Nokia Lumia 610
Product Type: Nokia mobile phones
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A smart phone on a budget.
Nokia Lumia 610
Member Name: mjc121
Product:
Nokia Lumia 610
Date: 14/01/13
Rating:
Advantages: easy to use after a bit of practice
Disadvantages: it's a touch screen
As my mobile phone contract was up for renewal I was interested in what upgrade I could get for my hand set. Now as I don't use my mobile very much my options were limited and so I was offered the Nokia Lumia 610 on the windows operating system as the best they were prepared to let me have with my new contract which comes to £13 pcm. Well I have used clam shell and slide phones in the past and was always slightly reluctant to use a touch screen one but still nothing ventured nothing gained as they say. The phone is available in a variety of colours for the back plate. Although I was not offered a choice I am happy with the white one I have received, admittedly I would have preferred black but you can't have everything. Whilst this may not have all the bells and whistles of the top of the range smart phones it is good enough for my daily needs.
Getting it ready
On receiving the phone It is the case of setting it up changing the SIM from my old phone - oh no wait. My old phone took a regular sized SIM card, this phone takes a micro SIM card. So a quick call to my service provider and the transfer of my number from one to the other was done. Fortunately this only took a 5 min phone call and then about 20 min for the new card to be active. PLEASE NOTE this does mean your old SIM card will be shut off. Inserting the SIM card into the phone is perhaps one of the easier card inserts I have done. Although with the card being quite small those with arthritis may find this a bit more difficult. After inserting the battery and putting the back plate back on I set about charging it up.
Charging
The charger has two parts the actual plug and a micro-USB lead. The USB lead can also be used to connect your phone to your computer and is easy to connect and disconnect from the plug bit. The plug part of the charger has one interesting feature and that is a slide up and down earth jack. Whilst this makes for easier storage I feel that this is perhaps a little flimsy and may break quite easily. I tend not to let my phone's battery run down completely so I can not say how long a full charge will take. You can get an estimation of how much battery life you have left of the settings menu under 'battery saver'. As a rough estimate I would say that a full charge will last about 8 days in standby. Naturally the more you use your phone the shorter this will be and things like playing music through it and using the camera etc will use up more battery power.
The design
The phone is quite thin and only 130g but is not as flimsy as it may first look. The three buttons on the right side control volume (top) the on/off button (middle) and the camera shutter (bottom). Now I have quite big hands and so using all three is fairly easy without having to use both hands but I do think that having perhaps the on/off button on the other side may be an improvement as there will be less possibility of accidentally pressing this. The touch screen is fairly large and not overly sensitive but works less well if you have cold hands. The camera lens is flush to the back cover. Now I know this is common on phones but this can lead to a higher risk of the lens becoming scratched and covered in fingerprints. Although now I have bought a separate case for it this is less of a problem.
Using the phone
As there are many apps on the phone I'm going to stick to the general use ones such as calls and texts.
The phone does not come with a pre-set SIM lock and I would advise you set one up as soon as you can. This locks your SIM so your phone can not be as easily used should it be stolen. This can be done via the settings tab.
The first thing I did was transfer all my contacts from my old phone to the new one. This is quickly done via the contacts transfer app and is done via blue tooth. Once I had this set-up it took a matter of a couple of minutes for my numbers to be transferred.
Making calls is easy thanks to the large numbers on the touch screen for a direct dial or simply touch the 'people' app and then find the name of the person to call. Within the people app you can set up several sub groups as well. Calls I have made using the phone are nice and clear on the ear phone and the microphone is a good distance so can pick up your voice without it becoming obscured.
Text messages are also easy to do as you are given a qwerty keyboard on the touch screen. I find it easier to turn the phone through 90 degrees to get a slightly larger keyboard. The screen also displays the full text thread between you and the other person which saves you going through all text messages on the phone one by one to find that all important thing they told you three weeks ago.
You can also hook up you email account to the phone to read and send them from the phone as well as your twitter and facebook accounts. I personally feel the screen is a bit too small to effectively read emails so I have not used this facility very often.
You can connect to the network to use the email system or the Internet on your phone via wi-fi or your mobile network. However, you will need to check your contract to see which way is the cheapest for you. There is a setting which will automatically switch your mobile network off if you go into a 'roaming area' so you don't receive a shock bill, however, I would still check this just to be on the safe side.
