I have finally got a new phone! I know you are thinking "So what! That's not very exciting!" Well actually for me it's a big event. You see I have had the same mobile phone for about 4 years and I loved it, it was so easy to use and familiar and even though the camera was rubbish and it looked out of date and my friends thought it was like something from the Stone Age I refused to give it up. Then it started to play up and kept turning itself off and the battery life got shorter and shorter and it was then I knew that my little reliable friend had to go!
We are with Orange and the other half took me to the Orange shop to pick a upgrade as apparently we were due one, I did try to do this on line but got confused with the phones and wanted to see them before committing to my next little friend! The nice lady who I have to say was very helpful took me through the ones I could have and I spotted this one. The other half was like a kid in a candy store and started picking all these different phones that looked like they could control a small space station! But I stuck to my guns and decided that this one looked the easiest to use, so did this phone become my friend or enemy!
COMPANY HISTORY
Nokia is a well-known famous mobile phone brand and in this mobile age most people will have owned a Nokia phone at one time or other. The company was actually first started in Finland and dates back to 1865, believe it or not the company started as a paper mill! The paper mill merged with a rubber works and cable works in 1967 to make up the world famous Nokia Corporation. In 1992 they lunched their first GSM handset the Nokia 1011, in 1994 the first phone with the famous Nokia tune and more importantly in 1997 the 6110 was launched with the game Snake!
WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
Now I very nearly had to skate pass this bit because as soon as I got my new phone home the other half disappeared with the box to play with my new phone (boy's and their toys!) After rescuing it (waited for him to pop to the loo!) I found the box contained: The phone (well doh!), stereo headset, instruction booklet, charger, USB cable, memory card, computer CD, guarantee and TV cable, They all came in a smart little black box.
THE PHONE
The phone measures 96.5mm x 46.5mm x 16.4mm and weighs a reassuring 123grams.
The phone itself is quite smart looking it comes in either silver or black and I chose the black one as I thought I would scratch the silver one quicker! When you first look at the phone even though it looks smart it doesn't look anything special but once you see the screen all lit up you realize it's actually quite good. The screen is very sharp and this is the bit that initially impressed me the colours are so bright and clear, compared to my previous phone it looks so much more up to date and smart. When the phone is closed you can just see the screen and below that 4 buttons and a big button in the middle, the 2 lower buttons are the standard green and red buttons that are on most phones to answer and finish calls. The only problem with the screen I can find is if you look at it in the sun light it actually looks dull and more black and white than the normal clear and sharp.
To get all the other number buttons you just slide the screen up this is very easy and doesn't seem to get stuck, when you do this the buttons also all light up. I must also add that the phone is quite heavy, I thought this could be a problem as I like to keep my phone in my pocket but actually I have found that it does feel quite reassuring.
GETTING STARTED
I would like to say before I even start telling you about setting up the phone that as you have guessed I am not a technical person I have a other half for that. But seeing how I upset him by nicking the phone back while he was on the loo he threw a typical man strop and told me to figure it out myself! So I decided to give it a go firstly I started to read the manual, which is actually quite good and straight forward even for techno phobes like myself.
I firstly charged the phone up which the manual said should take 3 hours well that was stage 1 over with and nobody died so on to step 2! This was the bit I wasn't looking forward to transferring all my phone numbers to my new phone. For this bit I had to use the computer CD which filled me with dread and I had images of blowing up both the computer and the phone but to my amazement this was really easy and straight forward I was actually quite proud of myself that I actually managed to transfer the information so easily! Obviously I had to use the USB cable to plug my phone into the computer and nothing blew up! I managed to transfer all the numbers with ease and I checked them all and they were all there (even the ones I didn't want like work!).
So then I had my numbers set up it was time to have a little play and get familiar with my new toy.
MENU
Now if you had recently had a Nokia phone you will be used to the lay out of this phone and the menu, the other half has got a older Nokia model and there doesn't seem to be much difference but for me I had a very old Samsung and the layout was completely alien to me. You can either access the menu by pressing the big black button in the middle of the phone this will bring up another screen and you have all the choices there. You navigate to which menu you want by using the silver arrows around the black button. You can also access certain bits of the menu from the main front screen down the left hand side, you have little icons and you can access the menu you want. If you miss a call or text then you will also get a little icon pop up on the front screen menu, once you unlock the phone it will tell you what you missed and who.
ANSWERING & MAKING CALLS
So I had all my numbers in the phone and had sorted my ring tone (very important!), answering a call is easy enough you don't have to slide the phone to answer a call, you just press the big button in the middle to answer I must admit I did get a bit confused and kept pressing the green button to answer and missed a couple of calls but I am now used to this.
Firstly I should add that before you can make a call or use the phone you have to unlock the phone you do this by pressing the big black button in the middle of the phone and then quickly press the top left button. This I can say is one of the annoying bits about this phone as sometimes it takes me a few goes at unlocking it as I sometimes I don't do it quickly enough and this can be a bit frustrating. You can add your own security numbers or sequence to unlock the phone but I haven't got around to this and knowing me I would still not get it right! The other way to unlock the phone is just to use the slide on the phone and this unlocks straight away.
To make a call you can either slide the phone down and input the phone number or if the number is in your address book you just press the right top blue button for the names in your address book and use the silver outline button to navigate to the number you want. Then you just press the green button to make that call, once you have finished talking you must press the red button to end the call. I got caught out a few times at first with this as I thought that just closing the slide would end the call but this is not the case.
The battery life for this phone isn't bad, I use my phone quite a lot for work and personal calls and I tend to charge it every couple of days. You get up to 6 hours talk time can't say I have timed it and couldn't think of anyone I would want to speak to for 6 hours!!!
