Battery

A 720 mAh Li-Polymer battery (BLD-3) is used with the 7210. Nokia claims the battery will work for 5 hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby, however those numbers are maximum times. Realistically the times are much lower.

Minimum Rated Standby Time: 175 hours
Minimum Rated Talk Time: 225 minutes

Many variables, including carrier signal strength at your location, signal consistency (including incoming and outgoing calls), display and ringer settings, and battery charging methods and history, will affect performance.

Storage

The 7210 comes with 725 kb of internal memory for storing pictures, ring tones, text messages, and Java applications. The max size for a MMS message is 45 kb each. If there was a drawback in the 7210, this would be it. 725 kb is definitely not enough for a phone that supports all these features. With all the extras Nokia put in, polyphonic ring tones, higher resolution wallpaper, and Java applications, you would think they would give you enough memory to store it.

The internal memory lets you store up to 300 phone book entries, 150 text messages or 50 picture/concatenated messages, 250 calendar notes, and up to 30 To-do list entries.

Connections

On the top of the phone you'll find an infrared port for transferring files between your computer and phone. On the bottom is the outlet for charging your phone, and a system connector, Pop-port.

This is Nokia's next innovation. Pop-port can automatically identify accessories attached to the 7210. It also offers stereo sound with the use of headphones. Lastly, its also where you can charge your accessories with a single USB cable (Supplied) without the use of separate power sources. Pop-port transmits up to 230 kb/s.

Unfortunately the 7210 doesn't come with Bluetooth technology, for most people this wont be a problem, since it has an infrared port. If wires on your headsets don't bother you, or you don't have a PDA to connect to, then you'll be fine with the 7210.

One thing that we would have liked to see was software shipped with the Nokia 7210. That's not to say there's no software included, just that you have to download the whopping 56 MB file from Nokia's website. The PC Suite has an excellent package of tools for the 7210. Definitely worth downloading. It includes:

Messages Menu

One nice thing about the Nokia 7210 is the support of concatenated messages (Up to 459 characters). This allows you to combine multiple SMS messages into a large message. It makes sending and receiving messages a lot more enjoyable.

Also provided in the 7210 is the new MMS messaging. With MMS you can send and receive pictures and sounds with your messages. There are 10 installed pictures already on the 7210 to decorate a message.

Overall, the messaging portion of the 7210 is pretty good. It supports MMS, SMS, and Chat. While SMS, and Chat are pretty basic nowadays, there are few phones that support MMS. People who message frequently will find this feature enjoyable, but probably won't use it on a daily basis. Nevertheless, its fun to have.

One potential drawback for people who use the 7210 is the unique keypad design. We keep coming back to it, but it's either going to be something really like, or really hate. The keypad could slow down typing speeds with its widely spaced upper numbers and narrow lower numbers. Definitely a consideration if you're planning to use this phone to message.

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