Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type review
Sure, it might "only be a feature phone,” but the Nokia C3 looks and feels very much like a business-oriented mobile device and not just your run of the mill mobile phone.
And this is something that is sure to do it a lot of favours with many consumers in the UK – particularly, those that were fond of the Nokia 6700 classic and Nokia 6300.
Using the device, as you’d expect is very straightforward. Once you’ve booted it up, there’s a short delay and you’re brought to the homescreen. From here, you’re literally one click away from setting up Nokia’s Messaging 3.0, which features support for both email (SMTP, IMAP4, POP3) Twitter and Facebook.
However, it’s certainly worth registering an Ovi account if you don’t already have one so you can download apps, games and all the Ovi-branded services that Nokia provides, like Ovi Mail, Ovi Chat and Ovi Maps.
The UI, as we said, is pretty basic and won’t be giving the likes of HTC, Apple or RIM anything to worry about any time soon – but we think Nokia already knows this.
This is generally the same with the device’s stock browser, which while being relatively snappy, isn’t much to look at. The resolution is low, web pages look bad and are difficult to navigate and there’s no pinch-to-zoom, which is always a problem on touchscreen devices.
Nokia has also thrown in Opera Mini for good measure too. However, we found that the stock Nokia browser generally out-performed it terms of speed during testing and we also encountered more than a few errors when attempting to boot up Opera Mini, which is never a good sign…
There are still quite a few annoying S40 quirks present in the Nokia C3 that will be familiar to many a Nokia veteran. One such nuance is the constant notifications that pop up every time you attempt to access the internet or anything remotely web-related. We hate this “quirk” with a passion – it’s a massive, massive waste of time and is very annoying.
Like the vast majority of feature phones, the Nokia C3 uses a resistive and, therefore, less sensitive touchscreen display than its capacitive-screened counterparts.
That said the Nokia C3’s 2.4-inch touchscreen is more than adequate being both responsive and precise, as well as extremely well implemented into the overall user experience, which was unexpected as resistive touchscreens are usually just completely infuriating and essentially useless when compared to capacitive ones.
But this wasn’t the case on the Nokia C3 and for once with a budget touchscreen device, we had absolutely no complaints with its resistive touchscreen – it’s leagues ahead of every other resistive touchscreen device we’ve tried.
Another massive plus for the Nokia C3 is its storage capabilities. On board, you’ve got a measly 30MB, which is pretty rubbish. But, worry not, you can expand its storage up to 32GB via its microSD card slot, which should be more than enough for most users.
The Nokia C3’s 5-megapixel (2592x1544 pixels) camera is also pretty decent too, featuring an LED flash, Extended depth of focus (EDOF), digital zoom up to 4x and Noise reduction. That said, you won’t be able to truly appreciate your snaps until you port them over to your PC as the Nokia C3’s display is pretty appalling to say the least.
The video aspect of the device isn’t quite as impressive as the camera, but you’re still able to shoot at 20fps in QVGA quality – so all in all, pretty good imaging for such an affordable device.
In terms of data network support on the Nokia C3, there was a lot more built-in than we’d anticipated including HSDPA and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n). Couple this with the Nokia C3’s reported price tag of €145, and it’d be something of an understatement to say that you’re getting quite a lot of bang for your buck with the Nokia C3.
In short, this is a very good and very affordable device. It is perfect for any user that wants the simplicity of how mobile phones used to be, just with the option to do a bit more, such as surf the web and check emails, if the mood takes them.
In a nutshell, this is a classically designed phone for users that prefer a more traditional phone experience – so, texts, calls, camera, a bit of email and a tad of web browsing. If this sounds like you, the Nokia C3 will be a sound investment and, as an added bonus, it’s a very good-looking device, that’ll look the part in any occasion.