Top 5 Quality Feature Phones | Articles | Phones

Pho­to: withoutsmartphone.com

With the devel­op­ment of tech­nol­o­gy, smart­phones with large dis­plays and high-qual­i­ty cam­eras have con­quered the mar­ket. But push-but­ton phones are still in demand: more than 3 mil­lion of them were sold in Rus­sia in the first six months of 2021. Mobile phones are bought for var­i­ous rea­sons: some­one does not like touch con­trols, some­one needs a device only for work calls, and some­one then he gives the phone to an elder­ly rel­a­tive for com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

What to look for when choos­ing a fea­ture phone
Screen
Bat­tery
Mem­o­ry
Con­nec­tion qual­i­ty
Cam­era
The best fea­ture phones
Results

What to look for when choosing a feature phone

When choos­ing a push-but­ton phone, you should start from the pur­pose of the pur­chase. If an elder­ly per­son will use a “mobile phone” to com­mu­ni­cate with loved ones, then it is advis­able to pay atten­tion to devices with a durable case, a large screen and con­ve­nient but­tons. If the device will be used for busi­ness calls, then a pow­er­ful bat­tery, sup­port for 3G / 4G and mul­ti­ple SIM cards are impor­tant.

We will not con­sid­er such para­me­ters as the form fac­tor of the phone and the size of the case, since they depend on the indi­vid­ual pref­er­ences of users.

When choos­ing a push-but­ton phone, you should pay atten­tion to the basic char­ac­ter­is­tics: screen, bat­tery, mem­o­ry, com­mu­ni­ca­tion qual­i­ty and cam­era. When com­pil­ing the rat­ing, we eval­u­at­ed each phone accord­ing to one of these cri­te­ria rel­a­tive to oth­er mod­els from our top. The max­i­mum score for each para­me­ter is 5 points. Let’s dwell on the para­me­ters in more detail.

Screen

For com­fort­able use of the phone, it is bet­ter to choose mod­els with a screen diag­o­nal of at least 2.4 inch­es. So the dis­play will con­tain more infor­ma­tion, espe­cial­ly if a large font is installed. Anoth­er impor­tant cri­te­ri­on is res­o­lu­tion. The min­i­mum com­fort­able size is 128x128 pix­els.

The larg­er the diag­o­nal and screen res­o­lu­tion, the high­er the score.

Battery

The oper­at­ing time of push-but­ton phones with­out recharg­ing is longer than smart­phones due to the lim­it­ed num­ber of func­tions. Here, the charg­ing fre­quen­cy is pri­mar­i­ly affect­ed by the capac­i­ty of the bat­tery (mea­sured in mAh).

The longer the phone holds a charge, the high­er the score.

Memory

Typ­i­cal­ly, push-but­ton phones have lit­tle inter­nal mem­o­ry. It is impor­tant that it is enough to store phone num­bers and mes­sages. Usu­al­ly 32–64 MB is enough for this. If you plan to use the device as a music play­er, then it is bet­ter to pay atten­tion to mod­els that sup­port mem­o­ry cards.

The larg­er the built-in mem­o­ry, the high­er the score.

RAM is main­ly used for demand­ing appli­ca­tions and is not so impor­tant for push-but­ton smart­phones. Some man­u­fac­tur­ers do not even indi­cate its vol­ume in the char­ac­ter­is­tics. There­fore, we will not eval­u­ate this para­me­ter.

Connection quality

The phone must have a built-in anten­na to pick up the net­work sig­nal. If it is impor­tant for you to use 3G and 4G net­works (for exam­ple, for fast mobile Inter­net), make sure that the device sup­ports the required com­mu­ni­ca­tion stan­dards. If you sep­a­rate dif­fer­ent areas of your life, then a dual-SIM phone will save you mon­ey on buy­ing a sec­ond device.

