The Cellular Mobile Telephone has come a long way since I held my first bulky Motorola phone around 10 years ago. Since then, it has transcended the realm of novelty into a NECESSITY.

NOKIA has also come a long long way from being an obscure Finnish manufacturer into arguably the best maker of cellphones.

The 3310 is one of the latest iterations of its successful "Human Technology" line-up of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phones. It is the spiritual successor of the widely used 3210 phone. In fact, it retains most of the functions of the 3210 with incremental improvements to justify its purchase.

The price I paid for this phone was $135 (including SIM card and $6 in call credits). However, competition among rival networks have reduced this item to almost free (if you get the higher post-paid plans). Prices are all over the place depending on the plans you get with your telecom company. But usually expect to pay not more than $120 for a pre-paid phone and not more than $75 for a post-paid phone.

For the information of newbies, pre-paid is a service wherein you used a prepaid card with no monthly fees while post-paid locks in a monthly fees with free calling minutes depending upon your plan (and usually with a minimum contract of one year, otherwise, pre-termination charges apply.)

The new features in this phone are :
1.Enhanced text messaging - you can now type in approximately 3 times the usual amount of characters so that you do not have to break up your messages into smaller bits. However, your cellphone carrier will still charge you for each message (ex. if you type 250 characters which is good for 2 messages in earlier models like the 3210, then, the cellphone carrier will still charge you 2 messages in the 3310). I find this feature nifty especially when sending long messages such as purchase orders and grocery lists.

2.Picture messages - the ability to send graphics to another person is cute but may not be useful for business purposes.

3.Composer - you can compose your own ring tones.

All in all, this phone offers great value to the price-conscious student or newly employed. Although the bells and whistles aren't all here, you can be sure that the basic functions are present.

Another important note is that this phone is NOT Web-enabled!!! There is no WAP function. If you need web access, you want to get the 3330 --- a virtual clone of this phone but with WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) Access.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 135.00