There are two 'off modes' for the phone. Well stand by and off to be exact. You can pre set a time for the phone to go into standby and then ask for the pin code to a selection of times (I use a 5 min wait). This can be activated more quickly by pressing but not holding the on/off button. If you do hold the button down a caption appears asking you to 'slide down to switch off'. A simple down stroke on the screen will then turn the phone off fully. Whereas an upwards stroke over rules it and the phone stays on.
Using the phone for other things.
As with most smart phones it can be used as an MP3 player and as a radio. To use as a radio you need to plug the headphones in via the standard 3.5 mm jack on the top of the phone.
The camera, well as far as phone cameras go, it isn't too bad. It is a 5mp camera but as with all phone cameras it has rather limited functionality but better than some compact digital cameras on the market. I have used it to take a few quick snaps which has produced some good results but it will in no way replace my DSLR camera.
The calculator only has the basic functions but it is good enough for working out just how special those special deals are in supermarkets.
One drawback is that there is no timer or stop clock on the phone as it is but I'm sure applications can be found for this.
Specifications;
Windows phone version 7.5
Screen size 9.5 cm (diagonal)
Total storage 6.09 GB
RAM 256 MB
Whilst the 6 GB storage is plenty for my needs as I use a separate MP3 player, don't store my photos on my phone for too long and I don't use my phone for games the fairly low RAM will probably mean that some applications may not run properly on the phone.
For the memory a memory card slot would perhaps help to expand this but on this phone it is sadly lacking a slot for one.
My Moans:
My big problem is the fact that if the screen becomes damaged you can't use your phone. Whilst buying a separate case for it has reduced this risk it is still a problem with this kind of phone. Also the screen gets a bit smudged etc as the use of your fingers to operate it with leave marks. Whilst I know you can buy covers for the screen this leads to the problem of these covers getting mucky then having to replace them. A soft micro fibre cloth to clean the screen has been my solution to this.
Also I found the manual provided with the phone to be a little light on detail. Thankfully a better one can be found Nokia website.
Summary:
I do actually quite like this phone, despite my reservations about touch screens. It has a good sized on screen key pad for making calls and the sound quality of the calls is also good. This is a good entry level smart phone especially for those who don't want or need an expensive contract you need for a better known smart phone.
I would give this 4.5 if half stars were allowed but this is closer to a 5 than a 4. I have reduced the processing quality score as I feel the 256 MB RAM is a little low. Also the lack of a timer/stop watch is why I have taken a bit off the features bit.
Getting it ready
On receiving the phone It is the case of setting it up changing the SIM from my old phone - oh no wait. My old phone took a regular sized SIM card, this phone takes a micro SIM card. So a quick call to my service provider and the transfer of my number from one to the other was done. Fortunately this only took a 5 min phone call and then about 20 min for the new card to be active. PLEASE NOTE this does mean your old SIM card will be shut off. Inserting the SIM card into the phone is perhaps one of the easier card inserts I have done. Although with the card being quite small those with arthritis may find this a bit more difficult. After inserting the battery and putting the back plate back on I set about charging it up.
Charging
The charger has two parts the actual plug and a micro-USB lead. The USB lead can also be used to connect your phone to your computer and is easy to connect and disconnect from the plug bit. The plug part of the charger has one interesting feature and that is a slide up and down earth jack. Whilst this makes for easier storage I feel that this is perhaps a little flimsy and may break quite easily. I tend not to let my phone's battery run down completely so I can not say how long a full charge will take. You can get an estimation of how much battery life you have left of the settings menu under 'battery saver'. As a rough estimate I would say that a full charge will last about 8 days in standby. Naturally the more you use your phone the shorter this will be and things like playing music through it and using the camera etc will use up more battery power.
The design
The phone is quite thin and only 130g but is not as flimsy as it may first look. The three buttons on the right side control volume (top) the on/off button (middle) and the camera shutter (bottom). Now I have quite big hands and so using all three is fairly easy without having to use both hands but I do think that having perhaps the on/off button on the other side may be an improvement as there will be less possibility of accidentally pressing this. The touch screen is fairly large and not overly sensitive but works less well if you have cold hands. The camera lens is flush to the back cover. Now I know this is common on phones but this can lead to a higher risk of the lens becoming scratched and covered in fingerprints. Although now I have bought a separate case for it this is less of a problem.
