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CNET editors' rating:
2.5 stars
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Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 13 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Solid call quality; compact design; speakerphone; analog roaming; voice dialing; built-in flashlight; swappable covers; IDs unknown songs.
The bad: Small, monochrome screen; sensitive sweet spot; limited navigation keys; no Web surfing; no spine volume controls; cheap-feeling.
The bottom line: A throwback cell phone with few bells and whistles, the Nokia 2115i for Virgin Mobile is designed almost purely for making and receiving occasional calls.
Specifications: Band / mode: CDMA 800/1900 / AMPS 800; Talk time: Up to 276 min; Weight: 0.2 lbs See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 09/20/2005
The mobile offers a relatively pedantic (for Nokia) keypad layout with a slightly confusing navigation array. You get the normal Send and End buttons, as well as two soft keys, but the toggle moves only up and down and not to the side. It didn't hamper menu navigation, but it was quirky. The keypad buttons are composed of four white translucent bars, with three numbers on each bar. Number and especially letter labels are tiny and will be hard to read by anyone with less-than-perfect vision. Backlighting for the screen is a pale powder blue, while the bars brightly light up like a fluorescent photo light board. We didn't like, however, that there are no spine-mounted volume controls. As is normal for Nokia phones, the power button is located on the top of the phone rather than the red End key.
Interestingly, you are told to avoid touching the internal antenna area, a warning that is difficult to obey, since this area is not marked or indicated except in a general illustration indicating the top area of the phone. Since keeping a finger or two at the top of the phone is not only a natural hand position but also almost required to keep the earpiece securely over your ear canal, this was a difficult warning to obey. Fortunately, we did not suffer any of the call-quality consequences mentioned in the manual.
You can buy one of four replaceable covers (blue, cocoa, teak, or red for $14 each) to brighten up an otherwise pale phone. To swap a cover, the instructions say to "gently pull the bottom of the front cover away from the rest of the phone." Gently or roughly, the front cover refused to move. We came closer to losing a fingernail than removing the front cover.
What's surprising about the Nokia 2115i Shorty is that for a phone this low tech, you get a fair number of features. There is a 250-contact phone book, but you are limited to one-word name entries with no spaces. Initial entries allow only the insertion of one undesignated phone number, although you can add specific home/mobile/work numbers in the Edit function. Confusingly, e-mail addresses can be added but only through a completely different menu. You can, however, assign one of eight polyphonic ring tones to individual contacts.While the Nokia 2115i Shorty skimps on the phone book, it paradoxically includes a variety of functions, such as an alarm clock, a vibrate mode, a currency calculator (odd on a phone that can be used only in the United States), a voice recorder that can record up to 60 seconds of memos, a countdown timer, voice dialing, a speakerphone, a stopwatch, a calendar, and a scheduler. All the additions seem more designed to be used by an active and tech-savvy phone user, not the occasional caller who is likely to be the primary customer for this phone.
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- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 13 reviews
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