Nokia 3110 Evolve review

Nokia 3110 Evolve Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Reviewed on: 14 April 2008

According to Greenpeace, Nokia is one of the most environmentally friendly technology manufacturers in the world, having cut out certain toxic chemicals from its phones. Now Nokia is taking things a step further with the 3110 Evolve, making its casing and packaging more eco-friendly.

But does green mean good? We took the 3110 Evolve for a spin around the CNET.co.uk garden to see if it got on with all the animals and trees, and importantly if it was a good phone. It's available from the Nokia online shop for about £150 without a contract.

Design
The Nokia 3110 Evolve's packaging is not only very small but also made up of 60 per cent recycled materials. While it's not explained why the packaging isn't made entirely from recycled materials, we'll give them some leeway as this is Nokia's first attempt. We expect better next time, though.

On the back of the Evolve there's a 1.3-megapixel camera without LED photo light or flash

Inside the box, there's an AC-8 charger that reduces the no-load energy consumption -- this is the electricity wasted when you leave your charger plugged in to the socket while not in use. Mobile chargers use so little power that our watt meter couldn't detect the difference between the Evolve's charger and an older version. 

About 50 per cent of the 3110 Evolve's casing is made up material based on plants, which Nokia says uses 15 per cent less fossil energy than from using oil-based plastics during its creation. Similar to the packaging, we'd be tickled green to see a higher percentage of bio-material being used in the future.

The Evolve's screen is disappointingly small and low-res but still usable

The feel of the phone is unaffected by this environmental friendliness. Other than a different finish and grey colour, it looks and feels just like any other Nokia handset. If you're worried about being branded a tree-hugging hippy while carrying this phone, you're safe.

What you will notice is that the large keypad and power button are easy to use, but the screen is small and low-res. We understand that a smaller screen uses up less energy and jives with this phone's modus operandi, but it makes viewing content less enjoyable than on the Nokia N95 8GB's much larger display.