Nokia 3120 Classic

Recently, Nokia have started to recycle product names. First came the Nokia 2600 Classic, and now there's the Nokia 3120 Classic which shares its model number with a cheap colour phone from 2004. As you might guess from the 3120 model number, this is going to be a pretty inexpensive device, but it is worlds apart from the earlier 3120 handset. Nokia have given this handset a fairly low-key launch, which is surprising.

This is a very lightweight 3G phone - the Nokia 3100 Classic weighs only 85 grams, but it manages to fit in a 2.0" 320 x 240 pixel display, 2 megapixel primary camera with flash, video calling, microSD expandable memory, Bluetooth, a multimedia player and an FM radio. This is all pretty good for a handset priced at around €160 / £110 / $220 or so before tax and subsidy.

So it's pretty clear that the Nokia 3120 Classic offers good value for money, but presumably there must have been some compromises to keep the price down? Well, in truth there are not many compromises that we can see. True, this isn't a smartphone, the 3120 Classic runs the Series 40 operating system that most people are familiar with. There's no autofocus on the camera, the screen could be a little larger, the 3120 Classic lacks HSDPA and there is no memory card in the standard sales package.

But on the plus side, the Nokia 3120 Classic comes with a 2.5mm audio socket plus headphones, a media player that can deal with MP3, MP4 and Windows Media file types, the Opera web browser, an email client and it can also capture video at 15 to 20 fps at 320x240 pixels (QVGA) resolution, which is pretty adequate for most people.

This is a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS and EDGE data, plus UMTS/WCDMA (3G). There are several different variants of 3G radio available depending on region, either 900/2100, 850/2100 or 850/1900 MHz.

Talktime on 3G is 2.5 hours which is a little short for some, with 12 days standby time. The standard sales package includes a BL-4U battery, AC-3 charger, HS-40 headset and user guide in addition to the phone.

Overall, the Nokia 3120 Classic does appear to be a very good value for money 3G handset that doesn't miss out any important features, it is impressively lightweight and looks quite attractive. We think that this might be a strong seller for Nokia when it comes out during Q2 2008 in several different colour combinations.