Now that I have figured out how to get around the charging glitch, I am quite happy with the phone.

silverview said:

I bought a C3 at Best Buy for $80. Worked out of the box for calling and browsing.

I should say however, that I am on my third C3. The first two had charging problems. The first charge was okay, and lasted for about a week. The second charge would take several hours (overnight). The screen would then alternate between "Charge complete, remove phone" and "Charging". When I did remove the phone from the charger, it showed one red bar, and endless "Battery low" warnings. Indentical problem for both phones. No amount of charging would correct the problem. The phone I have now is charging the way it should, and I am quite happy with it.

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I have the exact same problem. First charge lasted over a week and the phone worked great. Second charge took a couple days and still not fully charged. Same messages and battery low warning. I took it off the charger last night and it showed one red bar, same status this morning. I was going to see how long it works on one red battery bar, but after listening to music on it all morning at work the battery seems to be back at full charge. I'm going to return the phone and get a new one, but it seems to have taken a full charge even if it indicates a near dead battery.

Other than that I really like the phone.

*** UPDATE ***

I haven't taken this phone back yet. I think it may be a software glitch. Even though the battery status bar may have only show one red bar, the battery is fully charged. Once the last bar disappears after a day or so it goes back to showing a full charge.

I bought a C3 at Best Buy for $80. Worked out of the box for calling and browsing.

I should say however, that I am on my third C3. The first two had charging problems. The first charge was okay, and lasted for about a week. The second charge would take several hours (overnight). The screen would then alternate between "Charge complete, remove phone" and "Charging". When I did remove the phone from the charger, it showed one red bar, and endless "Battery low" warnings. Indentical problem for both phones. No amount of charging would correct the problem. The phone I have now is charging the way it should, and I am quite happy with it.

I have the exact same problem. First charge lasted over a week and the phone worked great. Second charge took a couple days and still not fully charged. Same messages and battery low warning. I took it off the charger last night and it showed one red bar, same status this morning. I was going to see how long it works on one red battery bar, but after listening to music on it all morning at work the battery seems to be back at full charge. I'm going to return the phone and get a new one, but it seems to have taken a full charge even if it indicates a near dead battery.

Other than that I really like the phone.

If you are going to just use wifi, you do not need a data plan. So yeah, wifi is free.

Thanks. Sounds like a great phone for the price!

Does connecting to the internet via wifi in the C3 (or similar) require a data plan?
Or is it free?

I don't think I need it often, but if it's something I could use in starbucks or whatnot now and then, that would be a different story .

Thanks!

I bought Rogers Nokia C3 phone from Bestbuy 1 month ago. Put SO sim card in, it worked perfectly. Now the problem occurs, I can not call out anymore, got message "error in connection". Other functions such as receiving call, internet connection... working fine. I tried to reset to factory setting, it did not help. I put this sim card back to SO Nokia 1661, it works fine.
Please help.
Thanks in advanced.

It is your C3 that has the problem.

I am using E71 and C3, both working alright.

I suggest to return it and get another new one.

Question -- has anyone tried the C3 with SO's data plan? Interested to know what works, doesn't work, etc... compared to using at home on the wi-fi.

I'm using it with SO's data plan and it seems to be OK, although kinda slow. I'm still trying to figure out how to send email from an online account, with no luck. A difference I've noticed b/w it and wifi is that with wifi it suddenly stops working after a certain amount of time, whereas SO's data plan always works for however long you want/your battery lasts. Not related to the data plan, this phone is kinda quirky sometimes when turning it on....it will immediately shut off. Don't know if it's a battery recharge problem or how long you hold the ON button for that's causing this to happen.

First impressions -- love the C3 -- makes my old Blackberry Curve 8330 that I was stuck in a 3 year contract look like ancient tech in comparison. This is a great texting phone -- lots of apps can be downloaded from Nokia's Ovi store, fully customizable - ringtones, wallpaper, etc.., media player and expandable memory, and with the Wi-Fi you have email, Facebook, etc...

Question -- has anyone tried the C3 with SO's data plan? Interested to know what works, doesn't work, etc... compared to using at home on the wi-fi.

I'm hoping it will take a 16 GB card. The Nokia 5130 would work with a 4 GB card even though the specs said 2 GB max.

The $50 air time is if you buy a phone from a 7-eleven store or from their site? The cheapest phone would then be $20 off so about $40 plus tax. Can I do better buying a SIM card here? I have only read of sellers asking for about $30 for a card and probably no air time included? Or expiring?

I think a C3 for $70 is as cheap as I'll find providing FS will match.

....
Maybe I'd be lucky and someone would offer a SIM card for sale, too.

If I miss the sales, I guess an extra $40 for an extra phone is not too bad but it would be cool to just get a phone from Rogers, a SIM card from here and then need to buy the air time. But, I'll see what's available.

Edit: Hey, if I buy the phone with the air time ($50 of air time means the phone is $40 - so $20 off), that means the air time worth $50 is tied to the SIM card, right? So, transferring the SIM card to a Rogers phone I buy, say, gets me the phone + $50 air time? I think that works out to a decent deal compared to buying the card on here? I think people are asking $30 for the card?

Did I calculate that right? It gets tricky...lol.... not sure I'm working out the details accurately but I don't think most SIM cards being sold will have air time already on them?

Right now, the Nokia C3 is shown as "sold out" on the Best Buy website. I would guess it will now stay sold out until the end of the sale (2011-02-03). If it's sold out, then Future Shop probably won't price match.

Quite a few SpeakOut SIM cards for sale in the Buy/Sell/Trade section of this forum.

You mentioned $50 in airtime... Where does that come from? When you buy the Rogers Noka C3, it does come with an unactivated Rogers SIM card, and it will have some minimal amount of airtime (10 minutes?), but definitely not $50 worth. In the London Drugs ad, they say you can get $30 of bonus airtime if you sign up with their monthly pay-as-you-go plan.

Anyway, it seems like the lowest-cost plan is:
- Buy the Rogers Nokia C3 at London Drugs or WalMart, or some other place that has it on sale.
- Do not activate the Rogers SIM card. Sell it separately. You might get $15-$20; I'm not sure what the going rate is.
- Buy a SpeakOut SIM card from someone on our Buy/Sell/Trade forum.
- Install the SpeakOut SIM in your Rogers Nokia C3. It should work right away. You do not have to "unlock" the C3 in the conventional sense ---- SpeakOut uses the Rogers network.
- Go to 7-11 and buy a top-up voucher, if the SIM card you bought has airtime that is expiring soon.