Nokia 6210 Navigator review

Nokia is very keen to spread the message when it comes to Sat Nav in phones, and it's once again swelled its GPS-enabled mobile ranks with the release of the nifty 6210 Navigator.

Having recently acquired leading Sat Nav mapping data company Navteq in a multi-billion dollar deal, no one can question how serious Nokia's intentions are for GPS-packing handsets, and it continues to set the pace among the top-line mobile makers with a fast-growing portfolio of location-finding phones.

Following on from last year's 6110 Navigator, the 6210 Navigator is another solid sliderphone design, powered by the Symbian S60 smartphone operating system that's also used on Nokia's high-end Nseries lineup. It has A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) technology onboard and comes equipped with Nokia Maps software, including mapping information for the UK and Ireland on an in-box 1GB MicroSD card. A six month license for its voice guided drive and walk services are included too, delivering out-of-the-box turn-by-turn instructions, like a standalone in-car Sat Nav kit.

Design and handling
The 6210 Navigator bears a close family resemblance to the recently released Nokia 6220 classic, with similar design characteristics and bodywork materials. It has plenty of similar smartphone traits too, although the 6210 Navigator sports a 3.2-megapixel camera rather than the fancy Carl Zeiss lens-equipped 5-megapixel shooter on the 6220 classic. This, though, is still an improvement on the original 6110 Navigator's 2-megapixel affair.

With high-speed HSDPA 3G data connectivity, and S60 functionality, the 6210 Navigator has much of the high-grade multimedia functionality Nokia includes with its latest Nseries models, such the N78, in a more affordable package. There's no Wi-Fi support on this model, but you do get 3G video calling (there's a secondary front-facing low-res camera), high-speed downloading, streaming and browsing, and a generous helping of S60 applications. Multi-format music and video players are naturally included, plus an FM radio, and there's a good selection of organiser tools, and support for web-based services such as Nokia Music Store and Share Online.

The Nokia 6210 Navigator's no svelte sliderphone, measuring 103(h) x 49(w) x 14.9(d)mm and weighing in at 117g, but it feels substantial enough in-hand without being a pocket-sagger. Its use of glossy black plastic on the casing and numberpad is similar to the 6220 classic. but it somehow doesn't feel as creaky.The fkeys feel responsive too for speed texters, and the control pad buttons - including the main menu 'squiggle' button and central navi-pad - are effectively arranged for no-fuss operation of the typical Nokia S60 menu system.

The large 2.4-inch display, a QVGA (320x240 pixels), 16-million colour screen is ample for checking out routing info, while giving a decent platform for viewing snaps and video content, and for browsing using the full Nokia Web Browser. This is another Nokia to have an accelerometer motion sensor onboard, too, shifting the screen view automatically between landscape and portrait for certain apps (including menus, the browser, image gallery and video player, though not the Sat Nav), depending on how the handset is held. This facilitates a couple of bonus motion features - automatic call silencing simply by turning the phone face down when a call comes in, plus a motion controlled game.

Features
As the Navigator's name suggests, the phone's direction finding functions are at the key selling point of this handset. Centred below the navi-pad is a compass-shaped button for firing up the A-GPS operated Nokia Maps function, which glows blue while the function is active (useful if you want to keep tabs on unnecessary power sappage).

The Nokia Maps application loads up quickly, and initial position finding is reassuringly rapid - we got our fix from start-up usually within 30 seconds, though it can take several minutes, according to Nokia, depending on conditions and where you're using the phone. The system fared well compared to other GPS phones; the Nokia Maps application has a user-friendly interface and provides the sort of detailed mapping information you get on standalone kits, and its performance was spot on in our tests.

As well as having A-GPS (using cellsites as well as GPS to lock on to your position), there's a very useful magnetic compass inside to help with direction finding when walking, orientating the onscreen map to suit the direction you're travelling in. The Sat Nav system has a wide selection of search options for hunting down points of interest, from restaurants, bars, and cinemas to petrol stations, ATMs and railways stations - plus much more. A search panel on the home screen is a nice touch too.

The route planning options are very intuitive to use; you can get driving or pedestrian directions to a location you've searched for or marked on the map, while the voice guidance option provides turn-by-turn instructions accurately and clearly (and suitably loudly from the speaker) - just like on an in-car Sat Nav kit. You can choose between 3D and 2D or satellite views of maps, and adjust a variety of settings to help route planning, get night mode, avoid congestion charge zones and so on.

