The Nokia 1661 Prepaid Phone: A Review

The Nokia 1661 is the cheap phone (usually around $20 at most retail outlets) that is sold with T-Mobile's "pay as you go" prepaid phone plan. I bought it about a year after buying the previous Nokia model in the series, because that model's battery had totally died out, and replacement batteries were so hard to find and expensive that it ended up being more affordable to just buy the new model and switch my SIM card over.

For the first three months or so, the Nokia 1661 worked great and I was pleased. It has a simple but visually appealing design. The numbers and screen are adequate in size. And it has a number of features that the previous model didn't - expanded memory, a radio, even some little games that I never play.

Then, out of nowhere, a cascade of problems started. The first one was when it suddenly started asking me for a "security code" when I turned it on one afternoon. As I had never entered a security code, this was befuddling, and essentially bricked my phone. Online research indicated that this was a common problem with this model, and the code "12345" was the default password and should work. No variation of it worked for me though, and it didn't start working until I took the battery out of the phone and let it sit for 12 hours overnight. Then the "12345" code started working. Hooray.

About a month after this, it started randomly asking me for the security code again. But this time "12345" worked without cycling out the battery. However, after about two weeks of this, it started asking for the password EVERY time I turned the phone on. This wouldn't be too big of a deal, if it also didn't seemingly delete all my call logs and contacts every time I turn the phone off and back on! It also restores all the default settings, so all my preferences are wiped out every time it's turned off.

Around the time that it started asking for the password at every initialization, something also seemed to go haywire with the mouthpiece. I can receive calls clearly from other people, but they always tell me I "sound like I'm underwater" or that they can't hear me or can barely hear me, even when I have full bars in an open area.

I'm guessing they cut a whole lot of quality corners to get this phone down to the $19.99 price point. I never dropped, banged or abused the phone in any way - in fact, I rarely use it. I wouldn't mind paying a little more for a phone I am sure is not going to cock up like this one does, but Nokia and T-Mobile don't seem to offer other options with this plan, and I'm leery of buying anything by Nokia after these last two experiences with them anyway. Definitely shop around more before you decide on buying this one.