Nokia-3100-I saw this fone when a good friend of mine had purchased it. I had a good look at this fone and now I m jotting down all my views about this fone. Nokia 3100 is yet another color screen fone from Nokia. Although most color fones from NOKIA cost above Rs.10, 000(except 3530), this costs less; although not too less (the dealer told me it costs about 9, 500). It is a Tri band GSM phone.
LOOKS: Nokia 3100 is small and looks cool. No wonder NOKIA has learnt to make sleek models like 6610, 2100, 1100 etc. The cover is made up of plastic which is translucent. The phone shines in dark because luminous plastic is used. The face panels are changeable as with most Nokia fones. The phone weighs 85 grams and has the dimensions of 101.8x42.8x19.6 mm. The Power key is located at the top of the fone. The fone has one hole on the top left for the strap for stability. Pop-Port interface is provided at the bottom along the side of charging port. This port can be used to connect to a PC and send/receive pictures, graphics, install applications with Nokia PC Suite for 3100. The cable has to be purchased separately.
DISPLAY: The display is 4096 colour display and looks great. Resolution is 128x128 pixels which make the display easily readable. Display brightness can be adjusted by the user. I really liked the display of this fone. Its much better then 3530. Normally 5 text lines with 16 pixel font and 1 service line are displayed. Up to 8 text lines are displayed when typing SMS. Display provides enough light to read it. Wallpapers can be set at the display which can be downloaded.
KEYPAD: The keypad is pretty soft and comfortable to work with. The keys are located as groups & are easy to operate. 4 way Navigation key is given which allows u to operate in right, left as well up , down directions, the phone has also 2 keys which are present exactly below the display on the top right and top left side respectively. The right key provides the options and selections while menu navigation and the left key provides the back option. Rhythmic backlight alert is present here too. The backlight is white in colour and is very bright; the keys seem fused when it is on. The backlight looks great in the nite. Viewing in the dark the combination of colour display and the white back light is great!!
BATTERY: The battery can be seen by removing the back panel. It’s a 850 mAh lithium-ion battery. According to the company it is capable to provide up to 6 hours of talk time and up to 410 hours of standby time . I haven’t used this fone much so I don’t know how much the battery lasts.
MENU: Nokia has changed the traditional main menu icons. The icons look better now. We can assign menu item shortcut to the top right key. The items are selected from predefined list. The phone has also has shortcut number navigation as in all Nokia fones.
Messages: 150 SMS’s and 50 picture messages can be stored in the phone. The phone supports concatenated messages and Nokia Smart Messaging. There are 10 pre-default small graphic pictures to decorate a message and templates. T9 predictive text input can be used while creating messages. Chat feature is available. The phone allows sending and receiving MMS messages. Remaining free space is used to keep MMS messages, Java programs, sounds, ringing tones and graphics. The phone memory is 350 Kb by default. SMS Distribution List is present. 15 MMS messages (Largest size is 45 kb per message) can be stored.
Phonebook/contacts: 3100 allows storing 300 names with 3 numbers and 1 text field. Maximum 5 numbers and 4 text items can be stored under one name, this way less name entries are stored. Caller groups can also be created. The main advantage in using this phone is the chance to assign photos to names from phonebook; this can be done by using MMS-messages. But photos displayed are very small, so its difficult to view them normally. We have to take a closer look to see the photos. The SIM card memory and the phone memory can be seen at the same time. Normal phonebooks functions such as add, edit, copy, delete, contact specific alert etc are available here.
Call register: A set of last received/dialed/missed calls with date and time for each entry. There are three lists. 10 numbers are stored in each list. The call length and cost is shown here. Speed dialing for up to 9 phone numbers is possible. Call divert, Call waiting, Call Hold and Call timer facilities are available.
Tones: 3100 supports Polyphonic ringtones (4 in number) and other normal ringtones are present. Ringtone and Message volumes are pretty loud, they can be heard almost everywhere. The Vibrating alert is good and has enough strength to be felt.
Profiles: There are 5 profiles which can be personalized and activated.Nothing new is adapted here. .
Settings: This menu contains all the settings consisting of phone, call, time/date, keyguard, security. You can notify settings for wallpapers (one of the graphic files). Also a user can set a colour scheme of the menu (several schemes are available. One can choose from grey, green, turquoise, pink, blue, violet, red, orange, grey etc. colour schemes. Many options are provided here.
Alarm: The Alarm Clock can be set. Any of the tones in the fone can be set as alarm.
Gallery: All graphic and sound files are kept in this menu. There are also settings for the access to download new sound and picture files which can be kept as ringtones and wallpapers resp. (WAP). The phone supports JPEG and PNG formats in the browser. One can create own folders here.
Organizer: We can add from 100 to 500 notes depending on their length. An automatic deletion of the old notes takes place depending on time). The calendar has a monthly view and we can quickly find a desired date.
Games: The phone has 4 games: Biker, Race, Snake, and Bowling. I have played Bowling and Race and they are cool games. I don’t like snake so I didn’t play it. U can pass time playing these games since the colour display provides good reality to them.
Extra: Calculator, countdown timer and a stopwatch and results can be saved; screensaver settings are also given here.
Services: WAP browser 1.2.1 is given here which can be used to download wallpapers and other stuff.
Applications: 3100 is JAVA enabled so we can download JAVA applications like Games in this fone.
Conclusions: Well it can be a good buy. But the cost is still high considering the features it offers. These features are offered by color display fones of other companies like Motorola (C350) and Panasonic and Sony T230 which cost around 6, 000-7, 500 mark. Obviously people would prefer these fones. But if u r a die hard fan of Nokia and want to buy the good value for money color display fone of Nokia brand then go 4 it!!