Nokia 3588i: Basic phone with basic features
Written: Jan 16 '06 (Updated Jan 16 '06)
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Pros: Basic mobile phone features. The phone was free from Sprint.
Cons: Low resolution, backlight prone-to-fail, Sprint network sucks, can not be used on other networks.
The Bottom Line: The bottom line just writes a letter.
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| Gr8ful's Full Review: Nokia 3588i Cell Phone |
Almost two years ago, my mother, my wife and I decided that we needed to get cell phones in order to keep in touch during our busy days. We made the ill-fated decision to go with Sprint as our provider. Sprint has been extremely useless because when I need to use the phone the most, I either have no signal or not enough of a signal to sustain a call. But this isn’t what the article is about; it is about the phone.
Sprint gave us three phones for free, one for each of us. All of the phones were the Nokia 3588i model. Out of the three phones, mine is the only one that did not have to be replaced in the first year. I am on the second year and the phone is still going strong with great battery life.
My wife’s phone decided it would no longer ring when calls would come in and before that, the backlight dimmed to non existence. Sprint wanted to replace it with the same model, but my wife hated the phone and wanted them to set up her account on her old Sanyo phone, so they did.
My mother’s phone had to have the battery replaced twice before they decided there was something wrong with it and they replaced it with the same model. Since then the phone has worked fine although her backlight is also starting to dim.
Nokia 3588i
The phone is small and easy to use with some basic features you would expect in a modern cell phone. It is a PCS phone and only works with the Sprint network. It has a phone book and a calculator as well as a calendar, midi ring tones and a couple simple games. It also allows you to create voice tags that you can associate with your phone numbers so you can call people without having to dial, simply by speaking their name.
It is a small phone but after putting it in its leather case with the belt clip, it becomes a bit cumbersome. The case is nice but the belt clip breaks way too easy. I have had to replace it twice in eleven months.
The phone has two media folders; graphics and tones. You can change the display to an image from the graphics folder by selecting it from the folder. The preloaded images are very cheesy and very poor quality, the ring tones are simple but adequate. The phone does not have a camera or a contact list, just a simple phone book for names and numbers.
You can send email from the phone using the dial-pad to write short messages but it is a pain to do so. It is nice to have the feature if you really need it though. You can also send text messages the same way to other cell phones.
Specifications
* Length: 117mm
* Width: 49mm
* Depth: 24mm
* Weight: 117g
* Battery: 1000 mAh Lithium Ion
* Memory: 150kb
* Memory Expansion: None
* Display: 4096 colors 96 x 65 pixels
* Ring tones: 4 chord
* Phone book capacity: 500 numbers (or 150kb; which ever comes first)
* Voice tag capacity: 25 tags (or 150kb; which ever comes first)
* High speed data: cdma2000 1xRTT
* Talk time on battery (per charge): 3 hours
* Network: Sprint (AMPS 800 / CDMA 800 / 1900)
The phone works fine in urban areas, but I don’t live in an urban area. This is partly the phone and partly Sprint. The antenna on the phone is a joke. When you have a signal, you can make and receive calls, but if you have less than three bars on the signal meter, “you ain’t callin’ nobody”. You can try to pull the antenna out to get a better signal but you will quickly learn why I say the antenna is a joke; it makes no freaking difference in or out.
My wife’s older Sanyo phone can get a signal in some places that my 3588i cannot, but only in a few places. Most of the time; if I can’t get a signal, neither can she. We signed on to Sprint for a one year contract but we changed our billing plan after five months and unwittingly found ourselves starting another full year’s contract. I have no intentions of renewing the plan next year.
Some cool stuff about the phone
You can add pictures and personalized ring tones to the phone with the additional purchase of a DKU-5 USB cable. Using this cable and the free software from Nokia, you can edit pictures and midi files to copy to the phone from your computer. This only works with PCs running Windows ME or later. There are no drivers for MAC or Linux to make use of the DKU-5 cable.
Software updates come through the Sprint network for the phone and are downloaded by calling a specific phone number that is text messaged to you from Sprint. I received three of these updates in the first six months of owning the phone but I have not received any updates in over 5 months now.
The software you use to upload pictures and ring tones to the phone is called “Nokia PC Suite”. This software has a photo editor, midi ring tone editor and an application installer. The Nokia 3588i is not capable of taking advantage of all the features of this software but you can edit pictures down to size for the display as well as edit midi files to play as ring tones.
Editing a ring tone is hit or miss because it can not be longer than a certain length of play time and it has to be small enough to fit on the phone with the other ring tones and images. It also must conform to specific channels and polyphonic values, which can be altered by the editor. I have found that some channels must be discarded in order to get a specific midi file to work as a ring tone.
You can synchronize the phone with MS Outlook but only for names, phone numbers and email addresses. Physical address information is not transferred when you sync the phone. You can however, have several numbers associated with contact names. If someone has a home phone, work phone and cell phone, you can copy all three numbers associated with their names and tag each one. Remember, you can only have 25 voice tags so if you use three voice tags for one contact; you only have 22 left to use.
You can also back up the phone to a folder on your PC, like a PDA does. This is nice in case your battery dies and you lose your entire phone data. A simple two minute process puts all back in order.
Personal use
I use the phone daily. It goes with me everywhere I go and is always on. It is my main phone for my business contacts and I can always be reached on it. I keep a couple pictures of my family on the phone but thy really look bad because of the extremely low resolution. I also have a few personalized ring tones that I have edited on the phone.
I have dropped my phone over 100 times and a few times it went down the basement stairs but has never failed to operate. My mother’s and wife’s phones were complete opposites of mine. Both had issues and both eventually failed in the first year. I have been satisfied with the phone, not happy but satisfied. It does what I require it to do and does it well. The Sprint network, on the other hand, has much to be desired and as soon as our contract is up I am going to switch to a different network. This also means that I will have to get a different phone. I only hope that I am as lucky with a new phone as I have been with this one.
Conclusion
This is a decent phone and is suitable for people who need a basic mobile phone without all the glitz and glamour of the camera phones, Blackberrys and other types available. Its only real fault is that it can only be used on the Sprint network and this is a big negative in my book. I would recommend getting a different phone and a different network unless you only plan to use it in urban areas.
Thanks for reading,
Gr8ful :-)
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): Free
Recommended for: Adventurous Technophiles - Tough and Durable
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