Customer Reviews

Nokia 1600 Prepaid Phone (Net10) with 300 Minutes Included

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've had this phone since last December and so far it hasn't failed me. I don't know why others are having a hard time when this is the most basic and straightforward phone you'll ever get hold of.

Talk time is ridiculously long (even on loudspeaker). On standby, it's ridiculously long times two. Come on, what cellular phone do you know of that can go for two and a half weeks without charge?

Another nice thing about this phone is that there are filters for both incoming calls and text messages. Filtered calls don't ever bug you, filtered messages go to a screened messages menu. You don't have to open the messages to delete them (receiving a message doesn't deduct from your airtime.. opening it does). If you screened them and you know you don't want them, there's a delete all screened messages option.

The airtime display poses a problem with the phone's time function, though. If it's off, you can see a clock on the lower right of the screen, but you can't see your remaining airtime. If it's on, you can't see the time on the screen. There's a clock screensaver you can set to pop out at a predetermined number of seconds/minutes... but that deactivates as soon as you press any key... and it's not lit. To me it's not much of a problem... my wristwatch keeps me informed of the time.

What some people miss is that this phone can "tell" you the time. When it's unlocked, press and hold the * key and it will tell you that "The time is..."

I'm not afraid of giving this one 5 stars. The purpose why I bought this phone is just so that I could call and send text messages, and vise versa. And it's been living up to its purpose. 10c/min to local numbers, and 5c/text message.... no gimmicks, no BS. I even send international messages and it's still 5c/message sent and received (opened).

I'm not much of a technophile, but when I buy gadgets, I don't buy a single swiss-army knife gadget that has everything and the kitchen sink in it. Phones are phones, cameras are cameras, mp3 players are mp3 players, etc. For (just) a cellular phone (emphasis on phone), this one stands out for me.

It's also durable. Great if you want to give your kid a phone but think that those other "neat" but fragile phones will just be a waste if your kid breaks them. Get them from WalMart for $19.99....

I dont know why people are having trouble with these phones. I have bought 4 until now in different stores. Never had any problems with them EXCEPT that I could'nt use this as an alarm clock. Tried setting alarms on all of these- they all have the same defect- the alarm goes off at any random time! Overall well worth the price. Never had any keypad trouble with any of these. Addressing the reviewer who was looking for the volume control - you need to hit the < or > buttons while in a call. To the person looking for the clock - the clock does show up on the screen - you have to go to the display settings and enable it. To the person claiming that these are not good for bad eyes - the fonts are quite HUGE on these and you cannot reduce them. Why would they be bad for the eyes?

Screen hard to see for 'older' eyes. Be aware that about 2 weeks after activating Net 10 phone I began getting calls from another cell phone provider on a daily basis. When I stopped answering the calls, I began receiving text messages, which automatically deducts from your usage time. Didn't set up voicemail for this reason.

The 1600 is Nokia's entry level phone with few frills over its ancestors. It's the same screen size, menu structure, and candy bar factor that made them famous, though they obviously have other, fancier phones now. Quality, signal and battery has been good. The older set often complains about the small screen and buttons. The alternative is far more complicated user interfaces and more, smaller keys or touchscreen. There really isn't a phone made for old folks. Sorry.

Now, NET10. Some people love them. I did too. They're great if you never have to deal with them. Best analogy I have is a slumlord. You pay your rent on time and they leave you alone. But if you need something from them, forget it. First thing I tried to do was port my old T-Mobile number. That got wedged up. I was never able to get a handset to work with the phone. I asked them, via the customer service Web form, if this phone used standard 2.5mm headsets or if I needed the Nokia one -- I tried three off-brand ones and none worked. The cut and paste reply had absolutely nothing to do with the question. So I thought I'd buy another identical phone and try it. The form on the website to move service from one NET10 phone to another gave an error that did not apply, saying that I entered the phone number wrong. Not only was the phone number correct, but you don't enter it at all -- it has it in the system and it merely shows it to you. Trying to add it as a new phone with a new number, it assigned the same number as the other phone, making both the new and old phone inoperable. Automated diagnostic stuff on the website couldn't fix it. Their overseas operators only have a few scripts and none apply. I've worked customer service for a cell company before and it's not pleasant. I know the turn over rate is high and you usually never get to see the phones you're supposed to be supporting. But my employer at least allowed me to engage in dialogue with the people I talked to, even though I had to read a lot of required script. These guys only get script. Clearly they were told that if they improvised anything, they'd be fired or punished. So they have humans they're using as robots. I have a profound distaste for NET10 for that alone. That's just uncool.

Customer service and the website runs you in circles. NET10's idea of automating common customer service requests via forms on a website to save costs is a brilliant one. Someone should actually implement the idea. NET10 sure didn't manage to.

I've spent four days and countless hours trying to get NET10 to perform one of the most commonly required services -- transfer service from one phone to another -- and have failed miserably.

The Nokia 1600 is a no frills cell phone. It is affordable and dependable with a long battery life, I can go about 2 weeks on a full charge. I live in Thailand and use this phone exclusively to make calls to the U.S. as well as domestic calling in and around Thailand. I have owned this phone for about a year now and have never had a problem with it. All of the functions on my phone work just fine. After reading other reviews it appears that some people might have bought defective phones from Wall Mart, not uncommon for any electronic device. A bad batch is a bad batch.

