I Wouldn't sWAP It For The World (Nokia 3330)

Member Name: GodToldMeTo

Product:	Nokia 3330
Date:	13/06/02 (660 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: reliable, small

Disadvantages: missed calls a bit wierd

*My Story*

Okay, let me set the scene. I'd just been to a local club taking advantage of the £1 drinks. I got a little carried away and readily became quite intoxicated. Luckily I wasn't the only one and I got in a taxi with an equally drunk neighbour. For some reason, which now escapes my memory we were dropped off at the wrong place. Not too far from our houses but it meant a five-minute walk. So we began walking when we came across some abandoned 'For Sale' signs, you know those big ones you plant in the garden in front of your house. Well anyway, at the time we thought it would be hilarious to *borrow* them and put them in front of a friend's house having people, including himself, thinking the house was for sale and he hadn't been told. We were literally in hysterics thinking about his reaction so we quickly picked up the rotting pieces of wood, although full of mud and insects we were sure it would be worth it. We got to his house and put the signs in his front garden and left them to go home and wait the morning.

Unfortunately they fell over during the night and nobody got to see them, what' s more during all the sign moving I lost my mobile. Ah ha, some of you thought I wasn't going any where with that story didn't you, well there you go. Yes, I lost my phone, my precious 3310. I had the perfect ring tones, not that I can remember what they were exactly... maybe mission impossible or something quite corny and I lost them all. If that wasn't bad I also lost all my phone numbers, all those girls who were waiting on my call (okay, that’s a lie).

Well, I am a teenager and a teenager without a means of electronic communication, be it the Internet or S.M.S. isn't a real teenager. I went though serious withdrawal, my thumb twitching every time someone in my house received a text message. It was terrible so I definitely needed to get another.

Just down the road from my house there
had just opened a mobile phone shop specialising in Orange and One To One. My old phone was orange; I knew the tariffs and what not so I was very keen to check it out. Fortunately my mother could see the symptoms of phone withdrawal and agreed to put up the cash for a new phone. Thinking about it, to this day I haven’t paid her a penny. Anyways, the phone I ended up getting was a Nokia 3330, finally we're getting on track with the opinion.

The Nokia 3330, as I’m sure you probably all know, if you don’t – this is for you – is much like the older 3310 only with added features, the most significant being W.A.P.

*What Is W.A.P.?*

“Short for the Wireless Application Protocol, a secure specification that allows users to access information instantly via handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones”
Which pretty much means an Internet type service, which allows users to access information, be it weather reports or news from a server and have it displayed on their screens.

I like W.A.P., not that I use it religiously but it’s great to have, especially if you want to know the latest football scores and are not near a television. Plus you can, on the 3330, download extra levels for the games that were pre-installed on the phone.
*The Phone Itself*

The phone is much like the 3310 in that it has an internal aerial which is fantastic as you get a great signal and you can sit down without the discomfort of an aerial sticking in your leg. In fact unless you actually used it I don’t think you could notice a difference. The phone, as with most Nokia’s has the detachable fascia (phone case) option so you can change the colour of your phone to meet your mood. That is – if you want to. You could alternatively be boring like me and just leave the original that came with the phone.

*The Menu*

The phone has an on screen menu and out of all the phon
es I’ve ever come across it’s by far the easiest to use. Navigation is simple and designed so that a two year old could easily be sending text messages.

*The Phone Book*

The first option you come across is the phone book. The Nokia 3330 can hold 100 numbers and will allow you to assign tones to each unique number. Quite handy as you know who’s calling without even having to look at the screen. You can even add 10 voice tags in which you record yourself reading out the name of a particular person in your phonebook and when you want to call them at a later date just hold down the menu button, say their name and it should ring. Sometimes, especially when it’s a little noisy this can take a few times but in general the phone is excellent in terms of doing what it’s supposed to.

*Text Messaging*

The second option is the text messaging option which most, if not all present mobile phone users will be familiar with. Text messaging is readily becoming more popular than actual phone calls so it’s no doubt Nokia has included features that lets their users get the most out of it. Picture messages are the latest addition in Nokia’s quest to satisfy the thumb generation, which you can receive or send just like any other text message. There are pre written similes ( : - ) installed on the phone which you can fit into any of your messages. The most valuable feature although has to be the dictionary, I’m the worst speller at the best of times so the dictionary is priceless. You can even change the language the phone displays and write messages in French, Spanish or German.

*Chat*

A new addition to the Nokia models is the chat feature, which works along the same lines as text messaging. In fact it’s pretty much the same only it takes on the look of an Internet chat room in which you can have your own unique username and invite people into your chat sessions. Whereas in text mes
saging you have to scroll through your inbox to find a message, in chat it holds it all on one screen.

*Call Register*

Call register allows you to see the list of missed, dialled and received calls, lets erase the lists and even tells you how many minutes you’ve spent on the phone. Quite useful only I find that occasionally it tells me I’ve got a number of new missed calls only when I check the dates I find they can be from weeks ago. A little disappointing and extremely embarrassing when you ring someone up wanting to know what they want when in fact they never phoned.

*Tones*

One of my favourite features and a thing I love about Nokia’s. The phone allows you to have your own unique ring tone that you can either have sent to your phone or use the composer to create your own. The composer works by assigning certain notes to each number on your phone. If this interests you check out http://www.mobilemelodies.com/

You could also choose some of the pre installed Nokia tones but personally I find them a little annoying and a bit over the top.

*Settings*

Settings allows you to play around with things like call settings i.e. whether or not you want to have people see your number when you call them or whether you want the option of call waiting. Phone settings allows you to add a greeting that is displayed when you turn on the phone, security settings allows you to change your pin numbers but be careful not to get them wrong or you’ll have to phone up your phone provider to get a PUK code.

*Call Divert*

Does exactly what you imagine; you can stop people from ringing you in that when they ring they are sent to your answer phone. Can be quite handy if you’re in a meeting but personally I just prefer to put the phone on silent.

*Games*

You have the option of choosing the infamous snake II which is basically the snake chasing the apple game, space im
pact – a space invaders type game, bumper – a pinball game, bantumi – a logic game in which you need to put beans in a pot and pairs II which is a memory game. With W.A.P. you can download extra levels but I’m struggling to finish the first level.

*Calculator*

If a calculator with the standard functions plus a few extras like exchange rates although to use it you have to know both the foreign and domestic values yourself.

*Reminders*

Very handy tool which works like an alarm which flashes a message at a desirered date and time. Very useful for waking you up in the morning and telling you want books you need to take.

*Clock*

Here you can set the date and time, set an alarm for a particular time and date, use the in built stopwatch, set a timer and can even turn on the option of having the phone automatically adjust future time changes.

*Profiles*

This option allows you to edit and create profiles within your phone. You can choose what ring tones you want to play, how loud you want them to ring and whether you want the phone to vibrate. You can even name the profile so it will show on screen. Quite handy if you don’t fancy paying however many pounds per minute for a fancy operator logo which again you can find at http://www.mobilemelodies.com/

*Services And Information*

Are the W.A.P. features I have already mentioned. I’ve found them to be really useful and you can use them for jokes, stocks and horoscopes and pretty much everything you can thing of.

So, that is the Nokia 3330, my pride and joy and I wouldn’t swap it for the world… not until I get a free upgrade.

Thus concludes my op.

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