I can't hear you.... (Nokia 5210)

Member Name: unknownlunatic

Product:	Nokia 5210
Date:	09/05/03 (1426 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks good, Lots of features

Disadvantages: Bad voice quality, Casing not that tough, New covers expensive

I bought a Nokia 5210 last September. I bought it from Phones 4 U on an 02 Pay as you go tarrif. Then it cost £150.

This phone has all of the usual Nokia features. They are:

Messages - You know, text messages. It has predictive text so that you can write messages quickly. One downside is that it can only store 10 recieved messages. More would be better.

Call Register - This contains useful information like the duration of your last call, the total amount of time you have spent on the phone, and most importantly a list of calls you missed.

Profiles - This is where you customise your phone. You can set up different profiles that do different things. You have control over the ringtone, the volume of it (and the same for the message tone), if the phone vibrates when you get a call, and if it lights up. You can switch between the profiles as and when you need them.

Settings - In here you change things like the clock, the alarm clock, turn speed dialling on or off and lots of other useful bits and pieces.

Games - On this phone you get 5 games to play with. You get snake 2, Space Impact, Bumper, Bantumi and Pairs 2. Everyone knows what Sake and Pairs are, so I won't describe them, but I will describe the others. Space impact is a kind of space invaders type game, You go along the screen shooting the alien ships that fly towards you whilst dodging their missiles. Bumper is a basic pinball type game. Bantumi. Hmm I've never understood bantumi!! It does have instructions for all the games on the phone, but I can't get my head around the bantumi rules!

Calculator - Always useful!

Calender - This is another really useful feature. You can store reminders of important dates so you don't forget things.

Infrared - This can be used for a number of things. You can use it to play 2 player games. You can use it to send numbers and things to other people whose phone has infra red, or you can
use it to communicate with a computer. I've not tried the last of these 3 though.

Extras - This is where they put the features that they couldn't fit into any other category. It has a stopwatch, countdown timer, and thermometer!!! The thermometer is next to useless. It takes about 5 minutes to work out what the temperature actually is, and even then it is wildly inaccurate. I think that the reason for this is because the sensor is inside the plastic shell of the phone. I really don't know why they included this feature.

Services - This is where you can access the internet using WAP. I don't use WAP much, but you can use it to find travel information, sports results etc...

So that's the features that are on the phone, but what is it actually like to use??

Well, The phone looks quite good. Mine came in blue. It has a hard shell with a rubberised outside. The reason for this is that it is a 'tough' phone. It is splash resistant, and dust resistant. It is also meant to be stronger, so if you drop your phone it won't fall to pieces. It's quite small and fits in the hand nicely, and the buttons are all easy to access.

When fully charged the battery lasts around 4-5 days, depending on how much you use it.

Toughness - This is a main marketing point of this phone, but I haven't found it to be that robust. The screen on the casing has cracked. It did this when it was in my pocket. The only thing I can think of is that it must have pressed against my keys, which were also in my pocket. I did look at getting a new cover for the phone, but they cost £24!!!

Another downside of the shell design of the cover is that it muffles your speech when you are talking to people on the phone. I quite often find myself having to repeat myself as people can't clearly hear what I am saying.

Overall it is quite a good phone, with good features, but I don't think I would recco
mend it to people, as I don't think it is a strong as it is made out to be, and the quality of the microphone isn't good enough for being behind a thick plastic cover.

Summary: