{"id":28,"date":"2023-07-11T08:46:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T08:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.iains-net\/?p=28"},"modified":"2025-12-24T00:37:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T00:37:48","slug":"nokia9000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vintage.bohemiancave.org.uk\/index.php\/nokia9000\/","title":{"rendered":"Nokia Communicator 9000"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Nokia\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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This is the very first of Nokia’s line of Communicator phones, released in August of 1996. I call it a phone but it’s more than that. It’s a very early Smart Phone and it’s quite a heavy brick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The device consists of a merger of two almost distinct but very linked devices. One is on the outside and the other is available when you open the device up clamshell-like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside is a pretty ordinary looking feature phone. It has all the features you’d expect from such a device. This is far from the reason that the 9000 is such an interesting device.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Inside you get to see a much larger screen and a full qwerty keyboard. From here you have access to what you could expect from any PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) of the day: Contacts, Notes, Calendar. You can also send faxes (remember those), email, SMS messages, make phone calls and a few other miscellaneous things.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Hardware<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Nokia Communicator 9000 was the first, and definitely the largest and heaviest of it’s type at 173x64mm and a whopping 38mm thick, and almost 400g heavy. You might think all this was to house the hardware within. This included not only a standard ‘feature phone’, visible from the outside, but also when opened up a complete PDA. That’s two whole devices, but not just two separate devices, but devices that shared common storage memory. Any contacts entered on the outer phone could be viewed and edited on the inner PDA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hardware of each could almost be separate. Each had its own display and input device (one a numeric keypad and the other a qwerty keyboard). However, the power switch on the front only switched off the phone and not the PDA. The only way to do that would have bee to remove the battery. Without the phone switched on, the PDA could not make calls, send texts – the 9000 relied on the phone for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When is came to talking to the outside world, one could use the GSM cellular network. This is sadly a feature no longer available to me. Placing calls an sending text messages is about all that can be achieved with modern cellular networks. I heard even that will be going away soon in favour of more modern protocols. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as through the cellular radio, the 9000 can communicate through it’s build in IrDA port. This was a technology favoured between the late 1990’s and early 2000’s involving sending and receiving data using infra-red light. It wasn’t as convenient and fast as Bluetooth or WiFi and required pointing the infra-red ports of the two devices at each other. For this reason it could be considered more secure, but then we have developed encryption technologies that make that reason almost redundant. The IrDA software on the 9000 is more limited than on newer devices (that still have such ports) in the sending of contacts and calendar entries. It seems to be mostly designed for the syncing of the whole directory (or each type) rather than the concept of ‘beaming’ just one entry, favoured of newer devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One last method of communication afforded to the 9000 user would be the (at the time) common RS-232 serial port.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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RS-232 on the 9000 is achieved through the proprietary connector on the bottom of the device. A PAR-1 adapter is available to provide the 2.5mm headphone jack required for the cable itself. The adapter also provides the barrel jack port by which the (removable) battery can be charged (supposedly this is 12V centre-positive although I find that 9V is sufficient).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  • GSM phone.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Qwerty keyboard on the inside (including arrows, shortcut keys, ‘help’ key and, around the screen, menu buttons and up and down arrow keys) and numeric keypad on the outside (plus power, cancel, ‘abc’, up and down, #, *, two soft keys and call answer and end buttons). <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Two screens:\n
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    • Outside: 1.75″ LCD, monochrome, 50×38 pixels (with some fixed elements), backlit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Inside: 4.5″ LCD, 4 shades of grey, 640×200 pixels, not backlit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Processor (for PDA): 24 MHz Intel 386EX (32bit, single core).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • RAM: 4 MiB (2 MiB’s for user storage).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • ROM: 4 MiB.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Mono mic and loudspeaker for normal phone and handsfree use.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Mini-SIM slot.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • IrDA 1.0 (115200 bit\/s).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Proprietary expansion connector – for power and RS-232 serial (115200 bps) via PAR-1 adapter.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Removable Li-Ion battery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Software<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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      The first two Nokia Communicator models ran the GEOS operating system by Geoworks. The user interface was one of Nokias own devising. Later models in the series were based on Symbian Series 80 with a user interface designed to be similar to that of the 9000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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      The 9000 user interface consists of nine primary modes (akin to applications), each entered through an individual button on the keyboard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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      \"nokia\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
      Tel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      \"nokia\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
      Contacts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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      \"nokia\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
      Fax<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      \"nokia\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
      Calendar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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      SMS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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      System<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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      Internet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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      Extras<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

      The user interface feels a little thin compared to the likes of the Psion Series 3 or the HP Jornada. They are fully fledged PDA’s though, so it’s not really surprising. Feature-wise, it feels more like one of the many generic and basic offerings that flooded the market around that time (but with a much nicer display). However, being able to make calls, send texts etc. right from your PDA was quite a feature. With a dedicated PDA you have to use IrDA or a dedicated cable to achieve something similar (but that’s nowhere near as seamless).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      One thing the 9000 has over those basic PDA’s, more in line with those dedicated, premium PDA’s is the ability to install further applications. I haven’t yet been able to explore this due to my insistence on using Linux and my failure to (yet) find a program that will let me send software to the 9000. I’ll just have to install Nokia’s own software on one of my old Windows 98 machines. Watch this space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n