By Jeba Justin Abraham
The Nokia 206 is one of the most recent mobile phones we have launched, and it’s the first mobile phone that has the Lumia looks.
The Nokia 206 is a thing of beauty and feels extremely nice to hold. The premium finish to the body was a pleasant surprise, with the matt finish at the back being nice to touch. My Nokia 206 is a brilliant canary yellow and looks fabulous.
The design approach that it shares with its smartphone cousins only makes it all the more enticing.
Unlocking the phone throws up a home screen that reminds me of my beloved Nokia E71. By default, the home screen displays the clock, calendar, radio, media and shortcuts bar, but it can be personalised. I quickly changed it so that I could start a WhatsApp conversation from the home screen without the need to find the app.
Getting on the grid
Connecting the Nokia 206 to my social networks was a piece of cake.
I popped open Facebook from the shortcuts bar and logged in. The Facebook app is comprehensive and has all the functionality available from a normal web browser. There was also a default Twitter app and setting it up was as easy as logging into the app.
The phone comes bundled with WhatsApp and eBuddy messenger and they both run smoothly in the background. Whenever my friends message me, the alerts pop up on the homescreen just like a normal SMS alert.
The 2.5-2.4-inch screen makes a big difference in day-to-day usage of these apps. It is friendlier on the eye due to the bigger font size and it shows more content.
The keypad is a joy to use, especially in combination with the T9 dictionary. My expectations were exceeded.
Plugging into the WWW
Next up, email. Setting this up on the phone is as easy as entering your login credentials. I quickly set up my Hotmail and Yahoo accounts without any glitches.
The app doesn’t sync in the background or provide notifications but it provides a very easy way to access my mailbox and works very smoothly. There is even a nice email signature that gets added to outgoing emails (this can be customised of course).
Hooking up with the Internet poses no problems as the Nokia Xpress Browser is slick, smooth and loads pages instantly. Again, the bigger screen makes all the more difference when browsing.
With so many possibilities to connect to the outside world, it is so easy to lose track of data usage. Not in this case, as there is the Counters app that gives detailed information with the possibility of setting alerts when your data usage hits a certain limit.
Free time no more
There are lots of games and apps available for the Nokia 206 in the Nokia Store. I got going with Fifa 13, Midnight pool 3 and Uno. All the games are extremely addictive but that is not a problem because the battery life is just too good to be true. A single charge easily lasts a few days.
The 1.3-megapixel camera does a decent job of taking pictures but the fun part comes with sharing them (or any other file) using ‘Slam’ – this is as good as using NFC on any high end phone. Just slam it!
Nokia Nearby is another neat little web app. It shows points of interest around my current position. It’s quick and easy to use!
More for less
Even the little things are very user friendly on this device.
When I tried setting up a custom ringtone, I was simply asked to choose the start and end point of the ringtone from an MP3 file.
I could organize photos in my gallery as albums which made it simple to manage, share and run a slideshow.
In summary, I can say that one week with this device was a week well spent.
The Nokia 206 is classified as a ‘feature phone’ and I agree because it is packed to the brim with features!
Phones like these are redefining the meaning of a feature phone and I am starting to believe that when it comes to getting ‘more for less’, the sky is the limit!