Nokia 1661 Prepaid Phone, Black (T-Mobile)

by Nokia

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.8 x 1.9 x 0.9 inches ; 4.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0027CSIYE
• Item model number: 1661
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,121 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)
  • #75 in Cell Phones & Accessories > Prepaid Phones

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Stay in touch with all your contacts and keep your busy life organized with the Nokia 1661, and pay the way you want with prepaid and postpaid calling plans from T-Mobile Pay As You Go. A great choice for those looking for a simplified cell phone for on-the-go communications, the Nokia 1661 offers essential mobile phone functionality. It also features an FM radio (headset required), speakerphone for handsfree communication, calendar, phone book with storage for 500 contacts, and over 4 hours of talk time.

A no-frills communicator, the Nokia 1661 is a great mobile voice and text messaging companion.

Phone Features

The candybar-style Nokia 1661 has a color LCD screen with a 128 x 160-pixel resolution and 65K color depth. It has a standard alpha-numeric keypad, five-way navigator, send/end keys, and two soft keys for navigating the interface. The phone has an internal 4 MB memory, which isn't expandable. The internal phonebook can store up to 500 contact entries, with multiple numbers per entry and support for caller groups. Additionally, the phone displays the most recent 20 dialed/received/missed calls.

If you need text messaging capabilities, the 1661 has you covered as support is built-in for sending and receiving SMS and MMS messages. T9 predictive text entry, a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built-into the unit--a plus for text messaging users.

• Organizer tools: calendar with month view (up to 10 entries), clock, converter stopwatch
• Integrated speakerphone
• 2.5mm headset jack
• Ringtones: Polyphonic (32 channels), MP3
• SMS storage: up to 250 messages on phone
• Dedicated speaking clock key
• Vibrating alert

Vital Statistics
The Nokia 1661 weighs 2.9 ounces and measures 4.25 x 1.8 x 0.53 inches. Its 860 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4.2 hours of talk time, and up to 480 hours (20 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS frequencies.

T-Mobile Pay As You Go Prepaid Service

T-Mobile prepaid plans give you wireless access with less commitment, so you can pay--and talk--as you go. With no annual contract, no credit check, and no monthly bill, prepaid plans are a simple, direct way to go mobile. There are many ways to conveniently refill your T-Mobile Prepaid Plan so that you can stay continually connected with the people who matter most, including using web2go directly from your phone, via the T-Mobile Web site, or using refill cards available at over 90,000 locations nationwide.

With Pay As You Go, you get wireless service exactly how you like it--there's no long-term contract, no credit checks, and no surprises. Add $100 in refills with Pay As You Go and you'll become a Gold Rewards customer, which gets you 15 percent more minutes on all refills and your minutes won't expire for a year after the time you refill.

See T-Mobile's coverage map.

You can also pay only $1.00 per day for unlimited nights and unlimited nationwide calling to any T-Mobile number. All other domestic calls you make are just 10¢ per minute.

T-Mobile includes the following services with this T-Mobile Pay As You Go phone:

• Nationwide long distance (including calls to Alaska and Hawaii)
• National roaming on the T-Mobile USA network
• t-zones (browsing for HiFi Ringers, MegaTones, wallpapers, and more; not available on all devices)
• Voice-mail, caller ID, call waiting, three-way calling
• Free e-mail address ([e-mail])

Additional services available for additional fees:

• Text messaging ($0.10 to send, $0.5 to receive)
• Picture messaging ($0.25 to send or receive)
• Download ringtones and wallpaper (prices vary)
• Download games and applications (prices vary)
• 411 & More directory assistance ($1.79 per call plus airtime)
• International dialing to over 150 countries (international rates apply)
• Prepaid international roaming rates

To keep your mobile number active, refill within 90 days after your minutes expire. After 90 days, your account will be canceled and you will lose your phone number. If you want to restart service after that time, you will need to activate new service.

Product Description

NOT IN ORIGINAL BOX!!! Shipment includes: Nokia 1661 Phone Battery & Charger Prepaid T-Mobile SIM with Activation Card User Manual Hands-free Headset

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great screen, slim, bad buttons, June 25, 2009

By 

Rom (Seattle) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nokia 1661 Prepaid Phone, Black (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

For $20, this is a bargain replacement phone. I put in my existing T-mobile SIM and it worked perfectly.

Pros:
-Bright colorful screen
-Slim
-Flashlight
-FM radio that works


Cons:
-People report they cannot hear me well.
-The keys are slippery, noisy, and hard to press. If you do a lot of texting, you may want a better keypad.
-FM radio require Nokia plug

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great back up phone for all TMo account types, ultra compact, light, good battery life. Buy it for a song and a dance!, April 27, 2010

By 

Joy of cooking (Bay Area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nokia 1661 Prepaid Phone, Black (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Purchased April,2010 for less than $15 at a national U.S.A. pharmacy chain as a pre-paid TMO kit. Intended as gift for a relative. Without activating phone, I slipped in my T-mob sim from my standard T-mob account and phone booted up fine w/o ever activating the pre-paid sim. As others have mentioned, this phone has issues, but imho this is an excellent value for back-up or when you need to travel light. Don't hesitate to buy it for temporary use if your regular T-mob phone dies. Gives you time to shop around for a permanent replacement.

