You'll Love the Nokia 3560s Color Screen!
Written: May 29 '03 (Updated Feb 19 '04)
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Pros: Color screen, cool key pad design, built-in wallpaper with customization available
Cons: None so far!
The Bottom Line: Fun phone with outstanding battery life--plenty of games to keep you busy and more to download.
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| briandalsmom's Full Review: Nokia 3560 |
I admit it, I have cell phone envy. Yep, I was the girl who always said all she needed was a phone to make calls on; she didn’t need those fancy bells and whistles. That was true, until my son got his new Nokia 3560. My phone is just a few weeks old (a Nokia 3590 ) and it’s nice, however, now that I’ve seen my son’s color screen and cool key pad layout, I wish I’d shopped around before choosing mine.
We get special rates and because of that the phones are usually free or for a small fee. Since I didn’t think I cared, I usually went with whatever the free phone was that month (I did that for my younger son and he got a Nokia 1260 which doesn't vibrate .) When it came time to get my son a new phone I called the regular service line, not the special rate line, and they talked me into buying this phone for $49.00. I should have gotten the free phone but hey, this is the last phone we’ll hopefully have to provide him with so I might as well get him a good one.
We have AT&T service which FedEx’s the phone already configured and activated. Charging took no time at all and I started playing with it within 3 hours of receiving it. The quick charge is truly fast—more about that later.
The first thing I enjoyed was the colored screen and the lighted key pad. My keypad is backlit with cutouts for the numbers. I didn’t realize how hard it was to see until I used my sons. The backlighting is bright and the key cutouts crisp so it was extremely easy to use in dark conditions.
The antenna is built-in (a must-have feature as he needed a new phone because he broke the antenna off the old one). You should avoid touching the area where the antenna is housed because you can interfere with the transmission. To keep you safely away from it, they’ve added a tiny finger hold area so that you’ll be sure to use it properly.
The tiny battery was easy to install and intuitive—no problems putting it in and snapping on the cover. That was the extent of the assembly necessary.
Charging is done easily with the included AC adapter—plugged into the bottom of the phone, it begins charging immediately. They do ask that for the first three charging cycles that you charge for a full 3 hours and then discharge fully—do this and your battery will be in tip top condition. Fail to do so and you’ll end up with a battery that won’t hold a charge. After the initial battery conditioning you’ll be able to fully charge it in an hour or less.
The battery indicator light is a set of bars on the right side of the screen—the taller the bars the stronger the battery. You’re able to customize the color of the bars (gray is default) which comes in handy when you start using wallpaper—otherwise the bars fade into the wallpaper.
Switching on the phone is done by pressing the TINY power key at the top of the phone. I suppose it’s small so that you don’t accidentally turn it on/off when you don’t mean to, and thankfully there’s a small indent in it that’s just the size of a fingernail to help you grasp it.
The Start Screen pops up after you’ve powered it up and the first indicator on the left is the signal strength. Any other options are programmed by the user.
This phone has a lot of great features—you can adjust the screen contrast making the screen brighter or darker for easier viewing; there’s an audio equalizer so you can customize the audio properties; the lock keypad (keyguard) which allows you to lock the keypad to prevent accidental dialing (an important feature for my son—he’s activated the phone in his pocket many times and called home—as a parent I really don’t want to hear what he’s up to :); customizable phone book (add names, numbers, street addresses, notes, etc. with predictive text or not)—you can set custom ring tones for selected phone book entries or for entire calling groups such as friends or family; call timers, call history, missed calls, and all the other entries that let you know who you’ve called, who’s called you, who you missed, etc.; voice tagging—allows you to auto call numbers by pre-recording tags that are associated with numbers, great for when you’re driving; up to 180 seconds of voice recording—store your grocery list or record the call you’re on—don’t worry, the caller will hear a tone letting them know you’re recording them; profiles which allow you to preset certain characteristics for your phone—for example while at work you may want your phone only to buzz so you set up a profile called work, customize it, and once at work set it with two key strokes; it is TTY/TDD capable for hearing impaired users; it’s a PDA with a calendar, to-do-list, notes, calculator, currency exchanger, and stopwatch; it’s text messaging capable (dependant on your service plan)—with it you can chat, send pictures, and use templates for e-mailing; you can use some Java applications (such as games), transmit a business card, download ring tones from the Internet (if your service allows), and set the alarm clock as well.
