Nokia Nokia 101 Dual SIM Music Phone (Unlocked) - Phantom Black

Just opened the box and loaded it up with 2 sims. So far the reception isn't very good. I live in an area that has weak to no service anyway but compared to all my other phones that show 1-2 bars and this dual sim phone doesn't show any bars no matter where I stand indicates not very good antenna. The real test will come when I am in an area with good service.From what I can tell both sims work at the same time so the phone should be able to receive calls on either sim without me having to enable one over the other like a lot of dual sim phones require.I will update as I get more experience.update:: the above review was before i was in an area that i could be sure the phone was getting reception at all. it turns out the phone was faulty and didn't ever get reception on either SIM. i never successfully sent or received a call on either SIM. i returned the phone right away.

I think this phone not tobe use in United states ! I hope I can use this in Asia since until now I trying my best but theres no signal at all!

NOT UNLOCKED

Not so good

It is definitely not a Smartphone. But you wouldn't expect one of those for this money, would you?PROSInexpensiveBoth SIMs active at the same time - no physical swapping requiredGreat for making calls and textingDecent battery lifeAccepts micro SD cards up to 16GbSimple interfaceNice keyboardFM radio & MP3 music playerTorchFits perfectly into the leather case for my old SE T68iVery 'modern' feel and appearance to itSmaller than it looks; unobtrusiveCONSRadio & MP3 volume level, while fine for me, may not be loud enough for someSupplied headphones with changer button not terribly good; better cans give superior performance and volume levelsCall sound quality not the best, but adequate for meBluetooth would make this phone almost perfect (for adults only)No data connection (but hardly a big deal since stuff can be loaded via a PC onto a micro SD card)This would be a good phone for children because it's not dear, cannot access the Internet and has no Bluetooth. For adults just wanting a straightforward phone for making calls and sending texts it would also be ideal - especially given the dual SIM facility which allows, say, a personal and business SIM to reside in the same device and be on standby simultaneously, thereby banishing the need to carry two phones about with you at the same time. If you need a further recommendation, let me tell you that when my friend tried my Nokia 101 he went straight on to Amazon and ordered two - one for himself and one for his wife. So I think that you will be delighted with this phone. In my opinion it is excellent value for money.Incidentally, Nokia 101 will work fine with only one SIM installed. I guess the `two SIM' feature is aimed at business people and/or those who must differentiate between `friends' and `acquaintances'.

I love this phone. It's small, light and holds battery charge for ages, and it has dual sim capacity, which provides the option of asking you every time which sim you want to call/text from, or you can set whichever sim you want as an automatic default. Great if you have both personal and work mobile numbers (even with different providers). VERY strong little phone. Drops that would have smashed a smartphone, rendering an expensive repair/replace this can handle with no problem. The built in torch is a useful addition however I do miss not having a camera for those odd emergencies, although this has now been superseded by the Nokia 108 which includes a camera.CONS: The sound quality is a bit quiet, in part because (cost cutting) the handsfree rear speaker is the same speaker as the front earpiece speaker. Using it on handsfree mode just turns the volume up rather than a separate rear speaker on. I've noticed that when using the phone, turning it around and putting the back of the phone to your ear, you can hear speech much more clearly and it's louder too, so that's the way to go with it !! (it also avoids sound leakage from the rear). It's not ideal but a good solution and you can always turn the handsfree on which boosts the sound volume further, so problem solved.

I have used this phone for just over a month and bought this dual sim phone to take it on holiday so I could still receive calls or texts from UK, but also take advantage of cheap local calls by using a local sim for the duration of the holiday. I was really impressed how easy it was to choose through which sim I wanted my call to go. It was easy to set up everything when I first got the phone. There is a slot for music memory card, but I haven't used this facility. This phone is really good value, and is well suited for the purpose I bought it for. I would recommend this phone as a cheap option for being in touch when abroad and also when you need an other number for what ever reason.

This dual sim phone is very cheap for a reason. When in use it emits a high pitch whistle, exactly the same noise as microphone feedback makes the only difference being that this is going straight in your ear hole! As if that wasn't bad enough, the person on the other end of the line hears it too. Go rip up your money and flush it down the loo, either way you are wasting it.

