Nokia Takes the Wraps off the 9300 Communicator

Nokia has just announced the 9300 Communicator, a new high-end cellular-wireless handheld.

On the outside, the 9300 will look like a mobile phone, with a numberpad and a small screen for phone-related information. When opened, the device will reveal a full keyboard and a 640-by-200-pixel, color display.

"We believe the Nokia 9300 strikes that balance in one stylish smartphone, without sacrificing the combined functionality that many people require but until now could only get from carrying multiple products," said Niklas Savander, senior vice president of Nokia's business device unit.

Smaller and Lighter

The 9300 Communicator will be a scaled-down version of the company's already-announced 9500 Communicator.

The 9300 will not have a camera or built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking, which the 9500 will include. This will allow the 9300 to be smaller and lighter than its sister model.

The 9300 will be 5.2 inches wide, 2.0 inches tall, and 0.83 inches thick (132 mm by 51 mm by 21 mm). It will weigh 5.9 ounces (167 g).

Both of these handhelds will use the same platform: Symbian OS 7.0 with Nokia's Series 80 providing the user interface. This means they will be able to run the same applications.

Series 80 does not support the use of touchscreens, so the 9300 will have a D-pad and on-screen cursor.

Wireless Capabilities

The 9300 Communicator will be used with GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks. There will be a version that can use the wireless frequencies used in the Americas, and a second that will support European and Asian wireless frequencies.

In addition, it will have Bluetooth short-range wireless networking, which will allow it to transfer data with other Bluetooth-enabled devices and use wireless headsets.

Its web browser will support HTML 4.01 and xHTML. Its email client will support IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, SyncML, and BlackBerry Connect. Of course, it can handle attachments.

Business and Personal Applications

The 9300 Communicator will have 80 MB of free user memory, plus a hot-swappable MMC card slot. This will give it plenty of space to hold emails, documents, presentations, text and multimedia messages, ring tones, data files, calendar notes, and to-do lists.

It will include applications supporting Microsoft Office-compatible documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, plus it will have a PDF viewer.

Its PIM applications can be synchronized with Nokia's PC Suite software.

This device won't be just about business. It will come with a music player with MP3, MPEG4 (AAC), Real Audio, and midi support. A video player will support RealVideo, MPEG4, and H.263.

To make transferring files between the PC and the handheld faster, the 9300 will use USB 2.0.

Nokia says the 9300 Communicator will be available during the first quarter of 2005. It didn't give an estimated price.

Additional information on this device is available on the Nokia web site.

Thanks to Andreas for the tip, and Engadget for the comparison picture.

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