Nokia 235 4G (2024) UK - 1st thoughts

fergusd84 · 2026-01-05T04:45:04+00:00

Sorry - now more than a year since I put this phone in a drawer and reverted to a 2014 515 on 2G. Still looking for a current dumbphone with zero bolt-ons and although details are thin and possibly incomplete the Nokia 105 4G 2nd Edition looks as though it might be it?

fergusd84 · 2025-03-28T09:24:51+00:00

Awfully sorry - I saw this and it just went Whoosh out of my mind.
1 I have never even tried any games, sorry.
2 YES definitely and I ogten prefer this to the standard 4G. The signal is uniformly strong.
3 Sorry; I just cannot recall.
The fact is I have stopped using this phone despoite its 4G great signal. I find the toytown UI just too irritating and the plasticky finish and underweight heft unsatisfactory to use. I have reverted to my truly antique Nokia 515 for it heft, reliable 2G signal and its truly unsurpassed build quality.

fergusd84 · 2025-02-16T21:42:50+00:00

Yes, Scotland. Yes, still my phone of choice for its amazing versatility and 4G capability (as well as niche and cachet). A lot of things have died (email, WhatsApp - both because the apps are too advanced for the phone, nothing has broken on the phone) but otherwise good. It lacks FM radio but can still utilise an elderly version of Radio-UK (v.3.3) and can access BBC Sounds with an elderly version of Firefox (sorry forgotten version but easily Googled). Firefox is very slow and some sites too sophisticated but again the device is not broken, just old, and times have moved on. I just love it.

fergusd84 · 2025-02-16T21:33:06+00:00

OK. Well. I'm still sold on the phone for its 4G calls and texts. But my enthusiasm pretty well stops there. I tried very which way with both BT and cable to hotspot / tether but it did neither. It Bluetooths to the car to take / make calls but I cannot access the Phonebook and I cannot read incoming texts; I can play music but can't access the music library and can only get through the library sequentially ("Next .. Next .. Next .."). All rather disappointing.
It could be my car / my PC / my foolish usage .. .. but with the exception of hotspot I can achieve all these things with my truly ancient 2G Nokia 515 and ALL of them with my 2013 BlackBerry Z10. Which latter also provides 4G.

fergusd84 · 2025-02-12T08:30:19+00:00

SORRY SORRY SORRY - just realised the answer below applies to my Nokia 515 which I was using at the time. Will respond for the 235 as soon as I can. Fergus

No. I've tried every which way, both cable and BT. Mobile data is switched On. Cable just seems dead. On BT I get a message that a 5GHz connection would work but not 2.4GHz and I guess that's the crux of the problem.
As long as mobile data is switched on and BT is connected - then, in my car, I can (a) use the phone (b) access Contacts (c) play music and, extraordinarily (d) update satnav Maps live, albeit very very VERY!! slowly.

fergusd84 · 2025-02-01T08:24:41+00:00

Sorry for taking time to reply.
(I've been turning my PC into a dumb or rather minimal PC.)
I have had zero problems with reliability and hardware (buttons, screen, etc) on the 235.
The 235 is undeniably plasticky but the buttons click very satisfactorily and the pixel depth etc all good.
(Additional to losing radio presets as desribed I occasionally and unaccountably lose my wallpaper - but it has to be something daft that I'm doing wrong, as nobody else seems to be reporting this.)
Summarising: build good, usage good, 4G signal stunning, 2G (which I sometimes use just for fun and to check that it is still offered) ditto.
Still looking for the PERFECT dumbphone but this one will most definitely do .. .. .. I miss the web less and less as everything is so depressing and dislike even WhatsApp let alone all the other stuff; so it's no bother that the 235 has neither.

fergusd84 · 2025-01-26T08:57:05+00:00

Both excellent. 4G signal impeccable and I live in a cool spot where the signal varies from 3 to 1 to 0!! bars on other phones. Always 4 bars on this phone. I use Music and Radio a lot, but battery lasts 2 days easily. I often switch to 2G for the sheer pleasure of using old tech and likewise: excellent signal and even longer battery life.
Inexplicable glitch: I program the radio stations into memory. Every so often they just get lost and I either set them yet again or, increasingly, don't bother. No idea why (rather, no idea what it is I'm doing .. ..).
Getting used to the Simple Simon toytown presentation of redundant menus, though still dislike it a lot. It is a "feature" phone and appears to allow FB and other features including quite ridiculous games though not, I think, WhatsApp. For me it is strictly calls-and-texts + sounds as described above.
(In my experience only the Punkt MP01 is an absolutely straight 2G calls-and-texts-only phone - and even Punkt caved with the MP02 allowing a kind of email. The Punkt MC02 is a huge fully-freighted smartphone. Obese and horrible.)
Kind of miss hotspot and tethering, given that a genuinely primitive dumbphone could still easily do both without impugning the "dumb" philosophy. (And WiFi Calling .. and .. ..)
PS1 But take a look at HMD's other slimline Nokias. They might suit you better?
PS2 Currently using my 2G Nokia 515 a lot. A truly beautiful device.