The only slight criticism I have is it doesn't give you any warning when the phone is out of charge, you can see the little battery symbol going down on the screen but there is no beep to remind you so then the phone will just die.
CAMERA
The camera has 3.2 megapixel and 8x zoom with a double LED flash, to start using the camera you can either access the option from the menu or there is a quick start camera button on the side. To take a picture you just hold the screen side of the camera towards you and when you are ready to take the picture just press the big black button, you can also zoom in and out. It has taken a few goes for me to get used to the camera, I initially had lots of photos with peoples eye closed! I did finally get a good picture of my boys and have used this as my wallpaper, which was surprisingly easy to do (I wanted to have the dog but the boys thought this was unfair!).
The quality of the pictures is surprisingly very good and it's quite handy to have such a good camera on my phone as I can now snap happily away without having to run off for my camera. Also this phone also comes with extra memory so if the 20 mbytes that comes with the phone isn't enough then you also get an extra option to have 4 gbytes.
The video option is also quite good and I have had a play with this, the pictures are good quality and I am sure I will use this more when I am on holiday. I have also found it easy to transfer my pictures onto my computer and have now built up a nice file to look at, you can also view your pictures or videos on the T V using the cable that comes with the phone and this is also easy to do and a nice touch for you to show off your pictures.
Some other information for you if you are into that kind of thing is that you can use this phone for video calls it also supports Adobe software and video streaming.
MUSIC
The phone comes with an integrated FM radio which is really easy to find on the menu and is also good quality sound wise, you can also save your favourite radio stations so you can just pop onto them when you want. You can also listen to the radio and interact with the on screen information; this is provided by the radio stations and is a nice touch. The headphones that come with the phone are quite good quality but you can always buy your own if you want better ones.
You can also enjoy MP3, MP4, AAC, EACC+ and WMA formats, don't I sound knowledgeable! The phone also supports polyphonic, MP3 and video ring tones, Sorry to disappoint but to be honest I don't understand most of that last bit but the more technical among you may find that information useful! It is also possible to access the internet to search for new music and download or information and I have had a little play with this and found it quite easy to do.
I can say from experience though that downloading you're music files onto the phone is really easy, it's just basically connecting the phone to the computer and using the drag and drop, it really is that simple. You can also use you're music for ring tones and text alerts which is great for me, this is again easy to set up on the phone and can be accessed through the menu. You can also download ring tones if you want but I can honestly say I haven't felt the need to do this yet. I have also noticed that the quality of the music is still very good even when using it as a ring tone and I have also managed to set the phone so I have different ring tones for different people so I can tell who is phoning from the ring tone rather than having to look at the phone.
TEXTING
To be honest I hate texting! By the time I have spelt out everything I want to say I could of made 10 phone calls! The other thing I hate is pre-empt texting, half the time I don't know what I want to say so how can my phone make that any easier!
The text option on the phone can be accessed from either the main menu or the quick menu option on the front of the phone; you have all the usual suspects here including a very simple way to turn off that bloody annoying pre-empt text (so that's me happy then!). You can also send and receive pictures, which I couldn't on my old phone so this is a new and great addition for me.
You can also access your e mail including those with attachments, I have to admit that I finally had to go cap in hand to the other half and get him to show me how to do this. I don't know why I bothered though it is actually quite easy although I don't really use it that much it will come in handy when I am on holiday.
One thing I have used a bit is the on line messenger or MSN as I know it! This is really good and easy to use and believe or not useful but obviously you have to be online to use it.
The only thing that niggles me with the texting is my old phone used to come up with a big message telling me that my message had been sent but with this phone you get a tiny icon that if you squint you will see it!
GAMES
I nearly forgot one of the important bits of the phone the games! Seriously the phone comes with high roller casino, golf tour; rally 3D and the most important Snake 3!!! The games are all good quality and of course you can download your own as well.
HANDS FREE
As I have already mentioned I use my phone a lot for work so I am always getting phone calls, I do try not to use my phone in the car because I really get fed up with talking and driving but on occasion I will be waiting for an important phone call and will have to use the hands free. This phone does come with an ear set but I wanted one that didn't plug into the phone I really wanted a wireless one. So the other half got me one to use and I can actually say once I got used to it (I have finally stopped cutting people off!) it really has become a godsend, it works really well and I haven't had any technical problems.
OTHER INFO
These are things I really haven't used yet on the phone and to be honest can't see me having a use for,
Two way 3G video calls, TV conferencing, walkie-talkie style talking, flight mode button which you use when in a mobile banned area this will automatically turn off the phones transmission related features and activities.
It also has the following features: calendar, to do list (like I need one of these!), alarm clock, notes, stop watch, countdown timer, calculator, voice commands, WAP browser, opera mini browser, quad band technology (GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800 & GSM 1900), video streaming.
PRICE
As I have mentioned I got this for nothing due to my upgrade but I did see it on sale in the Orange shop for £149.99. I can guarantee that you can pick it up cheaper than that on line.
AM I HAPPY WITH IT?
I can actually say once I got over my fear of using this phone with all its computer stuff I can actually say hand on heart that I am very happy with it. I have actually since buying the phone looked up some reviews and if truth be told I did read quite a few negative ones but I can only say what I have found and that is that apart from a few small snags I am really happy with it. And the other half is also quite impressed that I worked it out myself (well me, the manual and the internet!). I apologise to all the more technical minded people on this site I can't give you all my opinions in technical jargon but only in technophobe English!
More details
Ease of use
Easy
Battery talktime
Good
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
very helpful
very helpful
very helpful
very helpful
