my Gift to you: Nokia 3205 mini review

[Treatz]

here's my thoughts after playing around with the 3205 for about 2 hours courtesy of Gadgetmon

IR port
the IR takes media, it's not Telus neutered
I sent multiple files to it via my 6230b/IR
It received a MIDI file and a 128x128 graphic. Good news as it seems you won't have to pay Telus for their "huge" selection of graphincs/ringtones and can send to yourself through other phones. This is a huge surprise to me and Gadgetmon as we thought Telus would want to have locked up that feature.

Also, I don't know if you can send via IR/PC cause I don't have a IR adaptor here, having bluetooth has spoiled me

now, I can't seem to be able to send any files FROM the 3205 to any other phone.. so it seems the IR is one way for media... which is still ok considering most phones require some type of cable and program hack to do so. the downside is that you can't excnage ringtones easily through IR to your other 3205 friends.

Build quality
the 3205 is nicely built and has a solid feel just like the 3220 on Rogers, the question here is will this be like my 6230b and loosen up over time?.. time will tell..
although it's is one hard time to remove the back cover. I still haven't out of fear of breaking Gadgetmons phone.

here's a pic of various Nokia's for a size comparison, and a few other pics for your enjoyment



look at that! it comes with my LOGO on it!!


sundry features:
the flashlight is pretty neat, I like it to be honest.. no more fumbling for "keyholes"

Language
suprisingly, the 3205 supports, English, French and 2 different types of "chineese" is my guess.. I don't recognise the symbols, but it's my assumptiong it's Traditional chineese and simple I would guess.

Screen
the screen is a 4096 unit, don't mistake that it's not.
However, direct side to side comparisons to a 3120b (Rogers GSM 4096) shows the Nokia 3205 4096 screen to be better and more vibrant and shows white cleaner in my opinion.

sound quality.
I must say, this is one good sounding CDMA phone. This is a good change from the recent offerings i've tried out. incoming and outgoing audio works quite well. If you're looking for a phone that performs as a phone.. the 3205 will make you happy. the 3205 also bring you the benefit of a lack of Telus neutering as I've mentioned prior, i could pass files I'm not to Fond of the speakerphone however, it seems to hiss and the audio drops off quite a bit compared to my 6230b or V3 RAZR

the actual compression of the background noise floored me though. I had Gadgetmon go out to Yonge street while i stayed in the shop on a land line. We both did this so I could see both ends of the conversation. Conversly, we had both lines active for a back to back comparsion between the 6230b and 3205. He stood on the sidewalk and I could hear him cleanly with just a hint of background noise (aka bussess and cars passing on the busy Yonge street), although his voice seemed a little more muffled, it was louder then my 6230b. I assume that's a result of the noise suppression although not being a CDMA expert I can't tell you if that is the nokia supression or the CDMA supression built into the codec.

Misc
Nokia/telus includes a CD in the box to design covers and print them on your printer as there seems to be blank sheets of faceplate material to sit in behind the clear plate.

one dissapointment, at least to me and Gadgetmon, is Telus should've perhaps included a chameleon cover since the main media campain has those chameleon's.

Keypad
I personally dont' like the keypad.
after taking apart the phone (finally it came apart) i realized the positioning of the PCB keypad board is normal, this meand that you can probably find aftermarket 3200 (since it appears to have a SIM card slot like the 3200 anyway) series facepaltes with a more normal looking layout. similar to how a 3595 keypad and 3590 keypad are interchangeable.



Battery
BLD-4 which is easy to Find
cable
uses a DKU-5 cable, not the DKU-2 as originally believed
Pop Port
same as the 3220/6230b, it uses the pop port for the headset or other multimedia attachments. there is no 2.5MM jack like the Bell nokia's.
charger
standard nokia ACP-12U rapid in the box.


MMS/Video/camera pics
I took a few pics from the 3205 camera and emailed em to myself so I could host em here..
the quality seems to be that of my 6230b, so I think it's probably the same camera

this is taken from my V3 review when Ejohan asked what I looked like, it's a picture of my PC monitor so don''t count that as a quality measure, it's more here for fun



the following pictures are taken from the 3205 and i emailed em to myself via the Telus MMS setup. These pictures you can gague the quality of the camera with. feel free to compare those pics to that of my 6230b Review
http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...32#post3448932


what's that?
it's the Rogers 7100R


this is done under better lighting




Video
the camera takes Video's as well,, just like the 6230b it's more of a novelty than anything. I dunno how usefull that feature will be to many without MMC or a large pool of memory since 3 megs may not be enough.

the Video is also choppy.. not smooth like the 6230b.
unfortunately I dn't have hosting so I can't post it

the Camera also supports maximum recording but unlike the 6230b you can't keep recording till you're full up of memory. the timer seems to only allow 25 seconds of Video.

