Among Nokia’s new C’ series devices is the affordable C3; it is a Symbian based smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard and superb messaging facilities. Nokia have supplied C3 users with social network support and online capabilities with various web connections, the C3 has a digital camera for all the happy snappers out there and a FM radio tuner so you can listen to your favourite shows. The 2.4inch QVGA display is bright and the phone comes in Grey, Pink and White.
The phone is very comfortable to handle and its slim line design makes it very pocketable, Nokia have delighted fans with its low price tag and great functionality, the QWERTY keyboard is well sides for users with actual fingers rather than pixie digits and despite the small size of the screen it does a very nice job of displaying images and web pages. The finish of the bodywork is very smooth and shiny; the phone feels well built and performs at a higher grade than anticipated.
Nokia have pre-installed a 2 mega pixel digital camera; it won’t blow your mind with amazing visuals and interface leaves a lot to be desired, but though the cost of the handset is apparent in this field it still delivers with a video recorder and plenty of tools for you to try and perfect the photo settings. The C3 has been calibrated to play mp3’s and other audio files via the built-in music player; the sound quality is surprisingly good and a 3.5mm jack enables you to plug in your own personal set of headphones, the C3 is also equipped with Bluetooth for wireless device communication.
Unfortunately the C3 lacks 3G, but with Wi Fi and support from EGDE/GPRS you can rely on the C3 to provide pretty good web connectivity. The Opera Browser operates pretty well on the phone; the pan and zoom controls are easy to use and though you are missing an accelerometer the browser experience isn’t hampered too much. The C3 comes complete with superb messaging assistance from e-mail providers like Nokia’s free Ovi Mail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail, IM messengers like WindowsLive, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger and another Nokia service called Ovi Chat, the phone still comes with your basic MMS and SMS support and the QWERTY keyboard makes formulating a message a very hasty and simple experience.
Your home screen can be fully customized to feature live feeds from Facebook and Twitter and you can also have dedicated widgets for your calendar and music player, you can setup direct shortcuts for your e-mail accounts and internet services. The social network integration is pretty good on this device allowing for full account management, this includes status updates, sharing links and editing your profile.
Nokia’s C3 is packed full of features supporting for both messaging and online activities, Nokia have delivered a low cost smartphone experience with advanced messaging capabilities; e-mail and social networking being the main features which highlight this fact have been supported by high speed Wi Fi technology. Buy a Nokia C3 if your after a messaging based smartphone experience on a budget.