So, on her recent trip to Delhi I couldn’t help but notice that my sister is still using the now 4 year old some Nokia phone whose modal number or name I don’t even remember.
I decided to give her a new phone. I started with a Blackberry but then she told me her requirements, which were very less compared to what I was expecting.
- Phone calls
- Listening to music saved in the phone or FM Radio.
- Text messages.
- Sometimes E-Mails. She doesn’t have GPRS activated as she has access to a computer anyway when she is in her office or at home. I activated it today for her.
- Camera for quick pictures but nothing to brag about. She carries a Sony Cybershot W80 in her handbag all the time anyway so a camera phone wasn’t her requirement.
- Good battery life as she is traveling mostly due to her job so access to a wall outlet for charging a phone is limited.
- Ability to sync with Outlook.
I started looking & showed her some phone on GSMArena but she said to select the cheapest available phone which can fulfil her requirements. At one time I even finalized Nokia C2-00. Yeah, she needed something that much simple & low end.
But I wanted to give her something good enough for the next few years without making her lifestyle complex. I decided Nokia X2-01 which I purchased from The Mobile Store for Rs 4,000. The shopkeeper thankfully bundled a 2 GB Memory card in the same cost as there was no memory card bundled with the phone.
As always, this isn’t a review of Nokia X2-01. If you want to a review then kindly read the one by GSMArena.
Connecting to the PC was easy. The USB port is hidden behind a rubber cover which is hard to remove. I would recommend using Bluetooth more often then USB cord for this phone.
Upon installation, X2-01 is detected as a Nokia C3. So, I am suspecting that both the phone have same platform. Nokia C3 is like X2-01 but with a different look, WiFi along with a 2 MP camera. Rest all is same.
Now, you must be thinking that it is a dumb phone & I should have opted for something better but think of the requirement my sister has. Why waste money to buy a phone with features she doesn’t use.
It is a simple phone. As simple as it can get. She liked it because now she can type SMS & mails faster then before. She also wanted photo calls, ability to manage contacts and SMS on a computer (via Ovi Suite), contacts backup (via Ovi Sync), and sync capability with her Outlook account on her laptop for contacts, meetings etc.
The phone is slow when it comes to running Java apps and there is no multitasking either. But she can very well listen to music playing in background while doing some lightweight browsing using Opera Mini 5.1. That is where her multitasking needs end.
The text rendering is good. The screen lacks high DPI like other touch screen phones available today but it good for her needs. Text is big enough with ability to increase the font size which she did.
The keyboard is easy to type on. Even I liked typing on this keyboard. There are dedicated music and message buttons, which was good for her.
SMS messages have a threaded conversation view like Nokia N8. Nokia Communities application is installed using which she can chat with friends on Google talk, check Facebook/Orkut etc.
I saved some of her most used contacts on the home screen with a notification bar & some application shortcuts as you can see in the picture above. In most cases her requirements will be limited to the apps you see on that screen above only.
Music playback is good. I was able to sync songs using Windows Media Player with album art supported in the phone. You can stream songs from a web server too. I didn’t check that option but it was there.
So, that is all folks. I found Nokia X2-01 to be a very good basic phone with a dirt cheap price tag.
