Tag Archives: phones

Review: Nokia 3120 Classic on 3 (UK)

I recently bought myself a brand new Nokia 3120 from 3 (Three). Here is a review for the item and 3 itself.

Delivery was relatively good. No fuss. Ordered last Thursday and the phone arrived Saturday lunchtime in the post. Packaging was good and nothing was damaged.

When it arrived, I charged it up for a couple of hours and it was ready to go. Threw in my new SIM card and fired it up.

It’s easy to set up. The phone will ask about the date and time, and when you’ve done that call 444. They say the phone will be activated within 24 hours but mine was activated 5 minutes later. Once 3 have sent you the text confirming the account is active and your £10 introductory top-up had gone through, you are ready to do what you want.

The phone itself is fantastic for the money. I paid £80 at three.co.uk and I got free delivery, £10 free top-up, a free £10 accessories voucher which I used to buy a 2gb memory card (you must speak to the online customer service BEFORE ordering your phone to get the code required), free Windows Live Messenger to download and use as much as I liked, as well as free Skype (however this is not available on the 3120 yet – they say it will be in the near future). Update 3.2.09: I can now get Skype on my phone – I am not sure if it officially supported, but 3 let me download it and it works fine.

The only downside I can find with the phone is that the battery life isn’t fantastic. Bluetooth and 3G will drain the battery like a rocket. If you use a lot of mobile internet or bluetooth, you will only have enough juice to last a day or two. Less frequent users will get up to 1 week.

The flat12 tariff on three is very good. Calls and texts are 12p per min/each. Internet is £1 per MB unless you get an addon, TV and unadvertised radio is 49p per day (requires 3G coverage), and video calls are 50p per min (requires 3G coverage).

Verdict: Get the phone, it’s very good for £80 but watch out if you are a frequent user as battery life isn’t fantastic.

Is mobile internet usable?

Well, believe it or not, I’m writing this post through a GPRS connection on my phone which is connected to my laptop. And, although being slightly slow, its OK. I can browse GEEK! absolutely fine and general websites/email is fine. 

I mean I wouldn’t use it for anything durastic, since file download speed on GPRS is a little short of 10kbps which is generally useless. But for light browsing and the odd email, it’s absolutely fine. It’s a shame I don’t get 3G here, because that would be more like 4 times the speed and light downloads might be possible.

I’m not one who regularly uses mobile broadband, only because it means I have to use USB to connect to my phone (don’t have bluetooth on my laptop) and then it drains battery like a rocket. It’s not a rip off since I can pay £1 and have full access (no limit whatsoever) for the whole day. Or I can pay £5 and have the week. I’ve never been told off for downloading excessively and I will use whatever I pay for quite thoroughly.

Do you use the mobile internet regularly? What are those dongles that you plug your SIM into like? I’ve never tried one myself – are they any good?