3230 - lovely, but disappointing too......
Hello :)
Finally, two days ago, i replaced my trusty 6600. It had started nagging me - "App. closed: Main" whenever i started it, even when connecting a charger while phone off.... then the battery which it ran thru in a single day, and more and more regular this problem"SIM card invalid" after punching in the PIN.
So i went and sold it, and got myself a 3230, in black.
What have i gained: A better camera, a Pop-Port and the native support for mp3 and aac sound files. No errors on start. I can use G-Mail with ProfiMail (did not work on 6600 due to that model's lack of SSL support). EDGE (because my network uses it, and it flies!) Radio! And Oggplay can finally play mp32 and aac as well... using build-in codecs from the phone, thge entire menu was not present on the 6600. hmm...... that's it i think........
What have i LOST..? Bluetooth Serial Port!!! Ability to change icons in themes. Good screen. SPEED!!
But one after another.
My 3230 was produced in july 2005,according to a sticker on the box. It was made in China, but i don't care where it's from :) BUT the firmware came right out of stone age, it is
v 3.0505.2
19-02-05
RM-51
And it has loads of bugs.
There is the screen: Flickering in the "Go-To" menu when a background image is used, also flickering during taking pictures.
Ultra-slow gallery opening (and it's NOT the MMC because that's just a hell faster on another phone).
After using GPRS, the whole menu and just about everything is getting extremely slow and i need to reboot to get some speed back.
Pictures are nice sharp but grainy when shooting in "high" quality, and up to 550 kilobytes large! Setting to "Normal" quality however yields 120 kb files with no grainy effect! Go figure......
Video is "stuttering" a bit and the audio sounds like thru a loooong pipe.
It plays mp3, yes, but very low sound quality and volume, never mind mono but heck, the 6600 was 5x louder! The same goes for .ogg files, using the same version of Oggplay. And - if used as RINGTONES, they go loud as hell.... so why not when playing them as music???
Bluetooth - seems to think about compatibility on each use... sometimes can connect with PC, sometimes not, then need tro reboot phone and it might work. Works always over PC Suite tough, but i want to just send a file from PC to phone without using that huge app all the time, and more often than not it comes with "FTP Service not supported on device". However after a reboot magically it IS supported....... Sending from phone to PC works always :)
RAM - the 6600, loaded with auto-starting apps, after a reboot had some 8.4 MB free, where the 3230 just got 7.2.... does this have less RAM installed? Or does it just hog up more? Oh, i got Norton Mobile Security on this one.... may that be the reason? Still better than catching a virus :)
Benchmark.... i got this program SP4 something, on the 6600 it gave me a 630, on my boyfriend's N70 a 980 (!) but on the 3230... poor thing.... a 520..... the performance is REALLY low.
Now, a question: What CPU is in the 3230? According to "PhoneInfo" it's 104 MHz, according to SP4 it's 123 MHz. I don't know whom to trust, since SP4 also detected 16 Million colours (!!) on the N70. The performance, compared with the (104 MHz guaranteed) 6600 it is more like 66 MHz :)
Still, i like this 3230 because it has a solid feel to it and i prefer the joystick. I believe many of my issues could be solved by a firmware upgrade, but i am in Thailand..... which means "behind the moon" in such things, it took Nokia almost a FULL YEAR to have an OFFICIAL new firmware for the 6260 - which was too late for me and my boyfriend, instead of flashing the bug-box i sold it for cheap and got him a N70. But i don't want to wait as long to have my 3230 performing - i already phoned Nokia, and of course, they have that same FW version only, too.
Kind regards......
Thanh
flickering screen and radio.....
Hello :)
I just replied top you in the other thread as well :) About the flickering screen, yes that seems to be normal. It is not always but in certain situations, as mentioned in the "Go To" menu only if there is a background image other than default, or sometimes when shooting a still image. Also in SeleQ i noticed it, again only when a background image is on. It seems to be directly linked to the display of images, but luckily, it doesn't flicker on the main standby screen (where my wallpaper is the same picture as in SeleQ and Go To).
The radio in mine 3230 is superb exactly like i am used to with Nokia radio receivers..... it catches way more stations than both my home and my car stereo (both Sony) and the reception is extremely clear even with very close-by stations (92.25, 92.50, 92.75 MHz). It's just not quite loud, but that is the same with mp3, ogg etc...... i think a new firmware will correct that bug, at least i have read about it that the 4.xxxx version will have a much better sound quality. It's just a matter of years for this version to come all the way to Thailand :)
The N70 ( i wrote a little review in another thread titled "N-Series available in Thailand") is a really stunning phone. Runs ultra stable (still not any ONE reset or shutdown in over a week), very fast response to anything, superb picture and video quality, excellent (stereo!) mp3 sound and a known good radio too. My boyfriend's is equipped with a 512 MB DV-RS-MMC (gosh WHAT a name!) andbelieve me, with that phone you NEED a big one.... pictures are huge files, ub to 550 kilobytes too, and videos.... 1.5 Megabytes for 20 seconds..... but they are really quality and almost beat my digital camera (again Sony) with 2.1 Megapixel.
The N70 feels extremely solid, it's a bit heavy but very handy and the build quality looks nvery good - no irregular gaps, no movable parts (the 6260 could be pressed with two fingers, and the gap between the case halves became smaller.....) and even the slider for the camera looks solid.
There are very few minus points for the N70: Quite small keys - someone with big fingers will have trouble SMSing. Most of the available S60 software will NOT run on that phone. And the supplied handsfree, altough good looking and extremely good sound quality, annoys with it's rather inflexible, thick wire.
One thing: I absolutely WANT that "Snake" game from the N70! It's in 3D!!! You got to play it once to understand what i mean.........
Kind regards......
your Thanh
