by Guy Lerner
April 30, 1998
I've never really given much thought to the value of a cellular (mobile) telephone. Where I come from, cell phones (as they're commonly known) are essential accessories for the security-conscious South African. That's priority one. Anything extra is a value-added 'nice-to-have'.
A new breed of phone
However, the average cell phone is not so average anymore. Until a
day ago, I was the proud owner of a svelte Motorola StarTAC - the smallest, most compact
phone money could buy. It was the tiny wonder that turned heads wherever it went.
I was frequently amused at the attention it attracted. "Is that a cell phone?" was a question I chuckled at time and again, gray pouch in hand. Ironically, this fascination made me realise there was more to a mobile than met the eye. A good phone really did fit itself to your lifestyle, and sure enough, attached itself to you until an existence without it seemed unfeasible.
That's when I saw the new Nokia 6110 cell phone.
There's a new breed of phone in town, and it will change the way you think of mobile. Sure, if you're in the market to satisfy your need for a basic link to the world from the middle of nowhere (in Johannesburg, further than three blocks from your house), any cell phone will do. But why settle for the icing if you can have the cake?
Okay, so the Nokia 6110 GSM cellular phone is not exactly the poor man's mobile, but by goodness it's the hippest toy I've seen since my days in a sandbox with two-year-olds. It takes everything you saw on TV about mobile communication in the 90s and turns it on its head. Heck, it even changes its own colour (although it doesn't make a good cup of coffee).
I'll leave the philosophical, self-gratifying chatter for later. First I'd like to share my experience of Nokia's best ever with you, perhaps throw in a snippet or two about the features the phone is crammed with (how they managed to fit so much into so little is beyond me). A phone isn't really just a 'phone', come to think of it.
About GSM
GSM is an abbreviation for Global System for Mobile
communication. It is probably the most popular and certainly the most advanced system of
mobile communication available, based entirely on a digital network of terrestrial
transmitters. Not only does GSM encapsulate all the advantages of digital information
exchange (including more frequencies per transponder, binary data streaming and error
checking), it also offers the mobile network a much larger footprint (coverage area) than
analog alternatives. That said, GSM technology is more expensive to implement, making it
less attractive to the masses in devloping countries (where it is commonly used). Less
than 5% of South Africans currently own or use mobile handsets connected to one of the
country's two GSM mobile communication networks.
The meaning of mobile
Your first impression of the 6110 will likely relate to its size, or lack thereof. Even
after holstering a smaller, lighter phone for many a month, I was impressed with the
shrinking job Nokia had manufactured for its flagship cell phone. Compared to the all-time
favourite 2110i (the top selling phone in South Africa to date), this tot was a David in
Goliath's shadow.
Despite its small size, the 6110 boasts a high-resolution green-backlit 5-character display screen, and certainly the most attractive interface I've met. Each display bar is logically positioned for optimal clarity, with a fine balance between heavy, fine and bold fonts making the blend both appealing and easy to read.
The power button is conveniently shielded from accidental pressure, and although the screen itself is not indented for protection, the phone is hardy enough to withstand even shapshod treatment common to everyday use. In any case, an inexpensive leather pouch should preserve the sheen of your phone for the duration of its shelf life (if indeed it has one). As for the console, the buttons are evenly spaced with legible markings - small enough for the slick look yet large enough for comfortable tapping.
Did I mention the phone changes colour? It's shell is a 3-tone skin-like material that chages its hue from bottle green to deep purple depending on which angle you're watching it from. Totally useless but highly amusing and attractive nonetheless.
Use smart, work smart
Nokia has added a barrel of outstanding enhancements that make the 6110 irresistible as a
phone, as a messaging center, as a game pad, or a personal assistant (sans slinky outfit
and high-heeled shoes, of course).
The obvious example is the introduction of 'profiles' - a series of personalised settings that allow you to tailor the phone to its surroundings. Imagine you're outdoors, the sound of the river roaring behind you as you watch the salmon leaping to their deaths downstream. Naturally, you have your phone in hand but you'd need ears like a bat to pick up the ring tone over the rapids.
The 6110 will allow you to enable the 'outdoors' profile which, with its high-pitched squeal, would be a match for any distraction. Throw off your hiking gear and don your Armani. You're seated in a crunch financial meeting, and the whizz of a cell phone will probably get you fired before lunch is served. Luckily your 6110 has been set to the 'meeting' profile, and should someone mistakenly dial your number, the phone will quietly beep, once, then twice, to alert you to the danger.
Profiles
are nifty, caller groups even more so. Want to put the population of your phone book into
neat groups that YOU can control? Easy - just assign a phone book entry to any of the
preset or personalised caller groups (family, VIPs, the boss, the wife, you get the
drift); then customise each group with its own ring tone and graphic, and be amazed when
your better half calls and your phone flashes a heart to the theme of the Lone Ranger.
Soon enough you'll be spurring Silver every time you forget your lunch at home.
Nokia has taken wacky one step further. If ever you're bored at work, have a dead hour to kill, or just plain have nothing better to do, switch on your phone and select from three built-in games, each one designed for a different personality type. Snake will test your skills in feeding a growing serpent on your screen; Memory will hone the art of identifying abstract shapes in random order with both sides of your brain; and Logic will appeal to the male in you.
Not forgetting the Swiss army knife that was glaringly missing from Nokia's previous products: a calculator (complete with currency conversion functions), a clock (12 or 24 hour, with date and alarm), and even a calendar (that will remind you of important dates, meetings, birthdays and appointments), all as part of the package. There's nothing that Nokia left out - bar that coffee-making facility I was on about earlier. It seems every function has a set of sub-functions that sinks knee-deep into the phone, making it the most configurable, most adaptable piece of hardware this side of the home PC.
Looking to the future, the 6110 has as its tip an infrared transmitter capable of sending and receiving data from a compatible IrDA device (printer, computer, another 6110 phone). You can use it to download new splash screens from the Internet as easily as you can play a two-player Snake duel with a fellow 6110 owner. You can even transfer calendar and phone book data from one device to another, or print out your phone's particulars for record-keeping or auditing.
It doesn't stop here
Actually, it doesn't stop very often at all. With a rated standby cycle of 270 hours (12
days) with the standard NiMH battery, and twice that with a Li-Ion, the 6110 will spend
most of its time in your pocket, where it should be. You probably won't even know its
there. And there's the rub. For sheer efficiency, I can't fault this marvel. It's as
elegant as it's non-intrusive; as powerful as it's good looking, and as useful as it's
economical.
I was sad to see my StarTAC go. I miss it no more.
If you're looking to learn more about the phone that makes mobile worthwhile, visit Nokia on the Web at http://www.nokia.com. Or you can go direct to http://www.nokia.com/6100launch.
For design excellence, my new Nokia earns a flattering five out of five Go Inside Review Lights (I'd have given it six if it made me coffee).
Copyright © 1998 by Guy Lerner
"Go Inside" is a David Boles Trademark