Nokia 8110 4G review

A feature phone is always an attractive prospect for me to have, at least as a backup phone. They are small, the battery last forever and they’re relatively cheap too. The one setback of a feature phone is that most of them don’t support 4G SIM cards anymore. At least for smaller telcos such as Unifi and Umobile that offer the cheapest plan with the longest network validity. It makes no sense for me to pay more expensive telcos like Celcom or Maxis just for my backup phone.





Hence why I decided against a feature phone. At least until a 4G feature phone like this Nokia 8110 4G comes along. A second hand unit goes for under 300 ringgit so it’s still relatively affordable for me. The most important thing is this phone finally support 4G SIM cards and consequently 4G connectivity. Spec-wise, it’s really modest - Qualcomm 205 mobile platform, 4GB internals and 2MP rear camera. The chassis of this 8110 is fully plastic with a curved banana-like design earning its glorious nickname, you guess it - the banana phone.



This phone is powered by Kai OS instead of the outdated Symbian OS. The best thing about Kai OS is that it is supported by many popular developers hence why they can offer some of the more mainstream apps like WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube, Gmail, Google Map and Facebook just to name a few. While the apps are interesting, the 8110 has no touchscreen so for all your input operation, you have to painstakingly type on the keypad numerous times to navigate and also spell out words. Just like the good old days eh? Not really. After years of comfortably typing on a glass screen, going back to keypad typing is nothing short of torture.

That aside, the addition of popular modern apps is a welcome feature of this phone. If you really need to check your social media accounts or checkout messages on WhatsApp, you can do all those readily on this phone, typing-torture regardless. Naturally, using those apps plus 4G or Wi-Fi connectivity drains the battery much faster compared to being just on standby.





I originally planned to give this phone to my son so he can use it at his dormitory and leave his iPhone at home. You know how’s hostels like, people lose or get their smartphone confiscated all the time. At least with this cheap Nokia, you don’t feel the pain too much if something untoward happen to it. Alas, like I’ve explained before, typing on this phone is a pain in the ass, so much so that he’d rather risk using his iPhone at school than use this abomination. I can’t blame him for that.

So would I recommend Nokia 8110 4G or similar 4G feature phones? As a backup phone sure but never as your daily driver.

Samsung Galaxy A30 review

Apart from Google phones, Samsung phones are the next make of phones that I keep on buying. The new Galaxy A series are a midrange phone with decent specs and reasonable price point. At launch they offered three models, the entry level A10, the middle spec A30 and the higher spec A50. Not encouraged by the low specs of A10, I decided to go with the mid specced A30.





The main difference between the A30 and the A50 is the on screen fingerprint scanner on the latter apart from the modest spec bump. I though I wouldn’t miss that feature much hence why I decided on the A30. On paper, this phone has a massive 6.4” screen but since it’s built longer in length than width, it doesn’t look that big in person.Powering the phone is Samsung’s proprietary Exynos 7904 processor. The phone that I got had 32GB of ROM and 3GB of RAM. You can further expand the storage with the dedicated microSDXC slot but it won’t count against the basic ROM because no adoptable storage.







The front screen sports a nice Super AMOLED screen. As with other AMOLED Samsung screens, this one also features always on display which I love on smartphones. The entire chassis is unmistakably plastic to save cost. I can’t bring myself to get the black version because it was not really black but shiny dark grey. The white version is slightly more bearable. Still so shiny and plasticky but not bad. The new Samsung One UI interface is a refreshing change from the god-awful TouchWiz interface of yore. Nothing as sleek as a stock Android OS but acceptable. Though I’d rather have a full metal or glass sandwich chassis, the full plastic body does make the entire phone pretty lightweight.







The A30 comes with two cameras, one wide and another ultra wide camera. Inspire of those, the photo quality is quite average, nothing iPhone or Pixel-like. The 4,000mAh battery could easily last a whole day on normal use. If I charge overnight, the battery would still have 30% left at 10:00PM. Performance of this midrange smartphone is nothing to shout about. I can see noticeable dropped frames while playing graphic-intensive games like PUBG. Also, the speaker was not so loud even when you cranked it to maximum.





For under 700 ringgit at the time of writing, the A30 is a decent midrange phone from Samsung. Don’t expect any heavy-duty gaming on this though and the camera quality is just below average. You know what they say, you pay peanuts, you get this Samsung.

The case for Maxis mobile

Previously I’ve been championing Webe as the best value for money postpaid plan there is in the market. Back then and I think until now, it is still the cheapest unlimited everything plan with no speed limit and a generous 10GB hotspot pass for just RM79 per month. So there’s absolutely no reason for me to switch to a different telco right? Turns out quantity (price) is not everything.

Yes, the unlimited data plan is awesome and all but the Unifi Mobile’s (formerly known as Webe) coverage was consistently below par, especially out of town and in rural areas. It wasn’t really a big deal for me at first since I‌ do work in downtown KL‌ and my home is just on the outskirts of the city where the coverage was pretty good. Once you go out of Klang Valley however, the coverage will start to go downhill. It became even worse for me once my family and I moved to Semenyih at the border of the state near Negri Sembilan. The reception at this new housing area is abysmal to none. I simply cannot receive calls inside the house and the data signal is always 3G if not no service. I had to go outside the house near the gates to make and receive calls which as you can tell, very frustrating.

So I started to look around for a new telco. I know Maxis and Celcom are not cheap. Digi is so-so but U Mobile is just as bad as Unifi Mobile. One time I was using Hotlink prepaid (provided by Maxis) in my phone, travelling from Kelantan to KL. I‌ was pleasantly surprised when the data signal constantly show 4G connection, at least 90% of the time. I mean their coverage is really good. That’s when I decided to give Maxis a try. Although their cheapest plan is an eye-watering 98 ringgit per month with a meagre 20GB data pool, that is only 20 ringgit more than what I am paying for Unifi Mobile. In return however, I get consistently excellent 4G coverage and high Internet speed. Previously when I’m streaming Astro with Webe on my phone from Ulu Yam to Bangi, the line would sometimes drop and the stream would freeze. With Maxis however, the stream is generally reliable and I only get dropped signal at really remote places (like in the middle of the Rawang Bypass). More importantly, I can now receive and make calls from the comfort of my sofa instead of running outside the house. Other than that, Maxis offers discounted phone prices for their customers including the latest Android and Apple flagship phones, something Unifi is unable to do.

A full year later, do I regret leaving Unifi Mobile for Maxis? Absolutely not. Yes there were that initial concern whether 20GB (divided into 10GB weekends/weekdays) is ever going to be enough but after a while they are indeed sufficient for me. Most of the time, I’ll be connected to my home or office Wi-Fi anyway and the only time I use my data connection is when I’m out and about around town or out of state which are not that often. There was one time when I completely used up all 10GB of my weekend data pool when I‌ had to do an emergency software download (more than 5GB) for my son’s school work but that was the exception rather than the rule. My regular usage rarely go above 10GB a month. Besides, if I’m still on Unifi, I won’t even get to download anything in the middle of that Janda Baik jungle. Maxis’ coverage is that good.

I know some people can’t justify spending over a hundred ringgit a month for a postpaid plan but for those who value reliable data coverage and constant connectivity, it is totally worth it. I once tried to do some online transaction just beside a highway in Kajang but it couldn’t get through because my Unifi line was on 3G. I had to switch to my Hotlink line to do the business. What is the point of unlimited data when you cannot use it when it mattered the most? Perhaps Unifi Mobile, backed by TM will gradually improve their coverage in the future to be on par with Maxis and the industry leaders but until then, I’m hanging on with my Maxis line.