The Nokia 5165, Plain Vanilla In A Blue Wrapper
Written: Oct 19 '02 (Updated Oct 19 '02)
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Pros: good reception, plenty of features
Cons: Numbers and text very small, Difficult to see screen in daylight, Smaller buttons
The Bottom Line: The Nokia 5165 is dependable product, when coupled with a good provider will deliver the best results you deserve from the cellular experience.
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| lllopez's Full Review: Nokia 5165 Cell Phone |
The Nokia 5165 is a pretty straightforward cell phone, offering many of the features standard on most cellular phones today. As it is generally a loss leader, offered by cellular providers to invite new business, the Nokia ($199.00 msrp) 5165 has become one of the most popular phones in cellular marketplace, often offered free, by cellular providers to $29.00 and up as a enticement to new customers who sign service contracts. It would appear the leader works because this phone is literally in one of every 5-6 hands you see with a cell phone in it. The question beckons: is its popularity a direct result of its reliability and integrity, or has it become a convincing lure to cellular service?
To objectively evaluate any cell phone, you must also look at the cellular network it is connected to. For the sake of this review, I subscribe to the Cingular network, which has it’s good and bad points as any cellular provider out there, but their reliability, thus far, has been better than most.
Weighing in at 5.9 ounces with a standard NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) battery, the Nokia 5165 is an open faced, fixed-length antenna model which comes standard with a wall charger. It’s rated at 3 hours talk time, 8 days standby time, although 5-6 days is closer to the norm. Its dimensions are 5.2 H 1.9W X1.2D. Among the features this phone includes are:
· 100 name memory slots
· 30 melody ringer options
· 5 lines of display
· Alarm clock
· Analog/digital capability
· Auto redial
· Automatic Answer
· Call waiting/forwarding/send own number… A NETWORK SUBSCRIBER OPTION
· Caller id ….A NETWORK SUBSCRIBER OPTION
· Down loadable ring tones
· Email
· Emergency Number
· English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese capable
· Games
· Predictive text input
· Pre-paid service capable
· Security access, Lock & Restrict call code capable
· Silent alert
· Text Messaging… A NETWORK SUBSCRIBER OPTION
· Three Way Calling… A NETWORK SUBSCRIBER OPTION
· Touch Dialing
· Two way text messaging… A NETWORK SUBSCRIBER OPTION
· Voice Mailbox… A NETWORK SUBSCRIBER OPTION
OPERATION
Once you gain a working familiarity with the various menus and features the 5165 includes, maneuvering your way around to desired functions becomes second nature. The NAVIGATION and SCROLL buttons are intuitively interfaced with the selected call and menu modes applicable. The rocking SCROLL key facilitates menu browsing, cursor movement, memory access, phone book, call logs, and volume. The Navigation Button directs you to menus, saves entries, and confirms commands and choices.
Dialing an outgoing call is as simple as pressing a pre-programmed number assigned to your call, scrolling through your address book, or the old fashioned way. Simply dialing. Once in a call you may have the capability to monitor your signal strength by referring to the left arrows of the DISPLAY window. Working the SCROLL button activates last number redial. The last 10 calls you placed are stored in temporary memory for later recall. Calling Cards Numbers can be programmed into the Nokia 5165 to facilitate calling card calls
One of the more useful features of the Nokia 5165 is the in-call menu, which can be activated during a call you simply press Options and scroll through the menu:
§ Answer answer a waiting call
§ Swap Switch to waiting call
§ End End All Calls
§ New Call Make a new call during a call
§ Connect All Connect all Active Calls
§ Phone Book Access Phone Book
§ Menu Access Phone Menu
§ Touch Tones Send Touch Tones
§ Mute/end Mute
DATA ENTRY
Entering names into your phone book is achieved by pressing the appropriate number/letter key until the desired character letter appears. Utilize the SHIFT key to access upper lower case and number modes. You may utilize the KEYGUARD to prevent your phone’s keys from being pressed in transit.
CLEAR KEY
The CLEAR key is used for deleting a character when data entry, character clearing, returning to previous menus, accessing call menus
LIGHTS
You can backlight the Nokia 5165 by pressing any key, provided key guard is not activated, for 15 seconds. With the optional car kit, the lights will remain on, turning off between calls. It would have been a nice touch to activate backlight for the duration of a call or menu scrolling.
EXTERNAL ANTENNA JACK
You have external antenna capability by plugging into this jack located on the back right of the phone.
MENUS
There are 9 MENUS to navigate. Menus, like them or not, are an essential component of electronics today. Navigating them is made easier by understanding what headings your various functions and features fall under. Below are the Menus headings and subcategories. They are assigned a number that is displayed on the upper right of the display window as you scroll through them.
1. PHONE BOOK
· Search
· Add new
· Edit
· Erase [one, all]
· Options [scrolling view, memory status]
· T Touch Dialing
· Send Bus Card
2. KEYGUARD
· on/off
3. TONES
· Ringing Options [ring, ring once, beep once, silent]
· Ringing Tone
· Ringing Volume [levels 1-5]
· Message Alert Tone [no tone, standard, special, beep once, long & loud]
· Keypad Tones [ off, levels 1-3]
· Warning & Game Tones [On. Off]
· Vibrating Alert [On, Off] with optional vibrating battery
· Key guard
4. CLOCK (automatic network time correction)
· Alarm Clock
· Clock Settings, [display / hide, adjust time, time format]
· Auto Update Of Time [on, confirm first, off]
5. GAMES
· Memory
· Snake
· Logic
6. SYSTEM
· Automatic
· Manual
· New Search
7. SETTINGS
· Call settings [Emergency key 9, Automatic redial, Calling card, Automatic answer]
· Phone Settings {touch tones, language, restore factory settings, lights]
· Security Settings [restrict calls, Access Codes]
· Network Services [Voice Privacy, Network Feature Setting, Call Forwarding, Call Waiting, send own number
· Own Number Selection
8. CALL LOG
· Missed Calls
· Received Calls,
· Dialed calls
· Clear Call Lists [all, missed, received, dialed]
· Call Timers [last call, All Calls, Life Timer, Clear Timers]
9. MESSAGES
· Text [inbox, saved, write, email, Outbox, erase all]
· Voice Messages [listen to, Voice Mailbox #]
· Welcome Note
Nokia, the Finnish telecommunications giant, has been a pioneer in the field of mobile communications and communication infrastructure products since the early 1960’s, and have a gained a rather impressive foothold on this market internationally. Perhaps it’s their marketing, but more than likely the early quality and name recognition of their products have set them apart from their competition to this day. The Nokia 5165 is a rather capable cellular phone delivering all the features you would expect in a phone today. While there are other phones in the marketplace with features such as, speakerphone, date book, graphical displays and a plethora of other features, and sizes, the Nokia 5165 does not fall short in the features arena.
In a perfect world, the Nokia 5165 would have larger numbers and clear text on a display that is easier to read in the daylight hours and glare, with a lit keypad, instead of lighting behind the darkened keys. Aside from that and the occasional interference from large buildings, basements and intermittent signal loss, you should find the Nokia 5165 a reliable product that will keep you in touch when you need it the most.
The Nokia website www.nokia.com offers informative step by step operational guides to all their products, information on accessories, ring tones, support and investor information .
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 29.00
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