The feature that I enjoyed most was the gallery. This is where you find the default photos that can be used as wallpaper. Tones are stored here as well in a folder system. If you download additional tones or photos they’ll be stored here as well. Downloading requires you to be WAP enabled which means you can access the internet from your telephone. Detailed instructions are included and with my plan we’re charged by the minute. Connecting to the Internet is done through the Services screen and is very easy to do—bookmarking and browsing can be customized.
It comes pre-installed with 5 games: Air Glide, Bowling, Backgammon, Sky Diver, and Racket. I’m not a game player, but my son really enjoys the Sky Diver game. I would have loved solitaire myself and may download it onto my own phone. Playing the games is easy but they do require a lot of battery use.
Accessories are available—you can replace the key pad with one that blinks, lights and carries on; you can change the cover to something more personalized; or you can put in into a body glove to protect it. There are a slew of other items available—add a car charger, headset for hands-free talking, or a desktop charging stand. We didn’t need any of these because he doesn’t drive and he’s able to figure the battery life close enough to anticipate when it’ll need to be charged.
Our experience with the new phone has been great. The clarity has been wonderful and the range impressive. He can now get a signal in areas his old Ericsson couldn’t pick up. The phone is lightweight (3.75oz) and compact (4.65 inches long x 1.97 inches wide x 0.91 inches thick), easy to customize, fun to play with, and has enough ring tones and pictures to keep my son busy. The Li-Ion battery has been performing perfectly—we’ve done the 3 charging cycles and we find that the phone is performing at the standards listed by Nokia for it—even with every feature turned on, including the screensaver, wallpaper, lights and anything else you can do. Average talk time is 6 hours and standby time up to 42 hours—great in our book!
It's easy to change the Nokia 3560s faceplate--push the small button on the back and press down while pushing towards the top of the phone (towards the on/off button). Use caution as there are two small hooks in the plastic that can be broken off.
It comes with a 1-year limited warranty--we declined AT&T’s extended warranty because all of the other Nokia’s we have had have lasted for years and were replaced because they were out-of-date, not because they were defective.
ADDITIONAL SPECS
Service
TDMA 800/1900 MHz, AMPS 800 MHz
High-resolution color display: 96 x 65 pixels
Ergonomic design with a unique keypad
2-way scroll for easy navigation
Phone book with up to 250 contacts, with up to 5 numbers and 4 text entries per contact
Calendar with up to 250 entries
8 color schemes
Voice dialing for up to 10 numbers
Voice commands for up to 5 available menu items
Xpress-on™ color covers (front and back) sold separately
30 polyphonic (MIDI) ring tones and 5 picture messages1
Memory available for downloadable ring tones and picture messages
Personalize caller ID with graphic icons
Note: “*Battery talk and standby times are estimates only and depend on network configuration, signal strength, features used, battery age and condition, charging practices, temperatures to which battery is exposed, whether use is in digital mode (or analog mode, if any), and many other factors. Please note that the amount of time a phone is used for calls will affect its standby time. Likewise, the amount of time that the phone is turned on and in standby mode will affect its talk time. For further information, please refer to the phone's user guide.” From the Nokia website
UPDATE: I bought accessories for this phone--great experience! Read the review at http://www.epinions.com/content_103805521540
UPDATE 02/19/04: My son no longer has this phone--he's moved on to a different model. When I needed to choose a new phone for my husband this was the one I picked. Mostly the ease of use, large size buttons (necessary for those manly fingers!), and the larger size font on the screen were the reasons. It also has the color screen which is an added bonus as it's easier for him to read the screen than his old monochrome screen. My son's phone lasted beautifully and would still be in use if we hadn't switched cell service and got a new "free" phone that had some different features he was looking for (and he just wanted to try a new phone). He does miss the Profile feature the most (preset the type of ringing necessary for meetings, school, etc., and a few keystrokes later your phone is set for you). If my son had his way, he'd switch back to this one. For now, my husband is loving his new phone.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 49.99
Recommended for: Stylish Trendsetters - Hip and Trendy
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Epinions.com ID:
briandalsmom
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Member: Mom
Location: USA
Reviews written: 248
Trusted by: 193 members
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