Better than an iPhone (Nokia 1110i)

Member Name: gumboot

Product:	Nokia 1110i
Date:	22/03/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap and reliable, rugged, long battery life, clear display even in sunlight

Disadvantages: dust-prone, creaky casing, won't impress your mates

Once the rubber-and-sticky-tape shim needed to keep the SIM in contact on my old phone got too unreliable and I finally accepted that I'd have to go and pay for a new mobile, I initially set out to get a Nokia 1100. I'd read about its heroic sales performance and approved of the reliability-over-bling message that implied. Unfortunately I couldn't find a brand new one from a reputable seller, but the 1110i looked like it was just as good but a little more polished (and thinner).

I've not used an 1100, so I can't compare them.

They advertise up to about 16 days on standby, but mine's a few years old now and I think I've had it run for nearer three weeks without re-charging. That said, I've turned off the backlight and I don't encourage people to call me on it. Now that I'm trying to buy a house I have a lot of calls with real-estate agents and I have to re-charge it around every ten days.

When calling land-lines the sound is clear and they don't seem to have any problem understanding me. A minor niggle is that there's not much to the shape to let you know if your ear is in the right position, so occasionally it'll just seem quiet and you'll have to reposition to hear things properly.

I'm not sure there's any point evaluating calls to other mobiles because you can't tell where the fault is... for example, the last couple of mobiles my girlfriend has tried (both LG) on the same network and in the same area, I can barely understand her half the time and she keeps losing covearge.

The screen is monochrome, which means that it works outdoors and that you can switch off the backlight altogether to save power so long as there's ambient light. You can take it out of your pocket and check the time and date without needing to press any buttons or unlock anything.

The buttons have an unpleasant spongy feel -- although, in this modern touchscreen world (the dead thud and the synthetic acoustic feedback that may or may not follow some moments later) the buttons do give a comparatively affirmative click when they're pressed, so dialling is fast and accurate.

The shell is a little lightweight, dust gets trapped behind the front screen, and it tends to creak when you press the buttons or adjust your grip. The creakiness can exacerbate the fatigue of a long call if you fidget.

It doesn't seem to mind being dropped on concrete, though, and the screen is sufficiently high-contrast that it'll endure plenty of dust and scratches before it becomes hard to read.

The firmware has a few bugs. Some of the ringer profile settings are ignored or mis-applied. If you set it to flash or vibrate or something it may just ignore you and do its own thing. It's nothing serious, but it's kind of a let-down when you hope that by getting something so simple you can expect it to work perfectly.

That said, it generally doesn't make noise when it's not supposed to -- although it will use the ringer for the alarm clock even in silent mode.

Apparently the 1100 has a torch -- be aware that there's no such feature on the 1110i. It has a talking clock, instead.

Summary: Probably a good travel phone, unless you want internet access

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