at all. I should also mention that not all phones with an infrared port can connect to the 'Net. In the case of the 8290, there's a built-in wireless modem that can support 14.4 kbps. Unfortunately, GSM is limited to 9600 currently, but at least the support is there!

SMS
The next feature I decided to try was SMS. I've attempted to send SMS messages in the past and failed every time. For some reason the United States still hasn't caught on to the beauty of SMS. In particular, it seems that Omnipoint, my East Coast GSM provider, doesn't want to get on the SMS bandwagon.

During my test I did manage to successfully send myself a message via the VoiceStream Message Center, but that was about it. I received the message almost instantly and was able to scroll through on the 8290's easy-to-read 5 line display.

Voice Dialing
After I was done trying messaging, I decided to play around with Voice Dialing. The 8290 supports up to 8 voice tags for names in the phone book. Basically, you take a name and number that you've stored in the phone book, highlight it, click details then options and then Add voice tag. For my test I picked my house phone number, said my wife's name, and then waited for the fun to begin. In order to dial one of the 8 tags that you can set, you hold down the upper right button on the phone and then a tone sounds and a picture of a guy talking appears (example picture below). At that point you say the name that you recorded. To my surprise, it worked on the first try from various distances. This is by far one of the coolest features I've played with in a long time. Needless to say, I can imagine this feature making my life a lot easier.

Changeable color covers
I mentioned the user-changeable Xpress-On color covers before but didn't go into too much detail. There's a great picture on Nokia's website that changes color depending on which color name you highlight. This picture perfectly shows off the different color options available. In my case the phone shipped with a Red cover, but Metallic Blue, Ginger Orange, Mint Green, Lunar Yellow, Crystal White, Mocha Brown, and Carbon Grey are also expected to be available.


Here you can see the battery cover (left), the Red Xpress-On cover (middle) and the phone without a cover on it (right). Very cool stuff. It almost looks like I voided my warranty but the phone is designed to do this!

Memory
The 8290 has 250 memory locations in the phone book that can store a name of 20 characters and phone numbers of 30 digits. I'm used to name stores of less than 20 characters, so being able to actually write full names was a major plus. In addition to the 250 on the phone book, you still have as many as your SIM will support. In some cases that means an additional 250. Personally, I'll stick to just storing names on the card so that I can take the phonebook with me to another phone as needed.

Calendar/Reminder
The memory on the phone also allows you to store up to 50 appointments or reminders in the Calendar. I decided to try out the reminder feature by setting a reminder for two minutes later. It's pretty straightforward. All you do is go to the Calendar application and choose Make a Note. When the time came for the reminder, I was alerted with both an escalating tone and a vibration of the phone. Once I picked the phone up I had the option of either erasing the entry, silencing the alarm, or moving the alarm. I really like this feature and think that it could serve many purposes for me, even though I use my PDA for most reminders and to-dos.

The Interface
The interface is insanely intuitive. There were times when I thought, "I wonder how I can do this?" and then a moment later I was actually doing it! The only function that I found not to be that intuitive was making a phone call using the Voice Tag feature. For that you have to hold down the upper right button. I would have preferred holding down the call button and then speaking, but once you figure out that you have to hold down the upper right button, it's pretty intuitive thereafter.

Predictive Text Input
The 8290 features Predictive text input for making the task of writing messages easier. The way it works is it scans the embedded dictionary for matching words as you type letters so that you can only type one letter in most cases, instead of pressing each key more than once to spell out a word. In my case, I found it more of a nuisance. For example, I wanted to type a quick hello message to someone and I like to use the word "Hi." Well, the predictive text input wanted me to write "Hello." Needless to say, I found myself searching for a way to shut it off. From what I read, though, I can personalize the dictionary with words and names that I use regularly. I can see how this would eventually make my life easier, but for now I'm used to going through the painful process of typing something letter by letter.

Picture Messaging
The phone also supports the ability to send and receive small pictures with your short messages. The 8290 comes with 10 preloaded images, including a picture of someone watching a movie, a birthday cake, a champagne bottle, a heart, and more. Altogether you can store 11 pictures. Unfortunately, the messaging feature depends on the carrier and in my case I was unable to send or receive pictures. I can see how kids or bored adults would love the ability to send a cutesy picture along with their message, though.

