Review of the Nokia C1-01 Design and User Interface

Review of the Nokia C1-01 Design and User Interface
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Nokia-C1-01

This Nokia C-series phone is geared towards those for whom cost is a very important factor when it comes to purchasing a phone. This Nokia phone was announced in June of 2010 and released in December 2010, it comes at the bottom of the range within the C-Series and therefore comes with limited features and functionality.

This Nokia phone, however, speaks out confidently as it has a personality of its own and sits well when tucked away in your pocket or when held in the palm of the hand. The design is striking and therefore demands attention with its curved casings and subtle choice of color combinations. Let us have a look at what the Nokia C1-01 has to offer starting off with the design.

Design (4 out of 5)

The Nokia C1-01 comes in four colors out of the box namely Dark Grey, Warm Grey, Red and Midnight Blue. This Nokia phone measures 108 x 45 x 14 millimeters and weighs 79 grams.

There is a TFT color portrait display on the front face of the Nokia C1-01 that measures 1.08 inches in height. Below the TFT display there is the soft key panel with the traditional Nokia five-way Navi key pad in the center with the green call start button on the bottom left corner and the red call end button on the bottom right corner of the the five-way Navi key pad. Above each of these call buttons there are the soft keys.

Below the soft key panel is the alphanumeric key pad. On the right side of the Nokia C1-01 there is the microUSB connector slot, the microSD card slot and the power connector. The top end of the Nokia C1-01 is equipped with the 3.5 millimeter audio jack.

Moving onto the rear of the Nokia C1-01 there is the external speaker as well as the VGA camera. Below these is the battery compartment under which there is the slot for housing the SIM card.

The bottom part of the Nokia C1-01 is reserved for the mouth piece.

User Interface (2 out of 5)

The Nokia C1-01 is based on the Nokia’s S40 framework and therefore there are standard expectations for using this Nokia phone. The home screen of the Nokia C1-01 is rather minimalistic with a customizable wallpaper. The themes on the Nokia C1-01 can also be customized. The right soft key gives you access to the address book from the home screen while the left soft key can be set up as a shortcut to your preferred application. The center key of the five-way Navi keys is dedicated to accessing the menu.

The menu on the Nokia C1-01 is laid out in a three by three grid of icons which can be navigated by using the five-way Navi keys. To launch your desired application you can use the center key to select the application or service.

Making and canceling or ending calls can be done using the green and red call buttons respectively. You can also use the right soft key to access people in your contact list and make the call by selecting the desired contact.

Text messaging and text input into the web browser can be done using the keys in the alphanumeric keypad. The interface on the Nokia C1-01 is simple and practical with nothing fancy to enhance the experience.

Features (2 out of 5)

Nokia-C1-01

The Nokia C1-01 comes with a TFT display that is capable of showing up to 65K colors at a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels. This Nokia phone comes with vibration, polyphonic and MP3 ringtones.

Internal memory on the Nokia C1-01 is capped at 10 MB with 16 MB RAM and 64 MB ROM. The external memory can go up to 32 GB through a microSD card.

As far as the data access options go, only GPRS is available for Internet connectivity. Connecting to other devices can be done using either Bluetooth or microUSB.

The single VGA camera on the Nokia C1-01 is capable of taking photos with a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels in GIF, BMP and JPG formats, while the video recording comes at 128 x 96 pixels at 10 frames per second.

With the Nokia C1-01 you can access the Internet using the internal HTML, WAP2/xHTML Opera mini web browser. There is a stereo FM radio with RDS and FM recording. You can also listen to music with the MP3/WAV/AAC+ player and watch video using the H.263 player.

Games and applications on the Nokia C1-01 can be downloaded from the Nokia Ovi store and other websites. You also have access to social networking features with this Nokia phone.

Performance (5 out of 5)

The Nokia C1-01 is a reliable phone with crystal clear sound quality. This Nokia phone has excellent sound quality through the headphones. This is relevant when listening to either FM radio or music stored on the device. Radio reception is okay when you are in open areas. Call quality is great for users on both ends of the line. The Nokia C1-01 does well to block out background sounds for a better call experience.

Battery life on the Nokia C1-01 is quite good with an average of about 10 hours of talk time per recharge cycle. Standby time on the Nokia C1-01 can reach up to about a maximum of 500 hours on a 1020 mAh battery. All in all the Nokia C1-01 makes up for its lack of features by compensating with great battery life.

Verdict (3 out of 5)

The Nokia C1-01 comes in as a phone with a price that is just right. This Nokia phone is well suited for those taking long road trips without worrying about power running out. The Nokia C1-01 is good looking and very functional. It allows you to keep up with what’s happening over radio and allows you to take time off to relax while listening to music. For a modest price of US$50 I would recommend those with limited budgets to consider going for the Nokia C1-01

You can compare the Nokia C1-01 with other Nokia C-Series phones such as the mid-level Nokia C3 and the high end Nokia C7.