The first thing that strikes you about the Nokia 3310 is the size and weight of the mobile. It fits snugly in your pocket, but be warned, after a while you forget it is there as it is so light.
The handset is excellently designed, and to minimise the size it has an internal aerial. The battery fits in very nicely and it doesn’t move around – my previous phone (5110) wasn’t very well designed and within months the battery became very loose resulting in spontaneous power cuts. On the 3310 the battery holds the Siam card in place, so nothing becomes loose. Ten out of ten for design!!!
There are many features of the Nokia 3310; here I will show everything to know about the phone.
ADDRESS BOOK
The address book is used to store phone numbers. After they have been added you can search through whenever you need to and call that person with a single touch of a button. Depending on the sim card, you can store between 100 and 250 names and numbers.
Another function of the address book is that you can assign ringtones to different people, so you know who is ringing before you even pick up the phone. The 3310 is also voice activate, so you can record different voice messages for different people. (Use voice dialling by holding the enter button.)
Probably the handiest thing about this function is speed dialling, in which you activate your most used numbers to a button. (E.g. 1=Home, 2=Barry etc.)
MESSAGES
The most in thing to do now days on a mobile phone is text messaging. Depending again on which network you are on, you can store between 5-20 messages in your inbox, and 5-20 messages in your outbox. A new feature for the 3310 is the template, which you can add if you feel you are constantly writing the same thing to different people. There is also a ‘smileys’ section so you can express your mood in only 3 characters. (E.g. ;-), , !)
When writing a message you can use predictive text, which is very useful after some practice at using it. Instead of hitting the buttons up to 4 times for a single letter, predictive text lets you hit them only once, and guesses which word you mean. It also gives you a list of other less likely words. Extremely unique and useful function. The 3310 is also compatible with picture messages, so you can download or get sent up to 15 picture messages.
CHAT
A new feature to Nokia is the chat mode, where you can text message another person in a chat room type of format. This is a very good idea, but expensive unless you have free text messages. (If your network is Genie or similar.)
CALL REGISTER
The call register option tells you up to 20 dialled numbers, received calls and call durations, as well as missed calls. This is a very common feature among Nokia phones but very useful if you need to check something.
TONES
Ringtones have become very popular over the last year or so, and the 3310 lets you download or compose 7 of your own, aswell as the 35 which are already on there. You can also choose your text message alert tone and the volume of your rings. Composer is the most creative part of the whole phone, as it allows you to make your own tones using various notes/pitch/length. You can also select whether you want vibration alert on or off, and keypad tones on or off. A new property of the 3310 is the screensavers. Before you could only have a downloaded logo, but now you can use your picture messages which parade the screen after a selectable time limit.
SETTINGS
This is useful if you need to change anything about you phone, including: automatic redial, speed dialling, own number sending, language, network selection, pin code request and call barring among other things. All of these services are pretty self-explanatory. If your phone went wrong you can also restore it to its factory settings, aslong, as you know the security code.
CALL DIVERT
Call divert is very useful if you are busy. You can divert it to you voicemail or another number with a number of other properties.
GAMES
The most addictive part of the phone is the games. There are 4 games;
SNAKE II – 9 different speeds for beginners or experts, and 5 different but equally crazy mazes. The object of snake is to make your snake grow longer by eating the bits of food. My top score on this is 2356, as I found a kind of tactic – complete the game on slower levels by filling up the screen, and progress on the levels after beating your previous score.
SPACE IMPACT – This is a copy of the retro game, which back in the day was the start of an era. You guide around a space ship through various levels defeating different aliens, with a ‘boss’ at the end of each level. My top score on this is 9555, but I hardly ever play it as after a while it gets very repetitive.
PAIRS II – The simple but addictive concept of memorising different cards and matching them with their pair. You can either do a time trial or puzzle, but each stage gets progressively harder.
BANTUMI – The ancient game with foreign origins. Each player has to collect the most peas into their main pot. After much practice and thinking, I soon realised how to play the game. Currently I can complete level 3 of 5.
There are other options which you can use with the game including lights, vibrations and sound.
CALCULATOR
Self-explanatory really. It can deal with up to 9 figures, and adds, subtracts, multiplies and divides.
You can also convert currency, which is extremely useful when going abroad.
REMINDERS
In the reminders section you can write in up to 35 characters of anything. Personally, I use reminders for good websites that I come across, but you can use it as a diary or organiser, as it has a built in alarm.
CLOCK
Apart from telling you the time and date, it also gives you the opportunity to use an alarm clock, stopwatch or countdown timer.
PROFILES
Profiles are a variety of different settings, and tones. You can have a personal one, as well as loud, silent (for meetings etc.) and discreet as well as a few more.
The Nokia series are simply the best as they are so easy to use. The 3310 is definitely the easiest I have come across.
Useful notes for the 3310.
To lock/unlock the keypad press enter, followed by star * .
To find your serial number press *#06#
Use shortcuts to save time. (E.g. To get to snake to press enter, 8, 1. It will take you to the Snake II menu!)
In conclusion, if anyone were indecisive about which phone to buy, I would recommend to anyone the Nokia 3310.