Nokia 3120 Classic vs Sony Ericsson W302

What’s in a name?
Tag the word budget on to the name of a handset and any smiles of anticipation and excitement expressed a moment before tend to turn quickly into a disinterested smile.
Budget handsets are basic, boring and very unsexy, right? Not so. Not when you do it right. And with two thoroughbreds in Nokia and Sony Ericsson, from the off we had high expectations that the 3120 Classic and W302 would be budget phones with a twist.

Thankfully, we were right.

With all the bells and whistles you get on mobiles these days, handsets lower down the phone food chain often don’t get much of a look-in. Nokia and Sony, with their Nseries and Walkman lineups respectively are just as guilty of giving more love to the higher end devices than the more frugal ones, but that doesn’t mean they’re still scrimping when it comes to features.

When faced with the 3120 Classic, out reviewer was reminded of Nokia’s expertise in churning out so-called “every man handsets”. Or every woman for that matter. Resisting the urge to break into song with Whitney Houston’s tune of the same name, the Finnish giant’s heritage in this space is a rich one.

The look
At just 85g, the 3120 is pretty light on its feet, although not quite as light as the W302 which is a good few grams lighter at 78g. Dimension-wise it’s a close call with 45.4x13.4x111.3mm and 46x10.5x100mm (WDH) for the 3120 Classic and W302 respectively.

When it comes to looks both phones are distinctive. With the 3120, Nokia appears far from keen to break up its love affair with plastic. But it’s no size zero with a fairly spacious keypad (great for textaholics) booty with its round, tapered bottom. The W302, has a slightly classier edge thanks to an aluminum fronting to partner its plastic casing. The keypad may be small, but it’s also perfectly formed and we found it a pleasure to use, despite its wee stature.

Neither have a high level of wow factor, but they’re fairly pleasant to look at and quite stylish in their own right, given their associated price tags.

Both handsets are big on user friendliness. If you’ve use any handset from either maker before, you’ll find navigating your way around the menus a complete doddle thanks to Nokia’s user of S40 and Sony Ericsson’s own proprietary operating system. Customisation is also on the menu for the 3120 Classic.

Camera wars
In the camera stakes, the W302 wins by less than a mile, but still quite a fair distance. The 3120’s 2MP camera is pretty basic with no real redeeming features that make you want to use in very much at all. In fact, our reviewer founds it was only really fit for MMS, blogging and wallpapering.

The W302’s camera is also a slightly pathetic 2MP, but it’s still a nifty tool, with 2.5 x digital zoom, a timer, 1600x1200 resolution and the ability to easily and quickly upload snaps to the array of social networking and blogging sites out there.

The Walkman lineup is famed for its music prowess and, despite the budget moniker, the W302 doesn’t let the side down. Adding tracks is easy, TrackID is on board and, while the headphones aren’t the best out there they do the job very well, serving up a fine platter of audio for the senses to feast on.

Given such stiff competition, the 3120 Classic was pretty much beaten before it started, but it still puts in a valiant effort in the music front with a good built-in music player and FM radio. Our reviewer did lament the lack of bundled headphones with the handset, however.

The 3120 Classic boasts 384Kbps 3G, while the quad band W302 doesn’t which is interesting considering the W302 has had the upper hand in most other respects, including battery life which way outperforms Nokia’s handset.

Verdict
Both handsets have very similar features set and storage capabilities, but Sony Ericsson’s W302 steals a slight edge on Nokia’s 3120 Classic by being more light weight, having much superior battery life and a bumper set of camera goodies. As a result, the W302 wins out.

See all the 'Versus' articles on our Head-to-Head home page