After two and a half years with T-Mobile on Nokia’s 6133, I would like to share my thoughts on this phone.
I went with T-Mobile and Nokia because of my time on a prepaid plan, when the service was great (for what it was) and the phone was built like a tank. The 6133 was almost as durable. After all that time, there was the following wear:
The SIM card occasionally needed to be removed so that it and the port could be cleaned out. Then, inexplicably, it needed to be seated at just the right angle for a day or two before it would begin working properly again. It gave me problems on more than a couple of occasions, but most of them were very short lived.
The battery was held in by a flimsy arch-shaped piece of metal. After a few drops, this piece showed the most damage. Every 2-3 months the battery would begin slipping out of its snug little area, and I would need to pull that metal piece back into place.
The metallic frame around the main screen also came loose after a couple of drops, starting near the hinge. The frame eventually got bent up when the phone closed, to the point that it was nearly falling off. This was swiftly fixed for good with a few minutes and a delicate application of Zap-A-Gap.
There was also a slight issue with switching towers. Calls would drop between towers, or data would stop working.
The browser was my last complaint. It choked on large pages, displayed even the simplest of pages with a bizarre, unreadable layout. Overall, the browser was not very practical.
But the phone served me well. WMA custom ringtones helped me know without looking what calls I should and shouldn’t take. The MP3 player was a real treat. I am deaf in my right ear. Streaming left & right channels into the Blue Tooth receiver meant I finally owned an earphone that let me hear the entire song. Pure bliss! Especially during long shopping sessions with the wife.
The phone survived two jobs, two children, and two and a half years. Even the push-button hinge, which was the main concern of many professional reviewers, reacted almost as well at retirement as it did the day I brought it home.
T-Mobile also had me on an amazing voice plan. It was more than I could ever use at a lower price than anyone else at the time. Plus the standard nights & weekends free.
The included BH200 ear piece has also become my hands-free device of choice. It may not be the sexiest to wear, but even the replacements were cheap and comfortable. (My wife washed two of them in the laundry.)
The media player saved my sanity many times over while with the kids. It wasn’t necessarily easy to transfer their favorite cartoons over, but it was very rewarding to do so.
And finally the pictures. At the time, it had a nicer camera than most similarly priced phones. My messaging plan let me send a lot of baby pictures to my family across the country. And every once in a while, I sent pictures by Blue Tooth to the photo kiosk for printing without a problem.
So, for my first “real” phone and plan, I have no regrets. In fact, I look back on that phone fondly. Almost all of the problems – except for that chrome frame – occurred in the later days of owning the device. It did what I needed it to, and most of what I wanted it to do.
I will miss that phone.
Thank you Nokia, and thank you T-Mobile.
He has worked as a level designer for a small online video game, as the grim reaper in a haunted house, and traded web design for concert tickets and tattoos.In years past, he could be found performing improvised comedy or stage magic in the south side of Austin, Texas.
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