What will they think of next? (Nokia 7110)

Member Name: Wease

Product:	Nokia 7110
Date:	05/12/00 (654 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: WAP, lots of functions, fun, looks good, cool games, excellent sound quality

Disadvantages: no in-call timers, no ring tone composer

I got my Nokia 7110 a few weeks ago and I have loved it to pieces right from the very beginning. It has sooooo many features I was absolutely gob-smacked - a rare occasion -when I first began exploring! To be honest there isn't really too much missing.

I normally go for personality rather than looks but this little phone has it all! It is fairly light - about heavy as two bottles of tippex (metric scale? What's that?). It's not one of the smallest phones around - approx 12 centimetres long and 3 wide (finger estimations rock!) and the aerial adds a bit of length but it is still a great size for your pocket or the side of your handbag. Unlike most Nokia's you can't change the cover (yet) but to be honest, who would want to? It has a really sexy finish that changes colour depending on which way the light is shining! It varies between sparkly green, sparkly blue, sparkly red and sparkly gold! It has a flip-down cover (Matrix style! Provides hours of entertainment and is also great to show off with!) This is very useful because it lets you answer the phone quickly and also means that you can't call anyone by sitting on your phone - I had a nasty habit of doing that. You still have a keylock though because the cover doesn't conceal the "navi-bar" (rolly thing that lets you roll up and down the menu or options etc - great fun trust me!), the on/off button (which can also be used to alter the ringtone profile e.g. silent) and also the two menu buttons (one takes you to the main menu and the other to the phonebook. The screen is HUGE! This is really useful when reading or sending messages and also when using the WAP functions - yes this beast has WAP!!!

So that's the outside, what about the inside? Well, that's quite sexy too - yes that IS my thing hehe ;-). There are just soooo many functions - in fact I was quite scared when I first turned it on, but don't worry it doesn't take long to master, and fro
m then on this phone will be your best friend.

Let's start from the top then.

Messages
You might be surprised to learn that this function is not used for writing messages at all! Ok, I'm lying. Of course it is used for writing messages, and also receiving them or possibly even saving a wee reminder to yourself! There is a capacity of 160 characters for each message and a handy little counter at the top of the screen tells you how many you have remaining - what will they think of next? You can send messages by text, email or fax and also send them to pagers! There is a 50 message memory capacity - WOW I hear you say, well wait until you hear how big the phone book capacity is! You are also provided with templates such as "please meet me at ..." which can save a lot of time. Another time saver is the multiple message sender, which lets you duplicate a message to send to lots of people. You can also opt to receive reports, which will tell you when your message has been delivered to the person's phone. This is a handy little service but I think that it could well be the cause of many relationship break-ups. You'll know what I mean when you see that a message has been delivered but you have not had a reply - arghhhhh. Long gone are the days of, "Oh no my phone has been turned off ALL weekend."

Call Register
Lets you know who has called you, who you have called and whose calls you have missed! You can also see the duration of all calls, calls made, calls received and the last call. One annoying thing is that you can only view the call timers by opening up the menu when you are in the middle of you call (on my old Siemens c25 the timer were visble on the screen during every call). However, you can select call summary which will tell you how long the call was once you have hung up. You can also view call costs - but I think that is only if you set them up on a voucher phone.

Profiles
Oh whe
re would we be without our beloved Nokia Tune? It can be a bit embarrassing though if you chose that tone because every time you phone rings out in public it is guaranteed that some clever Alec will be walking past and shout, "HELLO, YEH SOMEONE ELSE HAS THE SAME RINGTONE AS ME / YEH I'M ON THE TRAIN / MARCUS, BUY, SELL, BUY, SELL / SHHH I'M IN THE LIBRARY / CAN'T TALK THE WIFE'S HERE." However you could chose to amuse them with William Tell - at which point everyone, well nearly everyone, ok just me then, will begin galloping around like a mad horse who has made it's way onto the track halfway through the Grand National! If that doesn't tickle your fancy then there are 33 others to chose from. You can also select a vibrating alert. The ringing volume varies from pretty quiet - where did my ear trumpet go - to EXTREMELY LOUD - as in pass me the ear defenders. Hopefully, you will be able to find a happy medium. The message alert also has four variations. Unfortunately you can't create your own ringtones, but you can send them to your phone from selected internet sites e.g. textmessenger.co.uk There is room for 5 ringtones to be sent to your 7110. May I recommend Men Behaving Badly from boltblue.com! My personal fave!

One thing that I really like is the fact that the profile is reserved if you turn your phone off and turn it back on e.g. if it is turned off on silent mode then when you turn iit back on it will still be in silent mode - very handy when I messing in college tutorials. lol

Settings
There is a wonderful alarm clock - without it most colleges would be empty at 9am - and also a clock. You can also sort out the call summary and speed dial (allocate one person to each keypad number, 1-9, then all you have to do is press that number and the green call button and that will ring them) here.

Call Divert
Great if you have a lecture or meeting and can't receive calls because you can send
all calls straight to your answer phone. You can also set it up to divert any unanswered calls etc.

