Nokia 800 Tough 2.4 Inch 4G UK SIM-Free Feature Phone with Google Assistant (Single-SIM) - Black

Pros of Item: - Good call quality - Lightweight design - Affordable price - Easy to use - SD card slot - FM radio functionality - Decent battery life - Nostalgic texting experience Cons of Item: - Limited app functionality - SIM card issues - No physical volume buttons - Poor camera quality - Limited internet browser - False advertising on features - Only one SIM card slot Good to Know: - Limited App Compatibility - Single SIM Only - Low Camera Quality - Small Storage Capacity Notable Features: - WiFi Hotspot - Google Assistant - 4G Connectivity - Social Apps - Durable

I really wanted to like this phone. Kaios is the name of the operating system, it should be spelt Chaos. I wanted a simple strong phone that can Tether but still run Google maps and Whatsapp. This seemed to fit the bill but it is a bad buy. To toggle the tethering it takes 15 button presses through the setting menus with no way to hotkey it and the menu's are awful and slow. To view a photo it takes 10 minutes of thinking to try to show you a thumb nail of every photo on your SD card with no folders, just sorts all of them by name or date??? The google maps does not navigate! it will show you text like 'Turn Right on to the M1' but no voice and when you make the turn you have to press the Next button to get the next junction command up on the poor quality screen, why bother if it can not be use when driving. Photos or videos do not work in the Whatsapp only text Not even smiley's :'( I did not want to use it for Browsing the net but I should say it is impossible to use, it lags so badly it does not function. The hard ware looks and feels good but Nokia you would have done better with this if you'd kept your green screen Series 20 OS If you only what to make phone calls and maybe text occasionally this is the phone for you. But are you ready to give up the smart in your smartphone? As of Feb 2021 the phone has now died 1 year after purchase. Not a mark on it never been dropped or wet. It just died overnight and now will not turn on.

I've owned this phone for a year now so have had plenty of time to gather some thoughts on it. Aside from a terrible HTC smartphone ten years ago, I have stuck to owning 'feature' phones. I have mostly used Sony Ericsson C510s bought second hand on eBay as they have always worked well on car bluetooth and have a decent media player and sound quality. However, the lack of any internet and the short life of the buttons made me think I should upgrade. I didn't want a smartphone as they are often fragile and don't work in extreme environments. This meant that the Nokia 800 Tough looked to be a good proposition with its basic internet function and the bonus of a stripped-down Whatsapp. However, it feels like Nokia haven't really put much into the development of this phone. I know it caters for a niche market but I expected it all to be an upgrade from my trusty C510. However, in many respects, the C510 (a very old phone) outdoes the 800 Tough. Battery life on the 800 Tough is excellent. With average use, it lasts for at least two days if not longer. Call quality is good aside from a volume issue early on which seems to have been resolved. It is obviously a tough phone (which may be why it is so large) and is apparently fully waterproof although I haven't tested this. It also works in low temperatures which is great. The internet function is very useful but difficult to use (it was never going to be great on a feature phone). The torch is good and bright although it does flicker whilst the screen is on. Screen brightness is good. It also has a micro SD expansion slot. However, the positives end there. The first small annoyance is the Nokia startup jingle. It is overly loud and can't be turned off. The text message function looks and feels like it is directly copied from the first ever mobile phone. It is very hard to use and several things such as the add words function are almost pointless due to being so terrible. The address book is again, archaic-looking and very slow and hard to use. Whatsapp works better than the text message function but is still not as good as I was expecting. I have no problem with the lack of Whatsapp voice and video calls but the rest of it is a little clunky. The camera is truly awful. Anything other than the steady hand of a surgeon and bright (not too bright) sunlight and the photos are blurry. Likewise, the video quality is awful (and the format is 3GPP which is the same as the C510!). The music player is more basic than the one on my C510. Unlike the one on the C510, if you close the app, it resets itself rather than pausing the track that was playing. I presume this is to reduce memory usage but it is annoying. It can be avoided by pressing the back button several times to leave the app open. However, resetting the phone causes the app to stop (unlike on the C510). The player also dos not recognise wma files. I had a similar issue with the alarm clock sometimes not sounding until I realised that I had to press the back button rather than just closing the app. The phone has a wifi function and can be used for internet sharing but not for wifi calling which seems like a big oversight. The app store is limited which is to be expected. The pdf viewers on the store seemed to work initially but have now stopped recognising my SD card. The bluetooth is also not great. It is possible to get my laptop and van to remember the phone, but it will often fail to automatically reconnect, or if it does, the sound will not transfer to the van speakers. I often have to turn on the van or laptop, then turn off the bluetooth function on the phone and turn it back on again for it to properly connect. The phone frequently struggles to perform basic tasks and often slows or freezes. It occasionally resets itself but not as much as I feared it might. I don't know much about the kaios operating system so can't really comment on it. Unfortunately, I fear I will have to give in to the inevitable and ditch the 800 Tough in favour of a small rugged smartphone. I tried desperately to be impressed by the 800 Tough, but how can I be when it feels like Nokia gave up on it before it was even released.

