Yes, well first things first! I’m definitely no phone freak. Hence, I am not finicky about choosing a handset either. But, considering I’d offloaded my earlier NOKIA – 3310 someplace else I was left with no other option but to get hold of another one and that I did, to meet my requirements which is hardly anything much besides the basic utilities of a cell phone. It was a NOKIA – 3220 that I bought this time and have never regretted my decision till date, which is 5 months now.
FACILE AND TACTILE APPEARANCES:
It’s not one of those huge, round, videogame like or sharp models which makes for fancy viewing. To put it simply, it’s a very normal looking handset with no complications which will fit into most hands pretty easily, that being an important factor for me. I mean I tend to get annoyed if the cell phone tends to stick out while holding it, so this model with its compact built serves to deter my annoyance pretty well.
It measures 105 x 45 x 20 mm in dimensions and has a grid like keyboard with the demarcations between keys pretty well defined although all of them are part of the same padding which brings in more certainty while tackling individual keys.
It has got 4 ever so slight curvy projections on its periphery which does away with any sharp corners it may have had, which means you can grip it any way you like without irritation.On the top we have a 128x128 resolution screen with 16-bit color depth.
I tend to avoid joysticks on cell phones or touchpads as it becomes difficult for me to handle these physical attributes, when it’s so small in size and I’m glad none of these features are part of this model. Besides, joysticks do tend to go bad with repeated use over a not so long period of time.
FUNCTIONAL FEATURES:
1.It runs on a Nokia OS and makes use of Nokia UI API as well using JAVA technology which makes for far more attractive viewing than my previous set. But, of course! What could’ve been good for viewing in a black and white set?
2.Like most newer handsets from Nokia, it has the facility to connect to PC via USB port, given you have a data cable for the phone and of course you’ll need the Nokia PC Suite software for uploading images, videos and other data from phone to PC.
3.Talking of images and videos, it has a VGA camera and camcorder and supports video formats of 3GPP type and although the videos are not of very fine quality as would be expected with specifications just mentioned, the quality of images is surprisingly pretty good considering it’s VGA we are talking about.
4.We have a handsfree speaker which is pretty common of cell phones nowadays with 5-way scrolling as well which leaves no room for ambiguity with respect to direction of action, which can be an irking issue with some handsets.
5.As far as memory is concerned it has a heap size of 500 KB, shared storage memory of 4MB and 1MB for application installations. The good thing about it is the huge internal phone address book memory it has compared to many phones so our sim memory doesn’t become the sole criteria for deciding how many contacts we can store. Go on adding them without worry.
6.It provides for various graphical themes and images, even allowing moving .gifs and various options for layout regarding color and lustre. Theme packages can be downloaded to compatible handsets using methods supported by both the handsets and the PC i.e. Bluetooth, IrDa, Cable. It even has a screensaver with updated time in built in it.
7.Messaging wise, we have besides the regular smsing facility, MMS option as well, not only sending but with regards to creating as well.
8.In sound formats, we have the pleasant MIDI tones which are poly-16 basically but it doesn’t do away with the creaky .amr which is a bit of a dark spot. You may choose to ignore them as far as tones are concerned of course. But most of it is in MIDI format.
9.Then, it has a feature of light variations with the extension to a MIDI file. So, to detect a ring in the darker areas, you need not keep the volume or vibrator alert on. The lights with their rhythmic pattern will more than do the job for you.
10.It doesn’t have the problem my previous set Nokia 3310 had in the sense, it used to really slow down while echoing of characters on screen when typed characters became too much, here that is a welcome respite as no such problem exists.
11.It provides us with a separate organizer section which has additional features other than the regular ‘calendar’, ‘calculators’, ‘stop watches’, with ‘timers’, ‘things to do’ and ‘notes’ options.
12.Battery life is cool as it will last for 3 days generally inclusive of all calls and other normal activities. At times, it has lasted till 5 days as well. Over all, satisfactory.
13.And, of course as is characteristic of Nokia phones and probably why I tend to prefer Nokia over others is the robustness, sturdiness of their models. This one is no exception, sharing the same heritage. Maybe, it’s more important to me as I tend to be a clumsy character at times and dropping the phone is more often than not an eventuality. But then Nokia hai na!
14. But nothing is infallible and the model isn't either. We do have occasions when it hangs (only happened twice till now) when you overload your inbox with too many messages.I mean something like 150 here, or when you've stored too many images or video recordings. Shouldn't come as a surprise as that happens with most cellphones.
Other than the last point, the handset is very well behaved indeed! And, you get this whole package only for Rs. 4.7 K which I feel is a pretty good deal for the set and the services it provides. I’d recommend this semi-voluptuous, semi-petite beauty which is jack of several traits to all with no fancy needs. Right, paradoxical in looks, factotum by function. Without a second thought, go for it!
