Nokia 8390
Average Ratings
Mediocre Phone
Though the looks are ok... Nokia is falling into the lap of creating more and more mediocre phones rather than coming up with newer and better technologies.. Where is the GAIT phone Nokia promised loong back??
Good Phone - Bad Coverage
I upgraded to the 8390 from my trusty old 8260 and found the phone itself to be a solid upgrade. IMHO, the sync to Outlook over IR is almost worth the upgrade in and of itself. (though the software that comes with the Siemens S46 is considerably better)
For those familiar with Nokia phones, this one will be easy to operate from the get-go. Though like the 8260, this phone seems to be bordering on being too-small. While I had mine, I almost never used it w/o the headset.
My one gripe about this phone is the WAP browser. In a word: useless. The screen is way to small to do anything useful and at the end of the day, it's still WAP. 'nuf said.
Now onto AT&T. At least in the Puget Sound region, don't even bother with AT&T GSM. As I'm sure most folks are aware by now, AT&T rolled this service out *way* too soon. No where near prime time. I went from the 8390 almost immediately to the Siemens S46 due to poor coverage in the Seattle area.
Unfortunately, the S46 was not much better, so I opted to return to my TDMA/AMPS service. In AT&T-land the move from TDMA to GSM is designed to be a one-way trip. Trying to get back to TDMA is nearly an exercise in futility. It's been almost three months and I'm still sorting it all out.
never used it but....
i work in the cell industry right... and i get a lof of feedback from mobile customers regarding their service and handset. i was ABOUT to get the 8390 but there were just way too many complaints. I've been told that a lot of them have "freezing" problems meaning the keypad/screen just stops functioning.. as well as the the reaction to operations is kinda slow, bad reception..and useless WAP as mentioned.
Lovely Phone
Great phone. I bought the 8390 from AT&T Wireless in Los Angeles, and so far I am quiet happy with it. It's feature packed, and has great reception. My T68i from AT&T hardly would pick up a signal in my house, and when you would try and dial out with it, it would drop the call instantly. But, with the 8390, even with one bar, the car goes through and is quiet clear. The 8390 now pulls in at least three signal bars.
The phone looks very nice, and the backlights are just lighted enough. I don't see any light through the sides where he front panel meets the battery cover. The size and quality of this phone is unremarkable. I would suggest that everyone go out and get this phone right now. :)
Good Phone, but not there yet.
Purchased my 8390 to replace my 8290. I have Cingular GSM and was looking to get GPRS service. Tried a T68 (Yuck!) - I'm a Nokia fan - the User Interface on the Nokia phones are WAY better than the Ericsson (my opinion). GPRS is not THAT much faster than CSD (probably more a function of the network provider). It takes additional keystrokes to achieve the same thing on the 8390 than my old 8290 - for no apparent added benefit. Since I had purchased virtually EVERY accessory for my 8290, it was nice to see that most of them work on the 8390! Signal reception is better on the 8390. Where my old 8290 would show one bar, the 8390 shows two (or three). My local cingular store touts the 8390 as Nokia's answer to the Ericsson T68. NOT! The T68 has color, Bluetooth and Tri-Band over the 8390
almost a great phone
I have an unlocked 8390 from cellpoint and have used it with both AT&T GSM and Voicestream.
pros
- good reception. I've tested the outgoing and incoming audio against several other GSM phones in marginal signal conditions. It does quite well even with its internal antenna. better than any other internal antenna phone I tested and better than some phones with external antennas (even better than the samsung N105 which so many people seem impressed with, certainly considerably better than Ericsson T66, T68; and better than the 8890 with its internal antenna and the little external antenna extended)
- great sound quality (incoming and outgoing)
- nokia interface. a slight refinement over the older interfaces which allows multiple phone numbers per entry in the phone book
- size and weight
cons
- when the phone loses signal it occasionally goes into a state where it will pretty much never regain signal on its own. I can get it to regain signal by power cycling it or by *3370. I never seen this problem with any Nokia phone (Steve Punter in his review on http://www.arcx.com/sites/ also noted a behaviour which sounds very similar)
- can't easily hook up a data cable and no bluetooth which leaves IR as the only choice for data connectivity
- GPRS is only 3+1.
Right on!!!!!
ok even though i am a motorola person i have to give one to nokia for the 8390 i have had this phone for a while now and it has been great it has good looks and sounds good the only thing is that in some areas the phone's service stinks but i would recomend this phone!
Great Functions & STYLISH PHONE, poor reception!
If your looking for a stylish phone, I would definitely recommend the Nokia 8390, there are dozens of different face-plates and covers available for the phone, everyday you can have a different colour!
The faceplates only take like 4seconds to put on!
The phone has a bunch of features,
Voice recorder, Voice Activated dialing, Assignable ring-tones, it has a lot of features to keep you busy!
This is my first cell phone, and I coudn't ask for more, in a stylish design & features.
I did however about 7months after having my Nokia 8390 begin to experience dropped calls, & no signal reception! The phone would show it had full reception, but I was not able to make any phonecalls!
It seems b/c of the stylish internal antenna my phone was only good for looks and not phonecalls! I called ROGERS Att and complained they power-cycled the unit but the phone still acted up!. My solution, push extremely hard on the back of the phone while trying to connect a phone call but what worked the best was I CHANGE THE FACEPLATE.
As soon as I changed the faceplate the phone gave me no problems!
So im not sure if it had something to do with a new faceplate being "tighter" and holding the phone in better!'
But anyone looking to purchase the Nokia 8390 overall it is a great phone, especially if your NOT a power user.
Back In The Day
I remember having this phone. I have so many covers from it because it's such cheap quality, it just can't keep up with me. I had to get it replaced about four times.. LITERALLY.
I do remember mastering the menus and such. And the size of the phone was wonderful, especially for me, being petite and all.
Due to the Internal ANTENNA< The reception was awful
It's better than new Nokias...
I doubt anyone will read this review as this model is quite old. Nonetheless, I continue to use this model over several other newer Nokia phones. Here's my reasons:
-Better reception: This phone on AWS uses only 1900Mhz, but does a much better job of using that single frequency than Nokia's newer phones. The lack of 850Mhz I see as an advantage...you don't have to hear the constant clicking between frequencies. You'll also not be banned from offices. What I mean is that 850Mhz is so strong that it causes interference on radios, computers, and other electronics. It's embarassing walking through an office and hearing the buzzing in your path. This phone will NOT do this.
-Better sound quality: Not quite sure what Nokia's new thing is, but their new phones have a horrible sound quality. They either hiss, pick up background noise, or simply distort the sound. I have one of their better phones (the 7210) and I've tried nearly all of their latest and greatest. The result is the same "tinny" sound that is really unpleasent to the ear. It sounds like a "cell" phone. This phone, while not perfect, has a significantly softer sound that is not at all unpleasent.
Along that line, the headset is a pleasure to use on this phone. Nokia's newer phones are bad enough if you hold the phone to your ear, but using a headset is practically useless, as the sound is so distorted, you can barely understand what the caller is saying.
Feature wise, this phone is certainly fine for it's day. No, it does not have the latest and greatest features, but for a solid performer in a super small design, this is one of the best I have ever had. It is definitely behind the times (I'm writing this in July, 2004), but the signal strength and sound quality are enough to keep it in my pocket.
I bought this phone one ebay and have not regretted it for a minute. I would recommend this phone if you are concerned about size, signal strength, and sound quality.
