Nokia 3806

Overview

Simple and Basic Phone

Overview of Nokia 3806

You can always expect the best from Nokia when it comes to the sturdiness and life of the mobile phones. Nokia 3806 is not a new phone since it was launched in the year 2009 but it is still a very popular phone for those who are looking for an affordable and powerful phone.

Nokia 3806 Design and Build Quality

Nokia 3806’s design is inspired by the successful Nokia DNA design, which is stylish and sleek. The build quality is superb as expected by Nokia. The phone weighs a mere 97 grams (battery included), is 1.1 cm thick, and therefore will fit in your pocket comfortably. The design of the phone is bar shaped with a comfortable 2.2 inch TFT screen. The screen resolution is 240x320 pixels. The screen is large enough for you to view the numbers and read the messages comfortably without straining your eyes. The phone is available in three colours, which include black, rose gold and white. The sliver trimming on the sides of the phone gives it a very stylish look.

User Interface and Comfort to Use Nokia 3806

We found the user interface of the phone to be quite fast and easy to use. The menu key or the scroll button is located in the centre and the call and left selection key on the left and right selection key and call end key on the right. The power button is on the top. The keys on the keyboard spaced comfortably enough ad we could actually type very fast without having to worry about pressing two keys at once. The USB and Memory card slots are at the side along with the camera key, which are easy to access and use.

Telephony and Phonebook

You can use up to 4GB external memory on the phone, which gives enough space to store more than 1000 contacts. The contacts can be stored on the phone or the UIM card, which means that you have double the space to store your numbers. The phonebook also includes features like groups, speed dial, and business card, which makes it easy to access the numbers that you use frequently. The call quality is surprisingly good. We tested the phone in noisy areas also and although we could not hear too clearly but the voice from the other end was audible and understandable. The phone does not support 3G but supports 2G (GSM 900/1800 MHz). The standard talk time is 3 hours and 30 minutes and standby time is 8 days and 8 hours. The sound in loudspeaker mode is comfortable enough to hear in a standard room. English is the only language supported by the phone, which we feel, is a slight down point as Nokia had introduced Hindi as a supported language in its earlier models.

Messaging and Emails

All the standard messaging features are available on the phone, which include delivery report, signatures, call back number, outbox, saving sent messages etc. You can easily access settings under the message settings to the number of messages you want to save. The phone gives you the facility to access your emails from the built in browser app in the utilities. It is quite easy to configure and use.

Gallery, Photo Viewer and Video Player

Nothing special can be said about the gallery option on the phone. You can save all your multimedia files comfortably. The images are all stored in standard .jpg format and videos in 3gp format. Photo viewer is easy to navigate. The video player is not as smooth as we would have liked it to be, it is somewhat laggy in recording the response.

Nokia 3806 Music Player and FM Radio

Built in FM radio and music player are good when played at the medium volume level. At full volume the sound does crack up a little bit. We tried the music player and radio with both earphones and loudspeaker and like the sound.

Nokia 3806 Camera and Image Quality

The phone has a 2MP rear camera without flash. The pictures in low light are not good but the pictures taken outside with daylight were quite good with sharp colours with a resolution of 1600x1200pixels

Video Camera and Video Quality

We did not like the video quality of the videos recorded by the phone but then if you want to record a video in emergency the phone can come quite handy.

Nokia 3806 Connectivity Options

The phone supports GPRS, Bluetooth v2.1 and USB connectivity. You cannot take a call when the phone is connected to your system with USB. Otherwise, the USB data transfer is smooth and fast. Bluetooth is also easy to configure.

Organiser and other utility tools

The phone is packed with all utility features that you need to manage your work or home. These include alarm, calendar, and calculator. Nice and simple applications designed for easy use. The phone supports polyphonic ringtones.

Nokia 3806 Web Browser and Applications

Browser services are network dependent. We tested them with our home network and the sites were not so easy to navigate because they did not fit in the screen. The phone has a built in Facebook application which is actually quite fast and easy to use. The phone supports all the Java applications but they have to downloaded and installed separately.

Google Maps and GPS

The phone does not support GPS.

Distinctive Features of Nokia 3806

The phone has two distinctive features:

• Health Assistant: The application helps you in managing the daily stress of your life and helps you stay healthy.
• BREW: Brew is network dependent application, which allows you to download other paid applications from within.

Value for money

The phone is priced around INR 2700 (approx., may vary) which is a very good price a phone that has so many features. The phone definitely justifies its pricing.

Verdict

This phone will not disappoint you if you are looking for simple and basic phone with good music player. We would give four starts out of five to this phone.