Nokia 3100 Review
First Impressions
As soon as I saw this small phone I liked it straight away, I liked the size and I liked the design. I especially liked the glow in the dark covers. I think that Nokia has aimed this phone at the younger generation but I think that this is one handset that anybody could use, regardless of age. This is a budget basic model but has a few nice extras thrown in.
Features
- Glow in the dark covers
- Animated screensavers
- Light up keypad when the phone rings
- Polyphonic ringtones
- Pop port connections
- Speed dialling
- Animated screensavers
Dimensions
- Height 101mm
- Width 42mm
- Depth 15mm
- Weight 85gm
Menu
The menu consists of categories and sub categories, as will most nokias the menus are extremely easy to use and to understand. The menu is laid out as such
- Messages: Text messages, multimedia messages, voice messages, info messages, message settings and service commands
- Call register: Missed calls, received calls, dialled numbers, delete recent call lists, call duration, call costs, gprs data counter and gprs connection timer
- Contacts: Search; add contact, delete, copy, settings, speed dials, info numbers, service numbers, my numbers and caller groups
- Profiles: General, silent, discreet, loud, my style one and my style two
- Settings: Personal shortcuts, screensaver, time and date settings, call settings, phone settings display settings, tone settings, enhancement settings, security settings and restore factory settings.
- Alarm clock: Alarm time and alarm tone.
- Gallery: View folders; add folder, delete folder, rename folder and gallery downloads
- Calendar: Day notes, make a note, go to date and settings
- Games: Select game, game downloads, memory and settings
- Applications: Select application, app downloads and memory
- Extras: Calculator, countdown timer and stopwatch
- Services: Home, bookmarks, download links, service inbox, settings, go to address and clear the cache
- Go to
- Sim services
Construction
The 3100 is made from a smooth plastic, which features a glow in the dark cover, simply leave the phone in natural daylight, or indeed in artificial light e.g. bulb light and when the lights go down the fascia will emit a gentle, glow in the dark effect. In addition when you get a call the phone flashes in time with your ringing tune, with a bright white light effect on the keypad. The back battery cover is extremely flimsy, but once in place seems fairly solid. The top of the phone has small holes where you can attach a wrist strap, and the on and off switch is also on the top of the phone. The phone is small but it still feels it’s of a solid build, no creakiness or squeaks to the keypad, and it’s a comfortable feeling phone in your hand.
Keypad
The keypad is maybe the focus of this phone, it features an extremely bright white backlight, which flashes in time to the extremely loud ring tones, this is definitely not a phone that you wouldn’t hear or see ringing. The keys are made of rubber and are really quite small, so maybe someone with largish fingers would not find the keypad to be very comfortable. The keys are merged together, with the central keys being slightly bigger than the outside keys. The central four-way scroll button makes navigating the menus easy. Texting for me on this model was really easy and comfortable, due in part I think to the keys being raised up.
Connectivity
This phone does not feature infrared or blue tooth, although if you want to transfer ring tones and pictures you can buy the appropriate cable for it, and transfer them using the pc suite for the nokia 3100, which is available for download from the nokia site. There is no onboard camera or radio but if you want the camera option a clip on camera is available to buy separately. The 3100 uses the pop port interface for connecting cables and camera etc.
Features
This handset features all the normal calendar and clock functions, you also have a countdown timer and calculator, which are all easy enough to use. You have the option of animated colour screensavers and also the ability to change your colour scheme. As an added security measure you also have an automatic key guard lock, which I found to be invaluable as I am always forgetting to lock the keypad. This handset is MMS enabled, either send or receive MMS containing pictures, text and audio, and if you do decide to buy the clip on camera the phone has space for up to ten camera picture images.
Entertainment
The handset comes with three preinstalled games, beach rally, snake 2 and bowling. The games I should imagine would keep you entertained for a short while but more are available to download and these can be found and downloaded via wap. The maximum size for games is 64kb.
Ringtones
The phone features polyphonic ringing tones, which are stored in the gallery, you can also download your own via wap. There are ten normal ring tones and twenty polyphonics, which are all removable. The great things I noticed with the ring tones for this model are that they are extremely loud, in addition to the flashing keypad, with the vibrate option this is one handset that you cant miss ringing.
Battery Life & Signal Strength
The standby on this phone was really quite good, Nokia quote the standby of up to seventeen days, I managed seven days with basic phone use and the occasional text. The battery is fully charged in around two hours. The call clarity was another area that this little phone excelled, I could hear and be heard clearly with no hissing or interference. The signal strength was also excellent, full bars most of the time and no dropped calls, couldn’t ask for no more really.
Summary
Overall I really liked this phone. It was easy to use, easy to text on and very noticeable when you received a call. If someone is looking for a fun basic handset that is just going to be used for calling and texting then this could well be the model. I think this phone would also be good for the younger generation as a fun, reliable, easy to use handset that is not going to break the bank and one which is also easy to personalise with its clip on covers. The addition of a separate clip on camera is great for those who want the option of using a camera. I would highly recommend this handset especially for the price and reliability.
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