
A brilliant phone to fit my car
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
Want to benefit from a modern cell-phone with many up-to-date features? I bought a used Nokia 6230i on eBay, to do just that.
For the paranoid, my old year-2000 Motorola triband cell-phone may be good for avoiding government surveillance, not having the "benefit" of the modern microchip which instantly tells where it is when asked, it can only be tracked to a single cell instead of to a few metres.
However, it was hard to read with its dull small screen and my fading eyesight, difficult to text with no predictive assistance, unintuitive with its menus, and far too bulky even to attach to my jogging shorts, I have to carry it with me. Did I mention, that it is desperately UGLY, too? Oh, and that it just went "brrr, brrr" when called, the best of its sad choice of ringtones, with no personal option?
My SIM contract is "Pay as you Went", no monthly fee whatever, and they bill me in arrears only for calls actually made, which is not many - my average monthly bill is trivial unless I go overseas and text furiously! I needed a phone which could be unlocked if it was on the "wrong" network.
So you can guess what I liked about this Nokia 6230i replacement! Small, cute, easy-to-read bright screen, easy texting, obvious menus with picture assistance. it works well here and abroad, triband for USA as well as Europe of course. There is a nice bit of Beethoven to alert me to callers, or any downloaded ring-tone I care for. Being Nokia, of course you can unlock it easily. Just a code number to enter, easily found free on the web. Of course it also has a camera, a memory for digital files, connection to the web via GPRS -
- and : Bluetooth.
Why did I choose the Nokia 6230i? Herein lies a story: I had bought a car with Bluetooth!
Like many cars these days, my December 2004 vehicle came fitted with Bluetooth to allow instant wirefree connection to a cellphone inside the saloon, with a switch or two already fitted with which to operate it. The Nokia 6230i is clearly one of the mainstream phones that BMW (and I think Mercedes and other car-makers too) have provisioned-for, they obviously can't do cradles for every phone ever built. They provide an electronic cradle for the 6230i to easily slip into and be directly connected, both to my car's charging electricity and the car's external phone antenna.
Get in the car, slip the phone in its cradle, click it down, drive off. That's all there is to it, the phone is fully functional immediately. Actually, it is fully functional the moment it is inside the saloon, even in your pocket still without being in its cradle, as the bluetooth connection is wirefree - just that you are stuck with the phone's aerial inside the metal car, which is not as good as the external antenna, and the battery doesn't charge.
Get to the carpark, one push-to-release button lifts the phone from its cradle, battery fully charged, and it even slips inside my jogging shorts being so light and small.
I bought the used phone on eBay, there are several Nokia 6230i phones - and others - for sale at any one time.
I bought the BMW cradle on eBay too, the makers charge £60 for a new one, my new one cost £15 on eBay
So: a nice cell-phone with loads of modern features, fits my car - I'm a very satisfied Nokia 6230i user. If necessary, I'll remember the only disadvantage of modern cell-phones, and I'll turn it off to avoid surveillance of my exact location by the government!
Review ID: 10000000004744289

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