HUAWEI MatePad 12 X (2026) Review
When Nokia announced that they will release a new qwerty phone early this year, I said meh. A full qwerty phone with an old OS (Symbian 40), no 3G and a 2MP camera, what could go right? My view changed when Nokia announced the price. See our full review of the Nokia C3 after the jump.
Hardware & Design
The first thing you’ll notice when you hold a Nokia C3 is how solid it feels. It’s somewhat heavy but not that too heavy for its size. It’s very sleek and very comfy to hold.
The keyboard is superb. You get enough tactile feedback when you type on it, which I really miss from using a touchscreen phone for several years. I can easily hit 40-45 words per minute. Navigation is what you expect from a Symbian 40 series — utilitarian and straight forward. Navigational keypad can be set as shortcut keys and a maximum of 8 shortcut keys you can configure.
The screen is pretty bright and clear. The resolution of the screen is simply perfect for it size (2.4 inches @ 320×240 pixels).
The phone is as thin as most BlackBerrys. The phone doesn’t feel cheap at all. I’d even say that C3 looks more expensive than the Nokia E63. The phone has WiFi and Bluetooth for connectivity but the lack of 3G is something to consider about (only does GPRS/EDGE).
Features and Multimedia
This phone is packed with lots of new features that are comparable to a more high-end phone like Blackberrys and even the other Nokia smartphones.
The phone comes with a new feature called Communities that will allow you to add your Facebook and Twitter accounts which run in your home screen. The Twitter app is pretty simple — you can post a tweet, retweet, reply and send DMs but that’s about it. It’s really basic.
On the other hand, the Facebook app is pretty robust for a feature phone. You can do almost everything you can do on Facebook mobile. You can post, send messages, check events, see notifications and upload pictures taken from the phone’s camera. You can even consider this as a Facebook phone.
Another feature that I really find compelling for this uber cheap phone is the built-in Chat app. You can connect to YM, Google Talk, MSN Messenger and its own OVI messenger. Â It’s not a full-fledge IM app but it works. You can also set up your personal email too.
The phone has a 2MP camera. It takes decent to mediocre pictures and awful video. It’s there if you need one but it is not something you’ll print and put in an album. The phone can also play videos and music. The speaker is loud and clear, and you can even use your phone as a mobile player.
The Nokia C3 uses Opera Mini as a default browser. You can view websites in mobile view or standard view. The browser is more than decent.
And finally, a threaded SMS on a Symbian 40 phone! This is a must have feature on any phone. Nokia phones never had that feature. One great thing Nokia did to this version is that you still have the option of reading your SMS in the regular Inbox/Sent items view and in threaded “conversation†view.
Battery Life and Performance
Battery life of this thing is amazing. A full charge can last for 5 days of normal usage (yep, 5 days!). The phone is pretty snappy when you navigate the UI. I didn’t encounter any lags or bugs.
When making calls, the line is okay — not bad but not great either. I haven’t dropped a single call unless I’m in a dead spot. When on loudspeaker mode, the phone volume is great and even usable for a conference call.
Nokia C3 may not be a smartphone but all the features listed above can run in the background. Its basically a limited smartphone and it does it effortlessly.
Nokia C3 specs:
2.4″ QVGA display @ 320×240 pixels
WiFi 802.11b/g
GPRS/EDGE
2MP fixed-focus camera
QVGA video recording @ 15fps
Series 40 UI, 6th edition
FM Radio with RDS
Bluetooth 2.0 w/ A2DP
microSD card slot (8GB supported, 2GB included)
Conclusion
After using this phone for several weeks, I simply fell in love with this phone. Not because it’s the best phone around but I’m amazed with all the things it can do for its price. With WiFi on, you now have a mini computer that can do Facebook, surf the net, post tweets, chat on IM and send emails.
Now selling between Php6,000 to Php6,500, this is one of the best featurephone you can get at that price point. With great built and excellent battery life, this is the smartest dumbphone around. With all these features, who needs a smartphone?
