Nokia 2710 Navigation Review
Thu 27 May 2010Filed Under: Mobile Phone Reviews, Nokia | Leave a Comment
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Welcome to the Nokia 2710 review. Released in mid-2010 the 2710 Navigation edition is a unique phone since its selling point is the inbuilt A-GPS receiver with full and free navigation, mapping software and map data in a cheap as possible GSM only phone. Priced less $190 (mid-2010) the phone is as cheap as many standalone GPS navigators without mobile phone functionality.
The low outright price also makes it competitive with pre-packages that comes with a phone so you have to decide what you really want first. For example the similarly priced pre-paid E63 – which has a lot more functionality but it will be locked to a particular network. (It usually costs extra to unlock the phone).
The GPS navigation software on the 2710 is the OVI Maps software is common to most of Nokia’s phone’s so it does work quite well as a proper navigator. It has all the essential features you really need in a mobile GPS system. We cannot complain due to the price. The 2710 also has a reasonably large 2.2inch 240 x 320 pixel screen which is pretty good for a cheap phone and a loud speaker that was harsh at loud volumes. In the hand the phone is solid and the keypad good to use.
Being one of the cheaper Nokia models it runs the S40 operating system so if you’ve used a Nokia before you will feel instantly at home. Everything is logically located in the menu system and responsive for the price. It can also run our animated screensavers and wallpapers so we can definitely recommend it (shameless plug). The 2710 also feels good to use for the category.
The 2710 is a good phone for those who want voice and text messaging and a free GPS navigator as well. It can do data but being GSM network only it is restricted to slow GPRS speeds. That said it would work quite well with emails without attachments of course. We also thought that the call quality signal reception was surprisingly – one of the best.
To conclude we think that the 2700 Navigation is a very good cheap mobile phone. The only draw back is the very plain design. However we think travelers and would love the anonymous design which makes it less likely to be a target for theft yet has all the functionality to stay in touch. The inbuilt GPS and downloadeable world maps will make your travels much easier.
It would work well as a first mobile phone or those only interested in talk and testing. Other than that, with lots of standard software and even a 3.5mm headphone socket it will make a great little media player for those after a reasonably priced and decent first mobile phone.
Specifications
- Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition
- Network
Quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 - Design
Candy bar - L111.2 x W45.7 x D13.7 mm
Weight 87 grams - Display/s
2.2 inch TFT 240 x 320 - Camera
2MP - Video Camera
320 x 240 pixels @ 15FPS - Connectivity
Bluetooth V2 - CPU
???Mhz - Memory
Up to 64Mb available to user
Up to 16Gig microSD card - Ring tones
MIDI, MP3, vibration and others - Features
Accelerometer
Compass (Magnetometer)
Music and Media player
Organiser/Calender
SMS, MMS, IM, Email
JAVA MIDP 2.0
FM radio with RDS
Speaker Phone/Hands free
BL-5c 3.7V 1020mAh
Up to 20 days Standby
Up to 12.5 hours Talk Time - Price history
Under $180 AUS 2010 (Outright)
Under $160 AUS mid-2010 (Outright)
LG Chocolate BL20 Review
Fri 21 May 2010Filed Under: LG, Mobile Phone Reviews | Leave a Comment
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Welcome to the LG BL20/BL42K Chocolate review. The BL20 Chocolate also known as the BL42K was released in late 2009 and is the replacement for the original KG800 Chocolate model that was released back in 2006. The ‘Chocolate’ model brand is LG’s ‘fashion’ mobile phone. The Chocolate is a stylish mobile phone – because it looks stylish by looking like a small featureless black box. Despite the name the phone is definitely black and not chocolate brown. Maybe licorice would be a more suitable name?
The Chocolate’s construction is solid slider phone covered in glossy occasionally transparent black scratch resistant plastic or glass. The only thing that looks tacked on is the rear main camera. Surely they could have designed the phone without the camera sticking out. Getting a suitable protective case is recommended since any permanent scratches would decrease the joy of looking at a all black phone! Speaking of which the top, bottom and keypad are a bright reddish orange color that stands out but strangely suits the phone’s overall design theme.
The Chocolate’s main feature is the front touch sensitive main navigation buttons. When activated they glow a nice red and provide a haptic or a buzz when touched correctly. The display screen itself is not touch sensitive. The slide out keypad while feels good but not as nice as say the Sony Ericsson models but works better due to the larger keys. We still think it is hard to beat the standard keypad on Nokias for those expert at blind SMS.
Using the latest Chocolate model is actually pretty good! The navigation system is a fast and updated version of it S-Class icon interface with a few new animations. However variable application launch times are to be expected. The hidden screen is a 2.4 inch model that also looks good and large enough for most. The keypad is not the best for JAVA games but at least you can install them and other apps.
The Chocolate has all the latest functionality for a mobile phone in 2010. Being a 3G capable phone you have usable internet download speeds and well a decent browser for this type of phone. The 5Mp camera produces very good pictures but not the best and the novel feature included is an optimized camera setting for taking pictures of text or other graphics. We don’t think this feature it is a selling point though. We didn’t try the function due to a lack of time. In fact we where hard pressed to write about anything outstanding about the Chocolate.
Overall the Chocolate is a pretty decent mobile phone. However there is not anything exceptional apart from its stylish looks. It will do voice and calls, text and emails and some web browsing with ease. If that is all you want then this is a good choice just don’t pay too much for it. That said it is relatively one of the few models that work well on the 850Mhz 3G networks.
Specifications
- LG Chocolate BL20/BL42K
- Network
Tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900
Dual-band 3G 850/2100 - Design
Slider - L106.9 x W50.8 x D12.3 mm
Weight 115 grams - Display/s
2.4 inch
TFT 240 x 320 pixels - Camera
5MP
LED flash and Auto focus - Video Camera
240 x 320 pixel @ 15FPS - Connectivity
Bluetooth V2
microUSB - CPU
???Mhz - Memory
Up to 60MB available to user
16Gig micro-SD card slot - Ring tones
MIDI, MP3, Video, vibration and others - Features
Music and Media player
Organiser/Calender
SMS, MMS, IM, Email
JAVA MIDP 2.0
FM radio
Speaker Phone/Hands free
3.7V 900mAh
Up to 18 days Standby
Up to 5 hours Talk Time - Price history
Under $299 AUS 2010 (Outright)