Nokia 3200 is a very small step forward for the No. 1 phone maker at the time of its release. It was then, in 2004, that Nokia began to lose a significant percentage of its market share.
Regarding the 3200, the phone had a huge range of features at the time (loudspeaker, flashlight, EDGE high-speed data, WAP, JAVA, voice recording) but still had the style of the line with a Series 40 user interface. The manufacturer did not change the design devices for a long time. Relatively small, the phone fit well in the hand and was light enough to carry in shirt pockets. However, many reviews said that it is not very comfortable in form.
What did he look like?
As you can see from the photo, the Nokia 3200 had an unremarkable design. The front and back bezels are actually clear plastic covers with color patterns,inside.
Keyboard Features
Description of the Nokia 3200 most often refers to the original keyboard. The keys are another area that Nokia has tried to highlight. 3200 had only 9 buttons. Compared to a conventional keyboard of 15-17 keys. This reduction is achieved by the fact that each key performs a dual function. So, the first key on the left is the number 1 if you press it from above, and 4 if you press it from below. As soon as the device went on sale, many users were unhappy with it. However, later this feature was called convenient.
The manufacturer made the keys larger in size, since there are fewer of them, and after a little getting used to pressing them was no more difficult than the usual ones. The keyboard was backlit with a bright white light. Speaking of light, Nokia at the time was notable for installing two bright white LEDs on the bottom of the phone, serving as a flashlight. There was no special key to activate it - you had to press 7 and hold it for 2 seconds. If it was required to turn it off, such pressing was repeated again.
IR port
The phone had an infrared port, but it didn't have the usual little red windows for it. Users had to rotate the device several times to determine that the infrared port was on top. The back panel of the device had a small hole for the camera. Pop-port interface and charging port were on the bottom of the phone.
Screen technology
Technical characteristics of the Nokia 3200 in terms of the screen are as follows. Being a mid-range phone, the display is typical for a Series 40 device. Its resolution is 128x128 pixels with 4096 colors. In comparison, most Samsung phones of that time had 65,000 colors, and some had 262,000. In addition, the screen worked using STN LCD technology, which is considered inferior to the TFT used in most high-end phones manufactured in the first half of 2000. -s.
STN (Super Twisted Nematic) displays have always been cheaper to produce than TFTs, but they are passive matrix. This means that each pixel has to be updated many times per second, which reduces response time, brightness, and contrast. This was especially frustrating for gamers. The GUI was outdated, but Nokia intended to market this phone to young people.
Messages
Messaging was the first option available after pressing the menu button. From this point it was possible to create, send, view already sent SMS (text). The 3200 came with four smart dictionaries for text entry. English, Spanish, French and Portuguese could be used through this service. Like all Nokia phones, the 3200 used T9's predictive text input software. 10 text templates were also available for quick sending.
In 2004, the standard function of mostcordless phones has become MMS, or multimedia messaging. Unlike regular SMS, MMS can send not only text, but also pictures, sounds and videos. Nokia's MMS implementation was very easy to use. The user only had to select a recipient (this could be a phone number or an email address), insert text, image or sound recordings, view them, and then send.
IM, or instant messaging, was also available on the Nokia 3200. Specifications and reviews indicated that ICQ or AIM could be connected using this service. Their functionality was limited to sending only text messages, but being able to stay in touch all the time was very useful.
Call logs
This is another menu item, second on the list. All phone numbers called by the user, which came to the device or remained unanswered, were recorded here. In addition, GPRS data meters were also in this menu.
Contacts/Phone book
Because the telephone was mainly used for calls at the time, the convenience of using the phone book was of decisive importance to many. According to reviews, the Nokia 3200 ranked first in ease of use and intuition. Browsing through phone book functions didn't make you think about how to perform this or that action.
It was intuitively clear what to do. Find Contact - A basic search feature that allowed you to quickly filter your phonebook entries by entering the first one or more letters of the name of the contact youwanted to find. Because the 3200 had a camera, the phone book also had a Picture ID feature that showed a small photo of the person when calling or browsing the phone book.