Editor’s Note: Dale is a reviews & special assignments contributor for YugaTech. The review had some minor revisions from me. You can follow him on Twitter @dalekins. – Yuga
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Chris Portana says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
So, is it safe to say that this is Nokia’s answer to Blackberry Curve 8520? The feature is somewhat the same, but I am not really familiar with the other features of the 8520 but most of the main features are somewhat the same as the C3. No 3G, 2MP camera etc….
kim says:
🥉 Rookie🏆1
great review. gotta have one soon. :)
Calvin says:
🥈 Silver🏆1
@kim, or if you can wait, there’s the c3-01.
http://www.pinoytechblog.com/archives/nokia-c3-01-better-than-the-nokia-c3
3G, 5mp camera and touch screen (keypad too).
Carlo says:
🥇 Gold🏆1
Why did I not wait for this phone? :(
sweet says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Nice review. Got this phone and I am loving it. :)
Jake says:
🥉 Bronze🏆1
Great review! Got this phone during the July 31 sale where Nokia slashed P1000 on its regular price..! All i can say is, this is worth a grab! Great phone at a reasonable price….im enjoying this phone over and over again..
tantra2gadget says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Im using this m0bileph0ne while br0wsing and posting c0mments here in Yugatech via m0dded opera mini 4.2 by handler free of charge
“yes n0 data charge by using myglobe tricks,hehehe”
its a great m0bileph0ne by its price range
Eason says:
🥉 Bronze🏆1
I like the line
” With great built and excellent battery life, this is the smartest dumbphone around.”
Well its pretty nice, and I agree that it doesn’t feel cheap…hmmm is it worth it or should I go for Galaxy 5? Its because I want a touch screen experience >.<
gwhiz says:
🥉 Bronze🏆1
is Nokia gonna release the Green, Blue and Brown colors of this phone anytime soon? the people at Nokia stores don’t even have a clue that there are other colors of this phone.
dale says:
🥉 Bronze🏆1
@ Eason: You’ll have a great touchscreen phone experience if the touchscreen phone have a great OS. Most of the cheap touchscreen phones you can buy have clunky user-interface. But if you have a budget, just get the entry level android phones but that will cost you 10-15k. :)
dale says:
🥉 Bronze🏆1
@ gwhiz: I don’t know about the other colors bu when they announced it early this year, they only showcased 3 colors. sorry. :(
lawreas says:
🥈 Silver🏆1
I’ve heard my touchscreen counterpart(s) ito? there are upcoming touch enabled s40 phones, and qwerty hybrids as well.. hmm.. sounds interesting so far.
Epstein says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
I got mine for 5,900 from Globe but it is not locked :D Great Phone!
Look at this link. There is a yellow color at the background.
http://europe.nokia.com/services-and-apps/messaging/personal-email
Jonai says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
@calvin KAILAN KAYA ILABAS ANG Nokia C3-01? I have read your blog and it looks like Nokia C3-01 is better than Nokia C3.
Jamby says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
That’s why i lined up on its release date..although i wasn’t able to get any memory card…
also,..there’s a Firmware update already…
kim says:
🥉 Rookie🏆1
@calvin, sorry if late reply. no. i wouldn’t buy that crap. design is too eww. nokia x3 t&t is better.
tony says:
🥉 Rookie🏆1
It’s a Palm Treo Pro 5 years too late.
Salleh says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
I bought a C3 too. Excellent ang browsing speed and am really satisfied. Worth the money.
mr.bogusmobile says:
🥉 Bronze🏆1
not bad.. Sinabayan nila yung mga local brand with this. Like cherry,myphone and torque.. Pababaan ng price
julian says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
nice review….sir yuga, any news of the release date of nokia e5?
julian says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
nice review… for the price you cant go wrong with this phone… sir yuga, any news of the release date ng nokia e5? tagal lumabas sa market
Err says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Hindi naman po symbian yung s40 eh.
