The best choice if you keep dropping your phone (like me!)
Written: Aug 07 '03 (Updated Nov 01 '08)
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Pros: Very, very solid. Quite light and small. Looks sort of funky.
Cons: Not the best sound quality. Can't download. Unfriendly WAP interface.
The Bottom Line: If you want a solid, unbreakable (nearly!) and reliable model and are looking for useful rather than gimmicky, this is an excellent buy.
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| captaind's Full Review: Nokia 5210 |
There is one reason I got this phone - it was recommended as the best ever built if you have a tendency to drop your phone. And I do, having previously killed 3 phoned. My poor little Sagem MiniWap looked like a bomb had hit it and sounded like a phone line to Calcutta by the time I decided I had to get a new one!
It's labelled the "Sport" model, and as such it also has some extra features such as a stopwatch, countdown timer and even a thermometer. These features are somewhat unusual and actually very useful. I like the way it looks, okay its not as small as more recent models and it doesn't have a colour screen or camera but who really needs that stuff anyway? Once you're past the early teenage years you should realise that the phone's basically for making calls with.
Most of the other options are run-of-the-mill Nokia stuff. But, in summary, here they are:
Address book - normal stuff here, can hold 100 contacts + what the SIMM can hold, can assign user groups - ie Family, Friends, Business etc.
Messages: What you'd expect really, with the addition of templates, which are pretty useful. Otherwise it's all the standard stuff. Doesn't seem to have tracking options but that didn't bother me in the least. Limited picture messaging support.
Call Register - missed calls, received calls, dialed numbers, Erase Recent call lists, call duration. All the normal features present and accounted for. There's not really anything more you might need here.
Profiles - a fair number of (sadly) monophonic tunes. You can set different profiles up, and different tunes or alerts for messages, calls, different caller groups or individual callers.
Settings: Alarm clock, time settings, call settings, phone settings, keyguard settings, tone settings, security settings, restore factory settings. All you could want to change can be changed, basically.
Games: Snake 2 (a great improvement over the original), Space Impact (a sort of tiny R-Type - not too bad I guess), Bumper (a pinball game - which really doesn't transfer all that well to a phone!) , Bantumi (a strategy game with beans! - not bad but too easy), and Pairs 2 (okay if you like that sort of thing). Games are not exactly what I want a mobile (guess I should say "cell-phone" as most people reading this will use that terminology) for, but they do help pass a few idle moments if you're really bored or in a waiting room or queue.
Calculator: Er, it's a calculator. Not a scientific one, just your basic functions.
Calendar - to me, this is where the phone really shines. You can set up day notes, reminders, and even make reminders repeat each day / week / month / year. Incredibly useful!
Infrared - if you ever need to use such a thing for data transfer via infrared. I never have. (Though I have occasionally turned it on by accident! There's no way to switch it off manually, it just automatically shuts down after a few minutes).
Extras: Countdown timer, stopwatch (surprisingly well-featured with split times etc), thermometer (useful during the recent heat wave in Britain!), Picture editor (though too fiddly to really be useful).
Services - here's the WAP. It works okay, but is rather slow and the user interface is tiresome. I never use WAP much anyway, partly because I'd rather use AOL at home, mainly because it's so expensive and slow. Since I went on broadband at home there's really no reason to use it, other than to keep up with the football scores occasionally...
Well, there you have it. If you want a top-of-the-range phone packed with all the latest, flashy, gimmicky features, forget it. If you want a solid performer that is all but direct bomb-blast-proof, this is superb.
The only thing I don't like about the phone is that it's not always the best sound quality. It's usually pretty good though, so that's more an observation than a complaint.
One other thing. It's dual-band, not tri-band. This means that if you're in Europe you can use it across Europe but not in the States. I guess in the States it means you can't use it in Europe. I used mine in Spain with absolutely no problem, though in France it wouldn't work properly. I guess that partly depends on the particular network you use too.
I upgraded mine and at the time that cost £50. I don't know how much it would be now (assuming, of course, that you can still get it!), but it should have come down in price drastically now that they're trying to flog the new whizzy gimmicky models.
Update
I've finally been offered a free upgrade :-), so I now have the lovely Nokia 3200, which is a great improvement. (And I admit it, some of the "Gimmicks" are nice!)
Nokia 3200 - packed full of features, excellent phone
Motorola V300 - not the best phone in the world, but part of the problem is bad reception, which doesn't seem to have been a problem with the US model.
Nokia 6610 - a pretty good business phone, but not the best in the Nokia range.
See also: What You Should Know About Nokia Mobile Phones
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 70 (upgrade)
Recommended for: Adventurous Technophiles - Tough and Durable
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