Whatsapp on Nokia Classic Review

Salam. Whatsapp Messenger is one of the popular apps on smartphones. But do you know that Whatsapp is also available for Nokia Symbian client classic phones?

According to the their blog, Whatsapp for Nokia Symbian client was released in July 2010.

Its has already been a year since the release. I’m such a slowpoke on knowing this. Anyway, I’ve been using the Nokia 6120 for the past 5 months since staying in Australia.

I decided to give the Whatsapp for Nokia a try and installed it on my phone. It didn’t take long to download it from Ovi Store. The size is only 1.82MB.

After registering my phone number, Whatsapp accessed my phonebook to identify people on my contact list who also has Whastapp on their phone. I like the bubble chat interface but it looks a little bit cramped because of small screen size.

Cost per text

I just started using this app. From the network usage, the total number of sent and received texts are 146 and it’s only 1.06MB. It is like 1 text costing me 1.3 cents, rather than sending a normal text which costs 25 cents. It won’t take much bandwidth for each chat message. On my Vodafone, the cost for 1MB used is only $2.

Problems

You must have unlimited data plan or otherwise using Whatsapp is going to be pricey. To me, it is quite economical to be used and I’m thinking of changing to a better prepaid plan.

Since the app always tries to stay connected to the internet, it pretty much drains the hand phone battery. In the Nokia forum, to solve the problem is by uninstalling the app.

So, I guess that’s my review. My point is, you don’t need to get a smartphone such as an iPhone or an Android to use Whatsapp. Even an old candy bar Nokia classic can connect to Whatsapp. If only I knew earlier, I could have saved a lot on my monthly prepaid.

To get Whatsapp on your Nokia phone, visit Ovi Store for more information.

UPDATE: HOW NOT TO CONNECT TO NETWORK ALL THE TIME
Here’s a simple trick how not connect to the data network all the time automatically.

1. Go to Menu – Settings – Connection – Access points
2. Edit each of the access points
3. Under Prompt password, choose Yes

By right, each time your phone wants to connect to the data network, it will prompt a login popup. This simple trick also can help you to save your battery. If you feel like using Whatsapp again, just change the Prompt password to No again.