Blue Nokia 105 Sim Free Mobile Phone

If you want basic, tough, reliable and cheap in the same sentence when looking for a mobile phone, it has to be either one of the budget Nokia’s or Samsung’s. If you’re looking for the cheapest but best value for money phone that’s also very easy to use, it would have to be either the Samsung E1200 or E1080i. If you don’t mind spending an extra £5, and in return getting a phone with a few more features, and an even better battery life than the Samsung E1200, then the Nokia 105 is a fairly good choice. As an added bonus, I believe the newer model has dual SIM capability (2 SIM slots / two active phone numbers in one cellphone).

Battery life is excellent. The talk time and standby times really are super long. This is due to the phones low power consumption, combined with an 800mAh battery. A similar setup of low power consumption + an 800mAh battery capacity is also found in many of the cheaper Samsung Phones, and those equally renown for having a super long battery life.

The Nokia 105 has a really good torch feature. With this phone, Nokia have gone back to basics and put the old but very effective LED light back onto the top of the phone. This is just like they used to have on the older, now retro phones. It’s a great method, and much better than the torch feature on some of the Samsung phones in the same price range, which is basically the screen turned totally white. Nowhere near the same level of brightness.

There's a built-in FM radio in the 105, along with a convenient 3.5mm jack for headphones etc (Not included). It also has 8 MB of built-in memory, clock, alarm, loudspeaker, calendar and some games. One of which is the super popular old school game – Snake, that also used to be on the older Nokia phones. The 105 has a hard-wearing keypad and decent (65K) colour screen. It does not have a camera or Bluetooth. But should we really expect it to beings that it costs under twenty pounds.

This phone usually comes SIM free and open to all networks. It should work fine with most, if not all of the major UK phone Networks. It can even work with a 3G SIM card but won’t be able to use certain, more advanced features like the Internet etc. Basic Calling and texting should work fine.

Overall this is an excellent, no frills phone that does the basics really well. If you’re looking for a low-priced mobile phone to have as a back up / second phone, or you’re not into smartphones and want something simple and easy to use, this phone is a good option.

The one big 105 negative to be aware of

However, where this phone falls flat on its face lies with its SAR Level. The SAR Level of the Nokia 105 is a massive 1.48 W/kg. That is high considering that this is a basic phone with not many features. 1.48 W/kg is, in some cases over double the SAR Level of a lot of the budget Samsung phones. For a few, such as with the GT E2600, it’s closer to triple.

For this reason I would probably go for a Samsung instead to be honest. Either the E1080i, E1200 or E2600 slide phone. Reviews for all phones mentioned here are great. Take your pick, any one of them will serve you well. I just prefer a lower SAR level, and frankly you should too.