When I heard that Nokia 5210 was a waterproof and shockproof phone, all the melodramatic Hindi movie emotions went into play; bells started ringing, heart thumping, flowers blooming...i knew we were meant to be...this of course was because of the image I carry with me of my last mobile swirling in my toilet bowl and disappearing into the drain system of Dubai...yes, I flushed it...i know that sounds like a very interesting story, and trust me, it is…but MS doesn’t have a category under which I can plug it! Maybe it does actually, I can put it under ‘handling depression’ and call it ‘post flushing trauma’! But not many others can be out there who can relate to my idiocy. Anyway, with mobiles being so fragile that they need to be repaired or replaced so often, and then there’s some of us who flush them down, a waterproof and shockproof phone is the answer to all our prayers!
Nokia 5210 comes in a burnt orange colour, which looks pretty funky and different. I love the way you can strip it, its looks even cooler that way! The features are pretty standard Nokia one’s with clip art and picture editor being a couple of new value added elements. I love the games; bumper - which is actually pinball - rules! Best way to pass time when you’re bored out of your mind or trying to look busy!
Other features include Infrared, WAP, voice dialing, amazing animated profile logos, different ring tones than the previous Nokias, and rhythmic backlight flashing, so the light (which is a pastel orange, by the way) flashes with the beat of the tone!! The phone is really light, weighs only 92 grams! And it even has a thermometer and a stopwatch! Another pretty handy feature is how you can silent incoming calls, which is great because if you press no or reject, the caller knows that you received the call and cut it, but this way, if you want to avoid someone, you just press silent, it will go on mute mode but keep on ringing so the caller has no idea whether you genuinely missed the call or were avoiding him or her!!! So for evil people like me who have to avoid a zillion others, it’s an amazing phone!!!!
You can also personalize your message tones, you can pick any one of the of the 62 different tones (from the ring tones menu) to alert you if you receive a message, in addition to the standard message alerts. I think this is one of the funkiest features ever because I used to hate the typical nokia message alert - I now have a croaking sound to alert me when I get a message!
The only problem with the phone is that the rubber case gets dirty around the edges pretty quickly and that it is actually only splash proof and not waterproof, which just about broke my heart!!! Other than that, I’d say its one of the best Nokia’s on the market and excellent value for money (the price in UAE for the 5210 is $ 190, approximately), especially since the reception and battery life are pretty good; I charge it once every two days. I’ve been using it for the past 4 months and the only mobile i’d exchange this one for is the communicator or the 7650 (coz that has a digi cam!)