Nokia 1616 is an affordable ultrabasic GSM mobile phone from Nokia announced on 4 November 2009 and released in 2010 for developing countries and budget users for a suggested price of €24 before taxes and excluding subsidies. The device's main non-phone features are flashlight at the top of the device, and an FM radio. The radio requires a headset or headphones in lieu of an antenna to function, and can work in the background, thereby providing access to other phone tasks without having to turn it off. A dual-SIM variant of the Nokia 1616 was released, known as the Nokia C1-00.
Hardware
The device has a color display with scratch-proof display glass, a dust-proof keypad, and comes in Black, Dark Gray, Dark Blue, and Dark Red colors. In addition to the phone, the battery, and the Nokia AC-3 compact charger, the original packaging also includes a Nokia WH-102 stereo headset.
Functionality
The Series 30-based handset has support for multiple phonebooks, and its memory can hold up to 500 contacts in addition to the amount offered in a SIM card. Each contact can be assigned three telephone numbers. SMS storage is up to 250 messages. Other functions include a speaking clock combined with an alarm clock, calendar, reminder, basic calculator, converter, timer and stopper, and a spreadsheet-like expenses ledger for budgeting.
Damien McFerran at CNET UK praised the phone for its dustproof keypad, FM radio, and flashlight. Special mention was given to good battery life, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and inclusion of headphones in the packaging, which McFerran pointed out is something that other manufacturers' budget phones packaging did not include. In a May 2010 guest opinion published in the German :w:de:T3N Magazin|t3n magazine, Swiss IT author Roman Hanhart weighed the pros and cons of having a smartphone and a basic phone. Hanhart compared the dismal battery life of his SIM-locked 800-franc HTC Dream and the need to be on-demand online — versus the two weeks' battery life using his Nokia 1616 that he ordered for a total of 44 francs from a webshop, and his sense of liberty with a basic phone, wherein he could attain the level of reachability he wanted without having to worry about his phone collecting information on him. In a July 2010 comparative review of budget phones published in the Russian weekly Argumenty i Fakty and penned by Viktor Zaykovskiy, Nokia 1616 got the top spot, as offering the best price-to-feature ratio. Zaykovskiy pointed out the presence of a colour display in a budget phone, quick UI responsiveness, the rubber keypad, good battery life, and the flashlight. He praised the FM radio's excellent reception, sound quality and volume, and that the radio can work as a background task, thus enabling people to use other phone functions while listening to music. Zaykovskiy concluded that this was "one the best phones one can buy for 1350 roubles."
In 2010 in Estonia, Nokia 1616 was the 10th most popular phone for Tele2, and made the list of top four most-sold Nokia phones at Elisa, with Nokia phones making the most overall sales for Elisa. It was sold in Elisa with a prepaid SIM card for €19.17. As of early June 2011, Nokia 1616 was the 4th most popular SIM-free phone in Austria, according to data by electronics retailer Saturn. In Russia, Nokia 1616 was rated the 4th most popular non-smartphone by sales for the month of February 2011 according to data by Russian electronics retailer :ru:Эльдорадо |Eldorado and :ru:CNews|CNews.ru, and was the 4th most popular phone in the Tele2 Rossiya network as of late July 2013. In 2014, Nokia 1616 made the #2 position in the list of most popular entry-level non-data mobile phones in South Africa in terms of usage share, based on statistics from Vodacom, a major operator in the region.
Models
Known submodels are 1616-2, 1616-2b, 1616-2c. The device was manufactured in India.
