When I went mobile I began with a Motorola T-180, another basic phone. Being 2nd hand as expected the battery turned rebellious exactly after 1yr. It wudnt hold charge for more than 1 day. Luckily a buyer came to me asking for the set, I readily gave him as he agreed to get a new battery himself. & it was Xmas time, so I thought of gifting myself something. So I bought this nokia 3315 handset in Dec2003 from a nokia authorized dealer.
The reasons I went for this are: 1)nokia was/is a well known name in handsets
2)this was the most basic set on offer at that time, functionwise.
3)it was within my budget, it cost me exactly 4K, though from grey market I cud have got it for 3.7K
4)it cud download ringtones + composer as they were the only features I was looking besides talk & sms
Scene Now:officially its no more in market, but if u try grey markets someone may be having it. Then why am I writing this revu ? bcos a)my hands are itching and I have to write something ;-) b) I am of the opinion that there will come a time when the world will get tired of all these MMS etc & get back to simpler ways of life, then Nokia will re-introduce this kind of sets again. Even otherwise I hope this will help ppl who might be thinking of buying a 2nd hand 3315. If 3315 is available now anywhere I don’t think it shud cost more than 2.5K, also there are also other basic options like 1100 @ 3K, & that nokia phone with color pads & FM radio is good too.
who shud buy a 3315(if its available or if its re-introduced) as the title says it is for the ‘aam aadmi’, now who is an ‘aam aadmi’.( no, not the mango seller) An aam aadmi is a common man ;-) In the context of 3315 aam aadmi is one: who needs a phone for just talk & sms, occasionally thinks abt getting/composing a ringtone, one who never has to use phone to take pics, make presentations, send mails etc, one who will not buy a costly handset with features he doesn’t use though he can afford, one who carries the handset as a communications device and not as a thing to flash, ones who don’t think opposite gender will fall for them only bcos of the handset he uses, lol ( I can go on, but will stop)
Features:its predecessor was 3310, another basic set. 3315 has some features extra. Some noteworthy features are: Keypad lock – u can set the handset to lock the keypad itself after a time of ur choice.
Picture editor : u can create/edit pictures and use them as background/screensaver
Composer: from the net u can get keycodes of songs, and by feeding them in composer create ringtones.
Reminders: u can ask the set to remind of certain things to do or birthdays with this
Clock: set time and set alarms
Games: a few simple games for timepass
Calculator: in times of need u can use this findout 2+2=4, or convert dollars into rupees etc.
my experiences:my set has a 2yr warranty on it & can be claimed at any authorized dealer of nokia all over country. So far it has been a good experience since my requirements are also basic. I have used this mainly for talk n sms. I use regualry its other features like reminder, calculator. Also used the picture editor, its only as good as ur own creativity. Got few keycodes from net and tried composing ringtones, they sounded good. Also have downloaded ringtones from sites and borrowed from friends too.
But every feature has a limit on numbers. U cant set more than 10 reminders, u cant keep more than 7 ringtones of ur own, the different kinds of profiles u can keep is also limited. The phonebook has only space for 110 contacts that too on SIM, the handset itself doesn’t have its own memory for storing numbers. That’s a concern.
Also a feature is T9 dictionary, which auto suggest/corrects words as u type messages. My experience is that u can do better without it. With the sms lingo everyone uses its better to turn off the T9 as it suggests. It appears as if u are typing something and something else is typed on screen. Also if ur message is in hindi/kannada/Malayalam but u are only typing it in English u can do better without dictionary. For example if u sit to type “namaste” it goes on suggesting words like “on”, “mob”, “moan” , then u have to go to options and makeit right. Instead turn it Off and simply type namaste. Another aam aadmi will anyway understand it.
It has a robust construction, it twice fell from a height of 5ft on concrete floor, but still alive and kicking, and a decent looking keypads. In any case u can replace the plain cover with designer covers anytime, handy as its small enough. But not too small. With built in antenna at top, so hold it in the middle or bottom. There is a hook in top corner so u can tie to to a tag around ur neck. Also its vibrator is good enough, when its working u wonder if its an earthquake … ok that’s an exaggeration ;-)
Battery:I observed its battery well enough and found the follwing
1)when fully charged and kept without using it lasted 6 days
2)fully charged it gives u non stop talk time of abt 2hrs
3)now the battery last anywhere between 2-4days, 2days with cumulative talk time of abt 1-1.5hr over those 2 days or 4 days with cumulative talk time of abt 0.5-1hr. in both cases assume fair amount of sms, say writing 5-6sms/day
Tips for battery:the dealer who sold me this gave a important tip which has ensured good battery performance so far. He says “every battery has a charge cycle and a max number of times u can charge it”, just like u see on rechargeable cells ‘rechargeable 500 times”. So don’t keep the phone on eternal charging, and don’t start charging just bcos the charge bar is showing 3 or 2. wait till its drained and then recharge. Also after charging when it says ‘battery full’ charge for another 15-20mins. Also when ur battery is low, say 1 bar type *3370#, the set will ‘restart’ with a ‘battery boost’. Restart is sure, but I am not sure abt battery boost, if any. Though sometimes u see 2bars after performing this. No harm in trying, its works only as far as ur faith in it ;-)
also typing *#92702689# ( to make easy to remember 92702689 stands for WARRANTY, with second R given by a 0)will show ur handset serial number, mfg date, life timer(hrs of total usage) and u can enter purchasing date. But the only trouble is u can come out of this screen by hitting cancel. U cant switch off either, u have to remove battery and put again.
My Conclusion: a good basic set with features enough for the aam aadmi, with decent battery life, since slimmer phones have come up, incomparsion this handset looks healthy and fat ;-), ''beauty consists in simplicity''
