David M. Berriman says:

The Nokia 1661 can be had for less than $20 at Amazon and at other retailers. Find it on sale for $15 from time to time. At either price point, it is an absolute value, particularly if you enjoy listening to the radio on a regular basis, as I do. I’ve been through a multitude of “pocket radios” over the years and, by and large, they are all junk…especially the ones made and sold by RS. This little Nokia 1661 cell phone does a better job of being a radio than 90% of pocket radios available, imo. It simply works and has not developed any problems with the headset…no static, no volume control issues…no tuning issues….nothing. Granted, it’s only been 5 months since I got it, but many of the RS radios were either trashed or had developed issues by then. So, as an FM radio (bummer no AM), the Nokia 1661 is rock-solid. As a phone, it is also good…but with one or two “nitpicks”. One, the ring tones on this phone are lame, lame and lamer. They’re either not loud enough or simply obnoxious-sounding. My old Nokia had a nice, resonant (warm) tone that you could hear comfortably and easily, whether close or at a distance. With this one, I have to pick the loudest, most obnoxious-sounding trance tone to hear it if I’m anywhere with noise. And if you’re somewhere where it’s deathly quiet…like an elvator, or a library, (or a funeral home), such a tone is just an annoyance. The only other “complaint” I have is that the voice quality on calls could be better. It’s not “bad”, by any means. And I use the earpiece exclusively so it’s usually pretty good…but even then, unless you can get the earpiece in nice and tight, you may have a little trouble hearing in noisy places as the volume maximum leaves a little to be desired. All in all, this phone has been a nice surprise as both a reliable, super-small phone and as a great FM pocket radio. There are numerous other features also. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for an inexpensive (not cheap) cell phone for the Pay As You Go T-Mobile plan.
Rating: 4 / 5