The 6210 Navigator is one of the first in Nokia's new range of navigation handsets, an upgrade from the 6110 and sharing a lot in common with the stylings of the widely advertised 6220 Classic. The 6210 comes with built-in GPS out of the box, detailed Nokia Maps for your region and high-speed connectivity.

The Symbian S60 software included shares a lot with Nokia's higher end handsets, but the 6210 firmly treads the middle ground with a 3.2 megapixel camera and a slightly unwieldy slider design. We must have been spoilt by all of those N-Series phones, as the 6210 exudes an air of robust workman-like build quality, rather than luxurious.

However, the phone is definitely one for the outdoors, glossy looking and yet sturdy to the touch, and with dimensions of 103 x 49 x 15mm and a weight of 117g give it a reassuring heft of being able to survive the elements.

The 1GB memory card which comes bundled with the handset is pre-loaded with detailed Navigator technology that springs to life as soon as the backlit 'compass' key is depressed. This option leads to a wealth of navigation options, as well as maps of the UK and Ireland. Nokia also provides a 6-month trial of the Drive and Walk service (which is 44.95 for 12 months), which offers the turn-by-turn and voice guidance that any TomTom user will be familiar with.

Whether the 2.4 inch screen can replace an in-car system is debatable, but the quick warm-up times to catch a satellite signal, intuitive controls and responsive updating makes this an excellent tool for negotiating the urban jungle on foot. A quick flip of the phone through 90 degrees, and the internal accelerometer switches the display to a widescreen view.

The widescreen view does carry over to many menu navigation functions, and it is a little jarring if only because it is unexpected. Many options and buttons reorient themselves to cater for the landscape layout, and it becomes a welcome adjustment once used to it. Web browsing and media playback immediately take advantage of this, and was a refreshing change from the awkward resizing of favourite websites on a handset.

The 6210 comes with a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, which despite an LED flash enables high quality photos in every setting apart from low lighting. This is still a bridge too far for most mobile phones, yet the 6210 performs admirably.

When it comes to battery life, the stated talktime of 4 hours and over 200 hours standby is fairly close to the truth! Under standard usage, making a large number of phonecalls and texts as well as navigating around Central London for about 20 minutes on a 3G connection, the battery still managed almost two days on a single charge.  A refreshing change to not always be thinking about the next charge, especially on such a feature intensive handset.  

The connectivity options are competent on the 6210, yet it unfortunately stops short of offering Wi-Fi support. Web browsing is quick and easy, not least due to the ability to use it in widescreen. Nokia Maps uses it for the navigation portion of it's service, bringing up new points of interest or handling a change of location with speed and very few drop-outs.

It also is a very clear handset when it come to voice calls, no reception issues to speak of with a surprisingly competent second camera for making video calls.

It is a great mid-range handset, a phone which ticks all the boxes as far as usability and multimedia goes, yet with a slant towards functional rather than fun. It excels as an assistant to getting around town, is very simple to use, and if you can get past the uninspired design, the 6210 is definitely a step in the right direction for Nokia.