Cell Phones

Cell Phone Review:

2009-02-26T16:03:00.000+06:00

Recently I wanted to buy a cell-phone. My budget was around US $150. Although there’re some very good sets available in the international market like nokia 6120 classic, it’s too much to expect in Bangladesh, because not only the recent handsets take time to be available in Bangladesh but also the local sellers like to attach a price tag as their wish irrespective of the international price. So I went to the mobile stores at Bashundhara City and Eastern Plaza and had a good look at the options. This is usually the price range at which normal Bangladeshi people or students buy their handsets unless their big daddy is a big-shot. So I hope that this review might help potential cell phone buyers at this moment.

When I searched those shops the available sets at this range were

• Nokia 6300
• Nokia 3120 classic
• Nokia 7210 supernova
• Nokia 5220 xpress music
• Nokia 3500 classic
• Nokia 3110 classic
• SE S302
• SE k550i
• Motorola V3x
• Samsung F250

Nokia 6300:

If u look carefully, u might probably see two or three of these, around you right now, it’s been that popular in Bangladesh. There’s 2MP camera, 2” QVGA display, stylish metallic look. But to me the lack of 3G, QCIF video recording, class-10 Edge makes it a little less attractive.

Nokia 3120 classic:

It has everything 6300 has plus it’s also equipped with 3G (VGA video calling camera at front) and VGA quality video recording. The only issue might be the OS being Nokia S40, not a symbian, the aged look, the lack of accessories (no data cable, no memory card, with a mono headset).

Nokia 7210 supernova:

This to me, is a fine handset around $100, with 2MP camera and the so stylish look. The only problem is that, the super glossy look is more appropriate in a cute girly hand, not mine.

Nokia 5220 xpress music:

Okay, I didn’t understand the hype of the asymmetric look. It looks like a defect in the design. May be this is the reason why I never understood Guernica. You might consider buying it, if you’re cold and desperately need the jacket that’s being offered with it.

Nokia 3500 classic:

The display is small with poor resolution, no 3G, nothing worth noticing. I don’t know how it went up there, it should be less than $80 in my opinion.

Nokia 3110 classic:

It’s truly classic with 1.3MP camera, the so so display, edge & gprs without 3G, good battery life at a good price. It also comes with 1GB memory and data cable.

Sony Ericsson S302:

Usually the SE camera’s are better than the equivalent ones. It should be a good set with a poor display resolution (176*220) and no 3G. You can certainly buy this if u can live with that.

SE k550i:

It’s been around for a while and always shaded under the awesome k750i. It has a cyber shot 2MP camera, QCIF video but with a poor 1.9” (176*220) display. Hmmm….. u never can get anything perfect.

Motorola V3x:

The sole reason that might be enough to buy this set is the brilliant 2.2” QVGA display. It also comes with 3G and the slim moto look. I don’t know why they missed out edge in this super set.

Samsung F250:

Equipped with 1.3MP camera, 2” (128*160) display and a solid built, it’s a set where there’s nothing to jump at. May be the reputation of Samsung for making steady good handsets might entice you.

The Winner:

No set appeared to be perfect. The ones with the looks lack the feature, and the ones with feature lack the air. After some careful comparison I decided to give the set which would be more useful in near future, when 3G hits Bangladesh. So it’s the Nokia 3120 classic.
Although I seriously doubt that it’d win the popularity among vast majority.
I’ll come up with a user experience of it later.

Display:

2009-02-26T16:01:00.000+06:00

All the new Nokia phones have fascinating display with very sharp and clear LCD. Any ordinary picture or theme looks very catchy on it. Compared to n70 or any other pricy phones released two years back, it surely is a winner.

Camera:

2009-02-26T14:29:00.001+06:00

Nokia 3120 classic has a two mega pixel camera with LED flash which is not much of a use. It also lacks auto focus feature like any other SE cell phones. So it is inevitable that the pictures taken at room light appear rather gloomy and blurred. Also Nokia uses extra brightness to show pictures, so even though it looks good on the phone; it’s actually dark in the PC.
Normal Light Sample 1
Normal Light Sample 2

But at the bright sunlight outside, it takes somewhat usable pictures. But the colors seem to have less contrast and vividness than any other digital camera.
Bright Light Sample 1
Bright Light Sample 2

The video is quite impressive for a cell phone at mid range. It has the highest resolution of VGA (640*480) with 15fps. The sound recorded is also loud enough. It can pause and record with 8x digital zoom and infinite record length. With 1GB memory card it can record around 60 min. video at high quality. The phone can take up to 8GB Memory but I anything over 4GB might make it slow.
Sample Video

Music:

2009-02-26T14:27:00.000+06:00

The music player plays music and the video looks good due to the impressive display. The video is automatically converted with the PC suite, so no problems of video compatibility. The speaker is mono and the sound is average. But that’s all about it. There’s nothing to get excited.

Games & Applications:

2009-02-26T14:25:00.000+06:00

It comes with five games which are fun to play. But among them Rally 3D is very entertaining. The other applications bundled include a Converter, Opera Mini, a Presenter for Bluetooth power point presentations, widsets etc. But now all the Nokia phones comes with same sort of stuffs.

Connectivity:

2009-02-26T14:24:00.000+06:00

Nokia 3120 classic supports micro USB, Bluetooth which is not bound by the phone memory like some other cell phones. Once the memory is full, it automatically converts to the memory card.
Also the memory can be accessed as USB storage device in the PCs with no Nokia PC suite.

Size & Weight:

2009-02-26T14:23:00.001+06:00

It’s light and slim and easily fits in the pocket. The keypad is very well designed with big keys, so the design is flawless. There’s also volume up/down key at the side for music.

Internet connectivity:

2008-12-11T14:06:00.001+06:00

Internet connectivity:
It has class 32 edge which says to have a connectivity of 296 kbps. With Grameen Phone it connects at 460 kbps. I don’t know where the extra bandwidth came from.