Nokia 3120 Classic review

Nokia's NSeries phones may be a cult above the rest but its classic series phones are no lesser Gods and the Nokia 3120 Classic, a simple yet stylish candybar 3G phone is one of its best.

We shouldn't forget the Finnish giant built its numero uno manufacturer rep on easy-to-use bread and butter blowers and the 3120 Classic is a prime example of Nokia's uncanny knack for rolling out well groomed everyman handsets.

In fairness, the 3120 Classic has lot more to offer than just the basic 'bread and butter' talk and texter, punching around the lower mid-range level with a tidy set of features including original flavoured 3G download speeds, microSD card slot, built-in music player and FM radio plus a two-megapixel camera complete with LED flash.

Like its fellow Classic clan members, the 3120's design is clean and uncluttered, if a little unremarkable, although its rounded tapered bottom makes it more elegant than some of its more rigid stablemates.

At 13.4mm thick and a nimble 85 grams, the 3120 is also very trim and lightweight, slipping easily and unnoticed into the pocket. Naturally, for a phone of this ranking there is a little creak and groan of plastic but the 3120 is, in general, soundly built.

The 3120 is clearly drunk on Nokia's famed user friendliness. Your thumbs will love the spacious keypad and sturdy joypad and it's brilliantly geared for speed texting. Similarly, the Symbian S40 UI is intuitive to work through with the homescreen highly customisable.

An exhaustive amount of popular functions (57 was the last count) can be added to the shortcut bar while there's even space below this carousel for three other features like calendar, appointments and web search.

Of course, if you want your homescreen free for photo wallpapering then you can just deactivate the shortcuts. To round off this personalisation party, the two soft keys can be customised to pretty much whatever function you desire.

With maximum 384Kbps 3G speeds onboard, web browsing is pretty nippy. It's made easier by the preloaded Opera Mini web browser that probably ranks as one of the better mobile browsers on the scene. It brilliantly repackages full fat web pages to load quickly and neatly fit smaller screens and with the 3120 only sporting a bright but average-sized QVGA-quality 2-inch display, its skills are very welcome.

If you don't know your outgoing server deets or proxy settings from your elbow then setting up email accounts can be a pain in the proverbial. Thankfully, the 3120 does all that tricky donkey work for you and setting up your personal POP and IMAP email client is a breeze. After we gave up our email address and password, our Google Gmail account was up and running in a flash.

The 3120's basic two-megapixel snapper is only really good enough for MMS, blogging and wallpapering. With no dedicated shutter key you'll have to set one of the soft keys to fire up the camera and keen snappers may be disappointed, but unsurprised, by a lack of autofocus.

If you like to play Mr. Tinkerman it does offer a sprinkling of photos modes including picture effects, brightness levels, self timer and a rather crude LED flash but really we wouldn't bother. Its video capturing capabilities are equally feeble, shooting in a maximum resolution of 352x288 pixels at 15fps.

The built-in music player and FM radio are decent performers and probably the best features on the 3120. Unfortunately we weren't able to really gauge the music player's true sonic talents because, criminally, no stereo headphones were bundled with the phone. If you want to hook up a pair via the 2.5mm socket then you'll have to visit the Nokia shop and shell out 15 quid for a pair of HS-47 earphones.

But overlook the headphone headache and the music player seems very capable with simple access to all of your tunes via the standard playlist, artists, albums, genres arrangement. A seven-strong equaliser, including two customisable settings, gives you options to funk up the audio while support for A2DP stereo Bluetooth means you can stream your music wirelessly via a compatible set of headphones or speakers.

The 3120 Classic brilliantly keeps up Nokia's winning tradition of solid 3G handsets like the 6233, 6151 and 6120 Classic. Not everyone craves the latest and greatest whizz-bang mobile innovations, so if you're in the market for a dependable, user-friendly but sleek 3G blower with a smattering of cool mobile features then the 3120 Classic definitely has your name on it.