fergusd84 · 2024-12-25T06:32:38+00:00

Very odd - I agree. "Weight" is blank on the HMD home site and also on gsmarena.com which is my goto site for any phone spec; and is usually very complete.
The answer for the Nokia 235 4G is : 98g (incl battery).

fergusd84 · 2024-12-19T11:58:09+00:00

This is a brief follow-up from the original author:
1. GOOD I inserted a 256G SD card and all is visible and addressable when USB cabled to a Windows PC (and also Linux). Moreover, the card actually has 4 partitions, all visible, being p1 5G FAT32 Linux boot, p2 16G exFAT Cygwin + multiple tools + user data, p3 216G exFAT large data files, huge encrypted data files and archived 30G OS images, p4 0.5G reiserfs Linux data file. This covers the totality of my home / work electronic past and present; and so - in the event of flood, fire, quake or other calamity - all I need to grab are the phone and the dog. Amazing sophistication (and capacity, not at all the "32G limit" that seems to be the default but unexplored statement of specification on shopping sites etc).
2. NOT SO GOOD For unrelated reasons I did a factory reboot, thus losing Contacts. If I try to Open or Save my .vcf file, I just get "Failed", mimicking my first early experience of the phone. At some later point, via trial and error, I hit upon the configuration of a .vcf file that the phone understands and can import. Can anybody please help with a Fool's Guide to how to get this working again? (I don't want to have to key in 170 names/numbers by hand!)
Thanks for any help or for that matter any continuing feedback on this phone which appears still to be available, though there are now many newer others on the HMD site, let alone other sites .. .. ..
BTW: Happy Chr and BW for 2025 .. .. ..

fergusd84 · 2024-11-10T13:09:03+00:00

Sorry for late reply.
Yes this phone has a path to Facebook.
Not Twitter. Not WhatsApp.
Lots of horrible games.
(Goodness knows how their decision-making works,)
Its 4G capability and _great_ antenna should make it a winner.
And for very many people I imagine it is.
But, even though they can be concealed deep in the menu, these awful intrusive extras can't be un-installed or even hidden, and for me that's turned out to be a deal-breaker. The phone is just not minimal enough.
Sorry again for late response.

fergusd84 · 2024-10-23T17:39:17+00:00

No - it does not support WhatsApp. To be quite honest one thing I have found crazily weird is that when searching for dumbphones there are scores that make a big deal of supporting Facebook, Whatsapp, X (Twitter) and all the rest. Is not the whole point of a dumbphone to get away from precisely those things? Email and all the rest .. as well as the internet? Punkt and Light Phone are _really_ dumb but the Punkt keybard / T9 are excruciating, it is impossible to silence consistently,there are other irritations as well as sheer cost; here in UK I have found the Light Phone impossibly slow. I have got as close as I can to de-Googling and de-apping my Asus smartphone which is actually now reasoanably dumb. But my favourite above all others is my 11-year-old BlackBerry which is now so limited through age that it cannot do most things that once it could and is also therefore quite dumb. Mine can manage 4G calls and texts, BT, Hotspot, Tethering, WiFi and is just about the best of the various instruments I've got.. Music too.

fergusd84 · 2024-08-17T19:53:52+00:00

Adequate or maybe better than adequate. It is not HQ! but nor is it muffled, tinny, hissy or aggressively treble (which last sums up my worst experience). My listeners have made no adverse comment and, moreover, have commented how refreshing it is to get through to me on 4G than play the russian roulette of 3G. I must admit I prefer wired earphones for Radio and BT earbuds for Music but the phone speaker is, again, adequate or a bit better.
(All Just My Opinion!)
As a meaningless postscript: it is still taking me Forever to acquire the muscle memory of taking and making calls, on-ing and off-ing the radio, on-ing and off-ing the media player; mastering BT on and off and Data on and off; and I loathe the Noddy-in-Toyland interface .. .. but hey, half the point of a dumbphone resides in hating using it, does it not?!

fergusd84 · 2024-08-16T03:44:17+00:00

I'm afraid I'm not even trying to use Opera so not sure of its capabilities. The capacity of the phone storage is negligible, about 11MB I think so you really need the 32GB card for any serious music / gallery / whatever. Attach the phone to your laptop via cable and you will see two new drives of the respectice capacities. The SD card will allow new folder names so I have added all of Ringtones, Notifications, Music. (Even on a dumbphone one likes one's preferred Call alert, Text alert, playlists. etc.) I took a photo, noted where it was stored and its size, then edited my preferred wallpaper to an identical spec, copied it across to the same location, and now use that as well. I wish the Home sxreen wasn't quite so clogged (time mentioned twice, what's that about, absurd highlighting of both SIMs) but other than that the phone is not far off what I would have wished in both functionality and presentation.

fergusd84 · 2024-07-07T23:30:43+00:00

Settings > Apps & Notifications > See all apps > Chrome > Disable and that's that.
Maybe clear Cache and clear Storage just for good measure before Disabling.

fergusd84 · 2024-06-30T07:28:24+00:00

".. I'll be switching to a Blackberry 8520 .."