I personally look for phones for one function and that is to make phone calls! I already own a 10 megapixal camera and an I-pod so I have no need to have these functions on my phone since these needless options are merely marketing gimmics of inferior quality that zap your phones battery life. My wife owns a "state of the art" Motorola razor with every gimmic imaginable and needs to charge her phone every 2-3 days, not because she over uses it, but the internal memory even when not in use consumes a lot of power thus depleting her battery. I have heard of some high quality camera, mp3 phones on the market (if you want to pay an exorbitant amount of money) but to my knowledge these phones are only available in Japan at this time of writing.

It should also be addressed that some consumers who gave this phone a bad review had problems not with the phone but with there service provider (apples and oranges).

If you are looking for a phone for the purpose of making phone calls the Nokia 1600 is not a bad choice.

This is an inexpensive phone, I paid $19.99 for it on sale, and it came with $30 worth of minutes with Net10. Couldn't beat the deal, and I had read fairly good reviews about the call clarity and battery life which were my main concerns, so I bought it. I am not UNhappy with it, but will probably upgrade when I see a good deal on a better phone.

PRO:
- Great reception
- Great call clarity
- GREAT battery life
- Easy to use

CON:
- Keys are small
- Keys are so sensitive I inadvertenly dial a call just by putting the phone in my purse. Must make it a habit to lock keys EVERY time I'm done, which is a pain.
- Ear piece is actually at the top of the phone, so you have to hold it slightly below your ear to hear. Works OK, just a little awkward to get used to.

I do like Net10 service. I am not a heavy phone user, perhaps 30 min/week, I do not want to 'surf' from my phone, or take pics. So the Nokia 1600 with Net10 is perfect and cheap for a basic user like me.

Their customer service leaves something to be desired, but only because it takes time to clearly understand each other and get the issue resolved. They put you on hold to talk to their 'manager', repeat things, etc. But they are courteous and DO get the job done ... just allow a little extra time and only call when you are feeling calm and patient.

I owned this phone for 2 years before finally upgrading. It is the most basic phone I have ever run across. 2 years ago I got it in a pinch because I was so ready to dump AT&T that I grabbed the cheapest phone i could find. I never dreamed I would keep it for 2 years. I guess the main reason I did hold onto it was because I really never had any real issues with it. True, it won't show the time and your remaining minutes on the screen at the same time (one or the other) and the alarm feature stunk (1 of every 2 times I set the alarm it went off at some randomn time waking me up at 2:12 in the morning... don't count on the alarm, it surely doesn't work very well. And all this time I thought it was maybe a malfunction of my phone, but it sounds like other people had the same trouble). Otherwise it's pretty decent. The sound quality is good, the reception is spot on- even 2 floors underground in a parking gararge. It's cheap, and with 300 minutes, it's actually free. So you can't go wrong, IF, you don't want much out of a phone.

This is a great little phone. The deal is that it is only 10 cents a minute, no matter what. If you roam, it's 10c. Texting is half a minute each way, so messages are 5c to send and 5c to read. Much cheaper than even contract phones. Service is great in my area, and there are no defects in the phone itself. It has tons of great ringers built in, and all of them can be used for alarms. The battery is very long lasting. I don't use it that much, so I only have to charge it every 5 or 6 days.

The bottom line is that this is an excellent phone for the money, and is highly recommended.

I bought this phone to replace an old "pay as you go" phone that had broken. This is a decent phone, it does all the necessary functions like calling and text messaging and all that stuff you may need to use. There's a couple of things that annoy me about this phone though. The first thing I noticed was that it doesn't show a clock on the main screen. I'm one of those people that uses their phone as a clock since I don't have a wristwatch. It is possible to set up the screen saver to show the time, however, so it's not too bad. The second thing that really gets to me is that it randomly lights up, even when I don't touch any buttons. If I'm near any speakers when it lights up (within 15 feet) the speakers emit an obnoxious feedback. This is really bad at night, when I'm sleeping and it lights up and my stereo goes nuts.
Otherwise, it's a decent phone, it's a little big but I don't mind that much. There's definitely better phones you could get in the same price range.

I bought this phone for 19.99 on sale at Walmart. Had to return it immediately because many keys (buttons) didn't work right. Exchanged it for one of the same make and model.

It was very carefully put together, charged, activated, and filled with minutes as per instructions. I did nothing wrong, and the charger was plugged into a surge/spike protection strip which was working perfectly. It was carried in a proper case, and protected at all times from static electricity, magnetism, etc.

The first problem I noticed with this new phone was that the 'recieve calls' button didn't work. Neither will any other button work for the purpose of answering a phone call, which means I cannot answer calls to this phone. There is no other way to answer a call on this phone except by pushing the appropriate (working) button. So, I have to wait for a while, and call the person back, because I can't answer the phone.

Then maybe the 2nd day, the other buttons started malfunctioning. You see, there are two numbers to each button on the keypad. Push the top, and you get the top number. Push the bottom, and you get the bottom number (refer to picture). Well, the 7,8, and 9 buttons worked only intermittently, making it extremely difficult to make a call. Then a few days later, they stopped working altogether. This meant that I could usually only call people whose numbers had already been put into the phone.

Summary: Purchased a nokia 1600 (net 10). Keyboard was malfunctioning, so I exchanged it for another of the same make and model. Keyboard malfunctioned on it as well, making the phone worthless.


Don't waste your money. You can get a much better meat and potatoes phone for just 10 bux more. I gave this phone one star, but that is because there isn't a 1/4 star option. Net 10 is a great deal, but the Nokia 1600 should be avoided, unless you're a masochist.