It's a cheap phone, but is it any good? (Nokia 2630)

Member Name: azana

Product:	Nokia 2630
Date:	28/04/09 (164 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, robust - enough said

Disadvantages: Not one to show off with

When it comes to a mobile phone my needs are fairly simple; I need something that can be used to make calls and texts on a day to day basis - I don't need bells and whistles, my pay as you go average bill of about £6 per month speaks volumes about my phone use. I use this phone every single day and I, personally, think it is great.

I bought this phone nearly a year ago now, despite at the time only being able to find a few reviews of it most of them saying "the battery life is no good", which has proved to be wrong so I am glad I took the plunge.

It wasn't too much of a risk at a bargain £29.99 at Morrisons at the time on Orange PAYG, it is fairly widely available on various networks at a similar price at the time of writing, so a cheap phone by anybody's standards.

What does the phone look like?

This phone is suprisingly slim and good looking for the price. It is 10mm thick and fits into a pocket nicely being 105mm by 45mm. The buttons are shiny black plastic and quite nicely spaced. They light up and, though of not a luxury feel are easy enough to use. There is a central navigational button and the normal Nokia features. The colour screen is large enough, colour, and easy to read - I measured the display at 30mm by 40mm - I couldn't find this information anywhere so I am not sure what the manufacturer's claimed display size is. For the technically minded it is 128 x 160 pixels; to me this means nothing but what is more important to me is that the screen is fine for viewing e.g. the picture of a friend's newborn.

Features:

Like I said I mainly use my phone to call and get texts - I am sure I am not alone in this, I doubt everyone is busy playing games and accessing webpages to find out about restaurants as they seem to be on the adverts I see. Anyway for both these activities the phone is fine, easy to use (I personally like the intuitive Nokia menus) and reception is fine in my rather far from a mast home. Actually reception is better than with my previous more expensive phone.

Battery life, which was the only feature I found out about before purchase is absolutely fine. My phone is switched on much of the time and I don't have to charge it more than about once a week or so, though if you used it more than me or used the other features I would imagine this would be a reduced time. Anyhow it is not an issue for me.

There are some other features, a radio (which I have used about once in fairness), you could use it to email and connect to the web (I don't), and there is a camera. The camera is pretty basic really - the resolution is apparently 640 x 480 - the phone does actually have bluetooth so you could download it, in practice I do use the camera, but rarely and it wouldn't be printable off quality but is good enough to send a quick photo by text. I wouldn't even attempt video on this phone though it does have this feature the memory would be too small for it to be useful.

The phone does also have a handsfree feature, an earpiece and also the normal alarm and calendar functions - I have to own up to using none of the above as I don't really have the need.

When using the phone my only complaint really is that when texting it is too easy to press the down button which sends you into "drafts" and is a bit annoying.

I should have said earlier that I also need a phone to be robust - this is a personal thing probably as I have children who tend, despite my best efforts, to grab my phone. A previous much more expensive motorola flippy thing met a wet and sticky end in the bottom of my daughter's rucksack after an encouter with her water bottle. This phone has had similar escapades (I know, I know I should learn) but survived and come out of the other end working fine. I wouldn't recommend abusing this phone, but I am ashamed to say I probably do just sling it in a pocket or bag and expect it to be fine and actually it is, there are a couple of scratches on it but it is doing well.

Would you recommend?

If you are the kind of person who really cares about having the latest phone that can download stuff and do fancy things then this is not the phone for you. If you are bothered about having a phone that looks flash, again move on, move on. If like me, you don't really need many of the features that mobile manufacturers seem to feel they have to include, then this is probably a good phone, and for the price to me it is even an excellent phone.

I have given this phone 4 stars only because the buttons are a bit plasticky and because I guess, not aspiring to something more flash and fancy that can probably do lots of things that I don't know about makes me feel a little er old, however this phone is great for my requirements. As it is, despite having read the handbook pretty extensively I don't use many of the features. I find it pretty amazing that for just under £30 (and including £10 talk time) I was able to buy so much for so little, but again thinking that makes me feel a little out of touch - but even 10 years ago who would have thought you could get so much for relatively so little?

In summary:

A great little phone for the price, and I recommend it if your phone use is similar to mine.

Summary: For the price it is pretty amazing really

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