Basic Mobile Phone With The Best Camera

Is there a basic, non-Smartphone with an excellent quality camera? There are a few old models that I know of, like the Sony Cybershot's. Those used to be able to take pretty good quality pictures back in the day.

But by today's standards they are not really all that great. I don't own a Smartphone. At the moment I'm using a Samsung B2100 (I also have a Samsung E2600). Great phone, just what I need in many ways. Very tough, long battery life, and an excellent torch light. Sadly the camera is only 1.3 mega pixels, so its pretty much useless for taking pin sharp photos.

For this reason, and being someone that is always taking photos of something or other, I carry a camera with me at most times. The size of the camera has gotten smaller over the years, and at this time I'm currently carrying a Canon IXUS 127HS, which is very small.

However, it would be nice to be able to buy a non-Smartphone that was capable of taking the same level of image quality that my point and shoot Canon can take. This way I only need to carry one item around. Making it more convenient. The annoying thing is I don't know of a suitable older mobile phone that has a really good camera.

One suggestion was the Nokia 808 PureView. It has, I believe, a 41 mega pixel camera. Pixel amount isn't everything, but looking at the sample pictures and test video footage online, it appears to be very good. In fact, it''s excellent considering how old the technology is when compared to the iPhone in the video above.

The only problems are that it is very expensive, as in, more expensive to buy than an older but high quality Bridge camera or entry level DSLR (used), and the Nokia 808 PureView isn't exactly a non-Smartphone.

It's basically an earlier model Smartphone that still has many of the features seen in the latest models today. So for me it doesn't really qualify for what I'm looking for, and I wouldn't consider buying it. Shame really. Any suggestions of a non-Smartphone with an excellent camera? Let me know below.

Samsung GT E2600 Won't Turn On Fix

There are a lot of reasons why a phone won't turn on. I'm not going to list them all, but I am going to talk about why my Samsung GT E2600 wouldn't turn on (totally dead), and how I managed to fix it.

Symptoms of the problem

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and there was a strange image on the screen. A picture of a flip phone with an arrow over the top pointing at the phone. I haven't got an image to show you, but if you have seen this on your phone, and now have the problem I had where your phone won't turn on, you will know exactly what the error image looks like.

This wasn't the first time I'd had this error image. I'd had it a few times in the past. However, on previous occasions I just instantly turned the phone off by taking the battery out (no buttons will work when the phone is in this error mode) and putting it back in and powering it back up. That fixed the issue.

But with the most recent time I got this error screen, I never turned the phone off as soon as I found it. I just put it down with the error still on the screen and forgot about it. When I went back to the phone it was off. Trying to turn it back on was useless, nothing worked. Completely dead.

It's Dead - How To Fix

First let me make it clear: There may be several methods the cure this problem, and some of what I did, such as taking the battery and SIM card out might not be required to get the phone back to life again. Try it several different ways if you want. But, this is what I did and now the phone is fully working again.

Take out the battery, SIM Card and memory card. Press and hold the power on button for 1 - 2 minutes to clear any remaining power in the phones circuitry. Put the battery back in and put the phone on charge. Now press and hold both the power on button and up on the square navigation pad (which is for turning up the volume while in a call) at the same time for 5 seconds.

After doing this the phone should come back to life. If it doesn't work for you try doing the same procedure but holding both buttons together for 10 seconds. That should do the trick. If your E2600 is suffering from the same illness this is worth a go. It fixed mine. Good luck.

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.

Samsung GT E2600 SIM Free Phone Review

After owning and messing around with the Samsung GT E2600 Slide Phone for well over 4 years, I thought I should give you the review low down on this phone. The E2600 is a bit like a Bridge Camera in some ways. In terms of features and price, It’s not as featureless as a cheap basic phone with just the basic features, such as the Samsung E1200 or E1080i. And then it’s not an App rich, full of features Smartphone either.

This phone somewhat bridges the gap between the cheapest Samsung’s that can just call and text, and the do-it-all S6’s, Note 9's and iPhone X's. And for that reason I love it. This phone is for people who want a relatively basic, easy to use slide phone that looks good, has more features than the budget phones, and even has a few of the cool little extra’s you find in Smartphones that so many people in this technological age have become accustomed to.

