Product reviewsNokia 9500 Communicator - Tin grey (Unlocked) Smartphone

Awesome Product, value for money!

I bought this phone to replace and repair my husband's old Nokia 9500. I don't use it so i dont know serviceable or useful it is. I dislike the size... too big.

RIP off

Virtually of no use, not even a battery

Verified purchase:  Yes | Sold by: luckysnoopy20

good deal

y bay a nokia 9500 phone and ym very impresionat of theat...........................................................................................................................................................................................super okRead full review...

A phone for geeks, qwerty keyboard, clunky quirky outdated

The Nokia 9500 experience is sometimes awesome and sometimes intensely irritating.

Early firmware has maddening bugs, both the ROM firmware and the Nokia apps have to be upgraded, even a Nokia service center may only update one or the other making it worse.

If you just want to make phonecalls, have the biggest qwerty keyboard of any phone to write text messages and never use any other feature it's awesome, at least until the audio from the earpiece starts cutting out. About every 6-12 months you need to remove a pressed metal cover and clean the sprung contacts for the earpiece. The metal cover can be fiddly to get back on. If you can do delicate soldering without wreaking it you can fix it permanently.

If you want to easily run a few apps and browse the web you will be very frustrated unless you are a supergeek who can work around it's foibles and use an alternative web browser.

The supergeeks who live in SSH sessions and want to be able to get on IRC everywhere they go love these things.

9500's are now 5-7 years old, original batteries are usually knackered.
Just using it as a phone battery life is a decent 3-5 days.
Sitting on IRC 4 hours with a good battery.
The 'compatible' non-Nokia batteries on ebay are a fraction too large and are hard to get in and out.

The Symbian operating system is clunky and outdated. There are very few third party apps that do anything useful.
It's handy to be able to flip it open and write short text notes but the more notes you have on the desktop the slower it runs.
The built in spreadsheet is usable for many basic tasks like organizing lists or doing a few calculations. Any app that uses the pointer is a chore to use because moving the four direction rocker is a pain.
There is a VNC client available so you can remotely control a computer or hosted VM but the horrid rocker makes moving the mouse pointer around a pain.

This phone only does GPRS (ie slow) data, no 3G. This is fine for SSH sessions but patience is needed for graphics heavy websites. The wifi is ok but selecting a specific access point is a bit clunky to do and 802.11b only.
There is of course no Flash support, you can't watch youtube video's on it.

If you carry the phone in a pocket without a case the paint rubs off in a couple of months.
The little plastic clips that hold the front cover on break easily if you are rough with it. The aftermarket front covers on ebay usually don't quite fit properly.

The nokia datasuite software is horribly bloated but you get get files on and off without it. It is usable as an mp3 player but the menus for selecting tracks are clunky and irritating.

Pictures taken with the camera are poor compared to a proper camera, about typical for a 2004 era camera phone.

The telephone part can be turned off but the computer part can only be rebooted by taking the battery out. If you play with it's advanced capabilities you will need to take the battery out sometimes which annoyingly requires manually setting the time and date.

It can work with an optional external Tomtom bluetooth GPS but the software for the phone is supplied on a Tomtom MMC card so you loose satnav if you put a bigger MMC card. 1GB MMC cards usually work, 2GB cards sometimes work, larger cards probably won't work. It only accesses the MMC card when the back cover is on, (magnetic sensor), which sometimes confuses people.
Satnav drains the battery quickly.

Only geeks love the Nokia 9500.Read full review...

Nokia 9500 Communicator Mobile Phone

Tried the 9200 series but it lacked bluetooth which this version has. OK it is large and heavy and not something to slip in your pocket. However what this lacks in size and weight it more than makes up with functionality. Great colour screen and full keyboard with Web,Messaging, Contents, Document browser, Calendar, plays music, etc etc plus a whole range of other software to buy to allow you to encrypt data, build databases and even read ebooks!

Great for using with two hands and typing with thumbs makes it fast an intuitive to use. If I could afford the further nearly £400 I would look at the Nokia N90 but if you want pretty much everything the same for just over £200 then this is the phone for you.

One warning when bidding on eBay. The first one I received did not state a German keyboard but the seller accepted the return and the next one I bought was just what I wanted a UK version keyboard.

Takes mmc memory cards up to 512mb. Do not use 1GB card as it is too thick!

I have used a bluetooth dongle on my laptop to sync between the phone and my laptop with no problems but DO make sure you get the up to date software - Nokia Smartsuite from the Nokia website if you are running Vista or you can get communication problems.

What I think is really SMART is being able to communicate with my wireless network at home or about and being able to surf the net for free! Saved quite a bit of web surfing contract with the mobile phone company!

I bought mine via eBay from http://www.infinitygrp.co.uk and can recommend them as I found no problem with the purchase or their speed in getting back to me and getting the phone out to me very quickly, thanks Guys!Read full review...

