Where's the antenna?
Written: Oct 25 '00
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Pros: Small, good looking, a Nokia
Cons: No antenna - limited range
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| maciek's Full Review: Nokia 3210 GSM Cellular Phone |
I am a cell phone enthusiast. I use them very often and can't imagine not having one. The rapid development of cell phone systems is supposed to make our lives even more easy and comfortable. With only a small device that will incorporate a tiny high definition color display, a small keyboard and a state of the art internal modem you'll be able to access your bank account, review latest sport results and phone your girlfriend. You'll also be able to shop for flowers for her 'on-line'. Seems too incredible? Think again. In the very resourceful country of Japan (you know them - it's the people who make Honda-s and Sony Walkman-s) engineers and businessmen (or maybe business-persons (?)) are getting ready for the launch of the newest cell phone system called UMTS (to clear things up: the full name of the third generation mobile service is - Universal Mobile Telephone Service). This system is going to take WAP services to another level allowing you to do even more than I mentioned above. I am impatiently awaiting UMTS's coming to Europe. For the time being the 'simple' GSM has to make do.
My previous cell phone was a Nokia 5110 (which is basically a member of the Nokia 51xx family suitable for use with the GSM 900 system widely used throughout Europe). I loved that phone. I was very well designed and my eye felt at ease when looking at it. And if you did not like the factory dark grey cover you could easily replace it with something more lively. It felt good in my hand. And it had a very powerful battery. Only after 5 days of extensive talking left that small power plant drained of its juices. And the recharge time was also acceptably short. The Nokia 5110 had a marvelously designed menu with all the phone's functions arranged in a logical order. That made accessing any given function quickly, easily and intuitively. And it had games. My snake record was over 1100 points. Then somehow somewhere I lost the phone. That forced me to look for a new one.
I limited my choices to Nokia products, as I find them reliable, very well built and especially easy to use. I wanted to get another 5110 but it was the time when 3210 entered the market. So I bought it. What I found out after just 2 minutes of having the phone was that it was basically the old good friend 5110 in a new body. True - a few new gizmos in the menu. But I had mixed feelings about it.
I liked the new look. I liked the new optional covers. Two sides this time. But what else was new? The antenna. Or to be more specific - the lack of it. I hate it. For two reasons. Firstly the range. I made a very simple experiment. I took my friend's Nokia 5110 and my own 3210 to my cabin on a lake. We both use cell services by the same provider. My friend's phone found the network and remained in range with no difficulty. My phone even refused to locate the nearest (roughly 1,5 mile) transmitter. It was useless to wander around trying to make the phone 'find the network'. My friends had lots of fun watching me do that. I did not feel comfortable about it at all.
The second thing is that I get headaches after talking on that phone. I do not know whether the 'antenna-less' phones radiate more intensively. But I am very close to believing that's the case. It never happened when I used the 5110. Now I suffer on regular basis. I don't like it. My next phone will definitely have to have an external antenna.
The other thing about the 3210 is it's battery. The phone seems very small and makes a light impression. But it's heavy. And a heavy battery (especially as advanced as this one) promisses significant longevity. But that's not the case. While 5110's battery lasted me for 5 days, the 3210 only manages to work for 3-4 days. And mind you that I am using it less frequently than I used to do with the previous Nokia.
All in all it IS a very good phone (no surprise there - it used to be 51xx series before...). But for the reasons described above and my feeling towards the perfect 5110 I am going to give the 3210 only 4 stars.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): -
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Epinions.com ID:
maciek
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Member: Maciek Winnicki
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 8 members
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