Bigger Is Better (Nokia 3510)

Member Name: TUVOK

Product:	Nokia 3510
Date:	22/09/02 (3699 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Robust, Huge memory capacity+sms, Great keypad, ringtones, games

Disadvantages: 2 tone case.

I work in Mobiles and have used quite a few phones. I had been using a Nokia 8210 for some time and found it very good, but wanted a phone with more features, a bigger keypad and good sms and memory storage, as well as the reliability and fast logical menus of my 8210. Nokia have always had the best menu designs and when I heard of an offer of £59.99 from Orange for the 3510 on Orange Virgin Plan I couldnt resist.

My first impressions of the 3510 before I had chance to hold one was that it was big and ugly, and looked much the same as its predecessors the 3310 and 3330, both as common as muck but very popular and reliable. But then most phones are just so tiny these days and I decided I wanted something with a bit of solidity and a good keypad. The 3510 certainly fits the bill. I had chance to see one in a shop and it felt solid, robust, strong, a feature lacking from many phones these days.

It weighs 105 grams which is heavier than most but not burdensome. The size is a bit bigger than a 3310 and easily fits into pockets. I love the big soft keypad, which is a joy to use, large keys and large screen make this phone perfect for young and old alike. The font size is big too and easy to see. The backlight is very bright and clear, almost torchlike.

This phone is the first Nokia to feature MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) an ability to receive, but not send a new type of message. MMS is a new advanced type of message containing a picture, music and text. You will need to have GPRS enabled by your provider and pay from £4/month to use this service. I didnt buy it for this however, the service isnt widespread at this time and a colour screen phone will be better suited to these types of messages.

This phone does the basics very, very well. It has many features only previously seen on high end business phones. 500 name phone memory, you can store upto 5 numbers and 4 "text" items such as email address, postal address,
a note etc. It can also store upto 150 sms messages and 50 picture messages or a maximum 300 sms message on
their own, The memory is flexible meaning if you used it to store 4 numbers under each name then you would have less memory for other functions such as sms storage.

You can also create individually named sms folders for different topics/people to store your sms in. You can send and receive extended sms of upto 459 characters, although you pay more for this. There is also an archive to store other sms in, as well as the usual inbox/outbox.

The calendar function allows storage of upto 500 notes as reminders, birthdays,meetings etc. These can be alarmed and set to repeat daily, weekly, 2 weekly monthly and yearly or never.

This phone is also Nokias first to feature "Polyphonic" ring tones, which are "layered" from different simulated instruments (in this case, a range of 40 instruments and although only 4 can be heard at any one time) and have much better depth than normal ringtones, which are played through an integrated speaker situated on the left side of the phone. There are 15 of these and the other 20 are standard but still sound much better than the "normal" ringtones on most phones due to the separate speaker being provisioned. All The tones can be used for sms alerts as well so when you are in a busy place and every one gets the standard sms tone received on their Nokia, when you receive an sms you will know its yours and unique! This phone can receive Polyphonic tones from various websites.

The phone has WAP and GPRS as well. WAP is a cut down version of the www for mobiles and can be useful for news, sport, weather while you are on the move, you can also download ringtones and logos from various sites as you would from the internet. WAP settings can be downloaded from www.nokia.co.uk and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service, you need to sign up for this with your provider, cos
ts start at around £4/month) can be enabled to allow faster WAP browsing on the phone (similar speed to a PC), but not with
a PC for surfing the internet as there is no Infra red port on the phone nor a data cable for connecting to a PC. This should not detract from an otherwise excellent package which is a big step up from previous 33 series Nokia phones. It will be very popular. Nokia are releasing more phones all the time and there is a colour screen version of this phone due , the 3510i, with Java, the ability to download games and also to send MMS messages, but this phone should still prove very popular as it will be cheaper than the 3510i and be perfectly good for the general everyday user who wants a phone with good memory and sms capabilities/storage as well as making and receiving calls.

Battery life is quoted as a huge 13 days standby and around 4 hours talktime. Ive charged mine once and it has lasted 4 days so far and Ive used it a lot in that time so these figures appear accurate, I will update this review regarding battery life as I havent charged it fully yet as I was too eager to use the phone!

There are 5 games, which I havent played much but seem good at first sight, Space Impact 2, Kart Racing, Dance 2 Music, Link5 and bumper. Again I didnt buy the phone for this but im sure I will get round to playing them at some point or other.

One of the other useful features on this phone is the ability of the phone to automatically lock the keypad after a set time period, something not mentioned on the Nokia web site, this can be anything from one minute to one hour. It also has timed profiles so you can program the phone to be on silent profile while at work and then it will switch back to general at a time of your choosing. Very useful.

Call quality and signal strength are very good.

The only thing I didnt like was the 2 tone external casing, the front is dark blue but the back is light blue! Probably ano
ther marketing ploy by Nokia of getting us to buy another case. The back of the case has a Rubber Nokia Logo which grips against surfaces and will prevent the phone from slipping when vibrating/ringing. The instruction book has a picture list of cases and accessories available at the back, another useful addition if you are looking for a new case or accessory. The power button has to be pressed quite hard to switch on and off and is a light green yellow colour. Minor quibbles though.

This phone has lots of excellent features and I recommend it for anyone wanting a robust phone with great memory, battery, signal strength, sms capabilities, ringtones, keypad and
for general everday use.

Summary: