Social Anthropologist and consumer!
Has a functional approach to most things and count that first ...
Social Anthropologist and consumer!
Has a functional approach to most things and count that first and fancy designs second.
Very experienced when it comes to computers (have dealt 2nd hand computers for several years).
Cover: The Nokia 5100 is made of the same sheet metal and plastic as any other phone underneath the cover, so we won't find any special sturdiness here. The cover itself is made in rubber, which makes the keys quite hard to use (when e.g. writing SMS messages). The plugs for headset and poweramp in the bottom is protected by a rubber flap which will probably fall off after some use. Fortuneately the cover is easily switchable, which for reasons mentioned above could be required.
The software: Generally speaking the software is good. The calendar is good and highly useable, as is most other features. Games are awful, mainly due to the LCD on which the colors and motions become blured. The sound-, thermo- and calorie-meters are gimmicks with no real use.
The screen: As mentioned above the LCD is not good for motion. However the size and text is good as such. I see no reason why it has to be a color screen, but I suppose if you are a user of MMS it is quite nice. One thing that could have been made quite easily is an option to turn off the screen as a screen saver in stead of the clock screen saver. That could save a lot of battery (my old Bosch 738 had this feature and it more than doubled battery life).
DATA. The GPRS and the build inmodem is working quite nicely over IrDA. I am able to get a downloadrate about 6 kB/s via GPRS. Have not been able to test the High Speed Data, due to problems at my ISP's. Neither had I used WAP, since I use my portable via GPRS if I need information.
Extras: The Nokia 5100 is shipped with a power amp and a headset with a built-in radio. The charger is unfortuneately of different standard than the ones used on 3210. The headset is made in a quality that just don't last and allready one wire is broken. The radio was good, though. Two mini-jacks and a radio built-in the phone would be a much better solution. The Nokia 5100 has a lamp built in which is supricingly useful. Only minus is that it uses a damn lot of battery, but this is a feature Nokia (and others) should put in more phones! The belt clip is a rubber string and plastic hooks of doubtful quality.
Battery: The phone ships with a Li-Ion battery which will last for less than a week at minimal use. A screen-power-off option would have had quite positive effect on this.
Conclusion: The phone 'sits between two chairs'. On one hand it is made as a sturdy phone, but the quality is just too 'cheap'. In the manual it is said that the written guarantee will be repealed if the phone is used in wet environment - so much about sturdiness! On the other hand the phone has DATA-features that are quite nice. The GPRS, modem and IrDA works fine and swift and is an easy way of getting on the Net with a portable. However it have proved quite impossible to find the USB-data cable mentioned on Nokia.com anywhere in Denmark, som if you don't have a IrDA port, you won't even be able to transfer as much as a ring tone. Bluetooth would have been a great feature!
At the bottom line. To have a really sturdy phone Ericsson R310s is still the one to chose (should be able to find it 2nd hand - they are almost indestructable), but when it comes to DATA-features Nokia 5100 will prove a good choise.The phone doesn't keep what it promisses, and changing the covers as they break was not a thing I thought I had to do, when I bought the phone...
Regards Troels-Henrik , Denmark
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I don't think I've ever heard of this phone, however this pic ciao provides with the green cover does make it look rather tasty.
Good review PlaceboFan x
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Advantages: Almost waterproof, "droppable", a tough simple phone, nice battery life Disadvantages: Thermometer not accurate, expensive exterior covers that become less effective with age
andrewwarren 19.02.2004 (20.02.2004)
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