The only thing that some found a bit confusing was the way to enter new contacts. Therefore, the instructions for the Nokia 3200 were sometimes passed from hand to hand. First it was required to enter a name, then a phone number, after which the new entry was saved in the phone book. During the initial recording, it was never required to indicate what the phone number was (mobile, home, fax), nor to enter additional information such as email address, postal address, note. So it pretty much required you to save the new contact and then find it again, execute the Edit command, and then make additions.
In addition, the phonebook had support for the following:
- multiple numbers per name (general, mobile, home, work, fax);
- additional data such as email address, web address, postal address or note;
- the ability to set one number as the primary one, so when the user chose a name, they could just tap on it and the phone knew which number to dial (if there was more than one);
- Contacts' callers could be organized into different groups such as friends, family, VIP, business, etc., and then set to different ringtones assigned to each group.
Settings menugave the user one-stop access to all settings such as profiles, ringer, display, time and date, softkeys, communication, security, etc.
Gallery
The only place to organize and access all your media is the Gallery. The phone came with several folders:
- "Graphics" - for preloaded pictures.
- "Melodies", which stored ring tones.
- "Pictures" - all photos that the user has taken or downloaded.
- "Records".
In the Nokia 3200, the user was not limited to factory folders. You could create your own, then delete, rename them, or pretty much manage them.
Multimedia
As mentioned above, the 3200 had a built-in camera with CIF (288x352) resolution. As you would expect from most cameras with this resolution, it could not replace any standalone digital camera.
Images created with it were devoid of color saturation, contrast, and were very blurry. Its characteristics in the Nokia 3200 were limited to standard and portrait photos, night mode (longer exposure for low light) and self-portrait (a timer was set, after which a photo was taken). There was no video recording. In practice, the camera worked as one would expect from this class of device.
Radio
In 2004, this functionality was considered new. In spite ofthe fact that the radio only worked when a headset was connected (because the phone used the cord as an antenna) was appreciated by many users as a nice bonus. It was possible to listen to programs through a headset or activate the loudspeaker. With a stereo headset, the 3200 also supported a stereo output. The sound produced when listening through it was very clear and high quality. The speaker also worked well.
The radio supported FM signals and up to 20 favorite stations could be stored. There was also a setting to automatically find stations.
Voice recorder
Nokia 3200 supported voice recording or the ability to record short voice notes (up to 1 minute each) or phone conversations. This feature worked flawlessly and received very positive feedback from users.
Calculator, alarm clock and calendar
Alarm clock, calendar and calculator helped the user in the daily organization of time. Users expected Nokia to update their Alarm app in the 3200 because it only supported one ringtone. However, this did not happen.
The calendar app allowed you to enter scheduled appointments, phone calls, birthdays, or memos for a specific day. Alarms could also be set to turn off at the exact time of the reminder, or 5-10-15-30 or a random number of minutes before. This feature worked very well if the user installed a PC application from Nokia that allowed them to sync their PC and phone.
Built-in calculator supported basic functions such as addition, subtraction, square root. The exchange rate was also part of it.
Applications
Nokia 3200 came with J2ME (Java for mobile phones). Three games were preinstalled with the ability to download and install additional software. Approximately 737 KB were available for the app, of which 164 were already used by the three pre-installed games. Virtual me is a Tamagotchi-like game where you have to use the keys to control your Tamagotchi and keep him happy.
Services
Nokia models, like most phones of the mid-2000s, supported basic web browsing - WAP. The sites viewed were special, so the user could not type any address on the Web and go to it.
Most of the most frequently used tasks could be quickly accessed from the Go menu. It had a submenu from which the user could choose what to run.
Communication
Overview of the Nokia 3200 would be incomplete without mentioning connectivity. It supported infrared (at the top of the phone), high speed GPRS and EDGE data. GPRS was able to provide speeds around 40-45 kbps, while EDGE should exceed 100 kbps.
