Tom Purl’s Web Site

My Nokia 6101 just died after 2.5 years of faithful, inexpensive service, so I was in the market for a new phone in a hurry. When I originally bought this phone, I hoped that Google would have revolutionized the cell phone industry in America, making smart phone service more flexible and inexpensive. Well, the changes that I want still haven’t materialized yet, so I went looking for a new phone that was as similar as possible to my old trusty Nokia.

Another requirement that I had was that I wanted the phone to work with the T-Mobile pre-paid service. I’m actually a really big fan of T-Mobile’s price and network coverage

The closest thing I could find was the Nokia 2760. On occasion, it would be available on th T-Mobile web site, but it couldn’t be found when my phone died. I therefore checked the Walgreens and Radio Shack stores in my town until I found one at “The Shack” (as the employees seem to be forced to call it). It was $40 plus tax, which means that I won’t lose any sleep if my daughter tries to flush it down the toilet.

To “activate” the phone, I simply took the SIM card out of my old phone and placed it in the new one. 20 seconds later, I was able to receive calls using my mobile number. I didn’t have to contact T-Mobile even once, and my old “plan” seems to work with the new phone very well.

The biggest questions that I had when I bought this phone were “what was missing from my old phone” and “what did I need to buy”. Here’s the results:

Missing

• This phone doesn’t have any buttons on the outside like my old one did. I really liked having a volume and F-you button on the outside of the phone. The 2760 forces you to open the button to silence an incoming call, and I have yet to figure out how to adjust call volume without 5 button clicks.
• I can’t record video on this phone like I could with the old phone. This isn’t really a bad thing, however, since the old phone’s videos were just god-awful.
• Apparently, Nokia phones no longer come with a ringtone that sounds like a phone ringing. And I guess noticing that makes me some type of old fogie who can’t figure out why stores no longer carry Lawrence Welk LP’s. I tried to buy one from T-Mobile’s ringtone shop, but I couldn’t find one.
• The 2760 doesn’t have a little antenna nub sticking out of the top.

Different & New

• Bluetooth! I know I am the last person in America to buy a bluetooth-enabled phone, but I’m really enjoying it so far. On my 6101, I actually purchased the compatible serial cable from Nokia, which was around $50 if I remember correctly. I hate that I have to basically throw away that investment, but I am loving how easy it is to use bluetooth. Also, I purchased this bluetooth adapter from Newegg for $15, and it works very well on both XP and Ubuntu 9.04.
• The software interface has changed a little bit, but it’s nothing too revolutionary. If you’re used to your old phone’s interface, then this one should be very intuitive.
• I can now add MP3 ringtones from my MP3 collection. Sweet! Now I just need to find an MP3 of a phone ringing
• I can log into Gmail with this phone, which I couldn’t do on my old phone for some reason. That’s nice, but the interface and network speed are nothing to write home about.
• The battery model changed. My old phone’s battery model was BL-4C, and my new phone’s battery model is BL-4B. I don’t yet know if the two models are interchangeable, but I doubt they are.

What Hasn’t Changed

• The wall AC adapter looks like it’s identical. Based on that, it doesn’t look like I need to buy another car charger.
• The photo quality appears to be identical.
• The phone still has a ridiculously small amount of storage. I think the official amount is 11 MB. Oh well, I already have a digital camera and an MP3 player, so I guess I don’t need a phone that does all of that too.

Conclusion

If you like little Nokia flip phones, then this one seems to be as good as its predecessors. I’m pretty happy with it so far, and it’s hard to beat the price.