Using the phone
As there are many apps on the phone I'm going to stick to the general use ones such as calls and texts.
The phone does not come with a pre-set SIM lock and I would advise you set one up as soon as you can. This locks your SIM so your phone can not be as easily used should it be stolen. This can be done via the settings tab.
The first thing I did was transfer all my contacts from my old phone to the new one. This is quickly done via the contacts transfer app and is done via blue tooth. Once I had this set-up it took a matter of a couple of minutes for my numbers to be transferred.
Making calls is easy thanks to the large numbers on the touch screen for a direct dial or simply touch the 'people' app and then find the name of the person to call. Within the people app you can set up several sub groups as well. Calls I have made using the phone are nice and clear on the ear phone and the microphone is a good distance so can pick up your voice without it becoming obscured.
Text messages are also easy to do as you are given a qwerty keyboard on the touch screen. I find it easier to turn the phone through 90 degrees to get a slightly larger keyboard. The screen also displays the full text thread between you and the other person which saves you going through all text messages on the phone one by one to find that all important thing they told you three weeks ago.
You can also hook up you email account to the phone to read and send them from the phone as well as your twitter and facebook accounts. I personally feel the screen is a bit too small to effectively read emails so I have not used this facility very often.
You can connect to the network to use the email system or the Internet on your phone via wi-fi or your mobile network. However, you will need to check your contract to see which way is the cheapest for you. There is a setting which will automatically switch your mobile network off if you go into a 'roaming area' so you don't receive a shock bill, however, I would still check this just to be on the safe side.
There are two 'off modes' for the phone. Well stand by and off to be exact. You can pre set a time for the phone to go into standby and then ask for the pin code to a selection of times (I use a 5 min wait). This can be activated more quickly by pressing but not holding the on/off button. If you do hold the button down a caption appears asking you to 'slide down to switch off'. A simple down stroke on the screen will then turn the phone off fully. Whereas an upwards stroke over rules it and the phone stays on.
Using the phone for other things.
As with most smart phones it can be used as an MP3 player and as a radio. To use as a radio you need to plug the headphones in via the standard 3.5 mm jack on the top of the phone.
The camera, well as far as phone cameras go, it isn't too bad. It is a 5mp camera but as with all phone cameras it has rather limited functionality but better than some compact digital cameras on the market. I have used it to take a few quick snaps which has produced some good results but it will in no way replace my DSLR camera.
The calculator only has the basic functions but it is good enough for working out just how special those special deals are in supermarkets.
One drawback is that there is no timer or stop clock on the phone as it is but I'm sure applications can be found for this.
Specifications;
Windows phone version 7.5
Screen size 9.5 cm (diagonal)
Total storage 6.09 GB
RAM 256 MB
Whilst the 6 GB storage is plenty for my needs as I use a separate MP3 player, don't store my photos on my phone for too long and I don't use my phone for games the fairly low RAM will probably mean that some applications may not run properly on the phone.
For the memory a memory card slot would perhaps help to expand this but on this phone it is sadly lacking a slot for one.
My Moans:
My big problem is the fact that if the screen becomes damaged you can't use your phone. Whilst buying a separate case for it has reduced this risk it is still a problem with this kind of phone. Also the screen gets a bit smudged etc as the use of your fingers to operate it with leave marks. Whilst I know you can buy covers for the screen this leads to the problem of these covers getting mucky then having to replace them. A soft micro fibre cloth to clean the screen has been my solution to this.
Also I found the manual provided with the phone to be a little light on detail. Thankfully a better one can be found Nokia website.
Summary:
I do actually quite like this phone, despite my reservations about touch screens. It has a good sized on screen key pad for making calls and the sound quality of the calls is also good. This is a good entry level smart phone especially for those who don't want or need an expensive contract you need for a better known smart phone.
I would give this 4.5 if half stars were allowed but this is closer to a 5 than a 4. I have reduced the processing quality score as I feel the 256 MB RAM is a little low. Also the lack of a timer/stop watch is why I have taken a bit off the features bit.
Summary: -
| Processing/Quality: |  | |
| Reliability: |  | |
| Ease of use: | | |
| Sound quality: | | |
| Variety of features: | |