To put this review in context: I bought this phone for work. I work an as an on-call engineer and have to respond to SMS alerts during the day, every day and over night on shift rotation. I enjoy music and am always to be found listening on my headphones. I don't like carrying multiple phones about. On paper this is the perfect phone. Sadly, it's not, quite.Pros:* Cost: cheap as chips* Dual Sim: works well can send sms and make calls from both my personal and work number from one phone. Phone can be set to ask you which SIM you wish to use for each call or text. Very useful.* Micro SD card: You can get a lot of music on a 16GB (max capacity) card.* Size and weight: It's small and light. Will sit in one of those 'old fashioned' mobile belt holsters without problems.* Sockets: Standard small pin nokia charger. 3.5mm standard headphone jack for headphones or for headset.* Radio: Sounds good. Auto tuning etc.* Music: High capacity due to 16GB micro SD. Drag and drop onto card, no special / bloated software needed.* Torch: Surprisingly handy. Fairly bright.* Signal: Seems to have good reception with both SIMs from different providers.* Battery: On MP3 / radio use, you'll get a couple of days out of a charge with some serious amounts of listening. You'll get a much longer with casual listening and well over a week with no charge with the phone being on standby / making a few short calls or sending texts. Ideal for my job.Cons:* Music: The music player is fairly basic. You're browsing by album (folder). Menu is a little fiddly. Play pause, forward and backward buttons done via the 4 way menu button and the keypad. Sound quality, sadly, the sound isn't always great. Obviously the quality of the bundled earphones is fairly poor, however, with a decent set of earphones, certain music will sound scratchy. It sounds like the music is being over amplified at some pre-amp stage and the effect you can get on loud music sounds like digital clipping which makes the music have a scratchy edge to it. This is only noticable on 'loud' music, i.e. music that's dynamically compressed so spends most of its time at the very top of the dB range. Loud guitar music is worst. Electronica which isn't just a block of noise will sound fine. Older CDs that are not just a wall of noise, will sound fine. It's enough to be irritating as this phone is sold as a music phone and I have used it to replace a previous MP3 player. When the sound is good, it's good. Decent bass etc on good headphones.* Headset / handsfree : The earphones supplied sound poor. The wiring of the headset is bespoke to Nokia phones. You will not ba able to use an iphone / android headset (earphones with mic) with this phone. Not only will the mic not work but the sound won't be delivered properly. In order to use this phone as I required (i.e. good quality sound through headphones and have the handsfree so I could accept a call when listening to music) was to smash the earphones, take the wires out and solder them to a 3.5mm socket so I could use the mic of the headset with some decent headphones. No big deal. Not ideal though. Would be better if the headset was a 3.5mm to mic and 3.5mm socket like on some of the other phones. Phone doesn't have bluetooth so this is far more important.* Bugs: This is the show stopper for me. I want to listen to music and radio. I need to hear the alerts I receive via SMS. The idea is you'll hear the SMS alerts in your earphones over the music. If you are listening to the radio and an SMS comes in, the phone will silence the radio, play the SMS tone, loudly, through the headset AND vibrate. If you're listening to MP3s the phone will make a very short and fairly quiet bleep over the music which a lot of the time might not be noticed. There is no way to change this, you're stuck with it. Fair enough. A bit annoying... however, there is some kind of bug which causes SOME SMS messages from our monitoring system to not alert at all. The phone is on general (which will ring and alert for SMS). I get an alert SMS from my work and a lot of the time it the phone will not beep or vibrate as it should, just silently display a 'new message' screen. I can then send a text message to the phone, same SIM / number and it will vibrate and beep properly again. I have missed loads of beeps in the space of a couple of weeks due to the phone being effectively in silent mode for a certain amount of the messages which came though. This isn't just when listening to the radio or MP3 music but when the phone is just sat there, not on silent, on the table. This is simply unacceptable and for me renders the whole phone completely useless for work.I wasn't expecting all the bells and whistles for this price, however, the random nature of the SMS alert completely makes this phone unsuitable for my use. I've had people phoning me up in the night to see why I haven't responded to SMS alerts which have been received but no notification made. Yet, subsequent alerts have beeped without problems. We've had the same system here for years and there has never been a problem on any other phone I have used.Please keep this in mind when purchasing this phone.