Nokia 9500 Mobile Phone

The only downside to this phone is the size, its is big,heavy and has no vibration alert. However if you can live with these, its got to be one of the best phones ever made. The ability of having a full keyboard (ideal for people with big fingers, like me!)and a decent size internal screen makes sending text/email/faxes a breeze, Its built in camera makes emailing taken pictures easy as well. The built in WIFI ability is also a major plus, as it enables you to gain free internet access at numerous places, so you can surf the net away from home.The huge (80MB) internal memory is useful and the MMC Memory Card enables you to have upto 4GB (although Nokia recommend no more than 2GB)so this will give you ample space to store your MP3 files for the Built in MP3 Player.
There are numerous programmes that can enhance the 9500, like the Tom Tom Sat Nav Software. The large internal screen makes the display larger and is more clearer than most of the of the smartphones (9300i & 9300 exepteded).There is also a Zip File programme (same as the Win Zip programme you use on your PC), ideal for sending large files to any PC. Then there are the many free games out there!!!
For business users there is the built in word processor, and spreadsheet programmes, so you can write reports on the go, and there is a built in flash -layer, so you can watch video clips etc..
To summarise this phone may not be to everyones liking, but once you seen how easy it is to use, the software that you can use on it, and the things you can do with it, you will be very impressed with it. It is like having a hand held PC in your pocket. Apart from the size an the lack of vibrating alert, I would give this phone 10/10.Read full review...

Nokia 9500 Mobile Phone

I decided to buy a Nokia 9500 mainly because I wanted to send and receive emails on the move. I know that most mobile phones are able to do this but the 9500 has a large screen and above all, a full qwerty keyboard which makes messaging so easy. Also, I find that the 9500 receives a signal where other phones fail to do so. Battery life is good, connectivity is excellent with Bluetooth, Infrared, USB and WiFi all onboard. The reasons I have not given this phone an excellent rating is firstly it's size, it's like having a brick in your pocket! Secondly, the onboard VGA camera is of very poor quality. I don't know why the camera should be so bad, other Nokia's I have owned (such as the 6822 for example) have had some of the best VGA cameras I have come across so why Nokia didn't use the same module on the 9500 I really don't know, it really is terrible quality. Think about these last two points before you decide to purchase!Read full review...

Nokia 9500 Communicator

This phone is pretty good, size is a bit of an issue otherwise wifi on this phone works pretty much flawlessly, a good addition for this phone is a belt holster for comfort and portability, phone pda response is pretty good, web browsers a little slow but usable, surprised it supports flash, data is fairly secure as you will not lose data if your battery goes flat or is removed, I did manage to crash the unit when I loaded some third party software on it which required me to hard reset the unit, I managed to get tomtom 5 sat nav running on the phone as well, the wide screen makes it quite usable for navigation, battery life is excellent on this unit, manage to squeeze 7 days of standby and about 4.5 hours of talk time, camera function is not bad for a vga cam even with the lack of flash capability, tried a 2Gb rs-mmc card and it worked flawlessly, some times you feel is could do with touch screen and keyboard backlight functionality but hopefully they will add this to the newer models in the future. I'm quite happy with the communicator as a email and pda type device but as a everyday phone it's a little bulky, but you can't have everything, plus the battery has got some stamina.Read full review...

Phone suits me well but 2 GB MMC doesn't suit it

I have been using Nokia Communicators for years -- I have very small hands so I can touch-type on them! For me it is 95% a PDA and only 5% a phone, so the size compared to a normal phone isn't really an issue. Having said that, I love the neat integration between the address book and the phone/email/text facilities -- this device is my one and only repository for contacts and my only calendar.
Shame it hasn't got a better camera, though maybe I'll pick up an E90 on eBay in due course once the first wave of users start upgrading!

I learnt specifically with this 9500 that the phone crashes frequently with a 2 GB MMC card installed -- it was fine when I swapped in the 128 MB card from my previous phone. And others have had the same experience, trawling the web. So don't be tempted by all those eBay ads for large MMC cards if you have a 9500, unless perhaps they work with newer device software (this one is 5.22(1)). At least Bluetooth works fine on this one -- on my previous one (sw 4.44 I think) it never really worked, though that might have been a hardware issue.Read full review...

Nokia 9500 communicator and 9300i

I was overall VERY pleased with the Nokia 9500 in use. I was after device that could "do it all", i.e. PDA, phone, radio, gps. I had used various PDA's over the years from palms and windows pocket pc's. The Nokia's major selling point to me was the fact the screen is tucked away when not in use and so is more difficult to damage (I do tend to give my devices a hard time when using them!). The wide screen format is FAB for surfing and checking emails. However, some pages do update rather slowly. The major issue for me was it's size. If it was the same size as the 9300i then it would be perfect! So much so, that I sold the 9500 and swapped to the 9300i. I can't wait for the E90 communictor to be released as this would appear to truly be the 'does it ill' device! I would recommend the 9500 for screen size and clarity, but the 9300i for size, pocket friendliness and portability. Neither (9500, 9300i) have bluetooth stereo support which is a shame.
Hope this helps someone.Read full review...