Hello, HELLO... oh wait, I've used that title ... um...Going Mobile
Written: Jun 26 '02 (Updated Jun 26 '02)
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Pros: Makes and receives calls. Nice size, a few nifty features
Cons: Ringing volume, no vibrate on ringer. Might be harder to find now.
The Bottom Line: You can make calls on it. You can receive calls on it. That's what I use a phone for. It does both superbly.
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| mattygroves's Full Review: Nokia 3210 GSM Cellular Phone |
OK – that title has been taken as well (by The Who, but I digress). I have already written about choosing a mobile phone plan that works for you, but haven’t yet braved the waters of reviewing the phone itself. After all, the plan won’t help you if you haven’t got a phone.
The Nokia 3210 is now at least a couple of years old. The 3310, and various 5xxx and 8xxx models have supplanted it. You can now get Nokia phones that are nearly as small as a fingernail clipping and as easy to lose, as long as you want to pay for them.
You can now get mobile phones that will send emails, play games, that have GSMs in them (whatever for, I can’t imagine – in case you’re lost on a mountain top?), that have personal organisers. They’ll almost do the dishes for you.
However, I don’t need much of that. After all, it’s a PHONE. I use a phone to make and receive calls. I occasionally send and receive SMS (text messages). That’s pretty much it.
And how IS it for making and receiving calls?
Fine, basically. What more do I need to say. OK, OK. I can hear you shouting MORE DETAIL
Using the phone as a PHONE
I like the size and weight of the phone – it’s small enough to fit either in a breast pocket or my jeans pocket, but big enough and heavy enough that I don’t lose it if I’ve put it in my bag. It fits reasonably comfortably to my face (I’ll leave the shape of my face to your imagination). That’s about all I can say about that.
The sound quality is good, most of the time. When I do struggle to hear the person to whom I am talking, I suspect that is a result of poor network quality rather than phone quality. If the signal is strong, it sounds almost as good as a land line. It seems to pick up the network well (although not in the back of my house, for some odd reason) and has little crackle.
The screen is big enough to be of use – bigger than the previous generation of phones which only had room for one or two (at most) lines of text. It’s vaguely square. Therefore, I can easily see what number (or person plus number, if I’m using the phone book) I am dialling. The screen lights up automatically when the phone is in use, and stays lit for a few seconds. If no buttons are pressed after a few seconds, the screen light extinguishes to save power.
The keyboard is adequate – there is a reasonable amount of keyboard feel – when you push a button it ‘feels’ pushed. One slight quibble here – after about a year of ownership, a few of the keys tend to stick a bit. But, I suspect, that is simply wear and tear – after all, I can’t wash my hands 50 times a day, so some grime has no doubt accumulated.
The keyboard has a lock feature. This ensures that you don’t accidentally dial Outer Mongolia while the phone is in your backpack. HOWEVER, even when the keyboard is locked, it will allow you to dial 999 (the British equivalent of 911). I can see why they did this, so that you can dial during an emergency quickly, but I have nearly dialled 999 inadvertently while the phone has been in my pocket. That would be bad.
I can choose from a plethora of ringtones (and I can even buy more if I wish, although I have no desire to hear the Star Trek theme rendered as a bunch of beeps). My phone came with 40 ringtones – I use two – one for calls from my family, and another for everyone else. I’ve chosen ‘Fuga’ and ‘Entertainer’ – two reasonably inoffensive tones. You can also adjust the volume. Now here is another quibble – I have mine set to loudest, because I can’t hear it if it’s not right next to me when it starts ringing. However, it gets louder the longer it rings. Therefore, if I’m on another phone, the mobile ringing begins to get rather intrusive. And annoying. And infuriating.
Another quibble - there is no vibrate option on this phone. I like vibrating phones (get your minds out of the gutter, folks! *grin*), since if you can't hear the ring, you can certainly feel it (especially if the phone is in your breast or trouser pocket....)
You can also turn the ringer completely off (and there’s a nice little feature here – if you turn the ringer off, a little symbol appears on the screen to tell you you’ve done so).
The phone book allows you to store more names and numbers than I know people. I will never fill the memory. It’s easy to use as you can find a stored number both from the menu and the arrow keys. A nice little feature – if someone who is in your phone book calls, the screen will identify the caller for you.
Text Messaging
I am NOT one of those people who spend ten hours a day sending text messages. I will never win a competition (and these competitions DO exist) for fastest texter. The letters are on the number keys in the same configuration as they are on a normal phone. Punctuation can be accessed either from the number 1 or from the * key. The # key controls capitalisation.
I don’t use predictive text messaging. Supposedly, the phone will predict what you are trying to say and fill in the words for you. I usually end up with bizarre gobbledygook when I try. I guess I don’t have the knack.
The phone beeps twice when I’ve received a text. Sometimes I hear it, sometimes I don’t. It doesn’t really matter either way – I assume if someone needs to contact me that badly, he or she will phone. A little envelope and message appear on the screen if you have a message.
The phone supports picture messaging. My network doesn’t. So don’t ask me too much about this feature. It allows you to send pictures. In an SMS. ‘Nuff said.
Other Features – IN BRIEF
There are three games on this phone - Snake, Memory and Rotation. I don’t play them. My 11 year old daughter likes Snake.
Other features include a clock, a calculator, the call register (this stores, well, a register of your calls – whom you’ve phoned, who phoned you, how long you were on the phone…that kind of thing), call divert (my network only supports divert to voicemail), and a tone composer (never tried that – isn’t 40 beeping options enough?).
I keep the clock up to date, and more or less ignore the rest.
You can buy alternate fascias for the front. I haven’t, and I have no intention of doing so. Grey suits me fine.
Any other details I’ve forgotten to include above
The Nokia 3210 sold in Britain is a dual band phone – that means I can use it here in the UK or in Europe. I believe later Nokias are Tri-band – allowing use in the States as well. I won’t use it in the States – my network charges me a fortune for the privilege.
I paid £79.99 for the phone. Mine is a pay-as-you-go phone, so that price included the SIM card, £10 worth of calls and a charger. I suspect you can get them cheaper now, as I bought the phone around a year ago.
I recharge my phone generally when it gets down to one or two ‘battery bars’ on the little battery indicator. For my light usage, this is once every few days (call it three or four). I’m never talking on the phone for long enough to have tested its ‘in use’ battery life.
Recommendation
This is a good phone for the money. Because it is somewhat outdated, they may be hard to find, but if you can find one, it won’t be expensive. Nokia is a well known, generally trusted brand, and the phone is robust (I’ve dropped it a few times, and it’s still ringing…only when it’s supposed to). It works – as a phone.
If, on the other hand, you want to send e-mails from your phone, play new and exciting games, send longer text messages (the Nokia only supports 180 characters per message), lose your phone in your lipstick purse, there are other, more modern (and expensive) phones on the market. It’s your choice.
For information on choosing a mobile plan in the UK, please check out http://www.epinions.com/content_2027397252. It’s almost a year old, but the information is still current.
As always, thanks for sticking with me this long. Please return to your regular programming.
Cheers,
Kate
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): #79.99
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Epinions.com ID:
mattygroves
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Location: London, England
Reviews written: 82
Trusted by: 62 members
About Me:
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent
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