Anne says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Great review, Dale! I’m thinking of getting one tuloy :)) btw, does anyone know if you could connect a special software to the C3 so you could already view office documents? Word, PPT, PDF?
rye says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
my friend got that fone for about 1 month now. he got it at sm cubao… prices ranges from 7500 and he bought his fone for 6600 only. not bad for a qwerty fone but the 2gb card is missing even on the 7500 priced unit. i dont know why but he bought a separated one at cd-r king for 320.
sweetscrazy says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
pros – it’s the cheapest branded wifi phone. it’s lighter and smaller than the e63. looks like blackberry.
cons – sound is not so good. slower than e63. no pdf reader (i have to convert pdf to text or html pa).
veromeo says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Cp ng bro at dad ko.
for a price of 6k may wifi and qwerty kana. I really like this phone although its not a smartphone
Home made 3G booster says:
💠 Supremacy🏆1
So far ok naman yung Phone pero yung display nya capable lang ng 262K colors unlike others na 16M colors ang kaya ng display also I don’t like yung camera because I dosn’t have flash so cannot use during night time. Nokia C3
dale says:
🥉 Bronze🏆1
@ Anne: Unfortunately, this is not a smartphone. So there are no productivity apps like ms office
document readers. You’ll be needing an E series Nokia phone. :)
sky says:
💎 Platinum🏆1
S40 stands for Series 40, not Symbian 40. This is not a Symbian smartphone…
Cybernaught says:
🥉 Rookie🏆1
Just got my C3 two days ago and I’m impressed. It seems to have a lot of features for such a “cheapo” phone and while I was considering the LG555 touch-screen phone, I think I’ll find this better for my needs and at a lower price. the qwerty keypad is a plus. And, it’s a Nokia.
Thumbs up from me so far.
Steve.
Kris says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
@Epstein
prepaid or postpaid?
naka-promo?
i can’t see it in their website
:(
Alren says:
🥉 Rookie🏆1
Wow…C3 does not look cheap despite the price.
If only I can replace my phone, I bet I would choose this phone…
kat says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
is this a touchscreen phone?
Ivan says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
I got this phone and so far, it is good.
But it seems like I find bugs as I progress into knowing this phone.
First, I am so annoyed with the message notification that says that it has finished sending the message to a contact. For you see, I love sending GMs. And I have at least 20 contacts listed on a Group List. So each time I send a message to a specific group, I also get 20 notifications that says “Your Message has been sent to …..”. If find it so annoying knowing the fact that the notification could notify me after it has finished sending to all instead.
Do anyone of you here knows how to stop that? Is there any setting that I can change to stop my problem?
Second, I find that there are times wherein my prepaid load diminishes by P5 after using the internet via WiFi. How can I stop my phone from changing the internet connection from WiFi to GPRS? Please, I beg you. I already lost P50. I wasn’t able to notice at first that my phone is slowly eating my load out.
And finally, I CAN’T WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEOS via the Opera Mini Browser. I can surf all the other sites perfectly well. Facebook, WikiPedia, Google, etc. But why oh why couldn’t I play videos from YouTube? All I get is a black background with the small picture of the globe with a blue arrow in it and after a few seconds of waiting it just says “No Response. Try Again” and I also get a different notice that I don’t remember. What happened? Is there any specific setting that I can use to fix this?
I need help! I want to watch The Annoying Orange on my phone!
Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll shed a light on my problem/s. =)
-Ivan Z.
Cybernaught says:
🥉 Rookie🏆1
Ivan,
Next time you use WIFI, check the display to see if the “G” symol is active. There have been problems with WIFI with this phone. Sometimes even though you connect through WIFI it will access the web with GPRS. A big problem in the UK for Verizon users. If that is happening to you, your service provider is charging you.
Steve.
Cybernaught says:
🥉 Rookie🏆1
Kat,
No touch screen.
Anyone having WiFi probs similar to Ivan look here:
http://discussions.nokiausa.com/t5/Cseries/nokia-c3-wlan/td-p/711188/page/2
Check the post by “Charlie222” about the middle of page #2.
It worked for me.
Steve.
Cybernaught says:
🥉 Rookie🏆1
My error in the previous post. Sorry!
The URL for Nokia Support Discussion is:
http://discussions.nokiausa.com/t5/Cseries/nokia-c3-wlan/td-p/711188/page/2
Charlie222’s “fix” is about 3/4 the way down the page.
Here is the text from it.
**************************
“Hello,
You can try this, it may work.