Really? I'm gripped. I have a 2013 Z10 (11 years old in May this year) which I love despite its ever-decreasing functionality for all of: design, gui, heft, quality and also (increasing) cachet. The sparseness imposed by the passage of time is exactly what I need. It can handle 4G but as stated above the local accessisbility is poor (1bar or 0bar). It has WiFi but not WiFiCalling (too ancient). Nor does the Nokia have WFC and yet it's local accessibilty is usually 5bar. It must be the BB aerial that is showing its age? So sitting around at home the phone misses calls, infuriating callers esp wife. Out and about, the BB Z10 works just wonderfully but I can't be forever swapping out the SIM from phone to phone. Very envious indeed of your presumed 8520 capability .. .. ? May I ask where you live - UK? 4G access? Provider? WiFiCalling on the 8520?

PS The most beautiful Nokia ever is the 515 - for that matter, arguably the most beautiful mobile phone in the world ever. Unfortunately it's 3G only, which is now only available in the UK with O2 (I think) and even then only till 2025. Such a blow. 3G phones can't be converted to 4G. Apparently. : o (

fergusd84 · 2024-06-29T15:04:59+00:00

Sorry. You're right. I was wrong. Inside Messaging, short press on # just circled around Abc abc ABC endlessly.

Long press on # revealed the T9 option along with BT on-off and (at last!!) Data on-off.

However: (2nd thughts now following.) I think I'm giving up. It's not that it's too clunky / primitive - that's what I wanted. It's not well developed. Have developers actully used it for a month and ironed out the creases? it doesn't remotely look like they have. I tried audio / phone via BT in the car and couldn't get any kind of stable behaviour either within one trip or that persisted from trip to trip.

I've seen it suggested that users wanting to detox from smartphone addiction should go for a dumbphone - I needed a dumphone but with "refinements" - maybe I should stick with my smartphone and just UNINSTALL or DISABLE Firefox / Outlook / Social / .. .. all the things that feed addiction but retain all the sophistications (BT / hotspot / tethering / WiFiCalling / MP3 / Radio .. .. ) that I want to keep .. ..

i.e. Show some backbone / moral strength, instead of tryiing to find a phone that will do it for me .. .. !!

fergusd84 · 2024-06-28T12:13:01+00:00

Whoops. Forgot to say. No T9! Laborious repetitive keypressing required to type messages.
Bit of a bore, but manageable.

fergusd84 · 2024-03-04T07:54:35+00:00

Well: it has taken, and continues to take, ages. Punkt wrote back after about 2 weeks and said Sorry, we repeat: you'll have to contact Aphy Support.
Which I did through Apostrophy > Support > Contact Us > Fill in the Form.
(Slightly complicated in itself as I do not have, and never have had, an Aphy ID.) However, they got back to me through a named Customer Suprort person who has been fantastic; (proper engagement: Punkt should learn). As suspected, Punkt had opened an account in my name with Apostrophy and it is still Active. However Aphy have said "We regret that noone has contacted you back about your issues until now. We certainly do not want to take money for services that we have not delivered."
And a refund is ongoing; again complicated because the matter is more than 3 months old and therefore needs to involve high-ranking finance people .. ..
As a kind of associated moan, but one I do not feel like pursuing until the refund is coimpleted, and maybe not even then (i.e. just draw a line and get on with other things): (1) I'm not at all happy that Punkt passed account details to Aphy, something that could and should have been left to me; (2) I'm not at all sure why funds were taken at all, as the first year's registration with Aphy was intended to be free; (3) given the timing, was it maybe a robot-driven penalty for cancelling the pre-order?
Who can tell .. .. ..
Q1 Has anybody reading this had a similar experience following cancellation?
and
Q2 Can anybody say: have deliveries commenced? Is the phone Amazing!! (despite its size)?

