I have always been a NOKIA fan for its long lfe batteries, strong & sturdy encasements and signal reception. This time I was making a maiden purchase of a Unlocked phone in US.
Over a year I have seen innumerable Smart Phones of different makes & of different statements for individuals but I wondered how many of us actually need a Smart Phone.Do you need to browse google map while driving on a FreeWay??..In 24 hrs we are connected to internet for 18 hrs either thru laptops,desktops,tablets OR ubiquitious phones. Hence, I thought..lets give it a break.
I needed a phone which was presentable, strong & capable to many activitied at the same time not provocative to my restless fingers. Lot of brands offer multiple phones..at range of $110-$200 & they are all basically entery level advanced phones..after evaluating all others for their look, style, comaptibility & speed NOKIA was again undisputable choice
X3-02 is Sleek, Slim, Super Battery life, Awesome Display & Camera...& Quite sufficient for those who do not need data plans( OR Free Way plans :) ) but are happy with Wi-Fi at hotspots/home..This phone is For you..You can watch Youtubes,work on Facebooks & likes..( although display might not be comparable to iPhone)
Do not compare to Smart phones of Apple,Samsung or > $200 range..if you like superfast,high resolution GUI & Apps go for iPhone..This Phone is not for you
Pretty sharp, especially for such a small phone (as compared to today's standards for touch screen displays). Part of me wonders why I feel like I need the physical keys my cell phone experience might be more enjoyable if I opted for a full touchscreen but in the end, I'm weird and I love having the physical keys, even though it's t9 entry and not qwerty. Anyway. If you don't want to read this all: Low priced phone with plenty of features, not a true smart phone but has enough to keep most happy, provided that you have small hands and do not require the extreme polish and power of the highest end phones.
Note: I have not set this phone up with a plan yet, so I cannot comment as to call quality and such. I will comment on everything else that I have experienced.
Handset has a solid, polished feel. Lightweight but not flimsy. Smallish unit, not for people with sausage fingers, fine for me. Size of display is respectable, considering the size and configuration of the device. Keys are enjoybly clicky. Clean, attractive design. I will say that I knew it was a small phone, but I hoped it would be slightly bigger. At least it fits into any pocket or armband!
The layout is a simple candybar, but hybrid style: physical keys plus touchscreen, no slide out. An odd combo or a match made in heaven, depending on who you ask. I like it, it's one of the main reasons I purchased it. On the negative side, it totally contributes to the smaller size of the display.
Battery cover is metal. A little tricky to remove sometimes (you have to simultaneously press two rather small buttons at either side of the bottom part of the phone to release the cover), but just enough so that it should never come off on its own in your pocket or wherever. MicroSD slot is unobstructed by the battery, which is convenient (see power up comments!). Cover is easy to close, you just have to make sure you get both sides at the bottom fully snapped in, or you may welcome dust and dirt inside.
Headphone jack is standard 3.5mm. A must, far as I'm concerned. From left to right as you view the face of the handset, this jack is at the top, next to the micro usb port and the charger jack. To sum it up, physically, this phone is attractive and user friendly for individuals with accurate and slender fingers/small hands.
Power on the handset and...of wait, IF YOU HAVE THE MICROSD CARD ALREADY INSERTED, half the time, the screen flashes and the handset refuses to come on. If this happens to you, no worries, I've figured it out. The phone does not like coming on with the microSD card inserted, sometimes. Weird, annoying, probably enough right there to warrant a replacement if you're under warranty, but it's endurable, check it out: if this happens to you, remove the battery cover and press the microSD card to release it, and you will be able to power on your phone. Then, press the microSd card back in and all is well. Everything is peachy keen once the phone is on. When turned on, it comes to a standard home screen which is of course configurable. I like that you click the time to get to the alarm clock, and I'm sure almost every phone in the world does this, but I love being able to set any sound that you record (or video, I think) as your wake up call (or ringer). Anyway, you can set the home screen as you like, putting whatever you want in a set number of spots arranged a la typical nokia home screen format, or going with the grid display. Definitely makes things more convenient for the individual user depending on what you use the most. I have mine set with my music and radio at the bottom, WLAN search above that, time and calendar above that, and fav contacts above that. Whatever you do, though, what you want is never more than a couple touches away.
