Nokia 6600, what a trackpoint, zoom cam and large screen can achieve
Written: Aug 05 '04
Product Rating:
Pros: large screen
trackpoint
java
large crisp screen
2 position zoom camera
Cons: - slow processor
- sometimes unclear, illogic interface
- noisy plastic body
The Bottom Line: This phone is a nice colour screen, zoom picture, video companion with lots of features packed, IR, Bluetooth. If you're not afraid by the size go for it.
I had the opportunity to replace for over a month my communicator (see my review of 9210) with this handset.
At first sight, although a little bit bulky for a telephone handset, the large screen, camera and trackpoint browsing button hold a good promise for a machine packed with a lot of functionality. It is not very heavy, though.
Communication wise, this handset has quite a lot of possibilities: IR, Bluetooth plus expansion capabilities through (yet another, non standard MMC) flash card. Don't hope to exchange the card with similar format communicator's one, both type of cards aren't compatible.
This leaves at least some room for installing more applications, however the packed in software is not bad at all. Calendar, to do's, contact management with thumbnails, notes, video, notes... See the below specs for a full list.
Talk time is relatively short, therefore mobile power-users will need a car charger to be really comfy on the go, and take the charger with them to the hotel.
Full Specifications
Here is an overview of the 6600 specifications:
Weight: 122 g (6600), 125 g (6620)
Dimensions: 108.6 x 58.2 x 23.7mm, 113cc
Standby time: 150-240 hrs
Talk time: 2-4 hrs
Key features: 6600: Integrated digital camera with zoom, Video recorder with audio support, Streaming video and audio, Wireless connectivity with Bluetooth and infrared, 6 MB internal memory, Memory card slot for additional user memory and applications, Supports Java MIDP 2.0 applications, Data synchronization with PC via PC Suite, Tri-band operation in GSM E900/1800/1900 networks. 6620 additionally: high-speed EDGE (EGPRS) connection up to 118 kbps, built-in MP3/AAC player and stereo sound, 12 MB internal memory 32 MB memory card bundled, PopPort USB connector
Preinstalled applications:
Phone (earphone, loudspeaker phone, hands free set)
Contacts base
Messaging: SMS, MMS, E-mail
WAP/XHTML browser
Calendar/organiser
Notepad
Digital camera and Photo album
Digital recorder
Games
AAC/MP3 player (6620 only)
Additional applications can be installed via network, Bluetooth, Infrared
Technical data:
Tri-band phone: EGSM 900/1800/1900 MHz (6600), 850/1900/1800 MHz (6620)
32-bit RISC CPU based on ARM-9 series, 104 MHz
Symbian OS v7.0s operating system, Series 60 2.0 User Interface
Multitasking
Data transmission: HSCSD upto 43,2 kbps, GPRS upto 40,2 kbps (6600). EDGE 118 kbps (6620 only).
Connectivity: IrDA and Bluetooth (6600). 6620 also USB (PopPort).
Storage memory: 6 MB Flash for user data and applications (6600), 12 MB Flash (6620)
Storage expansion: MultiMedia Cards (MMC), up to 128 MB. The 6620 comes with 32 MB MMC card.
Advanced power management and low power consumption
T9 technology for typing text using phone keyboard in all applications
Illuminated high-contrast, full-graphics color display (176x208 pixels, 35x41 mm, 65,536 colors)
Supported e-mail protocols:
POP3 and IMAP4
SMTP
Integrated digital camera:
Still pictures: 640 x 480 pixel resolution; standard, portrait, and night modes; 2x digital zoom; self-timer
Video capture: Video Recorder: Select picture size QCIF (176x144) or subQCIF (128x96); audio on/off; 2x digital zoom
Video playback: RealOne Player; Playback and stream RealMedia and 3GPP-compliant content
Phone display used as a viewfinder
Photo album
Voice features:
Voice dialing
Voice commands
Voice recorder
Integrated handsfree speaker
Browsing:
Advanced XHTML browser
Wallet: Convenient online use and storage of your numbers and passwords
Java technology:
Downloadable Java MIDP 2.0 applications
Sound:
6600: mono
6620: stereo
Phone features
Nice features are the hands-free mode which is working fine, volume level is strong enough to make it a precious feature. Beware, however that the mode must be activated through the interface which seems a dumb thing to say but you'll have to look a bit into it while your recipient waits on the other side and you may end up with hanging up during the first test :)
Menu navigation
As more features are being packed in mobile phones, the outside interfaces do not change much apparently, which has you browsing in the menus rather than using direct buttons. This is the case as well with the 6600, however you can configure your own, quick launch application pad which is a nice feature.