Basics:
For use on GSM systems and only on GSM 850 and GSM 1900 MHz networks. Sold as a T-Mob pre-paid but will work right out of the box on all T-Mob plans w/o the need to un-lock. Key chain with eyelet. Supports up to five separate phone books for multiple users. Has three ports: charge, headphone and ??mini-usb?? The latter is not described in the owners manual. Manual says to rest the device from time to time by powering down then removing the battery to optimize performance. "go to" soft key just below the screen quickly brings you to an easily customizable list of actions such as setting the alarm, calendar, flashlight, contacts, silent mode. User can move the most desired functions to the top of the list.

Pros:
* Lowest cost for a replacement GSM phone
* Clock and Timers: count down timer, stop watch, displayed correct time right out of the box, speaks the time,auto update of date and time, alarm clock, in-call timer, call summary timer. Repeating alarm mode.

* Ease of use: customizable "go-to" key for fast acess to features and settings, multiple pre-configured profiles and a configurable "my profile" all easy to quickly toggle. Easy, intuitive menus good for the technically challenged. Fixed dialing mode if you need to give to a child or loan to a helper.

* Fast access for toggling to commonly used modes. Pres the red end call key and the profiles menu pops up. Here you can power down, or toggle to silent, normal, "discreet, loud, lights only, my profile. Also, raised "go to" key just below screen on right can be easily programmed to quickly pull up any number of customize-able phone or call settings, alarms, timers, calendar, ect.

* 500 name directory (4MB internal)

* Screen with large text. Default is set to blue background with white letters on red highlighted bars. Good for aging eyes. While keypad is locked can still display a large digital clock with date by pressing red end call key. Date and time display for several seconds then times out to screen off.

* Charging and battery: Per owners manual: "Do not leave a fully charged battery connected to charger as overcharging will result"
"Ideal temp range is 59F to 77F, battery life is reduced outside of optimal temp range"
Have not had this long, but based on previous Japanese made Nokia batteries, should be better than most. Shipped with Chinese made Nokia 860 mAh, 3.7v, BL-4C Li-ion battery. Included charger, Nokia A-3: electronic auto-switching, world voltage type rated output: DC 5.0 volts, 350 mA. will charge most modern Nokia phones with the small round tube port. The Nokia BL-5B battery from my old 3220 fits in the phone although it is a bit shorter and requires a homemade spacer at the top to press the battery down on the phone contacts.

* Simm card very easy in/out with just your finger.

* Call history displays missed caller and logs each attempt to reach you

CONS:
- What the others have said. Lacks volume control on the side. Control keys not ideal, signal strength may be an issue although the few calls made so far were fine. Call quality was clear, would like it louder.

- A major issue is with ring volume, perhaps a deal killer for many, is that the ring volume is m-u-c-h to low even set on loud and with highest ring volume selected.

- Clumsy rocker key for selecting functions, but can get by with programming the upper right soft key to access most settings. You will still need to rock the center key to scroll your list, but this works better than rocking side to side in the main menu.

- Message deletion: Is there a faster way to delete? Not sure, but so far had to open every message individually to clear them. Quite time consuming

Conclusion: If you favorite TMo phone or it's battery/charger goes south, then you will be glad to have the Nokia 1661 as an emergency back-up. Heck, for the price you can use it as a calendar or kitchen timer, clock, alarm with a deactivated simm card inserted. Phone made in Brazil, charger and battery, China. Slim pocket size carries easily. Signal strength and reception in fringe reception areas reported by some. Have not had it long enough to verify that.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No complaints, August 28, 2009

By 

jimmyfergus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nokia 1661 Prepaid Phone, Black (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Very nice basic phone. I think they've deliberately gone with a cheap-and-cheerful look on the side and back plastic to avoid looking too good next to more expensive phones. Shame, as the front is very clean and stylish.

For me it replaced the Nokia 1608 - the previous cheapo candy-bar phone from T-Mobile prepaid. This is a major step up and addresses everything I didn't like about that phone. Very good high resolution screen showing plenty of text, keys which are much nicer to use (not perfect), it looks better and it's very slim and unobtrusive in a pocket. It has a ringtone which isn't an annoying tune, which is a major step up!

The keys could be easier to use - I wouldn't want to try to use them by feel in a pocket, though they work much better than they look like they would. They also click a bit loudly, so any kids wanting to text unnoticed in the pocket in class will not like this phone.

Shame the radio doesn't work out of the speakerphone speaker.

In case anyone misses it, ear volume is left-right on the 4-way, during a call.

If it dies when overcharged I'll be back to change my review, but I assume the other reviewer was just unlucky.

Edit: I did see some wierdness when it refused to take a charge. I popped the battery out and in and all is well again. We'll see.