This was my first phone and that is the phrase that best summarises its appeal. It is a very simple style and design with a basic slide to reveal the keypad and a front with the most important buttons. The menu system is highly effective with an opening screen offering quick links to the sorts of tools you will use most often such as the camera and your contacts. The main menu is easy to grasp quickly with accessible icons such as a camera and games. It is overall, a stylish interface with a large number of customisable backgrounds and dynamic, moving shapes and colour schemes. Externally, it is an aesthetically pleasing shape and colour. The black shown in this model is chic and this applies also to its other variations. For example, you can also buy an apricot and white version, which is even more appealing.

However, its features are less impressive. For basic usage, such as text messaging, calls and contacts, it performs reasonably well. There are a number of issues which I have highlighted, though. The keys have been known to jam through wear and tear and the strict cap on characters in texts is infuriating. Moreover, its features are increasingly out of date in the mobile market. By comparison to smartphones, its internet capabilities seem like they come from the Stone Age and the 1.3 megapixel camera and video recording is ineffectual.

Overall, therefore, this phone is suitable as a device for those looking for basic functions. It is highly durable for those that need it for these purposes and has lasted me about four years. In that time, it has survived falls from windows and moving buses; this is how reliable and hardy it is. A good first phone for me, but one that encourages you to buy a more complicated, up-to-date second phone.