After a few days of use my impressions are : It's bigger than I expected, the screen is much better than I expected and in general use it should last a week between charges (which is impressive). Apps such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are obviously web based and a bit slow, but they do function. Scrolling is a bit painful, but works. It's not the small pocket-able phone I was expecting, but there is a lot of rugged casing there so I can forgive that. KaiOS is still very much under development and the store is limited but growing. If you thought that this system would free you from Google I'm afraid that it's pretty well embedded (they are investors in KaiOS), but that does provide some useful functionality. Google Maps are handy but there's no voice guidance so not much use when driving. I will update in a couple of weeks to let you know how it's going. UPDATE : After a few charge cycles, the phone is still performing well, and in terms of standby time with Bluetooth and WiFi turned off and with very little use, but the occasional session as a WiFi hotspot it will hold it's charge for around ten days which is still pretty epic. Not sure where their claims of a month come from, but still very happy.

A great mobile phone. Strong. Water resistant. Easy to use. Every thing is good. A grea mp3 player. Battery life I charg every 4days. Sound is great on full. One bad mark is the WhatsApp will not work at my location. Above all a boss phone if like me you are fed up with a smartphone.

This phone is as described - very tough, rugged & solid. Looks great, feels great, reassuring buttons. The flashlight is poor - it is fairly dim and flickers - it could easily have been made brighter and lets the ‘rugged’ credentials down somewhat. Overall this is a great phone - for calls and texts and tethering only however. Unfortunately it is massively let down by KaiOS. This is nothing like Nokia phones of old. It’s clunky, very slow and has few of the features even the most basic Nokias used to have, such as number shortcuts for most menu functions, and full control over all ring/alert tones. This OS feels more like a student programming project. It’s ok but needs a lot of work to make it properly functional and even slightly pleasing and intuitive to use - something old Nokias were as standard - I’m not being nostalgic here, I still have an old one which I still use! The apps and internet credentials are mostly a complete waste of time and don’t work well at all. I was attracted by the inclusion of WhatsApp, as this would be a welcome buffer zone in my ditching the iPhone for a distraction-free alternative. In reality this is useless as it doesn’t download/sync any messages that contain anything other than basic text, and it DOES NOT WORK WITH THE DESKTOP APP. I presumed I’d still be able to use WhatsApp desktop/web but this is impossible as the app on the Nokia cannot scan the QR code to authorise the device(s). YouTube works, but is only really practical for audio, and even then only if you sign in and use your playlists - as navigation is super slow via the keypad and numbers. Surprisingly, Google Maps works reasonably well, it does locate you and is clear enough to follow on the small screen - though though it doesn’t ‘follow’ you - you have to advance every step manually when using directions - obviously impractical (& illegal) when driving, but nonetheless very useful if you’re a passenger or for other navigation situations. It has an FM radio and you can get an internet radio app from the KaiOS ‘store’ which is ok, but doesn’t cover very many stations. All the available apps have awful adverts that have to be manually dismissed. The ‘games’ are a total waste of time and programming! Overall I’m fairly disappointed with the experience. I will keep it to use as it’s great for being out, and for emergency contacts; the battery lasts for a few days and charges quickly. *update* I have returned the phone after 2 weeks. I found it infuriatingly slow and particularly cumbersome for texting. The predictive text is erratic and inexplicably missing some regular everyday words. Everything takes just a bit too long - even switching text entry modes. It doesn’t wrap text either. The battery lasted 3 days tops with minimal use, and even with top-ups in the car. You can’t quickly and intuitively adjust the volume of things when you really need to. It’s a shame as I loved the phone itself - the build and solidity are great. The call quality, earpiece and speaker are really good too. Just sort out the OS!

Rather than take my expensive phone with me when I do outdoor activities, I've put my immediate family's numbers into this phone and this phone's number into theirs. The Nokia 800 tough is very well constructed and feels good to hold. As a bonus it runs KaiOS and has an app store. This was a surprise to me as it raises the phone from being just another feature phone. Please note: The phone has a WhatsApp client installed but WhatsApp have withdrawn support for KaiOS recently so this app does not work, which is a shame.

Got it mainly for the tough aspect and also the battery life. It's not indestructible, not does it have the standby time claimed. Get a week at most out of it. Messenger has now stopped being supported on Facebook and it took about two weeks from new to start crashing when using predictive text. It also freezes often when you return to the home screen and takes a fair while to come back.