Games
Now we get down to it! We have Snake II, rotation, opposite and racquet - you need never be bored again. I use these games all the time particularly when travelling. But be warned if you plan to play Snake II in a lesson or lecture - or even under the desk in work, please, please turn the sound off because there is nothing like blatancy when the top score siren on Snake II echoes around the room! In case you haven't heard of Snake (I mean where have you been? Answers on a postcard to the comments section please!) I'll explain it briefly. Basically you have a little snake (actually resembles a snake unlike the solid line of Snake I) and you have to manoeuvre it around the screen (avoiding all the pokey-outey walls) to eat the apples. You get points (amount will vary depending on the level - ranges from 1-9 with the snake moving faster the higher the level) for each apple you eat. You can also get extra points by eating bugs which appear every now and again for a short period of time on the screen. You die if you hit a wall (the snake gets longer the more it eats - OI CHUBBY!!!) or if you hit another part of yourself (you being the snake). This can also be played with two players by using the infrared link to a compatible phone. This is also pretty good fun. Basically, you cna see both snakes on the same screen and they have to race each other to eat the apples. There are no boundaries (if you go off the top of the screen you come back on at the bottom) and you will only die if you hit the other persons snake (in which case they win, regardless of score). I will warn you though, the phones have to be facing each other and practically touching or you will lose the link. PLEASE let me know if any of you have a score larger than 1031! Haha - I need a new target to beat! Rotation involves moving numbers around a grid until they are in the right o
rder. This is game is nie on impossible! Even on the easiest grid I always end up getting the last two figures round the wrong way! Racquet is an updated version of that arcade slassic - pong! You must hit the ball across a net and try to beat the phone. The phone gets really skillful if you play on level four - incorporating spin on literally every shot! Last but not least we have opposite. Those of you who had a computer in 1987 with Windows might remember it as being the first Microsoft game (now replaced by minesweeper and solitaire etc), then known as Reversi. You have dark blobs and the phone has white blobs. You msut turn the white blobs dark by placing your blobs either side of them. Be warned though - the phone is a right devil in disguise when it comes to games!

Calculator
Easy to use and is very handy for those quick sums in the supermarket - or is that just me and my silly student ways - lack of money humphhh

Calender
No more excuses to forget your mother's birthday with this! Darn it! You can check out the date - believe me this is handy when you have been on a weekend drinking binge! The main function of the calender is making notes on certain days. You can add birthdays and set a reminder for the week before etc so that you have time to buy a present. Add in the person's year of birth and you will even be reminded how old they are! You can remind yourself to call someone, remind yourself of a meeting or make a general reminder. The you can select the time you want to be reminded. I run my life by this little beauty.

Infrared
Allows you to play games with 2 players or send entries from your phone book to a compatible phone. With the correct peripherals the phone book can also be printed.

Services
Yes this mobile has WAP! Although there are not that many WAP sites at the moment more are popping up all over the place. You can check out news, weather sport, travel (my fave because you can look
at train times - what a life saver) you can even search for your local pub! If you have an aol email address you can check that out, if not you can get a free email addy at orange.net - they will send you a text message everytime you get a new email! Call charges vary (5p off peak with Orange) but at the moment Orange are running a free WAP weekend (Nov 1 00 to May 31 01) where you can make as many WAP calls as you like for free (Friday midnight to sunday midnight)!

Just in case you might be interested, there is site called mradgood (there is an area on dooyoo if you'd like to take a look) who will pay you to visit wap sites. This is a very new site and at present they are recruiting potential "wappers" for this service. Might be fun!

Phonebook
It has a whopping 1000 name capacity (on the phone itself - my Sim holds 100). So big that the amount free is shown as a percentage! The phone book is easy to use and you can search for names - very handy considering the size of it - not that many of use will have 1000 numbers to put in, never fear if you ger desperate then you can add in some random names and numbers from yellow pages to look popular! You can also sleect whether the number is a mobile, home or office number and you can sleect the caller group which the name is in e.g. friends/family/colleagues - this is useful because you can have different ringtones for different groups!

The battery life is average and mine lasts just over 24 hours once fully charged. It also tends to charge up very quickly indeed. Mine takes around 3 hours (maybe slightly less) to fill its battery from empty! Very impressive!

You can also send logos to your phone from internet sites such as textmessenger.co.uk At present I have the Quiksilver logo - there really is something for every one!

There aren't too may faults that I have found. I would prefer if it there was an in-call timer (to stop me from going over my 50 free mi
nutes a day limit). Another thing that annoys me is that if I am playing a game and a message comes as soon as I am alerted the backlight switches off. I'm sad and often have a game of Snake in bed, so when the lights goes off I'm plunged into darkness and invariably lose! The phone sometimes freezes on wap :o( However, that would not prevent me from buying this mobile because the pros out number the cons by miles! This is easily the best phone on the market at the moment. The call quality is very clear too!

As you can see the 7110 has a lot to offer. The price varies from £9.99 right up to £150 so make sure you shop around for the best deal!

TIP: Talkingshop.co.uk is offering it for £9.99 on the Orange Everyday 50 tariff. The same offer was going to set me back £79.99 in my local mobile phone store!

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