Hi all, I have used almost many phones including Pocket PC, SE P910i and my latest phone is Nokia 9500.
Build Quality
As of build quality is concerned, Its very good. I would say a Rugged model from nokia. It is quite difficult to open the battery cover, and also very difficult to take the battery out. One thing it lacked is that MMC slot inside the cover. I felt it should have been like the P910i. So it would be easier for us to take the MMC card whenever we feel like. The exterior display is very good and also the interior. keyboard feature is the best. You can create your own shortcuts with the keyboard. Most people say its bulky, I agree with it. It looks like the old motorola Phone. But think of the features it has. To me considering the features built-in. I wouldn’t say its bulky.
Performance
It is quite slow when compared to Pocket PC, but faster when compared with P910i. The exterior function(function while the cover is closed i.e Series 40) is very slow and sometimes bugging when you really want to make an urgent call. For getting into the menu you have use the centr click on the 5-way navigation key, But its very hard to press. The latest firmware I have in my Nokia 9500 is 5.22, though every firmware has bugs. But one good point is that Nokia is working hard to resolve all the bugs and give us new firmware upgrades, and moreover they are free.
Messaging
Being a software engineer, I use the e-mails very often during my office hours. Similarily while I message using the cover open, I feel like typing the message using my keyboard. To me its very comfortable to write the message. You can also write the message with the cover closed, but its quite slow as well as No T9 predictive text. Not sure why nokia haven’t given the predictive text feature on this 9500. Hope the future firmware upgrades has that. Connecting to POP3/IMAP4 email accounts. Its very easy to connect the POP3 accounts. I tried connecting to my GMAIL accounts, it connected with ease. Also, you can sync the remote email also using the PC suite you have got with the package.
Media
Nowadays most of the phones comes with more that 1 mega-pixel camera, FM Radio, Stereo MP3 Player. But in this you wont be finding all this, It has 640*480 pixels of VGA Camera, an built-in MP3 player and No FM Radio. You might ask why such an hi-brand phones doesn’t have all these. Answer is very simple. Its more an executive phone, where they have given more concentration on the Official purpose and not on the entertainment side and thats why. But still the MP3 player sounds good and loud. You dont have an stereo headset also with the package.
Connectivity
When it comes to connectivity, this is where the Nokia 9500 rocks !!. You got IR, Bluetooth, Wi-fi, GPRS and EDGE. No 3G in this phone. I tried all this connectivity, everything works great. Wi-Fi is the one which is very common with the Pocket PC’s but not on the smartphone segment. I tried connecting my broadband with a wireless router and tried accessing using my Nokia 9500. It connected with ease and able to browse using the default browser. Also the wi-fi supports WEP and WPA key. Default browser supports TSL and SSL security also with builtin flash plugin.
Pros
Office connectivity. You Sheet and documents are Microsoft office compatible. Blackberry is to be implemented soon. Wi-Fi access.
Cons
It lacks the Themes concept normally prevailing with most of the phones. Interior display could have been 262K colors. Better camera resolution.
Conclusion
My overall experience with this Nokia 9500 is very impressive, packed with features. its a gr8 phone to have it.