I received this phone “free” with my service plan. I prefer a no-frills phone—just give me vibration and speed dialing and I’m happy. Luckily, this has both, but so much more.

This is a GPRS phone (General Packet Radio Service) It’s a new non-voice service that allows information to be sent and received across a mobile telephone network. It’s faster than the older methods and allows for additional features such as chat, animation, and other advanced features. I won’t pay for these extras so I’ve not experienced them on this phone. My old phone service, now my son’s, had free web browsing which I used occasionally for looking up movies—the service was fine for that and I used it as it was free. I wouldn’t pay for it although others might find it useful.

It has a built-in antenna that you’re not suppose to touch when the phone is on—unfortunately, it’s on the back of the phone right where you would normally hold it. To help you avoid touching it they’ve added a finger grip on the back—I wondered what that weird hump was for! It also makes me wonder about my son’s Nokia 1260 also has an internal antenna but no grip. The reason you’re to avoid is it can interfere with the call quality and may cause the phone to operate at a higher power level than otherwise needed.

The start screen gives you all the details—left-hand side has a reception bar—the taller it is the better the signal. The right-hand side has a battery indicator—same here, the taller the bar the stronger the battery.

Navigation is done through a toggle button near the screen—it’s neither too small nor too large for my fingers. Shortcuts can be used for navigation as well—press Menu, 0, 15,1 for example to listen to voice mail. A complete list of shortcuts is available in the user manual.

FEATURES
Calendar, calculator, alarm clock, applications (here’s where you browse the web—not very intuitive to me), games (Space Impact II, Bumper, and Sugar Bowl), phone book (with caller groups—up to 500 names depending on the length of your entries), call timer, call history, 1-touch dialing, call forwarding, and automatic redial. There are some features that are plan specific like voicemail, one-button access to mMode Microbrowser (access e-mail, driving directions, news, movie times, sports, etc.), text messaging, conference calling, and caller ID.

There are 25 preprogrammed ringtones—can’t find one you like? Download more of them. It has a vibrating alert—an important feature for me—I can be notified of a call without disturbing others. Call Alert – allows you to set the phone so it alerts you only if a specific caller or caller group is trying to reach you. A replaceable cover & key pad--you can buy optional flashing, blinking, and glowing accessories to really spiff it up. It's easy to change the Nokia 3590s faceplate--push the small button on the back and press down while pushing toward the top of the phone (toward the on/off button). Use caution as there are two small hooks in the plastic that can be broken off.

I admit it, I bought a new faceplate--it's adorable and totally changes the look of the phone. I finally found a great cell phone accessory store (see the bottom of this review for the link to the store's review).

One of the best features is the key lock--no more calling people on accident from my purse. Set it to automatically lock after your desired number of minutes of non use. It's unlocked by two key strokes--no weird combination to remember, the screen prompts you with the correct keys. I love this feature! Wish I'd found it sooner--in the first week I was charged for an hour of Internet time that I didn't actually do--the button got pushed while it was in my pocket. AT&T didn't understand the circumstances and wouldn't remove the charge.

VOICE TAGGING
I thought this would be my favorite feature, sadly it’s not. Voice tagging allows you to use voice commands to make calls—sound great, right! Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that well. First, the phone has a hard time recognizing the tag. Things like background noise or a how you recorded the tag affect it (straight to the phone’s microphone or using an earpiece/mic). I recorded several entries while using the ear piece—none of those were recognized by the phone when I tried to use them without it. I ended up recording all of them twice—once each way, since I use the phone frequently with and without the earpiece/microphone. Secondly, if you don’t speak EXACTLY as you did the day you recorded it you may end up calling a wrong party—this happened over 50% of the time. Also, the button you need to hold for 3-seconds to let it know you’ll be speaking is in a difficult place to hold down while holding the phone with one hand—terribly not comfortable! The length of the recording is very short—“Judy’s Home” taxes the limits so you’re stuck shortening them which means more confusion and more miss-dialing. I’ve pretty much given up on this feature and have resorted to 1-dial calling.

BATTERY
Standard for Nokia phones: Powered by a rechargeable battery—you’ll need to completely charge and discharge (leave the phone on until it goes dead) it two or three times before it will work at its full performance. Fail to do this and you’ll suffer poor battery life. Temperature extremes can also affect the ability of your batter to charge—allow it to come to room temperature before charging. Also, never leave your battery in the charger for more than one week—overheating can occur and ruin the battery. The standard charger that comes with the phone takes 24 hours on the first charge and then approximately 5 hours for mid-charges. There are faster options—a quick-charge will do it in 2 hours.

TALK TIME/STANDBY
The amount of time is dependant on how you’ve cared for your battery (see above), how old it is (they can be charge thousands of times but they do wear out), the signal strength, and your accessories (all those blinking lights and web surfing are battery-burners!). Generally you’ll have 2-1/2 – 6-1/2 hours of talk time and 5-12-1/2 days of standby time. I run on about 10 days standby and average about 5 hours of talk time because I don’t use any of the extra features and have no add-ons.

WARRANTY
One Year Limited Warranty

SPECIFICATIONS
Operates on 1900MHz (North America) Frequency
Dimensions: 11.8 x 5 x 2.28 cm (4.68 inches long x 1.97 inches wide x .9 inch thick)
Weight: 111 g (3.92 oz)

FINAL THOUGHTS
This is a nice lightweight phone that has features to spare—many I’ll probably never use, but it’s nice to know that if I decide to use them they’re there. Charging and batter life are right within the advertised parameters and so far the reception has been excellent. I live near Seattle where reception is sketchy—I find I have service in a few more places than I did with my older non-Nokia phone. Still not perfect, I can’t get service from my home, but that’s a system fault, not the phone. I’d recommend it for people who like bells and whistles and future development that GPRS has to offer.
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UPDATE: I bought accessories for this phone--great experience! Read the review at http://www.epinions.com/content_103805521540


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): free