With the combination of mapping on the memory card and online searches for locations, it's a slick and responsive system to have in your phone. We found it worked efficiently and accurately, and maintained its performance even with other functions operating in the background.

As well as the boxed package and 6 month Drive and Walk license, you can pay for additional options including city guides and traffic information. Maps for other countries can be downloaded too, using supplied Nokia Map Loader PC software.

Camera snapshot
The main 3.2-megapixel camera puts on a decent show too. Its autofocus system is capable of capturing sharp images as close ups as well as detailed mid-range shots. It deals with variable lighting conditions pretty well, and also handles subtle changes in texture and tones precisely.

Colours are generally good, though we did notice occasional shots in moderate light where the auto metering system produced slightly washed out tones. Overall, though we were pleased with the performance. Low-light shooting is aided by the LED light, but it's not as powerful or balanced illumination as the xenon equivalent on the 6220 classic. Its image sensor won't get you as much detail as Nokia's top-line 5-megapixel models, either but within its limits, you get a very acceptable camera performance.

(You can see examples of images taken with the camera, and more details about the camera functions in our related article, Nokia 6210 Navigator camera samples).

Video shooting is is reasonable, capturing footage at VGA quality at up to 15 frames per second, which is higher res than average, but it still has some typical mobile phone jerkiness to it.

Images and video clips can be tweaked using some basic in-phone editing tools, and can be speedily uploaded to sharing websites, including Flickr, Vox and Nokia's Ovi service, using Nokia's Share online application.

Web-based apps
With HSDPA offering data download rates of up to 3.6Mbps, downloading video and audio clips over the air takes a matter of seconds; and as well as network operator services, you can browse the own-brand Nokia Music Store fro downloading tunes.

The full Nokia Browser onboard does a pretty good job at rendering web pages, and slipping it into landscape mode, plus the zoom and pan options make it pretty easy to get an overview and negotiate pages. You can get RSS feeds on the phone too, which is handy for swift hassle-free updates on your favourite sites and blogs. Nokia's WidSets widgets application, and Yahoo! Go are pre-loaded on the phone too, while you can also search for and download podcasts using a Podcasting application.

As standard with with S60 Nokias, there's a decent quality music player included too. Nothing fancy in the interface, it's straightforward to use with tracks arranged in regular MP3 player categories. The supplied earphones are average mobile phone ear-fare, and don't really lift the music performance above average. Unfortunately, this phone uses a 2.5mm jack socket for earphones rather than a standard 3.5mm headphone connector, so if you want to get the best possible sound quality out of the 6210 Navigator with some decent headphones, you'll need to buy a 2.5mm-to-3.5mm adapter plug.

In-phone user memory for tracks and other content is 120MB, although MicroSD cards are supported, and Nokia includes a 1GB card in the package. Although this has mapping info pre-loaded, there's still plenty of spare room for loading up enough music to get you started. There's also a good quality FM radio built into the phone.

Complementing the entertainment, the Nokia S60 personal organiser and office tools functionality on the 6210 Navigator are typically generous. Besides the calendar, notes, active notes, calculator and convertor apps, there are Quickoffice and Adobe PDF document viewers, and a Zip file manager, for standard format files copied to the phone or received as email attachments. A dictionary application is included too, plus standard voice recorder and text reading functions.

When it comes to the basics of voice calling, the 6210 Navigator ticks all the right boxes too, with a clear, reliable performance in our test calls. Battery life will depend on how much the various multimedia functions, and particularly the Sat Nav system, are used. Although Nokia estimates standby time of 231-244 hours and talktime of 3-5 hours, regular Sat Nav usage will reduce battery life quickly; if you anticipate using it for long road journies, we'd recommend investing in an in-car charger.

Conclusion
With its 6210 Navigator, Nokia has produced another very impressive Sat Nav-equipped smartphone. The A-GPS technology and software have been smoothly integrated into this handset, performing well, and offering an intuitive and effective way of finding your way around.

There's plenty more to impress here too, with a fine spread of multimedia gadgetry and smartphone features. If you want Wi-Fi or a higher quality camera, you'll have to look further up Nokia's Nseries range, but otherwise this handset delivers a high quality set of applications in an attractive sliderphone package.

Nokia 6210 Navigator technical specifications.

Recycle your phone: Sell Nokia 6210 Navigator