NEC N343i Review

Overall Rating

Brilliant design
Lots of features
Quite cheap
Large screen
Very easy texting system
Very thin and light
Has iMode

Small memory
Camera isn't brilliant

As far as mobile phones go, the NEC N343i does everything you'd expect. It has the ability to send SMS messages, has a camera, and does pretty much anything you'd want. The real attraction of the N343i however, has got to be the price. On O2 Pay As You Go (PAYG), this phone will only set you back £59.99 or even less if a) you're already an O2 PAYG customer and b) trade in your old handset. I did both and got this phone for the bargain price of £39.99.

Then, when you take into consideration the features you get from this phone, you realise it's a pretty stellar package.

The look of the phone is a bit special - it looks like a cross between a mobile and an iPod - and it's remarkably slim when compared to other mobiles. The whole thing has a very futuristic look and is finished in white and silver. Very cool, and very now. When you use it, the keys glow blue and lend a very 'icy' look to the handset.

The 65,000 colour screen is quite large, and the menus are very simple to navigate. Key presses are responsive, and the texting function is good. The texting function of a mobile is probably the one you'll use most frequently on PAYG, and differs depending on which phone you've got. Nokia phones tend to be very good, whilst O2's own-brand phones are dire. The NEC is easily on a par with the Nokia, with very quick composition possible if your fingers are fast enough.

The camera is fine for a mobile in this price range, although obviously not as good as say a Samsung D600. However, that mobile on PAYG would cost about £250 more than the NEC. That said, the quality is certainly better than some phones I've seen, and is perfectly acceptable.

The ringtones are a bit limited (you only get 13 passable classical tunes built in), but the 40 level polyphonic speaker gives good quality, and you can also compose your own or download them from the internet. To be fair though, I wouldn't down mark the NEC for its ringtones, simply because my phone is always in silent/vibrate mode anyway.

Now for the main selling point of the N343i - iMode. iMode is not something you would normally get on a sub £60 PAYG handset, and for it's inclusion here I applaud O2 and NEC. But what is iMode? iMode is the new generation of GPRS or 'mobile internet.' At the touch of the iMode button, the internet pops up instantly - much faster than regular GPRS - and offers improved picture quality and much more than GPRS ever could. Hundreds of companies have pooled their resources to create unique iMode web pages that can be browsed for instantaneous news, sports, games and travel info etc. These companies include commercial heavyweights such as Sky, Sega, and BBC etc.

I tried iMode pretty much as soon as I got the phone up and running (to check the Man United score), and had the information in about 20 seconds from pressing the iMode button - it's that quick and easy to navigate. And is much, much better than O2 Active or regular GPRS.

In a nutshell then, the NEC N343i is one cool phone. It's packed with features (although there is no Bluetooth, even though it's stated on this page), and while not as advanced as some phones on the market (but let's be honest, most new phones blur the boundaries between phone and entertainment device), it is an attractive proposition for anyone who is style conscious on a budget.

Here's a rundown of the features:

Camera (not video - stills only)
Ringtone composer
Calender
Stopwatch
iMode
Scheduler
To Do List
Notepad
Calculator
Voice recorder
Java Games (1 built in)
Polyphonics (13 built in)

Members' Comments onTOMLEECEE's Review

• mcivor88 on 22nd Jan 2006

  I bought the N343i from play.com just after Christmas for only £40 with free delivery and is easily the best £40 ever spent. This is a very simple phone, it has no Bluetooth or infer-red, but it is still a fantastic phone with many good features!
  
  The N343i is easily the best looking phone I have ever had, thin, small, light, great screen quality with nice blue lights on the keypad to make it look all the more stylish.
  
  The reason I bought a new phone was because I had a Motorola V365 before and I got no service at all with it, so I needed a cheap alternative and I hit the jackpot with the NEC N343i.
  
  The Camera is only 0.3 megapixels but I have sent several pictures home with the new I-Mode feature and I was surprised by the quality being fairly good.
  
  Overall this phone is a great buy. It looks fantastic and is an easy simple phone to use. NEC are really taking a step in the right direction in the mobile phone market with this phone

• emercency911 on 5th Sep 2006

  I think the N343i is a brilliant phone. I got it off of my sister as she wanted a new phone. She had only had it for 3 months, and it is a really good phone. The camera works better outside (so try it out). When I got my phone I took a picture of everyone. I absolutely love this phone.