Nokia 3510i

...above are all quoted from Nokia but in practice they are pretty accurate. The charge time in particular is spot on although I'm still in the habit of leaving the phone connected to the charger overnight, a throwback from my Phillips phone when I had to charge it for that long! I find the phone lasts for around a week between charges, not bad considering it is in use everyday for calls and messages. The standby figure is the only one I cannot say ...
...think carefully when customising your Nokia 3510i… Pink covers are definitely out!



~FEATURES~

High resolution, 4096 colour illuminated display
Wallpaper
Screensaver
Polyphonic ring tones
Phone book
Call management

The screen size, whilst not enormous is certainly larger than I was used to. The biggest difference here for me was the fact that the display ... more

My old phone was on its last legs. Certain people were apparently getting a tad fed up with the fact I could rarely hold a 30-second phone call without it dying. I loved my old phone; it had been trustworthy to the end, well almost! I had to take the hint eventually and go and buy a new one; some were starting to think I just didn't want to talk to them…

~BASICS~

Size - 118 x 49.6 x 17.1 mm
Weight – 106g (Including battery)
Talk time – 2 hours 30 – 4 hours 30
Standby time – up to 13 days (312 hours)
Charging time – 4 hours approx
Blue front and back covers as standard.

With this phone's size and weight it isn't perhaps either the smallest or lightest available, far from it in fact. It is however pretty comparable to my last mobile, which was a Phillips Saavy. With its built in aerial it is not only sleeker than the Phillips was, but I can't poke anyone's eye out now! If anything, this phone is better balanced when holding it in my hand and in use, which is the important thing. Slightly 'top heavy' it gives a better all round 'feel' in use.

The standby/talk/charging times above are all quoted from Nokia but in practice they are pretty accurate. The charge time in particular is spot on although I'm still in the habit of leaving the phone connected to the charger overnight, a throwback from my Phillips phone when I had to charge it for that long! I find the phone lasts for around a week between charges, not bad considering it is in use everyday for calls and messages. The standby figure is the only one I cannot say if it is correct or not. Not use my mobile for 13 days to test the theory out? Well I thought about it…

The metallic blue covers are pretty neutral and would suit either male/female users, however the bright orange side panels may well not be to everyone's tastes. The covers can of course be changed and I have so far found a pretty good selection available in mobile phone accessory shops of which there seem to be plenty in most high streets. The orange panels are unfortunately NOT removable – they are an integrated part of the design and light up when the phone is in use – therefore think carefully when customising your Nokia 3510i… Pink covers are definitely out!

~FEATURES~

High resolution, 4096 colour illuminated display
Wallpaper
Screensaver
Polyphonic ring tones
Phone book
Call management

The screen size, whilst not enormous is certainly larger than I was used to. The biggest difference here for me was the fact that the display is in colour whereas my Phillips had a very odd tinge to it. The wallpapers/pictures I have seen so far all appear to show up clearly but I really haven't counted the number of colours that CAN be shown. Why do manufacturers insist on quoting this kind of information?

The screen layout is easy to read and navigate. The clock sits in the top right hand corner, the menu option in the bottom left and the ability to quickly get to your address book is found bottom right. The signal bar runs up the left-hand side of the screen and the battery life indicator up the right. It's all very simple and uncluttered. The screensaver is however a real let down. There's only the one (a clock) and whilst that is very useful it would be nice if there was a choice available. There is also NO ability to download an alternative either, so you are stuck with it. You can however choose how long (in minutes) it takes for the screensaver to cut in which is a minor redeeming feature.

The wallpaper selection (found in the gallery) that is pre-loaded onto the phone is nothing to write home about really. There's certainly nothing that's going to make you gasp or shout "Wow"! Granted they are better than looking at the Nokia choice but still… The same can be said for the ring tone selection available. There are 34 of them when you get the phone, both polyphonic and monophonic and the best that can be said is that they are pretty dire. Luckily for everyone you can change both ring tone and wallpaper by downloading new ones via the WAP provision.

There are several simple ways of getting at the phone book and even 2 ways of storing your friends/colleagues/family names/numbers. Simply hitting the downward scroll button will take you to all your stored numbers and I've already mentioned the 'names' option available from the main screen. Now depending on what information you want to store will depend on where you store each name/number. If you store all your names on the SIM card then all you can do is save name and number. However, if you want to add more information about each contact (e-mail, web address and postal address) then you can store the information on the phones internal memory. Be aware though that this will cut down on how much other stuff you can store as the memory is finite and has to be shared between all applications. Personally I have all my numbers stored on the SIM card. I NEED the space for downloads…

Now the most important bit for this section – making calls! If you know the number of the person you're calling, just enter the number and hit dial, alternatively use the address book and dial out that way. There is a simpler way for lazy people – rather like myself. You can store 9 of your most frequently used numbers on 'speed dial' and just hit the appropriate keypad number then dial. Connection seems to be faster than on my old Phillips and much clearer. You can also assign 10 numbers to 'voice dial'. I had that facility on my old phone and I thought it was a really great innovation until I realised how much of a twit you look talking to your disconnected phone… Needless to say, I have chosen NOT to assign ANY numbers!

