Low-end phone; better is available for the money
Pros:
Cheap, small, long battery life.
Cons:
Absolutely no frills. No volume buttons. Hard to read.
The Bottom Line:
A good phone for children who won't mind the tiny keys and lack of features. Or an emergency car phone.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
The N2160 is a budget GSM phone sold in prepay clamshell packs and as a free giveaway from the carrier. It is very much entry-level; no Bluetooth, no camera, and it only does the US GSM bands (850 and 1900MHz) so you can't roam internationally with it.
I bought this phone to have in the car at all times as an emergency phone in case I don't happen to have my real cellphone with me.
There are a few color schemes available for this phone; silvery as shown in the product picture, and a newer color with dark gray body and black keyboard and LCD bezel. There is also a model that's all-black. The "skin" components (front cover, keypad and battery door) are user-removable. The edges and rear of the phone have a very slightly rubbery non-slip feel; in the Newton era, this used to be called "protein paint" if you know what that is.
The keys are very tiny; I have medium-sized adult hands, and the ball of my my thumb entirely covers two rows (eight whole keys!). The labeling is obviously also very small, and this wouldn't be a good choice for a sight-impaired person. There are no side-mounted volume buttons; you need to poke around on the front of the phone if you want to change audio levels.
There is a data connector on the bottom of the phone, but its functionality is severely limited; the phone lacks the hardware to be used as a data modem, and Nokia's own software cannot upload ringtones or applets to the phone. Officially, therefore, the only function of that connector is to permit firmware upgrades. Unofficially, third-party software (Oxygen Phone Manager) can be used to put ringtones and apps on the phone.
When not in use, and sitting in a good signal area (7 out of 7 bars according to the phone's display), the standby time is roughly 10 days.
The phone has a web browser (operating over GPRS); it's very slow and at least in my area of NY has constant difficulty connecting. This could be the carrier (T-Mobile) or the phone. Once you do get the data connection working, you can download games from your carrier - they work as advertised, though the small screen makes it less than ideal for gaming.
Audio quality is fine, perfectly acceptable, both on the internal mic/spkr and with a wired headset.
Warning: standard DCT4 unlocker algorithms will not work with this phone so you won't be able to unlock it using the usual free web resources.
