Features

Reviewed: Nokia LAM-1 GPS Module

Our self-styled 'Gadget Guy' reviews a mobile phone that reminds him of a brick, in the car, and finds he likes it because of its new GPS module abilities. Well, he would, if only the module didn't keep falling off ...

Good old GSM data. When we talk of wireless data these days the air is full, quite literally in fact, with stuff like Wi-Fi, 802-11, WLAN, GPRS, 3G and so on. But it is worth remembering that good old GSM is still very much the wireless data mover of choice for the vast majority of mobile workers in Europe, and that's without touching on the huge domestic user-base.

Yes it is slow compared to the whiz-bang shifting of data that a GPRS enabled device can muster, but for voice, text messaging and even the odd bit of email there is nothing that comes close in terms of both value for money and flexibility of hardware device options. Mobile phone handsets are getting smaller, smarter, and with the latest batch of ‘smart phone' releases that combine slim-line PDA and mobile phone handset in one they are even fulfilling the promise of the 90's – convergence.

So why on earth would anyone, let alone the self confessed ‘Gadget Guy', want to be seen carrying a mobile phone more reminiscent in both size and weight of a brick?

I am, as if you hadn't guessed, talking about the Nokia 9210. Sure, you look a little daft talking into the back of the thing when the unit is closed (going off topic a tad, you can become geek of the week when watching a film in which the star is using one of these to make a call – just tell everyone they are not really using the phone as they will invariably be talking into the wrong side!). But open it up and use the superb, and in my opinion totally unsurpassed, hands free speaker-phone and dazzling colour screen people start taking notice. Business people that is - your average teenager wouldn't be seen dead with a phone that looks so, well, square. The savvy business user concentrates on the features, what other mobile handset lets you receive as well as send faxes for example, or has proper word processor and spreadsheet apps built in?

Once you fall for a 9210 they are hard to shake off, although the more recent 9210i is one of those cosmetic marketing upgrades that struggles to reach any kind of expenditure justification. Do we really want a backlit keyboard and a different web browser? Even the ‘extra' 16Mb internal memory is somewhat nullified by the fact that you no longer get a 16Mb MMC card with it. However, I digress. The point is that even the Gadget Guy gets fed up with technology that is more than a year old, and the 9210 has passed that birthday and then some. What is needed is something new to maintain my attraction, and that something has turned up in the shape of the LAM-1 GPS module.

Yes, you read that right – a Global Positioning System module for a mobile phone. In America, they're getting quite blase about this sort of thing, perhaps, but in Europe, it's exciting and new.

This tiny 5.5cm x 3cm unit simply plugs into the bottom socket of the 9210, adding an inch to the overall length of your phone – as if it wasn't big enough already. But you soon forgive it for that, and when not being used you can store it in the oh so sexy black neoprene zip case that I have attached to the equally sexy black nappa leather ‘chairman's case' which cost far more than I am willing to divulge in case the Gadget Girl (AKA Mrs Gadget) is reading. Nokia has thought through the design of the LAM-1 and curved the backside of the device so as to allow access to the external power point of the 9210 – essential if being used in the car so you can power the fairly hungry GPS module and handset from the cigarette lighter socket with the relevant adaptor.

In the box you not only get the module itself, but a 3m extension aerial with magmount that is perfect for slapping on the car roof and providing optimum satellite visibility under all but the most oppressive conditions whilst on the move. Most important is the software package, a double CD containing both RoutePlanner and CityMaps from TomTom.

Whilst these maps cover 40 European countries and 100,000 cities, you probably wouldn't want to install too many at once because each has to be selected individually and transferred via the main installer menu, a tedious process after the first half dozen areas moved. You end up just moving the stuff you think you will be covering on your travels and hope you haven't missed anywhere. If you do want to install large areas then you need plenty of storage card space, the UK RoutePlanner map east 4.6Mb, the London area city map 5.3Mb and so on. Once installed though, everything is pretty intuitive and easy enough to use. Open your 9210, select either the route planner for in-car satnav functionality or the city maps for general ‘where the heck am I?' use.

Zooming levels are excellent; you can go right down to street level, and there are numerous map colour schemes to best suit both your eyesight and environmental conditions. In use I found the GPS accuracy excellent in-car with the magmount antenna and on foot just with the antenna built into the module itself. Indeed, my first test was to find a press event being held at the ICA in the centre of London having disembarked from a train at Blackfriars. Now although I was dragged up in South London, for the last decade I have lived a life of rural seclusion up in Yorkshire. Finding my way around town is not something that goes on my CV. However, the Nokia came into its own with the destination tapped into the route planner.

The GPS showed my exact position outside the station and although there are no turn by turn arrows or voice commands the ‘you are here' pointer, pointing in direction of travel, was sufficient to ensure I kept to the right streets. I found myself enjoying the hospitality of the PlayBite Mansion (as the ICA had become for the day) and ogling new technology from the likes of Epson, Toshiba, Logitech, Iomega and BT in no time at all. Best of all the power consumption was handled quite intelligently, and the half an hour walk consumed less than one ‘block' of my power bar. Further investigations proved that to have the unit running continually would power down the 9210 after 4 hours on battery alone.

In-car things are not so wonderful though, the screen of the 9210 whilst being crisp and colourful is quite simply too small to be used safely by the driver of a vehicle whilst on the move. A passenger can have the thing on their lap and use it as an interactive map to great effect, but if you were looking for a relatively cheap introduction to after market auto satnav devices, forget it.

So would I recommend this? Yes and no, when stored in an inside coat pocket with the module attached the slightly wobbly nature of the connection between the two does mean you can sometimes leave the LAM-1 behind as you pull the 9210 out. It is useless as an in-car satnav for the driver as explained but that was never the real purpose of the product.

The real purpose, of course, is to showcase just what Nokia can do with the 9210 as is, and leave the business consumer watering at the mouth with expectation of what will be included in the 9310 (or whatever they call it). Personally, I won't complain if they build GPS functionality into the next generation handset, remove the plastic cladding and the GPS unit itself is small enough to be designed into the handset itself. I will complain if they do it at the expense of GPRS or 3G services and Bluetooth in the box.