Bling Factor No, X Factor Questionable... (Nokia 1600)

Member Name: Nar2

Product:	Nokia 1600
Date:	29/12/06 (854 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap price on PAYT Vodafone, nice colour screen, few good ringtones

Disadvantages: Basic phone with horrbly small typeset mimics 1100 model. 9 year olds would love it perhaps.

“It has a colour screen with up to 65, 536 colours,” the sales man explained gleefully.

“Yes I can see that...by the product list, but more importantly I just wanted the 2600 model again, for my mum as its simple and easy to use.” I said

“Oh that was a popular model but we don’t sell it anymore unfortunately.”

Why is this the case with virtually every Vodafone shop I visit? Nokia release so many models, the company buys them in, re-labels them with proud red Vodafone badging and then go to the bother of replacing the phone a couple of months later with another Nokia model. Consistency or a lack of seems to be the phrase which escapes my mouth as the salesman went onto point out Vodafone’s own basic mobile phone priced accordingly against Nokia’s latest bargain bells and no whistles 1600 model.

Ladies and Gentlemen I am well aware of the ratings and reviews on Ciao and I did some research first but the 1600 model was not amongst the models I was looking for to replace my mum’s trusty Nokia 1100. I was just under the impression I could buy another 2600 model to replace her old phone as she had taken to like my own 2600.

You see, whilst there is nothing actually wrong with the 1100 in terms of working, it has an LCD screen which apparently makes it difficult for my mum to look at the number she has dialled, particularly in the rain whenever she is out shopping. The compact size did impress her however after her bulky and heavier 3210 model...and I guessed she may have been impressed with the colour screen on my phone against the back to basics appeal of the 1100. ** This is a long review and appears elsewhere online such as Ciao. **


** Nar’s Quick Skip Product Spec **

• Triband
• Hands Free (it has a loud speaker too)
• Alarm & clock (Also has the option to “speak” alarm and time)
• Changeable covers (if you can find them)
• Polyphonic ring tones (Some but not many and this one features lousy X Factor theme tune!)
• Phone book & phone capacity: 500 and additional SIM capacity.
• 8.5g weight (Very light but narrow and compact).
• Talk time of 5.5 hours, 450 hours standby.


So against Vodafone’s snazzy but cheap and cheerful spec fitted easy mobile phone I was stuck for a moment between buying Vodafone’s own and the Nokia 1600. The dummy model in the shop proved to be as enticing as a toffee apple made out of plastic and against the Christmas rush of consumers I was standing amongst; it seemed that I wasn’t the only one who was in a quandary.

“Oh and this model comes with X Factor limited edition ring tone and screen background,” the sales man added whilst he showed me a real model as opposed to the thing strung up by elasticated wire on the demo sales wall. Oh that’s very helpful I thought, particularly when my mum’s a retired music teacher...


** Out of the Box/Setting Up **

Christmas day arrives and the phone is out of the packaging. “Oooh its very nice looking,” cooed my mother. I on the other hand had the fun of taking the SIM card out of her original phone and putting it into the back of the new 1600. One of the reasons to why I like Nokia is the simple idea that at a touch of a button the numbers stored on the SIM card can be automatically copied and transferred to the phone by the simple operation of a button. Setting up the phone was easy but how would the overall design appeal to my mother?


** Design and Overall Feel **

So amongst the Christmas wrapping and the X Factor labelled box, I took the 1600 out and at the rear found that the battery/SIM cover door is remarkably easy to take off. Remove the hologram marked battery only to find it is the same battery fitted to the old 1100 and then realise the SIM pick up lock frame is identical to the 1100.

Travelling around to the front of the phone, it is indeed a thin phone by Nokia’s reckoning and I do have to agree on this point. However the buttons on the phone move well with precision, much easier than the 1100’s all rubberised cover but naturally don’t grip the fingers as they are light and clear plastic whilst underneath the decals and numbers have a white face against several other 1600 models on the market which have a black face. This model I reckoned would be easier to spot the numbers, especially as the phone lights up normally in the background whenever the model is switched on.

After we plugged the phone into charge, it was less than an hour before curiosity got the better of me and we switched the phone on;

Lurid colours on the screen and a familiar type set flashed up on the colour screen of the 1600 but what I was initially disappointed with is the fact that the 1600 mimics the 1100 with the basic Nokia type set, small and at times indecipherable according to the menu selections available. The option to choose large fonts didn’t improve the visual experience although the colours were extremely bright and eventually through the simple to read manual I fathomed how to change the horrible red and white X Factor background screen. Even at this point I realised that the 1600 in this respect has been modelled on the kind of phone that some teenagers could start with before moving onto a phone with a camera, but since my friend’s teenage daughter baulked at the idea of the 1600 as a gift for my mum, she proudly showed me her LG Chocolate phone which she had recently been given as an early Christmas present and made me realise that even 14 year olds have better taste!! So what ages are Nokia’s marketing team expecting to attract with this phone? A nine year old child perhaps?


