I bought a Nokia 3110 classic for my parents recently. Although I
prefer using Sony Ericsson phones(check out my review on W300i), I
wanted to buy a Nokia handset for my parents. The reason being that
Nokia phones are well known for their superior call quality, ruggedness
and good battery backup. Also, my parents are familiar with the user
interface of Nokia phones, so it would be easier for them to start
using the new handset.
Before handing over the phone to my
parents, I decided to use it for a week in order to check out the
various features and get a feel of the user interface and the settings.
(More importantly, I wanted to gain the required knowledge and hands on
experience to be able to write this review)
I consider myself to
be a very informed buyer. I do all the homework before I go to the
dealer. I regularly check out the Nokia website for upcoming models and
also keep an eye on the review sites. I consider both kinds of reviews
(expert reviews and user reviews) equally important. These reviews have
been very useful to me in making the right decisions while purchasing
handsets.
Now, lets get down to the business and talk about the
Nokia 3110 classic. The first thing that you will notice about this
phone is its sleek design, large keypad and sturdy body. After a long
time, Nokia has made a handset the way a phone is supposed to be. I
started to have the feeling that Nokia has somewhere lost the plot when
they started concentrating on the ultra feature rich(and bulky)
N-series phones and the ultra low cost(translated ugly) entry level
phones. But after the launch of 6300 and 3110 classic, I feel that
Nokia is back in business in the mid segment market.
Nokia 3110
classic is a total value for money phone. The list of features is
endless. I dare say that the feature list is comparable to(or even
exceeding) the lowest priced N-series phone, and all these features
come to you at almost half the price and also half the size(by now you
must have realized how much I hate those bulky N-series phones). Nokia
3110 classic is a tri-band phone with WAP, GPRS and EDGE connectivity.
It has a 1.3 megapixel camera. It also has FM radio, music player and a
memory slot for expandable memory upto 2 GB. The data transfer modes
include bluetooth, infrared and USB. It also has a flight mode for use
in places where usage of mobile phones is prohibited.
I would
like to make a special mention about the keypad of this handset. The
number keys are large and comfortable to use. The navigation key and
other soft keys are also well designed and easy to use.
The
body of the phone looks very robust and sturdy. The battery cover fits
quite well. Under the battery you will find the SIM card holder and the
memory card holder. Both holders are very well designed. Since the
memory card holder is under the battery, it means that the expandable
memory is not hot swappable in this phone. Some users may find this a
bit inconvenient.
Nokia 3110 classic has a 1.3 megapixel camera
with 8x digital zoom and full screen viewfinder. The camera user
interface is well designed and resembles that of a digital camera. The
1.8-inch TFT display has a good resolution. Picture quality is decent
in daylight and not so good in the evenings. It does not have a
flashlight, and that is a compromise one has to make in a low budget
phone. Another minor issue is that the internal memory(8.5 MB) is very
less and is inadequate even for storing large number of photos. This
problem can be solved by purchasing a microSD card, which would provide
enough space for storing photos, videos and music.
It has a FM
radio and music player. FM reception is good and sound quality is also
ok, but is not comparable to my other Sony Ericsson Walkman phone. The
reason for this seems to be the cheap quality handsfree supplied in the
package. FM can also be played on the inbuilt speaker, which is quite
loud. The inbuilt speaker can also be used as a speakerphone during
calls.
Nokia 3110 classic has bluetooth, infrared and USB port
for data transfer. Bluetooth and infrared work fine. I could not test
the USB port because of the lack of USB cable in the sales package.
The
user interface is decent. Navigating through the menu should not be a
problem even for people who are not that tech savvy. There are lot of
shortcuts provided in the menu. The soft keys and direction keys can be
customised to point to the most frequently used functions. By default,
these keys provide one touch access to commonly used features such as
radio, camera, phonebook, calendar and messaging.
The sound
quality during calls is good. The battery backup is good. These are the
things you generally expect from Nokia phones, there is nothing special
about that. One point worth mentioning is that this phone uses a
different connector for charger. This means that you cannot charge this
phone with the old Nokia chargers. This issue may be of concern for
some users who are used to the “universal Nokia charger” concept.
Although
I have no complaints against the handset(in fact, I love the handset),
I did not like the sales package of this phone. It seems that Nokia has
done most of the cost cutting in this department. There is no memory
card, data cable or software CD supplied in the package. I feel that
this is acceptable for a phone in this price range. The handsfree and
charger supplied in the sales package seem to be of very low quality.
According to me, this is not acceptable, even for a low budget phone.
There is a certain minimum level of quality that must be maintained.
Considering
all the pros and cons, I feel that Nokia 3110 classic is a very good
handset and I would definitely recommend it to anybody who wants to buy
a feature rich phone in the 6K-7K price range.
Although it has
camera and music features, I would not suggest this phone for music
lovers or camera freaks as they would be disappointed by the average
picture quality and sound quality.
All said and done, Nokia 3110 classic is a “Jack of all trades, master of none”.