Review: Nokia 6210 Navigator

Nokia 6210 Navigator Review

Phone rating:

In a nutshell: A GPS-equipped phone that offers a large display for browsing, with built-in Nokia Maps and a 6 month navigation license for driving and pedestrian usage. The 6210 is a smartphone that also includes 3G HSDPA, video calling, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a music player and FM radio, Bluetooth wireless connectivity and a microSD memory card slot that can take cards up to 8GB. On the negative side, the build quality is poor, and battery life is challenged too.
Best buy: *Free* from Vodafone Business Shop.

The Nokia 6210 Navigator is an upgraded version of the Nokia 6110 Navigator. It's a slide phone that majors in GPS navigation, but is a fully equipped smartphone with a good range of other features too. There are a number of improvements in the 6210 compared with the 6110. 6 months integrated GPS navigation licence is included, and a digital compass has been added for pedestrian use. The display size has been increased from 2.2" to 2.4", the camera has been uprated from 2 megapixels to 3.2 megapixels, and the memory has been increased from 40 Mbytes to 120 Mbytes.

Rather depressingly though, the body has been modelled on the cheap and plasticky Nokia 6220 Classic. The keys stick and squeak, the slide wobbles, and the whole thing feels like its ready to explode if dropped onto a hard surface. Why, Nokia, why? This is definitely a backwards move. The only improvement in the body design is that the 6210 is quite a bit thinner than the chunky old 6110, and weighs a little less too.

The GPS application is accessed by pressing the dedicated Navigator key, and finding a location is simple and straightforward. In another backward move though, Nokia have removed the Route 66 software that came pre-installed on the 6110, so now the only option for navigating is Nokia Maps. The digital compass is a welcome addition though. The increased display size is definitely an improvement, making the maps much easier to read. Despite the removal of the Route 66 software, the 6210 works very well indeed in its primary role of satellite navigation. It can't beat a dedicated satnav system, but it's perhaps the best of the current generation of GPS enabled mobile phones.

We've mentioned the 3.2 megapixel digital camera already, and we'll also mention now that the 6210 is fully equipped with the usual range of modern phone gadgets. These include a digital music player, that's capable of playing back MP3, AAC and WMA formats. There's also an FM radio built in. The phone supports push email, with a document viewer. 3G video calling is supported, and the phone supports 3.5G with HSDPA for download speeds up to 3.6 Mbps.

In terms of connectivity, the 6210 has Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0, as well a 2.5mm AV jack. We'd have preferred to see a standard 3.5mm jack instead. The phone's memory is excellent, with 120 Mbytes of memory built in, and support for microSD cards up to 8GB. Battery life could be better, and if you're using the GPS and 3G, you'll find that you have to charge it up quite regularly.

In our opinion, Nokia have fumbled the upgrade of the 6110. They've made some definite improvements, but in other ways they've made the phone worse. And in the year that has passed since the launch of the 6110, GPS-enabled phones have become much more common. Nokia needed to move forward, but instead they drifted sideways.

Features of the Nokia 6210 Navigator include:

• Series 60 Symbian SmartPhone
• 3.2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and flash
• Secondary video camera for video calling (CIF resolution)
• Photo and video editors
• Display: 16 million colours, 240 x 320 pixels (2.4 inches)
• Music player (MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA formats)
• FM stereo radio
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, Instant messaging, Audio Messaging, push email with document attachment viewer
• Java applications
• PDF reader
• Nokia Maps 2.0
• Internet: GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA up to 3.6Mbps, OSS web browser, Flash player
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, 2.5 mm AV connector
• Memory: 120 Mbytes plus microSD card (expandable to 8 Gbytes)
• Quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) plus 3.5G (WCDMA 900/2100 HSDPA)
• Size: 103 x 49 x 15 mm
• Weight: 117g

Nokia 6210 Navigator Consumer Reviews

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Average rating from 3 reviews:

Reviewed by Dave from UK on 24th Sep 2008
Oh I would so loved to have given this phone 5 out of 5. However, having now gone through 4 of them in a 2 week period it's just not going to happen. The old 6110 Navigator remains (in my opinion) one of the finest handsets Nokia produced, so it was with much excitement I unwrapped my new 6210. My happiness was quickly shattered by it's cheap flimsy construction. Horribly sticky, clicky keypad that's just a magnet for fingerprints. A terribly loose feel whenever the slide is up. It really does shake around like it's going to fall apart. Switching it on did nothing to cheer me up as it continually froze on me. Sadly these same issues have occurred on all 4 of the handsets I have went through, so I dont see the point in going for a fifth. Weirdly the Navigation actually works really well. However, nothing else really does. Not entirely sure how this handset managed to sneak past quality control. With a heavy heart, I would have to urge you to avoid.
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Reviewed by Andrew from UK on 1st Sep 2008
I returned my 6210 navigator to vodafone after one day. It has lots of great features but feels very cheaply made (as does the 6220 classic from the reviews I've read). The slide is ok but the navigation and soft keys have a horrible 'click' when you press them and the vibrate alert is awful. Also, the slide doesn't quite clear the top row of keys enough so they can be tricky to use. A shame, as features wise it's hard to fault.
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Reviewed by Mike from UK on 29th Aug 2008
On contract via Vodaphone UK. So far I am pretty disappointed with my 6210 Navigator. Looks great, nice camera and fine as a phone/text message machine. BUT battery life isn’t good despite following the first charge instructions. Note I’ve only tried charging with “mains” electricity and have so far just left the thing plugged in all night once the battery is exhausted. Mapping very disappointing (although I’ll admit to not having gone back to the shop to complain and/or get a demo). This could be because I'm used to using TomTom as a sat nav and the Nokia system just isn't intuitive enough for an old luddite like me. So I’ll cancel the internet access deal I have and just use it as a phone/camera (now there’s a novel idea !) Mike
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