Gadget - Telecommunication 101

by pEANutbutter

Remember once upon a time when our cell phone are nothing but a telephone? Yes, there's isn't any other alter ego. A phone was suppose to act as a phone. Not a personal computer, a camera or your game console. But modern day phone has to be more than a phone. This include the basic phone from Nokia. I am guilty of this too as I grow dependent of my phone as an alarm clock! The reason being is that loud ringing noise from our conventional clock give me a headache. If the sound is too soft, the odds are 2 out of 5 times, I may not wake up. A phone is a good alarm clock as you get to choose your ring tone and it vibrates. Most of the time, the vibration itself is enough to wake me up. 

So when I leave my old Nokia 5300 battery's expanded (bloated) up to the point it crack the phone shell (I leave it charging for far too long), I feel its more viable to get a basic phone rather than get a new battery as I need to replace the shell of the phone as well. The shell is falling apart and every other day, small pieces of it is coming off bit by bit. Poor quality plastic and I find this commonly happens to slide phone. Nokia 5300 is my second slide phone. The same thing happened to my Samsung slide phone which I use less than 6 months. Back to Nokia 5300, the phone is almost 5 years, time to let go. It has serve me well.

Figure 1: Nokia 101 in Phantom Black

Nokia 101

I narrowed down my quest for my 'alarm clock' to two options, either Nokia 100 or Nokia 101. After some research, I found out that Nokia 100 is launched in 2010 wherelse Nokia 101 is 2011. With the difference of between MYR 20-30, definitely a new model is more attractive. From what I learn in semiconductor classes, electronics have lifespan. So the newer the better. You can't rely on your phone dealer to tell you honestly the production date of the phone. Besides, Nokia 101 has far more attractive feature, notably its a dual sim card phone and it support micro SD memory card up to 16gB! With this feature, it also boast itself as a music phone (but do not expect very good quality sound system). The only downside is that, the phone does not support usage without a sim card, which is odd for a music phone. I use my deactivated accout's sim card for the phone as I do not has a secondary phone line. So, I am still able to use it offline.

Figure 2: Nokia 101 in Coral Red

The one thing that make me love this phone so much is the battery capacity. Search on the internet, it was noted in some forum that the battery could last up to 26 days on standby mode. Official standby time noted in the user's guide are up to 777 hours (32 days!). I was a bit sceptical, so I did a small experiment. I fully charged the phone on the 4th of April, and the battery lasted for the next 20 days before it give out the warning signal that the battery is running slow. As it was weekdays and I required my phone to be my reliable alarm clock, I'm force to charge the phone before it went totally dead. Else, I feel the phone can still last for another half a day, at least. Besides that, I been using my phone as an alarm, I didn't off it at all in the past 20 days, I did play around with it a little, etc. So, 26 days may be hard to believe, but I think it is achievable if the phone is purely left for standby. But I feel 777 hours is over estimated. Not sure about talktime, but its stated 8.5 hours in the user's guide. Don't have to worry that you are disconnected from the world when disaster strike like flood that last for days, the electricity supply is cut off and you don't have a landline at home (how many people actually use home landline these days?). Ipad and Iphone are totally useless gadjet in such situation as their battery don't last long.

Features

1. Support Micro SD memory card up to 16gB
2. Loudspeaker
3. Radio (requires the headset as the antenna)
4. Flashlight
5. Colour screen (basic resolution)
6. Alarm with repest features
7. Vibration
8. Dual Sim Card support. Both card can be activated at the same time. However, this will consume battery.
9. Roughly 2.5 hours charging time
10. Phonebook support picture for profile of phone numbers saved.
11. SMS with predictive text.
12. Calendar with alarm reminder.
13.  Mp3 player (songs need to be save in the memory card)
14. Calculator
15. Some basic games - sudoku, car racing, snake.
16. Warranty 12 months
17. Comes in phantom black or coral red (something similar to siamese pink)

User's Guide http://nds1.nokia.com/files/support/china/phones/guides/Nokia_101_UG_English-HK.pdf
Retail: MYR95.00 - MYR120.00