You can redial the last number called by simply pressing the dial button twice and call back a missed call by finding the number in the 'missed calls' menu. To receive a call simply hit the answer button or you could hit end call to send the caller through to voice mail. You'd be amazed how many times I do that…!

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MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)
GSM connectivity with GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) for monthly customers.
WAP 1.2.1

Multimedia messaging in short is exactly what you would expect it to be. This phone gives you the ability to send messages that contain text and graphics and you can receive messages that contain text, graphics AND ring tones.

The phone gives you the ability to use something called 'concatenated' SMS, which I don't pretend to understand; put simply it means that you can send and receive text messages of up to 761 characters without the phone breaking them up into shorter chunks and therefore costing more to send. I would applaud anyone sending me a message of 761 characters but the chances of me ever sending one of that length is remote at best! It is a far better system though than the one I was used to; at least now I can send a message longer than 160 letters if I wish to.

Just like with my old phone there is a pre-loaded selection of pictures you can attach to your text message to 'enhance' it. Unfortunately when you get to the 'insert picture' option all you get is a list (picture 1, picture 2 etc) which is unhelpful to say the least. On my old phone you just scrolled through the pictures until you found the one you wanted. Now you have to open each one to see what it is. I suppose if you have a fantastic memory you'd soon remember which was which. I don't tend to bother much with this facility because I just cannot be bothered to mess about opening each one. You can also take advantage of the Multimedia messaging menu option where you can write text messages, add graphics and send the result to either another mobile phone with the ability to receive these sorts of messages OR send to an e-mail address.

There are some 10 pre-defined templates you can use for regular SMS messages but I have never had cause to use them; I prefer to send personal messages. The phone also has a predictive text option. Again I don't use it; but it's not that I haven't tried to get to grips with it of course! I think I'm just to set in my ways now to bother with it and besides, my life is too short to teach my phone which words I use regularly.

There are of course plenty of folders available for you to store all your SMS/MMS sent/received messages in and you can also create your own. I have got into the habit of going through them all regularly and clearing out all unwanted messages, I have already mentioned that the more things you save the less memory is available for other applications.

I'm not even going to begin to try and understand what the connectivity statements from Nokia mean. WAP I grasp, but only just, the rest flies above my head! All I know is that in practice the connection is pretty fast, you only pay for what you download and at least this ability means you can swiftly personalise your phone and get rid of the hideous Nokia pre-loaded wallpapers and ringing tones… Downloads are easy to retrieve, store and access – they must be, even I can manage it!

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Java games
Clock, calendar, alarm clock, stopwatch, timer
Customisable profiles

The phone comes with 3 games – Backgammon, Racket and Skydiver. The first I think is self-explanatory and the second is a tennis style game, which is pretty hard until you get the hang of which key to press when. Skydiver is I think a fairly obvious title. Guide your little parachuting guy through rings and then land him safely within the landing zone. Addictive little game this one and I'm in no rush to get rid of it. When you get bored of his airborne antics you can always forget to open his parachute… As with the ring tones/wallpaper/graphics, you can download alternative games from a wide selection available online and delete unwanted games when you've had enough of them.

The clock/date is first set when you turn on your phone for the first time – it is the first thing you are prompted to do. Once set you can then use the calendar function and the alarm clock. The calendar allows you to make notes for whatever days you like and you can set an alarm to alert you should you wish to. Handy little feature for those as forgetful as myself! The alarm clock is a synch to set and a little bell symbol is displayed when it turned on. Trust me here – it's loud and only gets louder until you either hit off or snooze.

The customisable profiles is an area I haven't really fully explored but the basic premise of it is that you can select different 'modes' that the phone can operate in; silent, discreet, loud or chose your own. Each of the pre-named modes can be personalised, but as I have said, I haven't bothered! If I want the phone to be quiet it really isn't a struggle to turn it off or set it to not ring…

~SUMMARY~

In a nutshell, those are the basics of this phone. I love its customisability and I suppose in theory there shouldn't be 2 completely identical Nokia 3510I's out there! With covers that can be changed coupled with the fact that the wallpaper, ring tones and games can all be deleted/changed you really can make this baby your very own and stamp your identity all over it. There are no bugs in the software that I have noticed, mine certainly hasn't locked or hung whilst I've had it.

The phone really is a doddle to use and to get the hang of. When I bought it, it came with a small yet fairly substantial booklet full of step-by-step guides but I found and indeed am still finding that the best way to discover what it can do is to scroll through the menus and play around with it a bit. I only have small hands but I can navigate and hit all keys accurately – just by using the thumb of one hand! The screen is not so large that it dominates the phone yet not so small that you have to squint to see what you're doing.

I bought mine from The Link for £89.95 as a Pay-And-Go package (it should have been £99.95) - I obtained a ten pound reduction for trading my old phone in and also gained the advantage of having the Orange Text Saver pack (worth £19.99) thrown in for free.

This is a perfect phone for older kids or for adults like myself who want a good, solid and reliable method of communication but don't want anything to complicated or complex.

Unfortunately it's a little TOO reliable. I have to talk to people now… ;-)

 

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