The Samsung GT E2600 is a very small and stylish non Smartphone. It has a built-in Radio, MP3 / MP4 player, 2MP Camera (With video capability), and takes MicroSD cards up to 16GB. The MicroSD card maximum limit states “Up to 16GB” on the box of the phone. But a lot of end user online reviews have stated that the E2600 can support up to 32GB. Either way, 16GB – 32GB is a lot of storage space. 2GB has been more than enough for me so far.

Other features include a good selection of ring tones, 1000 number contact list, voice recorder, organiser, alarms, dictionary, loudspeaker, timer, stopwatch, games (Which can be downloaded to the phone), Backup Manager, Bluetooth, Instant Messaging, SNS (Facebook, Twitter access), MMS (Multimedia Messaging), and even has a fake call option. Takes a normal (Standard) size SIM.

You can access the Internet with the E2600, but it would be through your phone network provider (costing big money in most cases), as the Samsung GT E2600 does not have WiFi. Resolution for the 2.4 inch QVGA TFT Screen is good at 256K.

Other cool and useful features: The E2600 has a convenient 3.5mm headphone jack, making it really easy to listen to music while on the go with whatever headphones you have at your disposal. It also uses a mini-USB port for charging the phone which doubles up for transferring data on and off the phone.

The call block list (Add to reject list) is present on this model, which stores a maximum of 10 numbers. With all the spam calls these days, it would have been nice if this capacity was larger. Ten just isn't enough.

Battery life is really good. It’s almost up there with the super impressive E1200 and E1080i. But, due to the E2600’s higher power output, it doesn’t have the staying power that those two have. Still very impressive. The battery lasts a long time, but when the battery is almost fully drained, and there's no bars remaining on the battery indicator (the battery level indicator box is flashing), it dies out pretty fast. Whereas the E1200 and E1080i, with their very low power outputs, can hang on in there for a long time.

Obviously, the E2600 is a slide phone, but unless you need to use the number pad to make a call, the phone can be used without the user having to pull the slider up. The phone can be set to make calls (if you don’t need to type in the number), receive calls, and do many other things like listen to music via the MP3 player or radio with the slider being down. The Samsung GT E2600 has excellent reviews, and an almost just as impressive SAR Level at just 0.53 W/kg.

It’s available SIM free from eBay in various conditions (used, refurbished), and also for sale on other online outlets, including Amazon. With the phone being Quad Band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) it should work in many locations abroad, so makes a good phone for taking on holiday. It’s also unlocked, so will work with most, if not all UK phone networks. Including Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, GiffGaff [O2], EE etc.

One criticism that you won’t see in many reviews online, but one that I think is relevant enough to be mentioned by me as an owner of this phone for 4+ years, is the camera quality. Most people online say it’s got a really good camera and takes great pictures considering its only got a meagre 2 mega pixels. But I have found the camera pretty poor in most settings. Unless the lighting is perfect. the pictures are blurred and have no sharpness to them.

Did I buy an E2600 that had a fault with the camera? Well, I bought the phone brand new, and I seriously doubt it. But I suppose anythings possible. This is just something you should be aware of if your buying this phone on the count of the customer reviews crediting the camera as being really good. In my experience that just wasn’t / isn’t the case.

However, don’t let that put you off. Overall this is an excellent little phone that has been totally reliable for me and served me well with over 4 years of everyday use, and it's still going strong. It can take some damage. I’ve dropped it more times than I care to think about but it still works perfectly. It does everything I need it to and hasn’t ever let me down. I have no plan to upgrade, so that says it all really.

A great, basic non-smartphone but with some excellent features. My favourite feature is using a 3.5mm to 3.5mm headphone lead to connect the phone to my car stereo so that I can listen to the music I have stored on the GT E2600's memory card in the car. Good phone for a reasonable price. Brand new they are selling for £50 – £60. Used but in good condition they are selling for around £25 on eBay. The E2600 has been out for a number of years now but they are still very popular.

I had opened two Amazon pages on my browser that were selling this phone in order to check the price that the E2600 is selling for in 2018 because I bought mine a good few years ago.  After a few hours I returned to those two pages that I’d forgotten about and refreshed, and they are now both showing as sold out. These were two separate sellers that weren’t showing any indication of having low stock. Get one while you can. I’m keeping mine.