The Nokia 2100 is the latest incarnation of Nokia's low-end phone, and it raises the bar on what is expected from a simple voice/text mobile.
The AU$279 Nokia 2100 looks a lot better than other low-end phones, such as the 3310. It has a stylish light-blue cover and a simple button layout, including two softkeys and up and down arrow keys. The only gripe we have is with the back cover, which has a different removal mechanism to the normal click-and-slide you get with Nokia phones, and is a lot harder to remove.
However, once the cover is off we were pleasantly surprised to find the battery does not need to be removed to put the SIM card in. We're not sure why this fantastic development wasn't implemented earlier, as it means that changing your SIM card doesn't wipe the time and date settings from your phone.
As we've indicated, the Nokia 2100 is a simple phone without the latest technology, but what it does do is done well. To give an example, the messages menu is the first menu in the system, which makes sense because it's the most likely to be used. It also contains thirteen different folders, covering pretty much anything you might want to do with SMS.
The phone allows the creation of 'distribution' lists of people you commonly send SMS messages to, which makes messaging a group of people much easier. The phone also has the 'send to many' function, which we've found very useful.
The 2100 also allows you to send picture messages, of the black-and-white SMS variety. In addition the phone has the 'Picture Editor' facility, which is normally hard to use for the average person. This editor has some features that make it easier to use than others.
The editor includes tools such as 'Fill', 'Invert Colours' and 'Mirror' - which flips the image to a mirror version of itself. This makes the creation of images a lot easier; we were well pleased with ourselves when we managed to create a passable image of a cactus in front of a sunset.
This ease of use is mirrored in the tune composer feature, which we found a lot easier to use than other composers we've come across. Although the phone is not polyphonic, this feature allows you to create your own tunes relatively easily. It was simple for us to create 'chopsticks' and the 'Blackadder' theme, and while they weren't perfect they were recognisable.
The mobile includes other personalisation features such as animated screensavers and downloadable ringtones. There is also a "photo window" on the back of the phone, but the plastic covering isn't clear so we're not sure how useful that will be.
The other menus are fairly standard, 'Call Register', 'Profiles', 'Settings', 'Alarm Clock', 'Reminders', 'Games' and 'Extras'. Apart from the Composer and Picture Editor the 'Extras' menu includes a calculator, stopwatch and countdown timer.
The games included with the Nokia 2100 are Snake II, Space Impact and Link5, which is enjoyably difficult to play. It's the first strategy game we've come across in a mobile where the phone regularly beats us.
The Nokia 2100 weighs 85g, and is advertised as having a talktime of three hours and 20 minutes and a standby time of 150 hours. We found it lasted just over three days of normal usage.
All up, we find the Nokia 2100 to be the best low-end phone we've seen, and recommend it for users who don't want the frills surrounding MMS and 3G.
Nokia 2100
Company: Nokia
Price: AU$279
Distributor: Nokia
Phone: 1300 366 733
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