Ok, I bought this phone just over 3 years ago (July ?01) and I am still using it today (granted I am now looking to get a new phone). However, I have had only one problem with this phone that being the battery stopped working. Even so, that was due to my carelessness in frequently charging and never letting the battery fully run down (be warned all mobile users)

Compared to the mobiles of 2004, this phone is extremely dated, it really has only the basic functions, text messaging, reminders, phone book, calculator, stopwatch?. Let me explain. The menu goes like so:

1: Phone book.
This really speaks for itself with it generally holding 100 numbers (although with o2 this is extended to 150) Within this menu you can assign ring tones to a maximum of ten callers; send numbers in the form of a ?business card? (although only to other nokias); alter the presentation of the numbers?

2: Messages
Again this is reasonably self-explanatory. The ?write message? section enables you to write a message as long as 349 characters however for every 160 characters you are charged for one message but it does mean you don?t have to send the first part before finishing writing. The inbox and outbox combined can contain from 10 to 20 texts again dependent on your network. There?s also a template menu and smiley menu for easily inserting them into texts as you write them. A handy function if you need to send a certain message frequently however I do not.

3: Chat
I?ve never fully grasped how this function really works but it?s meant to work in a way that presents texts sent between two people as though in a chat room so the messages both sent and received can be read.

4: Call Register
Again a pretty standard function containing a record of the last 20 dialled, missed and received calls and also measures the length of the last call made and total calls made which is handy with a free minute limit.

5: Tones
> With this phone you get 30 monophonic ring tones with 7 spaces for manually composed tones.

6: Settings
Again this is very standard and not very interesting.

7: Call Divert
I did say this phone was basic. Again a dull and standard section but handy.

8: Games
Where would a vintage nokia be without snakes, snakes 2!? The games consist of snakes 2, bantumi (an interesting but slightly confusing version of an African board game), space impact (a take on space invaders) and Pairs 2 (pairs basically; a simple game but if you?re fingers are hurting from snakes or space impact?)

9: Calculator
10: Reminders
11: Clock
Three basic menu functions that do as they say really. The clock menu includes an alarm (with snooze), a stopwatch and countdown timer.

12: Profiles
A now standard function but in its heyday was unique. Programmable profiles to suit your life.


And so I declare that this is definitely an excellent phone model. Granted few people will now be wanting to buy such a dated model-alas it features no colour screen, nor integrated camera, nor polyphonic ring tones. However the fact that it retails at £80 as new and I bought it for £100 3 years ago makes quite clear its value and durability. I have dropped this phone (and still am) frequently resulting in parts flying everywhere but it lives on.

When it comes to phones, I?d go Nokia all the way!! They?re almost always the most attractive, always user friendly and do their job well. The only reason I wouldn't buy this phone again is because I want to go for more of a looker this time: fashion over function im afraid :)



I've only selected poor reception due to o2 failing in areas I frquent: Friends with the same phone have had no problems on other networks.