Camera

Most push-but­ton phones have weak cam­eras (0.08–0.3 megapix­els). If you need to get rel­a­tive­ly good pho­tos (for exam­ple, for work or study), it is bet­ter to choose mod­els with mod­ules from 1.3 megapix­els.

The more MP, the bet­ter.

The best feature phones

Philips Xenium E580

Auton­o­my is the trump card of Philips Xeni­um E580. Pho­to: Philips

Screen: 5 points

Philips Xeni­um E580 is equipped with a 2.8‑inch col­or TFT screen with a res­o­lu­tion of 320x240 pix­els.

Bat­tery: 5 points

Remov­able bat­tery with a capac­i­ty of 3100 mAh. Talk time — 39 hours, stand­by time — 2400 hours (more than three months). Charges via micro-USB port.

Mem­o­ry: 4 points

The amount of inter­nal mem­o­ry is 64 MB, there is a sep­a­rate slot for mem­o­ry cards (up to 32 GB).

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion qual­i­ty: 3 points

The phone sup­ports 2G com­mu­ni­ca­tion stan­dards, has two SIM-cards of micro and mini for­mat, the address book is designed for 1000 con­tacts. There is Inter­net access (WAP, GPRS).

Cam­era: 5 points

The cam­era is locat­ed on the back side, its res­o­lu­tion is 2 megapix­els. There is an LED flash.

Aver­age score: 4.4 points

Pros of Philips Xeni­um E580:

• holds a charge well;
• there is a func­tion of charg­ing oth­er devices from the phone (watch­es, head­phones, fit­ness track­ers);
• rear met­al cov­er — exter­nal anten­na. It pro­vides a more sta­ble con­nec­tion in dif­fi­cult con­di­tions.

Cons Philips Xeni­um E580:

• not sup­port­ed by T9;
• high price.

Philips Xeni­um E580 costs from 4,690 rubles.

BQ 2441 Comfort

BQ 2441 Com­fort has an SOS but­ton — you can set the emer­gency num­ber. Pho­to: BQ

Screen: 4 points

BQ 2441 Com­fort received a 2.4‑inch col­or dis­play with a res­o­lu­tion of 320x240 pix­els.

Bat­tery: 4 points

Bat­tery capac­i­ty — 1450 mAh. In talk mode, the bat­tery lasts for 25 hours, in stand­by mode — for 450 hours.

Mem­o­ry: 1 point

Built-in mem­o­ry is 24 MB, there is a slot for mem­o­ry cards (up to 32 GB).

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion qual­i­ty: 1 point

The device sup­ports 2G com­mu­ni­ca­tion stan­dards, there is a slot for 2 SIM cards (both micro).

Cam­era: 1 point

The cam­era is locat­ed behind, but the res­o­lu­tion is low, only 0.08 megapix­els.

Aver­age score: 2.2 points.

Pros of BQ 2441 Com­fort:

• there is an emer­gency call but­ton;
• screen with large font;
• large back­lit but­tons;
• con­ve­nient dock­ing sta­tion for charg­ing.

Cons BQ 2441 Com­fort:

• when you press the menu but­ton, you get a fun­box with paid sub­scrip­tions;
• there is no sep­a­rate “Back” but­ton (com­bined with the “Hang up” / “Con­tacts” func­tion).

The cost is from 3,184 rubles.

Nokia 6300 4G

Nokia 6300 4G is the best fea­ture phone with inter­net. Pho­to: pcmag.com

Screen: 4 points

The screen diag­o­nal is 2.4 inch­es, the res­o­lu­tion is 320 × 240 pix­els.

Bat­tery: 1 points

The Nokia 6300 4G has a 1500 mAh remov­able bat­tery. Talk time — 7.6 hours, stand­by time — 528 hours, charged via micro-USB port.

Mem­o­ry: 5 points

Built-in mem­o­ry — 4 GB, there is a slot for mem­o­ry cards up to 32 GB.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion qual­i­ty: 5 points

The phone sup­ports 2G 3G, 4G LTE, LTE‑A Cat. 4, VoLTE. There is Wi-Fi 802.11n and a slot for 2 nano SIM cards.

