Back to 'basics' mobile?

[GrumpyTwig]

Having become ever more annoyed with smart phones, currently a galaxy s4 I've been contemplating reverting back to something simpler with less guff and more battery life (one that will out last the day).

I've been looking at the basic phones Nokia do like: http://www.nokia.com/hk-en/phones/phone/208-dual-s...

My only requirements bee that it can check emails and connect hands free in the car so needs to work/function with the correct bluetooth profiles.

Anyone else gone back to basics and have any experience of these phones?

[dtmpower]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Hugo a Gogo]

it's not easy for a non-smart phone to allow you to be able to check emails

[dtmpower]

Hugo a Gogo said:

it's not easy for a non-smart phone to allow you to be able to check emails

if you have pop3 access it's easy, imap is ok, exchange access only could be a problem

[audi321]

A bit old, but my Blackberry 8900 curve was amazing. Bullet proof, hardly any 'smart phone' applications (so simple), but everything you need (email, bluetooth etc etc). You could drop it and not worry, a truely great phone IMO. The only other phone which was simple and bullet proof was the Nokia 6310i but that doesn't have email.

Pick them up for £40 new on ebay I think.

Oh and battery life of days!

Edited by audi321 on Tuesday 21st October 10:40

[P-Jay]

audi321 said:

A bit old, but my Blackberry 8900 curve was amazing. Bullet proof, hardly any 'smart phone' applications (so simple), but everything you need (email, bluetooth etc etc). You could drop it and not worry, a truely great phone IMO. The only other phone which was simple and bullet proof was the Nokia 6310i but that doesn't have email.

Pick them up for £40 new on ebay I think.

Oh and battery life of days!

Edited by audi321 on Tuesday 21st October 10:40

Agreed, the old Curve's are a decent bridge between old school indestructaphone Nokias and smart phones. Battery life on mine was a day or two and they handle e-mails pretty well, certainly a lot better than my old E-Series Nokia, plus Bluetooth etc.

[The_Doc]

I've got a Nokia 301 and it's very good. Battery life can be 5 days even with normal use. The Bluetooth works nicely. The email access is fine through the Nokia mail app and its small. Simple camera but no flash.

Never had a smartphone and don't want one now.

[GrumpyTwig]

The_Doc said:

I've got a Nokia 301 and it's very good. Battery life can be 5 days even with normal use. The Bluetooth works nicely. The email access is fine through the Nokia mail app and its small. Simple camera but no flash.

Never had a smartphone and don't want one now.

Thanks, that actually looks to tick all the boxes and an even longer battery life if the specs are to be believed.


Slightly better camera to that gets very occasional use just as a memory aid so quality isn't paramount.

[The_Doc]

GrumpyTwig said:

The_Doc said:

I've got a Nokia 301 and it's very good. Battery life can be 5 days even with normal use. The Bluetooth works nicely. The email access is fine through the Nokia mail app and its small. Simple camera but no flash.

Never had a smartphone and don't want one now.

Thanks, that actually looks to tick all the boxes and an even longer battery life if the specs are to be believed.


Slightly better camera to that gets very occasional use just as a memory aid so quality isn't paramount.

Had mine for 6 months now as my primary phone. It's very usable with straightforward Nokia menus and I've even bought a replacement battery, which I plan to leave in it's wrapper and exchange in a year or so when the original battery starts to underperform (as all Li-ion batteries do)

Just make sure you turn off mobile data. OR switch it from "Always on" to "Only when required." If you let this or any phone have continual 3G access to run apps like Facebook (which the Nokia 301 can do) you cant' be surprised if the battery life is 24-36 hours.

There's even a dual SIM version of the nokia 301, but I can't vouch for it. http://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/phone/301-dual-...

[dtmpower]

That Nokia would be ideal for me if it could make a WiFi access point.

[RammyMP]

GrumpyTwig said:

Having become ever more annoyed with smart phones, currently a galaxy s4 I've been contemplating reverting back to something simpler with less guff and more battery life (one that will out last the day).

I've been looking at the basic phones Nokia do like: http://www.nokia.com/hk-en/phones/phone/208-dual-s...

My only requirements bee that it can check emails and connect hands free in the car so needs to work/function with the correct bluetooth profiles.

Anyone else gone back to basics and have any experience of these phones?

I've got one of those Nokias as my work phone, it's st! It's so basic it crashes my cars Bluetooth phone kit when it connected and the battery only lasts 2 days at a push. I had a Samsung C3350 at the last firm, it was a great phone, battery would last over a week.

[ch108]

I had a Nokia C3-01 touch and type. Part touchscreen part conventional keypad. Battery life was fairly good, easy connected Bluetooth and it could receive email easily.

It was described as a feature phone a sort of halfway house between a smartphone and normal phone.

It wasn't really my cup of tea but couldn't really fault the functions it performed. Internet could be a tad slow.

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_c3_01_touch_and_type...

Or what about one of these...
http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/phones/the-brick

Edited by ch108 on Wednesday 22 October 21:17

Edited by ch108 on Wednesday 22 October 21:20

[TonyRPH]

Nokia E7 (with physical keyboard) or Nokia N8 (without physical keyboard).

You'd have to buy used though, unless you can find old stock.

I have the E7 and I still get a week on a battery (and the phone is 4 years old now).

Admittedly, I'm a light user, mostly text / email - it polls 3 email accounts hourly.