Multi-lingual
I was surprised to see that the 8290 supports five different languages, including English, Spanish, French, Hebrew, and Chinese (I think). I made the mistake of trying them out and switched myself to something that appeared to be Chinese. I guess you could say that I found a great security feature for the phone :) If you don't want anyone to walk away with it, set it to another language and see what happens. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out an easy way to go back to English so I had to go through a series of trial and error. When that failed, I called Nokia's toll-free customer support number and had to explain how I have an 8290 when they're not for sale yet. :) She explained that I could select Menu and then 4, 5, 1, 1. Thankfully, Yvonne at x5708 was right on the money and the English display reappeared. Phew! One of these days, if I feel like brushing up on my Hebrew I'll change the phone to that.

Print via IR
I happened to notice a feature that isn't being touted in any of the PR stuff that I received. It seems that from a number of menus you have the option of printing via IR. I can definitely see the use for this, especially when you want to print out a message or a note that you wrote to yourself.

Profile settings
The phone also supports the ability to customize profile settings. Basically, if you want to set up the phone to behave a certain way when you're in a meeting, you can set it to vibrate under the profile called Meeting. Then, when you are about to go into your meeting, you can press the top button on the phone which allows you to quickly choose the profile of your choice. This is something that I've been wanting on a phone for a long time. I constantly find myself walking into a bank and just as I start fiddling with my phone's ringer volume, it starts ringing louder than anything you've ever heard. With the 8290 I can just click the top button, select the profile I want, and enter a bank without disturbing anyone.

Call Forwarding
The 8290 also allows you to set which calls you want forwarded and where you want them forwarded to. For example, if you are expecting a fax you can set your phone to forward any faxes to a specific number. Also, if you are going to be at someone's office for a while and don't want to worry about answering your mobile phone, you can set all of your calls to go that number as well. It's a very cool feature. I think you get double charged, though, depending on your provider, so it may not be that convenient after all.

Games
As with all electronic devices nowadays, the Nokia 8290 ships with a collection of games, too. The games are part of the Nokia family and include Memory, Snake, Logic, and Rotation. When you're not running your talktime down by talking on the phone, be sure to exhaust your battery life playing these games. :)

The Insides
If you're like me, you can only wait so long before having to take a look inside a new gadget. Fortunately, in the case of the 8290 you're encouraged to. What I mean is that the antenna is internal and the battery and SIM are protected by a back cover. It's a very cool design and allows you to easily slip the phone in some of the smallest places, including a wallet!


In case you don't know, the yellow chip to the right is the SIM. You can take the SIM out and put it in any GSM phone and it will work. I own that SIM as part of my contract with Omnipoint. The white block next to the SIM is the battery and the cover above conceals everything.

Summary
In this review I've only touched the surface of what the 8290 can do. As you can see, Nokia has packed a lot of stuff into a device that is barely bigger than a cigarette lighter.

If you're wondering when you can have one of your own or how much it will cost, your guess is as good as mine. Numerous calls to Nokia have yielded the same response: "You'll know when it comes out." Fortunately, everything I've heard up until this point says that the phone is shipping in the third quarter of 2000, and apparently there are a number of them around, as I've heard that many people on the Nokia tech support line are in love with it!

Ratings Defense
For Quality I gave the Nokia 8290 Mobile Phone 5 out of 5 Geekheads. One thing I didn't really touch on was the sound quality. You'd think that since it's such a small phone and there's no way a microphone could reach your mouth, the sound quality must be terrible. Well, think again. The sound is crystal clear, and when I showed people I had been talking to the size of the phone they thought I was lying to them. I also loved how well constructed it is. The people at Nokia really were thinking of style and ruggedness when they built this phone. My only fear is that it's so small I'll lose it!

For Geekness I gave the phone 4.5 Geekheads. The reason for my half-point deduction is the lack of WAP. With all of the new phones shipping with some sort of WAP-enabled browser nowadays, I was surprised to not find one in my menu choices. Then again, I'm sure that the phone's software is upgradable and I can probably load one up eventually--but I was still surprised to not see it built-in. I also wasn't too happy with the predictive text input but that's probably due to lack of experience with it. Everything else on the phone was top notch, though, and the 8290 is definitely one of the geekiest phones I've ever had the pleasure of using.

As you might have expected, I also gave it a ! If you have one look at this phone you will completely agree with me. Now I just have to wait to see how much it's going to cost. I'm hoping it won't be too expensive.

---

© 1996-2000 Geek.com - All rights reserved.