Nokia 282--Stylish and functional, but TWO words of warning!
Written: Mar 22 '00 (Updated Aug 05 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Full of features, comfortable shape, stylish
Cons: Buttons small and close together. Breaks!
The Bottom Line: As of 8-5-01, I cannot recommend this phone. The features are nice, but with two problems (one being permanent), it is not worth it.
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| iowamommy's Full Review: Nokia 282 Cell Phone |
8-5-01: Important update added at bottom about phone breaking!
6-17-00: I added a paragraph at the bottom regarding a situation that happened with this phone.
I have to admit that I was originally attracted to the Nokia 282 for its great looks! I chose the blue one, which actually looks purple in certain lighting conditions. The phone has a solid feeling to it, more than the StarTac model my husband owns, and is much more rounded and sleek. It feels very comfortable to hold, not "boxy" at all.
I wanted a flip phone so it would be easy to take with me. When folded, this phone is about 4 inches long, 2.5 inches wide and about an inch thick. It fits easily into my purse and I hardly know it is in there, and my purse is a tiny one (not your typical “mom” purse that holds everything but the kitchen sink.)
I have been pleased with the phone. There are a lot of features. There are different ringing combinations to choose from. You can pick from pre-selected ring/volume schemes that they have set up, or tailor your own profile. There are 12 choices of rings, which are quite interesting, ranging from the usual boring "ring" to Greensleeves and Minuet G.. You can choose how the phone rings, too, whether a ring only, ringing plus vibrating, vibrating only, or a beep plus vibrating. That way, you can tone down things a bit if you don’t want to attract attention when a call comes in. The vibrating feature is quite loud, in my opinion.
If you have missed a call, a message will be displayed. The display also shows a house symbol if you are running off of your home tower. You can set an alert to beep at you to let you know you are switching to roaming, too.
The phone book lets you store up to 75 numbers and names. The phone is capable of caller ID, call waiting and voicemail. Of course, you would need to subscribe to those services through your provider. It won’t automatically work just because your phone has that capability.
There is a keyguard to set to prevent accidentally pushing buttons when it is shoved in your purse or pocket.
I get good reception on this phone and don’t hear much static. I know a lot of this is dependent on your service provider and their towers. Occasionally while inside stores, I have to just turn the phone a bit and hold it different if I hear static. I haven’t had much of a problem, certainly no worse than any other cell phone. Nobody I’ve talked to on the phone has said I sound awful or they couldn’t hear me.
The buttons on the phone are quite small and close together, so if you have big fingers (or long fingernails, ladies!), you may not like this phone. I liked the buttons on the StarTac a bit better, but the display on this Nokia is far superior, in my opinion. You trade one good thing for one bad, I guess.
The only problem I’ve had is that occasionally when I hit a button it hasn’t responded. This has only been two or three times and may have been because I didn’t hit the button squarely. Whether or not it was my fault or something wrong with the phone, it is worth mentioning.
All in all, I love this phone and it serves my needs well. I don’t talk for hours on this, so I haven’t tested the limits of the battery life. Besides the included charger, I have the rapid travel charger that I use in the van to charge it up. This works well for the needs of my family.
Here is my update!
The problem mentioned above where I said occasionally the buttons wouldn't respond started to happen all too often. This was on two different keys. It got to the point where it happened 90% of the time. I took it in to the dealer who sold it to me and he knew right away what the problem was. He said the keypad shifts in it and it doesn't make the right contact. I obviously wasn't the first that this had happened to, so it may be a common problem with this model.
He sent it in and it came back in a couple weeks good as new and I haven't had a bit of trouble. I just wanted to point that out to a potential purchaser.
Latest update 8-5-01
Bad news! My "flip" phone has completely flipped -- apart, that is. I flipped it open to answer it and it tore off at one hinge, leaving the two halves literally dangling by a thread on the other side. It is nothing that will snap back together; it is an actual break. The connection cannot be made unless I hold the two pieces of phone together just so. Needless to say, it is not usable. I was able to find a different phone (not a flip phone this time) for less money than repair on this one, so I am junking it.
I want to add that I have never abused my phone. It has never been dropped. It was not used frequently, either, so I was surprised that this happened. If this phone can't stand up to the occasional flipping I was doing, I can't recommend the phone to anybody.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
iowamommy
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Location: Iowa
Reviews written: 144
Trusted by: 97 members
About Me:
Mother of four product testers!
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