If you go to Menu – Settings – Configuration – Personal Settings – My Web
And follow the steps, you do not need to fill in any details, just activate it.
Then go to Menu – Internet – Web Settings – Configuration Settings, then select configuration and change to Personal configuaration. Then the ‘account’ should say my web.
From now the phone will always ask first, as long as you have selected ask first in the connectivity WLAN options and when packet data is set to when needed.
Thank you
Charlie Bruinvels”
***********************
I tested this method at a friend’s house, today, who has WiFi on his Globe 3G modem with WiFi. I am in Bohol, Philippines, using Globe prepaid with their SuperSurf220 promo access. My opera Mini doesn’t work on WiFi or GPRS but everything else I tried seems to. I used his WiFi to set up my email and FaceBook while there.
I will update if I find out anything else.
I’d just like to add: “Thank You Charlie!”
Steve.
zy says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
just got my c3 2 days ago… i dunno how to set up chat (ym) nybody help please?
Geraldine marie m. gonzaga says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Hi! I just got this phone recently and I love it. It’s very user-friendly.
I just have one problem with it though. I can’t connect to the Facebook and Twitter app in “Communities”. I can connect to it through opera but i can’t connect to it using COMMUNITIES. It asks for my password then it says “logging in” then suddenly it says “communication error”. I have a good wifi connection.
Can you please help me with this? It would really be appreciated.
Big thanks! :)
Gladiar says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Hello, nice blog.
I have one simple question about the nokia C3: does the gtalk application allow you only to chat or to make voice calls as well when you are on wifi? Thnx for answering in advance.
babe says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
i like c3……………
Jr says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Geraldine marie m. gonzaga replied on Sep 26th, 2010 at 10:20 pm (39)
Hi! I just got this phone recently and I love it. It’s very user-friendly.
I just have one problem with it though. I can’t connect to the Facebook and Twitter app in “Communitiesâ€. I can connect to it through opera but i can’t connect to it using COMMUNITIES. It asks for my password then it says “logging in†then suddenly it says “communication errorâ€. I have a good wifi connection.
Can you please help me with this? It would really be appreciated.
Big thanks!
———————–
Anyone who knows the answer? please. :D
Ivan says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Ask ko lang..
Yung sa bagong update version ng Software na 4.45 ba e naayos na ang WiFi problem?
guesswho says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Which is better?
Samsung S3653 Corby Wifi or Nokia C3?
I am a high school student and I would love to have a CHEAP wifi phone. So…Which do you guys think is better? Thanks in advance. :)
wenz609 says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
nice phone, but their might be a problem in wifi connection. also the APN.
Chino Davis says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
got this fone aweek ago… so far, there is no problem with it…
Cybernaught says:
🥉 Rookie🏆1
Just got back from Tagbilaran where I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours at one of the local WiFi spots surfing the net. Opera worked fine as did the other apps I tried. So far this low budget social networking cell is doing a good job and it’s well worth the money once you get the settings right. I particularly enjoyed watching You-tube video without having to wait for the server to catch up with the viewer. GPRS works fine when you are in range of a cell tower, which is almost all the time, but it has the obvious speed limitations. WiFi (WLAN) removes those limitations and it’s free. If you live close to a hot spot you can’t go too far wrong with this cheap phone.
If you still have probs with WiFi then see my comments in post #37.
Steve.
Charlotte Tabing says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
Hi, I just got my phone Nokia C3 2 days ago, and I can’t use the wifi. It always says ” Service not Available” Please help me fix this problem. Thank you very much.
czar25 says:
🌱 Noobs🏆1
this will be my phone tomorrow!
Cybernaught says:
🥉 Rookie🏆1
Charlotte,
Read post #37 above. I cross posted a fix from Charlie222 that he posted in the Nokia Forum.
It got my WiFi working for me and reportedly for others too. I researched this for over a week and it’s the only thing I have found that works at all.
This WiFi difficulty has been a problem for the C3 since it came out. Nokia Customer Service seems to be ignoring it. It also seems that just upgrading the phone software doesn’t help with this issue.
Good Luck.
Steve.