Nokia 3510i

The 3510i has been my favourite medium priced phone I have used in a long time. I have been using this phone for 3 months and have had no major complaint against it. I am not saying its perfect, but at the current prices you cannot go wrong and learn to live with its slightly larger size.

The 3510i is the next model up from the Nokia 3410. The difference in price between the two models is about £20 to £40 and for the extra you get a colour screen and Polyphonic ring tones, which are become standard on models now. The 3510 are the older unit and still has the black and white screen.

The Price
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This is the all-important bit so I will cover this first.

The sim free version costs about £120. Simfree means it is sold without a sim card and is unlocked so any sim card you put in will work.

Pay and Go versions start from about £89.99. These will be supplied with Pay and Go sim cards with about £5.00 worth of credit. These phones are locked to the network that they were bought on. Locked phones can be unlocked for about £15, but some features may not work correctly. You will also need to set up the phone again for both text and MMS picture messenger services if you use these. I can help do this all by email.

Contract 3510i are often given away for free on even the cheapest contract, as long as you take a 12-month contract with the operator. Contracts normally start from about £14 a month, so the operator will make £168 over the year from you. Have a look at www.foneseller.co.uk for the best deals on contract phones.

The good thing about this phone is that it’s a phone full of features and has the latest technology at a price you can afford. Mine cost me £65 from Ebay secondhand, while my wife’s was new again from Ebay for £80.

Ease of use.
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Over the last month I have owned a Nokia 7210, which I just couldn’t use because of the size of the buttons. Great phone which was smaller and lighter than the 3510i, but it took 10 minutes and three spelling mistakes to send a message.

I also bought a Pay as you go Sagem MY X6 on Orange for £100. This is a phone with a built in camera, but again the buttons are hard to use. They are two small for my average sized hands. I bought it to for the camera as my mates all have them…its now for sale!

The 3510i is the size of the Nokia 3310. It’s the perfect size for me. The buttons are of a decent size and it’s hard for me to mistype now. The menus are the typical Nokia ones which are impossible to get lost in. All the menus are well laid out. Built quality is excellent, and you have the benefit of interchangeable covers to replace worn keypads and covers.

Battery life is good at 7 days on standby the norm. Nokia claim 13 days, but I cannot manage this. Talk time is 4hours 30 minutes again from Nokia. I remember the days when I had to charge my phone every 2 days… Thanks heavens those days have gone….unless you are a 3G-phone user!

Phone call quality
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Nokia’s are by far the best phones in terms of reception. I have never had a problem. If you compare this is the Sony Ericsson T68/i and T200 models, which I have used, the reception is terrible at Busy network times. This is because the Nokia are powerful enough to use the next reception area if the one you are in are busy. Sony’s on the other hand are not, and switch you over to another network provider for emergency ”SOS calls only”.

I have never dropped a call and find telephones calls are clear quality at all times. Again no technical problems at all with the 3510i. Its no good having a nice looking phone if you cannot make calls….

Features
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The phone allows you to customise the backgrounds with a phone, so when you switch on the phone you can see a lovely picture of Kylie. She is getting dumped when next week as I am getting a picture of St James Park up instead….

You can also download Polyphonic ring tones, which are a huge improvement over past ones as they play near music quality from a speaker. You can download free Polyphonic ring tones via WAP from www.v22.net

This phone has a colour screen and always MMS messages to be sent to your phone. You cannot send of take MMS from this phone, so if you want to do this you have to upgrade to either the 7250 or 3650 models .7210 and 6610 also allow to send messages with an attachment camera. One of the biggest things for me, which is the downfall of MMS, is that if the person you are sending a message to has got to have the phone and sim card configured for MMS. Otherwise you need to log on to the internet to see the picture. I spend two hours getting my wife’s set up!.

The phone is Dual band so it will work most places abroad, except for America which use Tri-band. Again if you want a phone for with Tri Band look at the 6610, 7210, 6100 phones. If you wish to use your mobile abroad you will need to ring your operator giving about 2 weeks notice.

Java Games
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This allows you to download different games for about £3. Game quality is excellent and you can really get some decent games like Splinter Cell. Java games are turning the mobile phone into a mobile gaming device. As screens get bigger and phones are added with more memory I am sure they will over take the Game boy. Infact why not make the Gameboy into a phone! The N Gage will be the first gaming phone with a 3.4 MB memory….I watch with interest……

Conclusion
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My mate’s all take the Mickey because its so big compared with theirs…he he. But the honest answer is it suits my needs and I can use it. I don’t want to hit three buttons at once when I ring someone….

The phone works without complaining. It doesn’t have any software faults that make it freeze up. It does the job of being a phone well.

And the best part is when I go down the town on my beer scooter, I am not frightened of losing my phone. If I had paid £400 for it I would leave it in my house everyday