Radical Review
Written: Oct 11 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast, decent connectivity
Cons: Nokia suite, getting old
The Bottom Line: Racomended to anybody who needs more than a phone. Get a external memory card
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| eiapoce's Full Review: |
The Phone
This is a not so recent nokia phone but I think nevertheless deserves a brief review. It comes in the usual Candybar shape, slightly rounded at the bottom. As the model number shows starting with a leading ׄ” it is aimed at the prosumer market. It has a integrated camera rated at 1.3 Mpixels, a speaker phone, and of course a dreaded nokia pop port for connecting accessories like headphones and PCs for data transfer (more on that later). The screen is nice and it runs the Symbian S60 old flavour (Skinnable by the user). It claims a internal memory of around 8Mb, plus a mandatory RS-MMC card that you are going to need to store almost anything.
The phone has been also marketed as a MP3 device for some time in spite of its integrated mediaplayer. Of course this is a little more than a marketing stunt since there is no headphone socket and you are forced to listen through the provided headset which is simply a disappointing experience.
There are the usual nokia gizmos around the unit: a light sensor, a speakerphone/vocal command button, dedicated symbian controls and the keypad.
Call Quality
Standard calls are handled pretty well with no reception problems. No complaints to make. Video Calls on the other hand are impossible unless you are against a mirror, it lacks the front webcam and uses the one on the rear.
Battery Life
On the average 4 days on standby with moderate use. However if you use additional features it drops dramatically up to 1hour (modem use) or 2 Hour (Gps Navigation). I don’t do games any more so can’t comment on that. Just suffice to say that I go around with a spare battery in case I need the navigation.
Processor Power
Processor power on this phone is more than decent. Since it is a UMTS device it has the requirements needed to perform a dual way video call (more on that later). This translates into a beneficial speed increase for all the symbian applications that you may run. I noticed the difference in performance upgrading from my previous phone.
Symbian included software
The phone comes loaded with good software. Of course there is the camera option and the usual contacts and agenda stuff. The organizer folder is actually one of the most pleasing. There is a File Manager and a Portfolio Program to keep your password and sensitive notes encrypted. There is also a way to backup your internal memory and settings to a RS-MMC (Guess that the provided 64MB card is just for this).
On the media side there is a video editor and some other utilities. Well I couldn’t care less. Video quality is the usual 3G stuff, simply disappointing. As for the casual pictures you might get from a phone they are so bad that just in case I would edit them from my PC. The media reader is still a Realplayer. There is a web browser and it is up to the task most of the times, but most of the time you will use some other program for specialised tasks rather than a minibrowser
Additional Programs
Here you have the best out of symbian! You can get lots of software and usually the most useful is even FREE!
Google offers a version of Gmail that runs native from the 6630. It is very cheap on bandwidth so that if you are on a plan that makes you pay for KB it is very recommended. Then there is a Version of Google Maps that also runs native from the symbian OS, I don’t think this is going to be cheap as well for the bandwidth.
Then here it comes Fing!!! http://www.fring.com/ is a IM client that runs nicely even on this phone. It will connect to many networks including MSN and SKYPE! When you have a flat rate data plan in areas covered by 3G you can make free skype calls to your contacts just using the phone without the need for a PC!
And since Nokia still didn’t include the idea on phones there is the anti-nicking program called Phonesecure from wildpalm which basically checks if the SIM is yours and in case of a stranger sim sends you a SMS. http://www.wildpalm.co.uk/PhoneSecure.html
The phone also runs the TOM TOM software. You will need of course the software and a bluetooth GPS receiver. Be careful that in this configuration it needs almost all of the internal memory clean of other programs, else it reboots without notice.
Connectivity
Connectivity is very good. This phone runs on almost all networks in Europe (at least where I tried it). Since it is a first generation UTMS it downloads data at a maximum speed of 380Kbps and uploads at around 200Kbps (not that quite sure about the upload). I had it hooked to a PC via the nokia suite and by bluetooth to a Mac. Bandwidth was enough to place a decent two way skype call with video.
I don’t know how much my version of the 6630 has been crippled by TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) but I can’t connect the other way round (Internet – to PC – To phone) as I did with my previous N-Gage.
Computer interaction
On the Mac this is a breeze. The integrated bluetooth of my macbook really shines. When you pair the phone it automatically gets recognized in iSync and it puts all stuff right into iCal and Contacts. Even profile pictures get updated. The only drawback is that on Mac you don’t get internal memory access even if you connect with the cable. Surfing the internet using the phone as a modem is possible and easy. The main problem being the phone’s battery that in this configuration lasts 1 hour at best.
On the PC connectivity is horrible. You have to install the latest nokia suite which is a resource hog. Installs several processes on the windows os and then each one of them needs external connections to be authorized if you happen to run a firewall. Nokia really made a sloppy program and any task is difficult. Even following its instructions and going through the install hell it’s not possible to get a full phone backup at least on my PC. To make things short. I needed a card reader and transferring files manually to the RS-MMC is much easier, faster, reliable and does not klog your machine with unneeded startup stuff.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
eiapoce
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Reviews written: 42
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