Due to a recent family crisis I knew it was time to invest in a better mobile phone in order to be able to stay in touch with my family and friends. A basic mobile phone is what I prefer as I have a good digital camera and a good MP3 player and prefer to keep the 3 separate! As this family crisis was very unexpected and swallowed up a lot of rainy day money, spare money was also very tight and I knew I had to stick to a strict budget when looking for my new phone.
I browsed around a few of my local mobile phone shops but as I am an 02 customer they did seem to offer me the best all round deals. They only had a couple Pay As You Go mobile phones within my price range (as cheap as possible!) and at £29.99 I decided to go for the Nokia
2630, a basic but stylish looking phone at a very reasonable price. I was also given the opportunity to trade in my old phone, which would take another £5 from the total price, of course, I took them up on the offer!
Specifications
The boring bits:
Size - 105 x 45 x 9.9mm
Weight - 66g with battery
Display - 128 x 160 pixels
Messaging and Email - E-mail, Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging, SMS Messaging, MMS Messaging
Multimedia - Digital VGA Camera/Video Recorder, FM Radio
Other features include vibration alert, 24 polyphonic ringtones, automatic redial, call divert, call barring, call hold, call timer, call waiting, voicemail, speakerphone, Bluetooth, phone book capacity for 1000 names and numbers, alarm clock, calendar, calculator and 3 pre-installed games.
The Packaging
The phone was very neatly packed in a small and very compact cardboard box along with the small charger, hands-free headset and instruction booklet. When I first turned the phone on there was enough charge for me to use the phone for a couple of hours, which was quite useful, as I wasn't going straight home.
My Experience With The Phone
My first impressions were "love at first sight". I loved the sleek and stylish look of the phone from the instant I saw it. Its very shiny, black and slim design makes it quite eye-catching and, I feel, a very feminine phone.
The back of the phone is a matt black finish, while the front of the phone is a lovely glossy black with a band of silver around the edge and the navigation keys to the centre of the phone are also in silver.
The number keys are glossy black with blue digits printed on them and are flush with the phone but are still very easy to press, I thought it might be a bit tricky to press each key individually with them all being flush, but I certainly haven't had any problems with this. Although perhaps someone with larger fingers might.
Navigation using the menu is also foolproof, as is usually the case with Nokia phones. You just press the centre menu button and navigate your way to where you want to go using the arrow keys.
I've never had a phone with Bluetooth before and was quite impressed with this feature, as I was able to send up-to-date pictures of Erin's improvement in hospital daily to my friends and family back home.
The VGA camera is easily accessed by a quick action button on the side of the phone, it doesn't take the best of quality photos but then I didn't want the phone for the camera. It takes decent enough photos to use as your screen saver or to send to other phones.
The 4 navigation arrow keys each have a quick action function as well, one also takes you directly to the camera, one to your text messaging function, one to your phone book and one to your calendar. You can also access the FM radio by pressing and holding the star key and the silent mode by pressing and holding the hash key.
I never turn my phone off and usually use it at least a couple of times a day for calls and texts and have only ever needed to give it a charge once a week. It takes about 40 minutes to fully charge the battery.
All in all I have found this a really great little phone. It is lightweight, slim and attractive looking, easy to use with great reception and sound quality. A great way to keep in touch with friends and family at those all important times in your life. It has a great little radio and a camera too, what more could you want from a phone!
I would definitely recommend this phone to anyone out there who is just looking for a phone as a means of communication, it has everything you could possibly need.
My only complaints would be (petty as they may seem) remembering to lock the keypad, my last 2 phones were flip phones and I just can't seem to remember to lock the keypad and I keep phoning people I don't want to phone!!! But then that's not the fault of the phone, that's my fault. And trying to keep the ear prints and fingerprints off of the beautiful glossy front, but then that would mean stopping using the phone.
Thanks for reading.
Also posted elsewhere under the same name.
İlel1969
by (7%):
12.11.2008 08:25
Not my phone of choice but I can see why they are so popular, great review. x
02.11.2008 17:58
i used nokias for years. great review. Em x
15.10.2008 22:27
Wish I had to only charge my 6300 once a week, great review Sue