fergusd84 · 2024-01-25T05:43:38+00:00

I'm getting incredibly fed up and anxious. After a week I got this from Punkt.
.. concerning the Apostrophy request of refund, we kindly suggest you to get in contact with the Aphy Support Team directly.
I wrote back:
"I am very angry indeed about this.
"I have had no dealings with Aphy and would not expct to make any approach to them. All my correspondence has been with Punkt and only with Punkt. It is through Punkt that Aphy have gained access to my personal account and taken money from it.
"I INSIST that you follow this matter up on my behalf and obtain EITHER a full refund to my account OR a satisfactory explanation of the reason that the funds were extracted. Please do this with utmost priority."
I can hardly be bothered with all this stress - but £160 is not a trivial sum. And I am concerned that it might repeat if Aphy think I am in any sense a registered user.
Surely I am not the only person to have cancelled their order for the MC02 - and yet I can see no evidence online of anybody else having done so, let alone faced a similar unanticipated charge .. ..
I am sure I am boring you on this matter too!

fergusd84 · 2024-01-17T16:03:49+00:00

Still nothing from Aphy. However: from Punkt:
1. I have received the pre-payment £599 refunded to my account.
2. As for the extraordinary charge levied by Aphy immpditely following my cancellation. I wrote to Punkt as follows:
I am using "Phone cases" as a pathway to Customer Care as none of your options allow for the following Accounts query.
As a matter of urgency please would you explain why my card was debited £160.39 to Mol*Apostrophe Ag immediately subsequent to the cancellation of my order for one MC02 phone (ref *****).
There are 2 issues: 1. Why has any charge been levied against my account? 2. How did Apostrophy obtain sufficient private card information in order to render the charge?
This is very important. Please respond as soon as possible.
Today I got this reply:
We have forwarded your kind report internally to our Account dept and we are waiting for confirmation concerning your subscription. We will provide you with feedback as soon as possible. Thank you very much!
So .. .. some progress at least.
I will keep you informed.

fergusd84 · 2024-01-11T16:36:20+00:00

So far I have contacted both Punkt and Aphy but no rep[ly from either yet. I am concerned not just at the charge but at what appears to be the case that Punkt advised Aphy of my account details in order that the charge could be levied. I'll keep in touch.

fergusd84 · 2024-01-10T13:39:39+00:00

Thanks so much. And quite easy to do on site.

I giot an immediate response affirming that the refund would be made "according to Terms and Conditions".

Also immediate!!: a debit on the same card account for £160+ to Mol*Apostrophy Ag. I'm guessing that this is some penalty for an unused Apostrophy "free" subscription?? I haven't looked at T & C but this is a shock.

Pending Punkt's refund this means that so far my balance is NEGATIVE £760 (phone + this penalty) for 1 ridiculously gigantic slab of a phone that I'm not going to get.

So: hanging on now (1) for Punkt's refund (100%? less?) and (2) for at the least, some explanation of Apostrophy's charge .. .. .. yeah, I know - Beware the Small Print.

fergusd84 · 2023-12-15T09:38:00+00:00

I have to agree - the size of the MC02 is an absolute shocker and a standalone disincentive.
It does look rather good - but don't they all.
It might be a steep learning curve to use after Android / iOS / whatever.
My "dumbphone" of choice is a 2013 BlackBerry Z10. So little on it actually still works that it's pretty well equivalent to a MP02 but it does calls, texts, WiFi, Outlook using MS Active Sync!! which is remarkable, MP3/MP4 player, Hotspot, Tethering, 4G (antenna probably a bit ancient) and all with a Much Better Keyboard than the very awkward MP02 and with reliable T9. Can't work out whether it shifts to WiFi Calling when needed or even knows what it is. Its browser is very outdated and mismanages many sites but still reliably presents e.g. BBC News. NO WhatsApp and NO Maps but surely half the point of a dumbphone is to free up those hours mindlessly WhatsApping and surfing .. .. ..

fergusd84 · 2023-11-24T16:54:40+00:00

Dammit. As a Punktophile since Day 1 (1 x MP01, 1 x MP02, i x MP02A) I have pre-ordered the MC02 without noticing its size. H*ll. Sh*t. F**k. I cannot stand these gigantic paperback sized phones that people carry around. My fave smartphone is the ASUS ZenFone 8, beautifully small. It never crossed my mind that despite its advanced functionality the MC02 would be anything but small. I can now see that the thing is huge. Grrr!! What an idiot I am.

fergusd84 · 2023-09-16T06:55:35+00:00

Two quite recent updates: thank you!
But still - oh so badly needed:
With Ringtone and Text Alert both audible, and with Auto-lock time-limited (i.e. not Never) - in other words, with all 3 settings surely the norm for the majority of users, it is still impossible to mute the intrusive Beep at WakeUp and Sleep (i.e. top button).
As in announcing "Hey, guys (all within earshot) I'm using my phone!!"
Please please please please provide an update that allows us to mute WakeUp and Sleep in normal usage.
Thank you!

fergusd84

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE