Nokia 3110 ClassicI recently had the chance of using the Nokia 3110 Classic - my sis bought it yesterday. It’s a new phone, released in Q2 2007. At an affordable price of INR 6800 this phone is really cheap considering it boasts of a 1.3 MP camera and a host of other features.

Camera

The camera is good enough. It has an 8x zoom. The night-mode was missing in the video recorder though. I tried taking my own pic by turning on the self-timer but the mirror meant for self-portraits was missing at the back which made it difficult.

Sound

The in-built loudspeaker sounded great to my ears as I surfed through FM radio channels. It’s sweet and doesn’t crack at full volume. A volume controller is present on the side. The sound, however, gets muffled when the phone lies flat as the speaker is on its back. The in-flight mode lets you listen to music anytime. The headset which is part of the package is a pleasure to hear as well. The built-in media player plays these formats - MP3/MP4/AAC/AAC+/H.264/WMA.

Web Browsing

Next, I loaded the phone browser. The EDGE connection allowed fast downloads. The browser is decent compared to other series 40 phones - but never a match for Opera Mini, of course. I could not key in the proxy settings in the ‘Access Point’ settings. There was no field at all to enter the proxy details under ‘Access Point’ though the field is present under ‘Web’ settings. Now my operator is Airtel and won’t connect without proxy. As a result I could not run Opera Mini or any other Java apps.

Software and Bundled Apps

The user interface is pretty fast. That even after adding a 1 GB memory card.

The phonebook stores 2000 contacts x 10 fields. You can assign user-specific tones as also contact photos. Group sms is supported - useful for bulk sending sms.

The phone bundles 2 games - Sudoku, Snowboard - and 3 apps - Yahoo Go!, Catalogs, Convert. Yahoo! Go knows what you like - the settings and content you selected in your Yahoo! account on your PC will automatically apply to your mobile experience—and vice-versa.

Memory

After downloading some music and themes the memory became almost full. The 8.5 MB of internal memory far too less compared to the other features of this phone. However, the memory is expandable upto 2 GB by means of microSD cards. Bluetooth support and USB port - that make transfers piece of cake - make it really a feature-rich phone.

Design and Ergonomics

Looks wise the phone is far from stunning. The screen area looks nice. But below the screen - that is the keyboard area - the finish looks cheap.

The feel of the keyboard is good. Keys are large and easy to use.

Others

The battery leaves up to Nokia standard and lasts real long.

Build quality is also good. The battery door has a rubber seal - meant to last longer. The USB port has a protection cover.


Here is the complete feature list -

Features

Release: February 2007
Network: GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900

Form factor: Block
Dimensions: 108.5 x 45.7 x 15.6 mm, 72 cc
Weight: 72 g

Screen: Active TFT, 256K colors, 128×160 px
Navigation: 5-way navigation key

Ringtones: Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, AAC
Vibration

Battery: 1020 mAh Li-Ion
Talk Time: 4.00 h
Standby Time: 370 h

Memory: 8.5 MB
Expandable Memory: microSD / TransFlash

Camera: 1.3 MP, 1280 x 1024 pixels, 8X Zoom, Video Recorder

MP3 Player: MP3 / MP4 / AAC / AAC+ / eAAC+ / WMA
FM Radio
Speakerphone
Push-To-Talk

Streaming Multimedia: H.263 / H.264

SMS, MMS, Email
Audio messaging
Predictive Text: T9

Phonebook Capacity: 2000 x 10 fields
Calendar
To-Do List
WAP: 2.0 (xHTML)
Voice Commands
Calculator

Bluetooth: v2.0
Infrared Port
GPRS (Class 10) / EDGE
USB: v2.0 miniUSB

Conclusion

To conclude, this phone is a great value for money and makes a great choice in the budget segment.

P.S. - I ll be off for a month for exams. See you after July 12th.