Nokia 8890 - classic world phone
Written: Aug 15 '02
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Pros: great UI, tiny size, nice design, internal antenna, infrared, vibrating alert, 2-way SMS/email
Cons: durability, flaky LCD connection, no WAP, can't store email addresses, not a world phone
The Bottom Line: Great phone!
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| bdwelle's Full Review: Nokia 8890 GSM Cellular Phone |
With the 8890, Nokia created one of the classic modern cell phone designs. It's simple, elegant, compact, and works in both the US and Europe. Although this design at least 3 years old, I still haven't seen a newer world phone that beats it on my criteria.
DESIGN
+ This phone is TINY: only 3.9" x 1.7" by about .6" thick, and it weighs a miniscule 2.8 ounces. This is about the size of a five-pack of cigarettes, if you've ever seen one of those. It's small enough to put in your front pants pocket, shirt pocket, or anywhere else, without getting in the way.
+ Although I tend to dislike flip/slide covers, in practice the 8890's slide is very useful. It protects the keys from accidental dialing, and, considering that most calls you make are dialed via the address book, you don't need to access the keys as often as you might think.
+ No mandatory protruding antenna: WELL DONE Nokia for figuring out how to make an internal antenna work, thereby avoiding the need to put a protruding antenna stub on the phone. This in itself is one of the best features of the phone - there's never anything sticking out, digging holes in your pockets. Don't worry, the reception is great, see below for details. And with the 8890, the internal antenna is actually extendable, for when you need just a bit more signal. Great feature.
+ buttons: the buttons seems tiny at first, but you'll get used to 'em, and they work fine. The only gripe I have is that the power button really is tiny, and doesn't really give any positive feedback; you have to look at the phone to confirm that it's on... You'll find that your index finger naturally falls over the volume up/down buttons on the side of the phone when you're talking -- an example of good design in action.
- durability. others have said it and I will agree that the overall build quality and resulting durability of the phone is not as good as it should be, for what is still a rather expensive phone. My 8890 lost speaker function, and I had to open it up to replace the speaker... Luckily, this is a $5 part found easily online and at many cell phone shops.
More importantly, the LCD on many Nokia phones, including the 8890, often starts to flake out after a while, particularly if you drop the phone. The reason is the LCD connection to the its power source is by pressure between the board holding the LCD and the backplane of the phone. Dropping/twisting the phone weakens this fit, and the LCD loses its power connection. You can often make the LCD "work" by applying manual pressure near the "Nokia" logo above the LCD.
The good news is that this CAN BE FIXED. Take the phone apart, and either put a thin shim under the Nokia logo (on top of the LCD screen), or file down the plastic studs on the back of the board holding the LCD. Either technique should increase the pressure on the LCD power contact, restoring its function. This site has a great article on 8290 disassembly:
http://www.all4cell.com/
USER INTERFACE / OPERATING SYSTEM
+ In general, I'm a big fan of Nokia's UI/OS. It's very intuitive, and consistent across different phones. You have easy access to all the features mentioned below, your email/SMS inbox is only two clicks away, no big faults here. From what little I've seen of the Ericsson and Motorola UI's, Nokia beats them hands-down.
- Depending on your carrier, there's often no way to get rid of the annoying "safety first" startup logo. Nokia informs me that this is actually the carrier's fault (Cingular), since the phone does support changing the logo via programs like LogoManager (see below); in this case, the carrier has locked the logo in place via the SIM card. Very silly.
FEATURES
So many features packed into such a tiny phone!
+ Infrared. There is a tiny little IR port on the side of the phone. Now, what does that do, you wonder? Well, try it out: activate the IR, and point it at some other IR device. You can beam phone numbers to and from other phones, as well as other handheld devices such as Palm, etc. I repeat, you can beam a number from the phone to another phone, or to a Palm device, or from a Palm to the phone, etc. Incredible.
More importantly, the IR allows you to connect the phone to a PC (as long as the PC has an IR port, of course). This means that I can put my 8890 next to my Thinkpad, connect via IR, and sync the phonebook and calendar between the PC and the phone! No! YES! It actually works. More on software below.
By the way, this feature was enough for me to justify switching to a GSM carrier, since IR support is only available on GSM phones. This is one of the differences between the 8290 and it's sister the 8260. More on these differences below.
+ Voice dialing. You can record voice tags for up to eight numbers. Very simple process, and it actually works. Keep in mind that it's not actually understanding the name as you say it, it's simply matching what you say to the list of "voice tags" that you've previously recorded. In any case, it's incredible that they've stuffed this technology into this tiny little phone.
+ Predictive text input. Nokia uses Tegex's T9 system (not that you care what it's called) to predict what you're trying to type as you compose a written message. I continue to be amazed at how well the system works; it can somehow predict the spelling of by first and last names, which as you can see are by no means common. This is a great feature, even if you only send SMS/email once in a while.
+ two-way SMS/email. You can receive and SEND both SMS and email messages from the 8890. The difference is that SMS goes directly via the GSM network to/from other GSM phones, while of course email is, well, email. You really can send email to any internet email address; I don't use this often, but once in a while it can be VERY useful. Note that incoming emails are broken up into 120-character messages and in some cases cut off, and so you aren't going to want to receive lengthy emails on the phone.
+ Calendar. Since the IR port lets me sync the phone to my PC calendar, I've ditched my Palm V, and now just have my calendar in my phone. Very intuitive interface, somewhat limited display (it only carries over the subject field of your appointments, not location and notes fields, for example), and you can even add in new appointments on the phone keypad. Very useful. The calendar holds up to 50 appointments at any one time.
