Nokia 3100-- Recycling ki Jai Ho ! . Review on Nokia 3100 Cell Phone

Finally the latest entrant in the mid-segment comes as no hoola hoop surprise! Nokia 3100, with the very same display as that of the popular Series 40 Operating Systems phones such as the 6100,6610,7210,7250,7250i,5100 has definitely seen an improvement in image sharpness . But it's USP ends at just that. Under the hood is a not too impressive paltry kbs of memory ( reported to be around 500Kb available to the end user) and a display support for a meagre 4096 colors dents an otherwise good phone. The lack of infra red was strongly felt by me , since that means having to purchase a seperate DKU-5 Data cable which further increases product cost. The lack of FM radio hardly makes a difference to me , I could just turn on my car stereo if I were that hooked to radio OR get an FM radio handsfree kit from Nokia. I love the fact that the lack of FM takes away precious millimetres from the phones external form factor. The small , handy design is really welcome .For the first time, size and form factor have been on Nokia's priority list whilst designing a mid-segment phone. The menu is easy, but I must say the plethora of options that have been added to it, makes scrolling a pain when you really need to find out where your phones ringer settings are placed. Closer to the top , or the bottom of the circular menu item list... A good SMS memory for 150 messages OR 50 picture messages is welcome and certainly the ability to create your own folders and manage messages is a boon. One particular feature that i'm in love with, is one where u can choose to automatically delete messages in the inbox to make space for new arriving messages. The preinstalled games, i'd say are the lamest JAVA games i've known. I have purchased some AWESOME ones and I must say they are worth their kilobytes in gold! Same with the tones and images, download your own cuz the built in ones are dull , unimaginative and lack the 'youth' appeal . Ironically , Nokia is tryin to market this phone to the college going crowd. The keys have a nice tactile feel to them and are not harsh on the fingers , yet they are placed a little too close for comfort, Me being a person with mid-size fingers... Battery life is good but then again my last phone, a Sony Ericsson T310 lasted just as long. There are some features that you may find on my Sony but not on the Nokia so I wouldn't say Nokia has floored me, but the only reason I purchased this phone was because: 1.Sony is too slow on response time. Nokia's latest series 40 OS is fast. 2.Sony supported only 256 color and 101x80 pixel screen which was dull. Nokia's screen supports 4096 colors and is bigger at 128x128 pixels. 3.Sony did not allow me to save selected messages in seperate folders whereas the Nokia does. Apart from these reasons I must say the build quality of Sony is far superior to that of Nokia. Moreover the Sony Ericsson T310 is stunning to look at, the Nokia 3100 is only jus do-able.....saves ur face but that's just about it. I'd rather die than sport the plasticky looking 3100 at a formal affair. The Sony's looks are versatile, it could get me into a Discotheque with just as much flair as it would get me into a white collar affair party . Moreover the Sony Ericsson T310 has a dedicated speaker for mono tones and a seperate speaker for 32 bit high quality midi polyphonic tones. The Nokia has a cheap 8 bit poly ringtone system which sounds crappy. Like I said, if it hadn't been for the superior display, I wouldn't have switched loyalty from SonyEricsson to Nokia. But dun u worry , Sony still rules the roost in Smart Phone segment.... aka SE-P900 pitched against the N-6600