Although Nokia's vaunted Communicator series of smartphones are known for their many cool features, diminutive size is not one of them.

Nokia hopes to change that perception with its introduction of the 9300 communicator, a little sister of sorts to the highly anticipated 9500 communicator (see BlackBerry Connects with Nokia Communicator).

The 9300 will measure 5.2 x 2.0 x 0.83 inches and weigh only 5.9 ounces, about average for a smartphone, but extremely light for a Nokia Communicator. By contrast, the 9500 weighs in at a hefty 7.83 ounces and sports dimensions of 5.8 x 2.24 x 0.9 inches.

Do you sacrifice much with the petite 9300? Not really.

As with the 9500, the 9300 provides Wi-Fi in addition to its tri-band GSM/GPRS cellular radio. Both smartphones are also compatible with EDGE networks—the next-generation data standard for GSM that delivers three times the throughput of GPRS.

You also get Bluetooth, which lets you use wireless headsets among other peripherals. Also included are infrared and USB 2.0, which allows for fast, wired syncing between smartphone and desktop.

The clamshell 9300 also features the Communicator series’ signature full keyboard, which is larger and more versatile than the BlackBerry thumb-keyboard, as well as a 640 x 200-pixel screen that supports 65,536 colors. When the 9300 is closed, a second 128 x 128 pixel display serves as the main interface.

Like the full VGA displays on the way in Pocket PCs from Asus, Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu-Siemens, you can use the 9300's screen to view spreadsheets and Web pages, for example, with a minimum amount of scrolling (see VGA Back in Vogue with...Handhelds). Since the 9300—like the 9500—runs Nokia's Series 80 interface on top of Symbian OS 7.0, both handhelds can use the same software.

A major drawback of the Series 80 platform—lack of touchscreen support—means those used to pen input may find navigating these Nokia devices cumbersome. Primary navigation for the 9300 and 9500 is by means of a nine-way navigational D-pad and an on-screen cursor. The already announced sequel to Series 80, Series 90, supports touchscreens and stylus input.

In terms of application software, the 9300 includes an array of personal information management and mobile office applications that let users edit spreadsheets, Word documents and presentations created in Microsoft Office 97 and up. There is a Java-based e-mail client that supports SyncML, POP3, IMAP, and SMTP standards and a Web browser that handles XHTML, HTML 4.01 and WML 1.3.

Like the 9500, the 9300 is compatible with Research In Motion's BlackBerry e-mail and data access solutions. And as with most smartphones, MMS and SMS messaging is supported. You can listen to audio files as well as view pictures and video. Unlike the 9500, the 9300 won't provide a digital camera.

Other features include 80MB of RAM, a MultiMediaCard slot for memory expansion up to 2GB and a swappable lithium battery that Nokia said delivers 4 hours talk and 200 hours of standby time on a single charge.

The 9300 is scheduled to ship in early 2005 for an as-yet-undisclosed price.

Security
When the 9300 Communicator ships, you will be able to secure it with Pointsec for Symbian OS 2.1, which automatically encrypts all files before they are stored, and decrypts them when opened by an authenticated user—a process that is transparent to the user and which does not noticeably affect performance, according to the vendor. Pointsec is also compatible with the 9500.