Cam­era: 2 points

The res­o­lu­tion of the rear cam­era is 0.3 megapix­els, there is an LED flash.

Aver­age score: 3.4 points

Pros of Nokia 6300 4G:

• sup­port for VoLTE and VoW­iFi tech­nolo­gies;
• Google Assis­tant sup­port, What­sApp, Face­book, YouTube, Google Maps pre-installed.

Cons: Nokia 6300 4G

• mod­est auton­o­my.

The cost is from 3 990 rubles.

Nokia 3310 Dual Sim (2017)

Nokia 3310 Dual Sim (2017) is suit­able as a first phone for a child. Pho­to: techadvisor.com

Screen: 4 points

The Nokia 3310 Dual Sim (2017) has a 2.4‑inch col­or screen with a res­o­lu­tion of 320x240 pix­els.

Bat­tery: 3 points

The capac­i­ty of the remov­able bat­tery is 1200 mAh. Talk time is 22.1 hours, stand­by time is 744 hours. Charges via micro-USB port.

Mem­o­ry: 3 points

Built-in mem­o­ry — 20.48 MB. A sep­a­rate slot is avail­able for mem­o­ry cards up to 32 GB.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion qual­i­ty: 4 points

2G com­mu­ni­ca­tion stan­dards are sup­port­ed. There is Inter­net access WAP, GPRS, EDGE.

Cam­era: 5 points

A 2‑megapixel rear cam­era with LED flash is installed.

Aver­age score: 3.8 points

Pros of Nokia 3310 Dual Sim (2017):

• loud;
• sup­port for record­ing videos;
• five col­or options.

Cons of Nokia 3310 Dual Sim (2017):

• frag­ile plas­tic cov­er (scratch­es).

The cost is from 4 109 rubles.

Nokia 216 Dual Sim

Nokia 216 Dual Sim is a ver­sa­tile fea­ture phone. Pho­to: Arjun, amazon.in

Screen: 4 points

Col­or screen with a diag­o­nal of 2.4 inch­es and a res­o­lu­tion of 320x240 pix­els.

Bat­tery: 2 points

A 1020 mAh bat­tery is installed. Talk time is 18 hours, stand­by time is 456 hours.

Mem­o­ry: 2 points

The amount of inter­nal mem­o­ry is 16 MB. There is a sep­a­rate slot for mem­o­ry cards up to 32 GB.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion qual­i­ty: 2 points

Nokia 216 Dual Sim sup­ports 2G com­mu­ni­ca­tion stan­dards, there is Inter­net access (GPRS).

Cam­era: 3 points

There are 2 cam­eras — front and rear. Both with a res­o­lu­tion of 0.3 megapix­els. There is a flash.

Aver­age score: 2.6 points

Pros of Nokia 216 Dual Sim:

• qual­i­ty assem­bly;
• flex­i­ble address book (increased length of names, the abil­i­ty to set per­son­al melodies);
• bright flash­light.

Cons of Nokia 216 Dual Sim:

• glossy front pan­el col­lects fin­ger­prints;
• frag­ile plas­tic cov­er.

The cost is from 2 590 rubles.

Results

Push-but­ton phones from our rat­ing received the fol­low­ing rat­ings:

Philips Xeni­um E580 is the best fea­ture phone with a pow­er­ful bat­tery. This is the record hold­er for bat­tery life.

BQ 2441 Com­fort is the best push-but­ton phone for the elder­ly: large back­lit but­tons.

Nokia 6300 4G is the best fea­ture phone with inter­net and 4G sup­port.

Nokia 3310 Dual Sim (2017) is the best push-but­ton phone for a child: it has a cam­era and bright col­ors.

Nokia 216 Dual Sim is a uni­ver­sal push-but­ton phone with two cam­eras, inter­net and good auton­o­my.