Nokia 2660 Flip review: A classic feature phone for calls and messages

The Nokia 2660 Flip ignores the noise and complexity of the smartphone market in favour of something simpler and less distracting. It’s a classically styled flip phone with barely so much as a nod to modernity, but that could make it the perfect choice for older people and those intent on checking out of the social media circus.

Alongside Doro, Nokia is pretty much the only brand making old school feature phones like this. And there’s plenty to like on that front, with physical buttons, a stripped-back interface, a dedicated SOS button and a battery that lasts for days. The range of functions is very limited, however, so the Nokia 2660 Flip is only worth considering for those who want a handset solely for calls and messaging.

Nokia 2660 Flip review: What do you get for the money?

At a recommended retail price of just £65, the Nokia 2660 is an affordable feature phone with a classic clamshell form factor.

It’s much lighter than even the most compact smartphone, weighing just 123g, and in its closed state it measures just 108 x 55 x 18.9mm. This means it will slip into even the smallest of pockets or bags without issue.

Flip the phone open and you’re met with a fairly typical feature phone layout. The bottom half of the phone houses a set of chunky buttons, with the numerical pad taking up the most space and the power button and navigation keys sitting just above it. 

The top half of the phone gives you a compact 2.8in TFT screen with a resolution of 320 x 240 (aka QVGA). It’s not a particularly bright or vibrant display, and viewing angles aren’t too great, but it’s perfectly fit for the simple purpose it’s intended for.

That’s not the only screen here either. On the outside of the phone, you’ve got a smaller, simpler 1.77in 160 x 120 (QQVGA) LCD display that shows off basic heads-up details like the time, date and message notification icons.

You can activate this external display at any time using either of the buttons on the right side of the phone. There’s a long volume rocker towards the top, while nearer the bottom is a special button that you can press and hold to place an SOS call.

Your connectivity options are quite limited here. Only supporting 4G network connectivity is acceptable enough – even in a smartphone dominated world, 5G arguably remains inessential – but the lack of Wi-Fi is a shame, even if it’s not common on feature phones. You do get Bluetooth 4.2 for connecting to external devices, at least.

In terms of physical connectivity, there’s a micro USB charging port on the bottom of the phone and you get a charger in the box, too. You won’t need to use this much; the simple functions and low-power components allow this phone to last multiple days in between charges. The only downside is that you don’t get anything like the neat little charging stand that tends to be bundled in with Doro phones.

On the left edge of the phone is a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you don’t have to rely solely on Bluetooth for your personal audio. Pop out the removable 1,450mAh battery and you’ll find a microSD slot, which is just as well because the phone only has 128MB of internal storage. You’ll also find space for two nano SIM cards here, which means that you can run two phone accounts on a single handset.

READ NEXT: Best Motorola phone

Nokia 2660 Flip review: What’s it like to use?

If you’ve only ever known the smartphone era, then the Nokia 2660 Flip will be a very strange phone to navigate. For anyone who started using mobile phones before 2007, however, it will feel like slipping into a warm blanket. 

There’s no touchscreen, so navigation is handled by the four-directional pad and central selection button at the top of the keypad. During setup, you choose to arrange the UI on a 3 x 3 or a 1 x 1 grid (but you can change this in the Settings menu if you later change your mind). The former may be a speedier way to navigate but the latter feels more intuitive given the limited controls, and will be much better for those who struggle with their vision.

You also get a handy Goto button that supplies a quick text-based shortcut to key functions, which is useful –if you remember to use it, that is. The amount of navigation keys here threatens to tip over into overly complex, with two contextual keys, a power/sleep key, a back-up key and a call shortcut button.

It would have been nice to have one of these keys dedicated to the camera function, like you get on Doro phones – especially as the camera icon disappears into the Multimedia menu when you go for the simplified 1 x 1 icon layout.

The Nokia 2660 Flip is far from a powerful device, with a humble Unisoc T107​ processor and a mere 48MB of RAM driving it along. Having said that, the S30+​ UI is very lightweight, and everything feels suitably snappy when navigating through its basic menus.

The only place you’ll really notice the phone’s technical limitations is when you open up the preinstalled Opera web browser, at which point everything slows to a crawl. If I haven’t made it clear by now, this really isn’t the phone for performing any kind of online task.

READ NEXT: Best budget smartphone

Nokia 2660 Flip review: What could it do better?

Between the lack of Wi-Fi and the dismal web browsing experience and lack of Wi-Fi, this is simply not the phone to go for if you want to do anything more adventurous than placing and receiving calls and text messages.

There’s a Facebook icon, for example, but it simply feeds you back into that terrible web browsing experience and opens up the mobile Facebook page. It’s also disappointing to see the lack of WhatsApp, given how fundamental a messaging service it is in many markets.

One omission I can understand is Nokia hiding the camera function away in its simplified UI. This 0.3MP component captures images of such poor detail and limited dynamic range that I would class it as useless, even in decent natural lighting. Loading these snaps up on a larger, sharper display reveals a bizarrely impressionistic view of the world.

Nokia 2660 Flip review: Should I buy it?

If all you want is a cheap feature phone that lets you handle calls and text messages, the Nokia 2660 Flip will suit you nicely. It’s compact, lightweight, robust and its battery lasts for days on a single charge.

Beyond that, however, the Nokia 2660 Flip is severely limited. Its web performance is terrible, its camera even worse and there’s no WhatsApp access. If you want these kinds of functions, your best bet is to go for an affordable smartphone – the Motorola Moto G13 is our current favourite under £100 (£96 at time of writing).