Years ago when I was first working after university and mobile phones hadn’t long been something everyone had (yep I’m really that old now), my ‘work phone’ was one of those bomb proof Nokia phones that everyone had. They were standard issue by the NHS at the time for those working out in the community, a blue/grey colour – anyone remember them?

Anyway, fast forward a few years and the Nokia phones are a new kind of awesome now. Let me introduce you to the Nokia 1!

Nokia have a really straightforward naming strategy. The higher the number the better the phone, so the Nokia 1 is there bottom of the range smartphone. Could this be the best low end smartphone ever though?

If you are looking for a first phone for one of your children, or perhaps looking for a basic but smart and functional phone for an older relative the Nokia 1 is ideal. It’s a quality starter phone without spending the big bucks.

Given the low price compared to other smartphones it hardly oozes ‘cheap’, it’s a neat little bit of kit and if you aren’t bothered about an all singing and dancing phone then you’d be fine with one of these.

Don’t get one of these if you want to use the camera for anything special, the images taken in low level light aren’t that great, but I wouldn’t expect anything special for a phone that costs £59.00.

I like the fact that you can remove the battery, this might not matter initially, but down the line when the performance drops you can just replace the battery yourself without a costly repair. This makes it a really cost effective option for a smartphone. The battery life on a new Nokia 1 is really good, so far so good, we’ve been impressed with what we’ve seen.

The other way you can use this phone is instead of a tablet for children as it’s easy to hold in little hands. You can pop a few learning apps on it or You Tube Kids even and they can quickly learn to use it themselves. It’s easy to pop in a bag or pocket for when you need a quick distraction.

The screen size is perfectly adequate for most everyday tasks if you want to use it as your primary device.

• 4.5-inch 854 x 480 display
• 5MP + 2MP camera
• 8GB internal storage (expandable via microSD)

If you are looking for a small quality phone, then give this little Nokia a thought. Neat, easy to hold, good battery life and quick and easy to set up. It’s a winner.