** Layout and General Navigation **

So of course the X Factor screen had to go, only to be replaced by a myriad of options you can choose from leopard skin type backgrounds, to downright weird little picture designs from leaves to clouds. In the end I chose a pink background and realised that you can actually change the colour through contrast and brightness yet again to improve the fact that the phone can indeed be personalised. I just hoped that putting a number or texting, or even making a call would be just as well informed and easy.

Although the buttons appear narrow on the 1600, making a call is just as easy as most Nokia mobile phones. There is the usual standard icon for “lifting a handset,” in green and in red, which also doubles as the power button for “cancelling a call.” But however easy and familiar this is, I found the scroll button difficult to control and it’s a pity that you can’t actually change the setting of how to move the scroll button to your own needs. For example;

Whilst scrolling through the menu options, flying past the “Settings” which now cover all the aspects of the phone including display and tones, the scroll button cannot be pushed downwards, which would be an obvious visual and physical element to do – the 1600 just won’t move its menu options let alone allow you to move “downwards” as the screen menus move in a left or right hand direction and the scroll square moves accordingly left and right.

Generally it is easy to go through this phone if you have owned a Nokia phone before but some things still defy logic...


** Writing a Text **

It is just as easy as the 1100 model and countless other Nokia models in the range where the specifics are “easy to use,” on the Nokia design team blue print. Whilst I have never approved of the T9 predictive text option, it is easy to cancel this as well as being relatively lighter to tap in whatever text you want to lay down. In this respect my mum finds using the 1600 easier than the 1100 for the sole reason that the lack of rubberised keys the 1600 keys move quicker and easier onto the next spacing after complete words. Sending it is easy too, but then most mobile phones in this respect and price range are easy to send texts.


** Making A Call **

Making calls on the 1600 is easy too, even if you don’t go through your address book (and again an improvement for some will find this section is under “Contacts.”) and dial the number in automatically. Releasing or dropping the call afterwards is also easy to do and there is the option in between calls to choose a few options such as call waiting, hold call and add details such as dialling in another number to save which replaces the idea of “let me find a paper and pen whilst you give me that number!”.


** Ring tones and Fun Aspects **

Nokia state that this phone has Mp-3 quality and polyphonic ring tones so how would this phone appeal to my musical ears? Well sadly the tones don’t inspire confidence at all, and if this was my phone I would have taken it back. Whilst the quality of ring tones on how they sound are funky at times, the quality of examples used are very disappointing and again mimics Nokia’s intention to market this phone towards children rather than adults.

Being a classical musician, and a pianist first and foremost my mum wasn’t bowled over that the phone didn’t contain the usual Nokia classics such as music from Bach, Debussy, Mozart et al and only a piece by Liszt has been incorporated into this phone but smiled and grinned when she realised the phone has pop songs which are accompanied by a soft voiced female. Certainly I realised that this phone would have appealed to me greatly as a student music teacher but before long the quality of certain ring tones would have annoyed me.

Against the older 2600 model, the 1600 model hasn’t got a patch on the quality of the tones available on my phone and even Nokia’s standard ring tone appears hazy and scratchy against the version on my 2600 model.

But if there is one thing to be learnt, you can teach an old retired teacher something new; she adores the fact that the phone has a composer element with 5 spaces to save fragments of own composed material but currently has the phone set to “cackle,” which emerges with the laughter of a baby or young child. Recently she remarked that everyone couldn’t understand where the sound of the voice was coming from when she sat in the hair dressers getting her hair done when the sound of a laughing child emerged near by!!

Other extras include a converter, calculator, aforementioned composer and a reminder section.

One aspect which seems to be a typical Nokia trait is fitting phones with at least one feature you won’t find elsewhere. The 1100 for example has an excellent torch light at the top and sadly you won’t find this on the 1600. Instead there is a speaking clock and speaking alarm – kids will love it but I’m not so sure my mother will approve!!


** Games **

The games which consist on this phone come in three usual options. Firstly there’s a Soccer game, an elaborative take on Nokia’s famous Snake game and one other game which looks horribly and outdated known as Rapid Roll. Settings reveal that the phone can shake accordingly as well as tones which accompany the games, but sadly to my ears they are just as bad as some of the ring tones applicable to this phone.


** Price **

For Pay as You go customers on Vodafone’s Pay as you Talk “non-contract,” the price of this phone costs £30 and additionally I paid £10 for a leather case from Vodafone for the 1600 itself.


** Conclusion **

This phone is basic and it mimics the 1100 on the type set which means if you are the owner of a 2600 or a more elaborate phone from Nokia, the typeset can be disappointing. However it is a phone which is obvious from its feature that it is geared towards children rather than adults. Get past the poor quality of some of the ring tones and you have a phone here which at best only adds in a great colour screen, is small and lightweight (at 8.5g it is very light against Nokia’s official statistic mistake of “85g”!!) and generally is easy to navigate and control. My mother adores her new phone despite the familiarity of the typeset concerned. It just means that it won’t be long until it is replaced by something more qualitable for children who realise the certain drawbacks if compared to their parent’s phones, X Factor added or not. Thanks for reading. ©Nar06./ Nar2.

www.nokia.co.uk

Summary: Back to Basics approach but with a colour screen.

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