+ Data call capability. Again, since the IR port lets you connect to a PC, you can use the phone to make modem data calls, from anywhere.
+ Call forwarding. You can set up separate call forwarding for voice, fax and data calls. This allows you, for example, to use your cell phone as your universal number, and route fax calls to the nearest fax machine. (Or just use EFax, and they'll show up in your email inbox.)
+ SIM card. All GSM phones use a SIM card to store your carrier, phone number, preferences and address book data. The 8890 can store 250 numbers on the SIM and another 250 on the phone itself. You can take the SIM out and stick it into another GSM phone, and you'll have your phone number, and your entire address book intact. More importantly, you since the 8890 is a dual-band phone, you can buy a cheap prepaid SIM in any European country, pop that in, and you've got a local cell phone number with cheap calling.
Since you don't pay for incoming calls in Europe (!), just forward your US number to your European number, and hey presto.
What's NOT stored on the SIM? Although your phone numbers are stored on the SIM, voice tags and custom ringtones are not, for example.
+ Vibrating Alert. This a key feature for me, and it's nice to have as a standard feature -- without requiring an accessory battery, for example. I keep the vibe on all the time, it's easy to tell if the phone is ringing in your pocket...
+ Profiles. The profiles feature makes it easy to set up different ringtones for different situations, e.g. outside, standard, meeting, headset, silent, etc.
+ Self-adjusting alarm clock. Set the alarm, turn the phone off, and it will wake up at the desired time, and then nicely ask whether you want it to turn itself on for calls... The clock on the phone adjusts itself via the GSM network. I think it even adjusts for different time zones when you travel!
+ Ring tones. You can download ring tones from the internet via SMS messaging. I finally have a phone that will play Dixie! That said, this feature is so annoying that it should only be used in the privacy of your own home. Please stick to normal ring tones (no songs!) in public. Please!
+ Games. I'm not much for games, but once in a while I play Snake while waiting for baggage to come through...
+ Calculator. useful. The calculator also has a currency converter function, although it's a little hidden. Open up the calculator, and hit Options, then scroll down to Exchange rate. Hit OK, and then you can put in the exchange rate btw your "home" and "foreign" units. Once you've done this, you can put a number into the calculator, and then hit Options, scroll down to "In home currency" or "In foreign currency", and it will make the conversion. Although I suppose this could be useful, it's usefulness is limited by the fact that the 8290 is not a world phone. You could use it in Canada, I guess.
- no WAP. I decided that I'd rather have a tiny phone.
- no voice recorder. Some high-end phones now offer 30-60 second voice recorder features. This would be nice.
- you can't store email addresses in the phone book. This makes sending email rather tedious, as you have to peck out the email address each time, and the predictive text feature isn't much help here. One tip: store messages containing your frequently-used email addresses in the Outbox, and the just edit the saved message to send a new one.
SOFTWARE & URLS
+ Nokia 8890 phone page: http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/8890/1,5258,,00.html
+ Online user manual: http://www.nokiahowto.com/8290/index.html
+ Cingular Wireless: http://www.cingular.com/
+ Nokia Data Suite. This is the Nokia software that allows you to make modem/data calls via the IR connection. Watch out, this software does NOT currently run on Windows 2000, only Win95/98. Argh. I may switch back to Win98 for this feature! Get it here: http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/downloads/1,5230,,00.html#8890
+ LogoManager: http://www.logomanager.co.uk let's you edit data on the phone's SIM card (phone numbers, etc) on your PC. In theory, LogoManager also lets you edit the various logos used on phone, including the picture message icons, but this all depends on whether your carrier has locked the icons into your SIM card.
RECEPTION / COVERAGE / BATTERY
Reception/sound quality is excellent.
Coverage is generally very good. I live in San Francisco and travel frequently to Boston and New York, and the coverage is at least as good as Cellular One and in some cases better. Keep in mind that the coverage is more dependent on the carrier than the phone, of course. It is true that GSM phones will not roll over to analog, which means that it's not much use in rural Montana, but that's a non-issue for me.
Battery life is excellent. No complaints here, and it takes a charge very quickly.
8890 VS. 8290
The 8290 is Nokia's US-only version of the 8890. Under the covers they're almost the same, primary differences being:
+ dual-band GSM means the 8890 will work in most international locations. While the 8290 is a GSM phone, it only operates on GSM 1900, which is only found in the US.
+ The 8290 has no sliding keypad cover -- the keys are exposed.
+ The 8290 has no extendable antenna -- just the internal antenna.
- The 8890 is very slightly bigger due to sliding cover and maybe a tiny bit heavier.
8890 VS. Ericsson T28w ("world phone")
You can get an Ericsson T28w for very cheap, and the phone is attractive and quite small. I've used both, and ended up with the 8890. Here's why:
- The Ericsson UI is horribly slow and very frustrating. Nokia has them beat hands-down on the UI design.
- The Ericsson has no built-in IR support; you need an add-on module for this, which makes the phone bigger, and cancels out the cost advantage over the 8890.
- The Ericsson has a large protruding antenna stub
- The Ericsson has an annoying and potentially flimsy flip cover
- The Ericsson has MUCH higher radiation ratings
+ The Ericsson phone is much more durable than the Nokia. I guess I'm willing to sacrifice durability for usability.
PRICE
I paid about $250 for a used 8890 on eBay. Although these aren't the latest phones, the design still commands a premium.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 250
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Epinions.com ID:
bdwelle
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Member: Bowen Dwelle
Location: san francisco, ca
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 1 member
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