I myself did not think that my next review will be so soon. But I looked for reviews on this mobile and found only one. So thought of penning my thoughts of this mobile.
Again I have to give a small flashback so readers plz bear with me. I have used nokia’s from the day I started having a mobile (5yrs ago) and in between had the chance to use Samsung C100(remember the slim, lightweight, color display phone). I have used the following nokia models till date: 3310, 3315, 3330, 3100, 6610, 6100, 1100, 1108, 1112, 6070. I have not used any of the bulky models from any manufacturer as I use my mobile only for calls, text and reminders. I dont like bulky phones be it Nokia, SE, Samsung or Moto.
My previous phone before 1112 was my beloved 6100 (you can read my review on 6100 in mouthshut). But unfortunately the speaker phone got busted coz I used it many times during wet conditions (walking while talking on the phone in rain or sms ing when there is a light drizzle). The poor fellow took it for two months and finally gave up on me. After 2 years of robust usage, I felt I need to give it some rest. So placed the phone in my draw (never wanna let go of this phone).
Then started searching for a phone. I dint want any extra features like FM or camera as I dont use them at all. I also dint want to spend too much for my phone. I actually wanted to buy 1100 since my bro has it and he is always raving about its battery, reception and speaker quality. But my timing was bad as Nokia had stopped it and rolled out 1110 and 1112.
I was not very impressed with 1110 so settled for 1112 though the only difference is with the backlight of the display. (Dint like the green light). After using it for 6 months, here is my opinion about the phone... I rate it at 6/10. I wont go into specifications as you can get it from the nokia site or gsmarena.com but will tell you the user experience.
The phone is very handy and light. Feels good to hold it in your hand and the white backlight manages to do its job well. The keypad is really soft and nice. Its a treat to sms on this phone. The screen size is ok and the font size is really big.
The UI is very simple and even first time user’s can get a hang of it very easily. It also has a demo feature for learners with the essential functions being displayed on the screen teaching them which button to press for what feature.
The best feature which I like a lot and very useful as well is you can screen calls & SMS from specific or unknown numbers. Even high end phones dont have this feature these days but this bare basic model has this. Very thoughtfull of Nokia to include this.
The other feature that I like very much is the in-call timer which displays the call time while you are on the call and the call summary. No phones in this category previously had this feature. Even the 6070 has only call summary but not in-call timer. The importance of in-call timer can be felt by prepaid user’s who end the call at say 5:01 and feel that they could have ended the call 2 secs earlier. Well no problems with the 1112. You can watch the in-call timer and decide on when to end the call. So very convenient.
The other things in the phone are standard like Reminders, Alarm clock, Stopwatch, Countdown timer, Converter(very handy and useful), Composer, Calculator.
The phonebook in the phone can hold upto 200 numbers which should suffice. But you can have only number and not email address or multiple numbers for same entry(well if you want all that then you should not go for a basic model). I am not sure how many SMSes can be stored as I keep deleting them.
It has a 4 way navi key which can be assigned to frequently used functions like Compose message, calculator, contacts etc. As mentioned earlier, the keypad is quite soft and big enough to keep on SMSin the whole day without any hassles.
The phone has polyphonic ringtones and supports MP3 grade tones as well. The preloaded tones are fine and the ringer volume is just ok. Its not very loud and its easy to miss it in very noisy conditions. More about it in the drawbacks below. But the vibrate feature is good enough and serves the purpose to alert you when you have a call or SMS.
Network reception is good and you can get network in all the places including basements and lifts. But your service provider should also be equally good. Mine is Hutch and I have not come across major difficulties till now with the reception in & around Bangalore.
I use the phone for making calls for approx 85-90 mins daily and send out about 50 SMSes. In between I also play games for about 40-50 mins daily. My phone is always on vibrate+ring mode or in vibrate mode most of the times. With all this usage I am getting a back up of 2.5 days which is pretty decent.
I have dropped the phone innumerable number of times in the last six months but still the phone is in one piece and no rattlings or creaks from any part of the phone. There is no change in the network reception as well. That proves its solid construction and build quality.
Well those were the good things about the phone. But it also has its drawbacks as well.
Ringer volume is not that great and even with full volume, you can miss calls if you are in a very noisy place like when in traffic, a function etc. So vibrate needs to be on always. I call it a drawback coz if you dont have the vibrate on or forget to switch on the vibrate then u will miss most calls that you get.
Speaker volume is not very good. In noisy areas or in traffic, its difficult to hear the person on the other end. You have to ask them to repeat at times. This is a major drawback of the phone as u use a phone mainly for calls and if that purpose itself is defeated, its very frustrating. But this does not happen always and happens only at times. (Could b a problem with my set as I have dropped it so many times).
The panel provided by Nokia is sub-standard to the core. I mean it does not break when the phone falls but is prone to lots n lots of scratches. The area in around the place where you place the phone to your ear gets scratched so badly that the phone looks as if its 20 yrs old (were cell phones there 20 yrs ago????). Its very bad that Nokia provide such sub-standard panels. It gets scratched when you are keepin the phone in ur jeans pocket and removing it. Really sad but gotta live with it.
I bought the phone for Rs. 2000 with one year warranty. I think for 2000 bucks its a nice basic phone but plz read the drawbacks before you buy the phone. Decide if this phone suits you. I might change the phone in a few days to Nokia 1200 which is coming shortly.(I keep changing phones)
If your expectations are too high then this phone will not meet it as it is meant for first time user’s or user’s who want a basic phone. They will not need a mamoth phone book or hi fi features like MP3 players and Megapixel cameras. So ppl dont expect the world from it. Its a bare basic phone which does its job pretty well.
Adios guys.