The Nokia 5140i is a ruggedized phone released back in early 2005. It has Internet access as well as a quirky list of features. See Cnet’s review for a full description. I purchased my phone back in May 2005.
I am pretty hard on cell phones. When I was working in LA, I had a NexTel flip phone. I saw first-hand the limitations of the flip phone design. There were many phones that were dropped and broke at the hinge. This is why I gravitate towards candy bar style phones.
In addition to the phone capabilities, the 5140i has a few other features that I use on a regular basis. The one I use the most is the LED flashlight. As a computer professional, I can’t say how many times I’ve used the phone to light the back end of a rack full of computers to trace down a cable connection or read a serial number.
Opera Mini
The i in 5140i means the phone has Internet browsing capabilities, via WAP 2.0. The Nokia built-in browser is useful for only a small subset of web sites. After downloading Opera Mini on to the phone, I have found far fewer problematic web sites.
A few months ago, Opera Mini said version 4.2 was available as an update. I proceeded to download the update and try to install it, but every time I got Application error with a detail message of Out of memory.
After a bit of research, I found the phone specifications on the GSM arena web site. The Nokia 5140i has a Java application limit of 128KB, but Opera Mini 4.2 is around 248KB.
I seem to not be able to get version 4.1 anymore, so I’ve now switched way back to version 3.1, which is only 98KB. This works for most of the stuff I do with Opera Mini, checking out cycling news results when I’m out waiting for someone. I used to test out TUSK mobile with 4.1, but I have yet to see how 3.1 works.
Replacing the 5140i
I was thinking that the Sonim XP1 or XP3 would be my future replacement for the Noika 5140i. The phones do not support Java and the expensive price have convinced me to look elsewhere. Very recently, Samsung has announced the B2100 Xplorer. It meets the same ruggedized specifications as the XP3, but it costs significantly less and supports Java.