3GSM 2004
Feb 23, 2004, 7:00 PM by Rich Brome @richbrome
Live reports posted daily from the 3GSM World Congress event in Cannes, France. The first hands-on reports of the Nokia 9500, Panasonic X700, Motorola MPx, the new Danger Hiptop, and more.
3GSM kicked off with a bang Monday in Cannes, with Nokia's unveiling of the 9500 - the company's new ultra-high-end business phone. The highly-anticipated device continues the successful Communicator series, after an extended delay since the last model.
The 9500 is one of the first triple-radio devices to be announced. The three radios are GSM, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. The GSM side is tri-band, and also includes EDGE for high-speed data. The 9500 will be available in two tri-band versions: one 900/1800/1900 for Europe, and one 850/1800/1900 for the Americas.
Like previous Communicators, the 9500 features a "sideways" clamshell design that opens to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard and large, wide display. The keyboards in the Communicator series are much larger than the typical "thumboards" found in some competing models from other companies. While quite cramped, it is possible to type on a 9500 keyboard using your fingers.
Another hallmark feature of the Communicator series is the ability to use primary phone functions while closed, using an external display and keypad. The 9500 adds significantly to this by stepping up to a large 65,000-color display, and adding a complete Series 40 interface. Advanced functions such as the camera and even e-mail can be accesed in this mode.
In contrast to other recent Nokia smartphones, the 9500 features a hot-swappable MMC card slot. The battery cover must be removed to access it, but the battery itself can remain in place.
Rounding out the feature set is a user-changeable front/outer cover. While it might seem out of place on a business phone, Nokia market research indicated that business users wanted to customize their phones just as much as other consumers.
Below are a few screenshots showing parts of the main Series 80 interface:
About the author, Rich Brome:Editor in Chief Rich became fascinated with cell phones in 1999, creating mobile web sites for phones with tiny black-and-white displays and obsessing over new phone models. Realizing a need for better info about phones, he started Phone Scoop in 2001, and has been helming the site ever since. Rich has spent two decades researching and covering every detail of the phone industry, traveling the world to tour factories, interview CEOs, and get every last spec and photo Phone Scoop readers have come to expect. As an industry veteran, Rich is a respected voice on phone technology of the past, present, and future.
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Comments
what about the new sidekick!
forget the sidekick
Where oh where did the Samsung P705 go?
I must say, I'm worried that some fatal flaw has drug Samsung into bitter silence about the project as a whole.
Maybe we're just not ready to allow such a feature in current handsets?
