Nokia C2-01 review: A little something

Introduction

Little cash in your pocket and a good phone on your mind. Is the Nokia C2-01 it? A still camera, 3G and a memory card slot sound like we’re on the right track. In contrast to the C2-00, this one omits the dual SIM handling but there are other goodies to make up for that.

Nokia C2-01 official photos

It’s a cheap phone alright, nothing too flashy, nothing to shout about. But the Nokia C2-01 deserves some credit for squeezing a number of nice little features into its budget. 3.2MP still imaging does sound refreshing after reviewing a VGA primary camera recently. Data speeds top EDGE and a microSD card slot means there’s more than enough room for your music collection. A 3.5mm audio jack too perhaps is better than expected for the price you pay.

Key features

• Entry level phone with decent features
• Quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity
• Tri-band 3G connectivity
• 2.0" 256K-color QVGA TFT display
• 3.2MP fixed-focus camera
• QVGA@15fps video recording
• Series 40 UI, 6th edition
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Bluetooth 2.1 (with EDR)
• Standard microUSB port (charging)
• microSD card slot (16GB supported)
• 3.5mm audio jack
• Dedicated Facebook app

Main disadvantages

• Poor video recording
• No smart dialing
• Miserable display (almost no such thing as a viewing angle for this one)
• Relatively poor audio reproduction quality

We have some complaints (seriously, it’s 2011 and S40 still lacks smart dialing) but other than that the C2-01 looks pretty decent. Arguably, you can hold the lack of dual SIM support against the Nokia C2-01. This feature though is obviously left to the most basic of handsets in the C-series. The C2-01 is a budget phone but not that much of a penny pincher.

Nokia C2-01 live shots

You know, phones with a flashlight have long been bottom of the Nokia barrel. Recently, it’s dual SIM phones. Well, the C2-01 is neither. Now, how good is this – or how bad? Jump to the next page, as we try to find out.

But there’re other questions to be answered first. What’s in the box? Is the Nokia C2-01 durable? Out tour of the phone’s hardware is about to begin.