When installing applications they all come in the 'root' of the application menu. When you want to classify them there is a procedure which is a bit fastidious to learn in order to classify your apps.
Games
The general quality of the supplied games is acceptable, but those that are written in Java require a long loading time. Controls and especially side-features can be annoying, such as games you don't have clear and direct control over volume, therefore my advice would be not to go to the public library to test all the games you downloaded and installed.
Installing applications is easy as of all Symbian based devices, however if you browse around for applications, you'll have to be careful since many applications for the 6600 also have been designed for other phones as well.
Therefore looking for tips on how to desinstall and get the memory and launchpads free again will probably be the next thing you will be busy with, after trying out a few games and apps.
What's nice but shows the shadows...
Now one really nice feature which Nokia apparently did not think about is... book reading in text mode. This large screen device is strangely enough, a really nice base to do that. You can get copyright-free books from the Project Gutenberg's website (for free of course-Aloha!;-), and read them with the preinstalled notepad.
Now there are a few drawbacks to this:
- There is no handy way to switch between running applications and that is very annoying in this case, therefore I hope at this moment a task manager is being written or already published. If it is, get it, it's one of the expansions the 6600's system really needs.
- Being a simple notepad, there is no memory or bookmarks, nor page indication, therefore finding where you were can only through a find, and this can happen since the 6600 system does hang from time to time. Boot time is a good 45sec to a minute.
I'm not a Symbian developer, but this feature would definently be something very useful.
Online Communities and 6600 software
Now, to be really critical, since the 6600 is not really a PDA, on the choice of applications to download, there is about everything you can find but honestly speaking not a lot of really helpful stuff as you can find for more business oriented phones such as the communicator.
This can be fine if you like games, but then you'll be annoyed by the slow processor, and the playability is a relatively bad cross-breeding between bad flash games and a flavour of ZX spectrum or Commodore emulation on the control side.
But, hey, I haven't been looking for pearls here since it was not my interest, there should be a few nice games out there, but it requires a selection process that is unfortunately polluted by an ackward games/ringtone-selling website community, which only specific feature is to:
- be so numerous on Google's pages (shall I say chapters)
- be able to drown the users in lists of applications which no proper rating or evaluation
This, for once, had me simply give up looking for nice games.
On the utility side, things are a bit better if you know what you are looking for. Although I don't like too much manufacturer's intervention on the web, in this case maybe the situation has grown a little out of control to the cost of the end-user, which is probably something Nokia should try a control just a bit better next time.
The point here is that when you are getting a mobile such as the 6600 these days, you also inherit of it's online user/developper community, so one thing you would like to check is how this eventually evolves since I have made this test at the beginning of 2004 and extended it a bit more by May. Consider these comments as a snapshot and go see for yourself, considering what you are looking for.
Camera, pictures and video clips
Now this feature works quite fine on this handset. The resolution is OK, the quality of the pictures is not too bad for a mobile phone, and it's nice to play back the videos on the handset. The quality can help you make points, by showing a specific situation, being with your friend's or in some business cases. The sound take is also quite good, to my experience, therefore you can really capture a moment's atmosphere since if the resolution is limited the sound can make up for the rest.
The pictures suffers from grainyness which is quite high, and the colours are pale comparing to the original, which makes them looking a bit fuzzy. Well if you're an artist in the mind maybe you can take advantage of these downsides, but if you use one of your pictures as deskop wallpaper, don't expect something crisp. It won't use the screen's maximum at best... if you can get what the point is here.
The zoom is a X2 switch basically. X2 is not a bad zoom level, and the image quality remains about the same when using it.
Connectivity
Bluetooth can be enabled, disabled quite easily and you have status icons showing on the screen. You can see/browse active devices and set passwords, which satisfied me for basic use.
It is possible to transter files easily through IR without the PC suite. The handsfree dongle is not a standard one, as of previous models.
Sound
The polyphonic loudspeaker is not too bad, it's actually a pitty the 6600 is mono, not stereo, since you can download and play MP3's on it, by installing an MP3 player which is available for the 6600. It does give an incomplete but still representative sound of the song's sound depth. I used Thievery Corporation's 'Air Batucada' if I remember well. It gave out the latin warm atmosphere, which is not bad for a mobile not intended at that - the only issue is that one would expect this headset to be stereo, where it is not.
Summary
The mobile menu is simple to use but a little confusing in the beginning. Pushing the stick brings the address book, you have the quicklaunch menu. It's worth to spend a bit of time studying the menu's path to get to understand the philosophy. Once you get it this phone does his job in a relatively nice and even stylish manner.
Like you can realise it from my review list, I like cross-breed devices. The 6600 is that as well since it is a phone with a PDA flavour. And that's what it is in practice.
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