The vibration feedback is quick and just enough feedback, and you can of course turn it off to save power. Accuracy of the touchscreen sometimes seems off, but again, it's a smallish display. Also, you can calibrate it, of course, and that does help if you happen to have certain patterns in how you place your touches (i.e. if you tend to go low). That helped in my case. Also, compared to other touchscreens, you will sometimes kind of have to actually press it, as a light touch doesn't always do the trick. Swiping across the screen makes everything move as it seems it should, just make sure your initial touch is firm enough (note: I recently downloaded facebook for the device, which is different than how fb operates if you just go into it from the browser, and in this version, screen swipes barely move the screen. Weird. But visually, it's still more enjoyable than the stripped down standard browser version).
Display is sharp, clear. It's not an HD tv, though, in case that's what you're expecting. Decent view in the sun, not amazing, as with most phones.
You can play with this phone quite a bit without having a voice plan. I use my home's wi-fi to access the internet, which is a somewhat limited and of course small version thereof, but totally useable. Not a bit deal for someone like me who doesn't play on the internet much. Videos are surisingly enjoyable, in my opinion clear enough visually, good sound, no delays or jumpiness that I've experienced yet, though I'm sure especially high traffic sites and/or longer vids would cause that. With videos, you can opt for "full screen" (horizontal) mode, which of course helps.
5mp camera, without flash. Slight shutter delay, which is annoying, and I think the delay is what led to most of my early pictures blurry, since I get impatient and move. But once you are able to chill out for a couple seconds, you can get pretty good pics, as long as the subject is more than a foot away and the lighting is ok. I am somewhat surprised to say that even relatively low light pictures aren't horrible...but again, there has to be some amount of light, since there's no flash. Pictures look less amazing on the phone than they do when uploaded onto your pc, as is generally the case with cameras and camera phones (this is because the display is a lower resolution than the actual picture). I'm surprised at how many people don't realize this!
The music player is pretty nice. You might have some difficulties synching up from Windows Media Player or whatever (via usb), but once I decided to just synch to my microSD directly (with the adapter to the reguar size of an SD card), it was a snap. Playlists apparently don't tranfer, however. At least not from Media Player. When I synched, it pulled EVERYTHING onto the microSD card, including my wife's (no offense) awful music. Good thing I opted for the 16GB microSD card. :) Anyway, creating and managing playlists from the handset is a breeze. The one thing I haven't quite fugured out is if there is a way to remove songs from a playlist that is as easy as adding them. I haven't spent much time on this yet, but it doesn't appear that it works as easily in both directions, which may mean that you would be better off starting a playlist over if you accidentally put the smae song in twice, as I did. Or, just skip it when it comes on the 2nd time!
FM radio included. Cool. Have to have headphones inserted, though they act as antenna. And I believe there are apps available if you want to listen to practically any radio station available in the world.
Sound quality is good. Sound distortion with external speakers at highest levels, duh. Not a problem with the headphones though. There seems to be a pretty low limit on max volume, compared to what I expected. It's plenty loud enough for me, even when I use it while excercising, but you may be disappointed if you are someone who likes to blast your headphones so loud that your neighbors can hear it. I recommend special earbuds like yurbuds (seriously, look these up) or something if you find the headphone volume too low for you. Equalizer is a nice touch.
The included games are kind of lame. I mean the memory games and such are very simplistic but fun for dorks like me, whereas what you'd think would be the "fun" games, like the breakdancing one, sucks. Guitar Hero is a nice included game, sort of, but trying to move quickly and accurately on this size of display is difficult. Whatever, I barely play the games anyway. You can download many more games and apps from the ovi store.
