Nokia 3110 Evolve review

At least Nokia is making some effort at environmental sustainability with its 3110 Evolve. Nokia's already got more eco-friendly cred points than most high-tech technology manufacturers, with Greenpeace ranking it among the best in its regular Guide to Greener Electronics for its reduction in the use of toxic chemicals.

Now Nokia has released the 3110 Evolve, the most environmentally-friendly mobile you can currently buy. Its green credentials include the use of bio-covers, made from 50 per cent renewable material, an energy-efficient charger that cuts out when the phone's fully charged, and compact packaging made from 60 per cent recycled materials.

Clearly, it's not a 100 per cent eco-friendly phone, but it's a start, as Nokia acknowledges.

Anyone thinking of going greener with this phone should be aware that the 3110 Evolve is not one of Nokia's most advanced handset, although it has more than a hair-shirt set of features and functionality. The 3110 Evolve is similarly specced to Nokia's earlier 3110 classic model.

The 3110 Evolve is a standard tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE model rather than a 3G device. It does have a camera, but it's a basic entry-level 1.3-megapixel shooter. The display too is rather basic - a 1.8-inch, 128 x 160 pixels, 262,000-colour screen that's lacking in the detail department and is one of the most disappointing elements (it's not an eco-issue either - the 3110 classic has the same screen).

On the plus side, there's a decent multi-format music player built in, supported by MicroSD card expansion, and it comes with a stereo headset. An FM radio included too. The 3110 Evolve also supports video streaming, as well as record and playback for video.

A Nokia XHTML browser is part of the spec, but Nokia has also loaded up the 3110 Evolve with a handful of interesting web-based applications that are becoming standard on its mid- and lower-tier mobiles based on Nokia's regular Series 40 operating system. These include the excellent Opera Mini browser, the Yahoo! Go widgets-style info, news and updates app, and Nokia's own WidSets widgets software.

Design and handling
Nokia's designers haven't come up with a radical new look for the 3110 Evolve. In fact, the phone is quite plain and worthily functional. The glossy black numberpad has nice, fat keys that are clearly labeled for easy pressing, with a similarly straightforward control D-pad arrangement.

Around the sides and back panel, the casing is made from unpainted bio-sourced organic materials. Its drab grey look may not be exactly eye-catching, but the fact that it cuts down on fossil fuels used in the manufacturing process may impress your more green-thinking friends. The feel is a bit textured but in reality you'd be hard pressed to tell it apart from normal plastic. A small green icon on the back of the phone is the only obvious visual clue to its key selling point.

The phone is light enough, at 87g, and has an average 108.5(h) x 45.7(w) x 15.6(d)mm frame. Around the sides, there's an infrared window (for old school connections), plus a covered miniUSB socket next to a separate 2.5mm headphone socket (an easy-to-source adapter will be need if you want to plug in standard 3.5mm jack headphones).

The charger socket is normal Nokia, even though the charger is slightly different to the norm - it's a new AC-8 high efficiency charger that minimises 'no-load' energy consumption. Put simply, unlike most chargers it doesn't waste energy if you forget to unplug it from the socket once the phone's charged and unplugged.

While this may seem a tiny amount of power-saving, Nokia estimates that globally, if all Nokia phone users unplugged their chargers when no longer needed, it would save the equivalent amount of energy needed to power 100,000 average-size European homes.

Features on display
The lower quality screen doesn't present the Nokia Series 40 interface in the same slick way as models higher up the Nokia range. You do get Nokia's Active Standby display option, presenting info updates onscreen plus icon-marked shortcuts to selected features (pre-loaded or your choice). The screen looks cluttered with this on, but you can have it on or off, with just a green and pleasant theme in the background if you wish.

It's definitely worth having a play with the music player - provided you have a MicroSD card inside to expand the tiny 9MB of internal user memory (it slots in behind the battery pack). You can use cards up to 2GB, although you should check whether your phone will come with a card - it's not part of the standard in-box package. There's no mini USB cable supplied either, complicating the transfer of tracks from a PC. You can use use Bluetooth or copy tracks via a card reader.

Tune playback through the supplied headphones is good enough to listen to regularly. The player serves up a decent quality audio performance that's perfectly acceptable for music on the go. The player interface is intuitive too, with a run down of typical MP3 player categories (artists, albums, genres, composers and track lists) under which songs are arranged. You can have the player playing in the background too while you play with other phone features, and there's an average quality loudspeaker for sharing your musical tastes.

The FM radio's another welcome addition to the musical mix. Again, it's straightforward to use, and listenable through the speaker.

Imaging quality
The limited quality of images from the 1.3-megapixel (1280x1024 pixels) camera on the 3110 Evolve means users keen on getting high quality snaps with their cameraphone should look elsewhere. Most phone's with the 3110 Evolve's level of features typically come with at least 2-megapixel shooters

The camera here is a point-and-shoot snapper that does an efficient job within its limitations. There's no flash or autofocus capability. You do thought get a full screen viewfinder and a standard set of Nokia Series 40 camera setting adjustment options and effect plus an 8x digital zoom. There are also in-phone editing tools.

Colour quality is pretty good, and shots look reasonable for a 1.3-megapixel camera in decent light, but detail is limited if you, and image capture processing is slow. There's no flash, so low-light shooting is poor with dark and grainy results.

There is a video capture option, but this too is limited to basic 176x144 pixels quality and delivers poor results if you watch it anywhere other than the phone screen.

The 3110 Evolve's web browsing experience isn't great either with the standard Nokia browser, running on GPRS or EDGE data speeds and formatted on a low resolution display. Mobile internet fromatted pages come across OK though. The Opera Mini browser offers a decent alternative for viewing full web pages rendered for the small screen, while the WidSets and Yahoo! Go apps offer regular updates, information, news, emails and mapping from the web without having to negotiate the browser.

Nokia has included the usual spread of office tools and functionality, including an email client, plus a couple of games to keep you entertained. You can sync up the phone via Bluetooth (or infrared), or invest in a miniUSB cable to make it quicker and easier.

Battery life
It's all well and good saving power wastage through the charger, but you'd also hope the 3110 Evolve would be energy-efficient in day-to-day use. Nokia claims the battery pack here can provide up to 4 hours of talktime or up to 370 hours of standby, which is the same as the 3110 classic, and a decent running time.

Call quality was perfectly acceptable too, with no strange noises or problems of any sort, and good quality audio presentation.

We expect that the 3110 Evolve is the first of many mobiles from Nokia (and other manufacturers) to put more emphasis on using sustainable materials and eco-friendly production methods. Of course, recycling phones when you're upgrading is another issue where mobile buyers themselves can make an immediate environmental contribution.

The Nokia 3110 Evolve is a small step forward rather than the real totally-green deal. As such, though, it will attract those looking for a more eco-friendly phone. It's a reasonably well equipped device which will provide some users with all they need from a mobile. The camera is a let-down, though, and the low resolution display impacts on the look and feel of the phone's menus and functions. The lack of a USB cable and memory card in the box is another disappointment.

There is a decent music player and radio inside here, and a smattering of welcome additional applications that mean you won't suffer disproportionately for choosing the greener option. More feature-hungry eco-mindful mobile users will have to hold on until Nokia greens up its higher range handsets though...

Nokia 3110 Evolve technical specifications.