Nokia 1661 - My Latest and Greatest Cellphone

Image via CrunchBase

My 5 year old cell phone was giving me problems - it will suddenly die while talking even though the phone is charged. After replacing the original battery, battery life suddenly dropped to just couple of days. So I decided to look for a new one.

So the features I wanted were - good battery life, make and take calls, SMS and time(because I don't wear a watch). I don't listen to music that much, nor did I take any pictures with my phone camera, leave alone surfing web on it. I did rethink on the camera because the one I had stopped working for still pictures - so a device that doubled up as camera would have been a good idea. But then cell phones being cell phones first, good quality cameras were a bit expensive. So I decided against a camera phone though it appears that the price for a basic camera phone has dropped a lot. I listened to FM occasionally because we don't have an FM receiver at home and it didn't hurt to have FM on the phone from a cost perspective though it is one of those you are not going to need it(YAGNI) features.

The thought of being connected (especially on twitter) always with a 3G phone was very tempting. That didn't really go well with my current philosophy of life of relaxed and going easy. You are not going to miss a thing because you are out of the internet. And being at a 10-minute ride or a 20-minute bus ride from home, I can always get online at work or office pretty quickly. And with a history of RSI injuries, I don't want to make it any worse. I need to keep off the keyboards as much as possible to keep myself healthy. So internet on the phone also was not a need. YAGNI thinking really helped in identifying the features.

So I looked around and settled for Nokia mainly because the other phones might a little bit learning and the short cuts. It appeared that I could get all my features(and the best battery life) within Rs.2000/= and in color too! So the value for money felt a lot more than the expensive ones with poor quality features. So I zeroed it on a few phones around that price and found the Nokia 1661 the most attractive - 25 days of battery life. That was hard to resist and other factors didn't really influence my decision. It also had FM and a torch light which were added attractions that I wouldn't have cared either.

I shopped around locally and found the price varied from 1800 to 1950. But they guy who told me 1800 increased it to 1900 the next day. I tried looking around at uptown locations, but couldn't check the prices. But it was also not really worth spending so much time for a 100 rupee margin - so I went and bought it from the most convenient shop on my way at 1900. The guy was nice and was a local guy, not part of a chain or a big mall(it was 1865 at one mall). Being one who looks for relationships than just a place to buy, I felt more comfortable with this guy than others around. The first ever cell phone was more than 10 times costlier with less features(black and white, no FM, no torch light).

The phone looked pretty descent, not so cheap in the looks, but may be a closer look might reveal the price. You need to hit a bit harder on the keys and was not smooth as my earlier one, and the user interface was a bit different as well. The jockey is used only for cursor movements, not accept or return like the other phones. That is something I have to learn new. It also looks like the menu short cuts are not supported either, which was disappointing - I didn't realize it was an expensive feature! Also they only show a dummy piece of the phone without any real functionality before you buy, which makes it difficult to observe these differences.

The clock works well and the banner doesn't vanish as soon as you touch a key. So it works well as a watch. Not sure if I will use FM radio and the flash light and hopefully I can get rid of those ones also next time for may be below 1000 INR. I also wish Nokia(and others) have some models that is just a pure phone - nothing more nothing less. I think the feature creep has made cell phones too bulky with features that are hardly used.

Overall, Nokia 1661 sounds like a bargain at this point of time. I will let you guys know how it goes.