Summary: I sort of love the handset, physically. It's just about perfect for me, ergonomically, and everything is easy to use in general. The power on/microSD conflict issue can be really annoying if you are in the habit of turning on your phone while on the go, but I can probably manage, or see about an exchange. I know that I signed my our fate when going for a phone with this type of hybrid layout, but the screen could stand to be slightly bigger. Also, this phone is so slim and small, they might have done better with the physical keys on a slide out. Nokia has models like that, but to me, they were not as attractive as the x3-02. Overall grade: B.
Buy Nokia X3-02 Unlocked Touch and Type GSM Phone with 5 MP Camera--U.S. Version with Warranty (Metal) Now
PROS-
This phone is what you want if you use a PHONE.
I tried MANY phones -fromAT&T (and returned all of them) wanting a phone I could use for phone calls. ALL of them -would notallow me to call my WIRED TELEPHONE ANSWERER and pick up messages. These were called SMART PHONES but they -would notallow me to punch in a code for the answerer in order to retrieve my messages.
The SMART PHONES just would not allow me to enter the numbers and pick up messages. I'm no dummy and tried every way I could to retrieve messages. It seems they block key entry when calling.
This phone has a KEYPAD -anda TOUCH SCREEN. You can use EITHER, so you are not -locked outfrom pushing numbers after calling, yet you can use the TOUCH SCREEN to do other things.
The phone is VERY intuitive and allows you to do SMART PHONE things if you want.
The battery life is good, similar to my old Motorola.
The 5 mb camera/video is good but not excellent for a cell phone.
CONS-
The USB port -chargingis funky. The TOP indicator (on the phone) indicates you are CHARGING when connected but you may NOT be unless your PC -recognizesyour phone. So you have a CHARGE indicated on the TOP indicator but the phone POPS UP a message saying PHONE NOT FULLY CHARGED, kind of weird.
The Nokia PC software like Nokia PC Suite or OVI Suite are IMHO pretty much useless. They don't seem to work with this phone and get DRIVER ERRORS when I installed them. I contacted Nokia with no help.
The plus side is you can connect the phone to W7 and MANUALLY transfer most things. I'm not sure how this will work with my CONTACTS -ifI ever want to RESTORE them to a phone. The Motorola allowed me to do this very simply. I could keep a backup on my PC with little effort.
Except for the CONTACTS BACKUP this is a great phone.
Read Best Reviews of Nokia X3-02 Unlocked Touch and Type GSM Phone with 5 MP Camera--U.S. Version with Warranty (Metal) Here
Like many others, I have been a long time fan of Nokia phones, they are not always the most high end of phones like the current Iphone or androids but I myself dont really need to carry around a $400 dual-core processor android phone all day. That's what my laptop is for! I have gone through many phones with T-mobile and the prices of phones just get more expensive and they are just cheesy phones, In my opinion. When I first saw this phone I knew it was love at first sight. Something about the simplicity of the candy bar style design of nokia phones just intrigues me, especially with the design of this new x3 touch and type. Its refreshingly new and sleek. and almost as slim as my 4g Ipod touch which makes it easy to carry around in your pocket with no hassle. not like all those other heavy touch screen phones that mimic the Iphone. Its almost weightless, yet heavy enough to remind you of the quality. The quality of the touch screen is not high definition by any means, but very good considering it's a Nokia. Being able to text with the keypad and use the touch screen to navigate through menus and settings and such is a perfect combination on this phone. You really have to hold it in your hand to experience it. And its a nokia so the battery life is awesome of course. I read a few bad reviews on this phone before I bought it, but if your looking for a simple yet smart little phone that is very easy to use and reliable then this nokia is the phone for you! Anyone who likes the touchscreen feature but doesnt need all those apps and useless programs on the newer phones this is your phone!!!
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I bought this phone for my husband and he absolutly loves it. He is a type of person who doesn't like new touch screen phones. So to make this transition smoother for him I got him this phone that combines best of both worlds and he just loves it. It gives him ability to still use keypad if he'd like as well as slowly get use to touching technics. In addition, this phone is very "good" looking: small and modern looking, which is a big plus. Also, pics are great, talk hours are great(even though it is half touch phone, easily go for three days without charging). In general, great phone for people who still would like to use keypad.
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