RF
I have no bearing for this so perhaps Gadgetmon or others with this phone can better guild you. I did this review merely has a heads up to the features the 3205 will bring to Telus and it's users

[Eternity]

I want this one..

[Beckham23]

DAVID HASSELHOLF!!!

[Xirc]

Originally posted by treatz

Nice review. Just one observation: dude you need to renovate your store. Its fugly!

[Treatz]

Originally posted by Xirc
Nice review. Just one observation: dude you need to renovate your store. Its fugly!

RENO's coming
it's not that bad..
jeese!

[Nokia 6188]

man, the more I read up on the Nokia 3205, the more I am continually impressed.

Thanx for the review treatz. To hear praises coming from an anti-Telus, anti-CDMA, PRO Rogers guy about a phone on Telus just goes to show how great the Nokia 3205 is.

Now I'll just have to wait for final confirmation from HighTech and DerekToronto's RF test in the "Hall of Shame" before I buy this phone. But from Gadgetmon's initial assessment, the Nokia 3205 should be at least on par with the Blade if not a bit better in RF.

Too bad about the speakerphone though

[Treatz]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7780/3.7.1 UP.Link/1.1)

Originally posted by Nokia 6188
man, the more I read up on the Nokia 3205, the more I am continually impressed.

Thanx for the review treatz. To hear praises coming from an anti-Telus, anti-CDMA, PRO Rogers guy about a phone on Telus just goes to show how great the Nokia 3205 is.

Now I'll just have to wait for final confirmation from HighTech and DerekToronto's RF test in the "Hall of Shame" before I buy this phone. But from Gadgetmon's initial assessment, the Nokia 3205 should be at least on par with the Blade if not a bit better in RF.

Too bad about the speakerphone though

No problem about the review.
However, I'm not anti telus... This opinion is not fair.

I am pro rogers though

[Xirc]

Originally posted by Nokia 6188
Thanx for the review treatz. To hear praises coming from an anti-Telus, anti-CDMA, PRO Rogers guy about a phone on Telus just goes to show how great the Nokia 3205 is.

treatz isn't anti-TELUS, he just drinks a lot and his judgement is often impaired to the point where he likes Rogers

[Treatz]

Originally posted by Xirc
treatz isn't anti-TELUS, he just drinks a lot and his judgement is often impaired to the point where he likes Rogers

*shakes fist at sky
Dam Tim hortons!
DAM YOU!!

[Nokia 6188]

My mistake... PRO Telus it is then

Originally posted by treatz

However, I'm not anti telus... This opinion is not fair.

[GaDgEtMoN]

It is a great review and I can assure you Treatz was very impressed with the outcome and performance of this phone, so much so he was telling me he thought the noise suppression on the 3205i was superior to the 6230b's.

I really like the phone but this keypad is taking some time to get use to.

[ggweci]

nice review treatz!...pretty thorough and very unbiased ...thanks

Originally posted by Nokia 6188

Now I'll just have to wait for final confirmation from HighTech and DerekToronto's RF test in the "Hall of Shame" before I buy this phone. But from Gadgetmon's initial assessment, the Nokia 3205 should be at least on par with the Blade if not a bit better in RF.

Nokia,

i just bought the 3205 tonight and have tested it out is some a known Telus weak area in my house...the Blade and T206 are the only two Telus phones that can maintain a stable call their, the Blade more-so...i've tested all the LGs there and they failed pretty badly...as for the Nokia, it was AMAZING!...it never hicupped, cut-out, dropped the call, nothing...from this early test it looks like the RF is at least equal to the Blade as Gadgetmon also said...both phones can maintain an extremely stable call in this area, so it's hard for me to judge which is better...i'm also curious to see the "Hall of Shame" test results.

[dcomp11]

How is the battery life of this phone, as that is the major fault with other Nokia CDMA phones.

[ggweci]

Originally posted by treatz
Also, I don't know if you can send via IR/PC cause I don't have a IR adaptor here

anyone else know if this can be done? would be excellent to send my own images to the phone for wallpapers and such.

[Otaque]

In a particular corner of my house, I used to get -102 on the blade, this baby is showing -89 .... *thumbsup*

oh, did I mention IR is a godsend?!