One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
Member since:21.06.2005
Reviews:41
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NOKIA Nokia is a multinational telecommunications company. The business was born in Finland in the 1960's and is now a worldwide manufacturer of mobile phones. Most people remember the old classic Nokia 3210, quite heavy with its redeeming feature being snake. Since then Nokia has come a long way and I've had several Nokia phones in my time: the good old 3210, a 6210 which was originally intended for business and had a huge memory, a cute 6233 with a 2megapixel camera along with many other features, and finally a 6500 slide.
WHY/HOW I GOT IT A couple of years ago a company called 'future phones' called me and I set up a contract with them for a 6233 on the 3 network. I previously had an LG 3 phone, which I loved, but it had broken and it was time for another. When my contract with the 6233 was about to end I was contacted again and offered an upgrade. After hearing about several phones I decided the 6500 slide was the best option for me. I embarked upon another 18-month contract of £28 a month (250 texts, 200 minutes).
FIRST IMPRESSIONS When my new phone arrived the next day I was very impressed. The box was compact with everything I needed in it: phone (duh), charger, USB cable, memory card, instruction booklet, guarantee, computerinstallation CD, tv-out cable. The phone looks very sleek and although possibly not the most flash-looking on the market, it's certainly not ugly. It's just
the right size (I hate tiny phones which looks like they'd disappear through the floorboards) and mine is black and silver so it looks nice. I had a little read of the manual while my phone charged for 3 hours and I turned it on. The friendly Nokia tune and an image of an adult's hand holding a child's greeted me. Seeing this, I was impressed with the quality and brightness of the screen. I thought my 6233 was good, but this was better. The phone is reasonably heavy, but this is understandable seeing as it's casing is made from brushed stainless steel. It's not an anchor in your pocket though, and I actually find the weight quite comforting. This was my first ever sliding phone and I was quite excited as I slid it open and pleased to find it slid smoothly. The buttons underneath (0-9, *, + and #) are compact but easily accessible and have just the right sensitivity. When the phone is shut the menu, call, end call and arrow buttons are still accessible. When the phone is shut and any chosen screen saver ends, the phone locks itself and the screen lights up when it does this. Quite nice and reassuring to know that I won't be dialling anyone's numbers by accident even though I have forgotten to lock it!
STANDARD FEATURES I was very pleased to find that the menu was almost identical to that of my old phone. When you press menu a grid of icons appears and you use the arrow keys to navigate amongst them and open applications/folders. I was only a little miffed to find that the 'log' and 'Apps.' icons had swapped places, but I soon got used to that. The first thing I did was to check out the camera and video camera. It loaded up fast and has exactly the same layout and features as my old phone...the only difference was that the quality had improved from 2megapixels up to 3.2! (See examples of pictures uploaded from my phone at the end of the review). The camera also has 8X zoom and a double LED flash (its blinkin' bright). Calling from this phone couldn't be easier. You simply type in the number or find it under the contact menu and press the button on the front keypad, which is lit up green. When you want to end the call you press the red one...easy! While you are in a call you can put the caller on hold, navigate through all the menus, put them on speakerphone and even video call them. Messaging is also easy. It has predictive text, multimedia messaging (you can send pictures), email, inbox, outbox, voice messages and video messages. When you write a message there is a scroll bar at the bottom with which you can choose any of these options. I have had around 150 messages in my inbox and outbox at one point and never had any problems.
SPECIAL FEATURES So what sets this phone apart from all the rest? There are a few features that I think make it a great phone. The brushed stainless steel case that I mentioned earlier not only looks pretty snazzy but also it protects against scratching. All my phones in the past have become horribly scratched within the first few months but I have had this phone for 3 months and it only has one visible scratch on the back. Speaking of the back; there are the words 'Carl Zeiss Tessar 2.8/4/5 3.2 megapixel' etched underneath the camera and flash. I'm guessing this is the name of the guy who designed the camera...good on Carl! The 6500 can also be connected to a TV so that the user can watch videos and view pictures and share them with others. How to do this is well documented in the manual and is actually not very difficult at all. This phone also features stereo widening. Now I have looked everywhere on the internet to find out what this is- but nowhere seems to tell you in simple terms so I'll leave you to figure it out! Along with a great camera, tv-out capability and a brushed steel case, the phone has a great quality, interactive FM radio (you can access info on certain radio channels), loud stereo and a media player.
USABILITY As I said before, the menu on the phone is identical to that of recent previous Nokia's and I find it very easy to use and navigate. There are 9 main folders on the
Pictures of Nokia 6500 Slide
Photo taken in negative
menu screen (web, media, settings, applications, messaging, gallery, organiser, contacts and log) and by selecting each one you are taken to subfolders which you can scroll through to find the relevant process. Having the menu buttons on the phone while the phone is 'unslid' (shut) means you can still navigate around the menus without accidentally pushing buttons. WARNING: Simply sliding the phone shut while you make a call doesn't end it! You need to press 'end call'. So watch out before you make any comments when you think you've finished your conversation :P The ONLY qualm I have about this phone is that sometimes the buttons don't respond and I have to press them a couple of times to get to where I want. This usually occurs when I'm spelling a word to put in my messaging dictionary. Maybe I just have a problem with the buttons, but it does get a little annoying.
ROBUSTNESS I've had problems with a lot of my phones when I drop them. One which was especially bad for this was my Sony Ericcson which would turn off if I even bumped it lightly against something...meaning I had to take the battery out, replace it and start the phone up several times a day. With the Nokia 6500 this problem has ended! I must have dropped it on hard floors at least 5 times and at no point does it turn off or crash. I'm only 5 foot 2 though so it doesn't have far to travel....
CONNECTIVITY (PC, BLUETOOTH) I'm one of those geeks who takes millions of photos and uploads them onto facebook the second I get in the house. Having the Nokia PC suite installed on my PC means I just have to connect my phone to my laptop using a USB cable and away I go! You can view videos, pictures, contacts, messages and music through the connection and transfer any file. This means that if I take too many photos or videos and my phone memory is getting full, I can just transfer the files to my laptop and free up some space on the memory card. Like most phones nowadays, it also has bluetooth and infra red capability by which you can send photos, messages and contacts to other phones. I don't use this feature much but when I have done it's been a quick and simple process.
INTERNET I'm not sure how the Internet works for this phone when it's being used through a different network from 3. On the 6500 screen there is an option in the bottom right hand corner that says 'planet 3' and all I have to do is press the button below it to be taken to the free 3 website and I navigate from there.
INSTRUCTION BOOKLET Nokia's instruction booklets are always good, with extensive detail and relevant information. I only read through mine briefly when I got the phone but there's a lot in there that I don't know about the 6500. The only problem with the booklet is that it doesn't tell you how long the first charge of the phone should be. I went trawling through sites on the Internet and came up with the conclusion that nobody really knows how long batteries should be charged for and just charged mine for 3 hours.
BATTERY LIFE The battery on my phone usually lasts about 3 days. This suits me fine, as the only time I need a long battery life is when I go to a 4-day festival. When you charge it up from empty it usually only takes about 2-3 hours until the battery is completely full. It's said that once a battery is fully charged, its bad to keep charging it as it weakens battery life...so don't leave it plugged in all night. NOTE: As I said earlier, my initial charge was 3 hours, I don't know what the batteries are like when charged for more or less...but this amount of time worked great for me.
When I'm using the internet or in a call for quite a while (an hour or so) the battery is usuallu nearly empty from being full. I think this is standard for most phones but I'm not sure.
AVAILABILITY Going into any phone shop on your local high street should prove fruitful in getting hold of this phone. Even if they don't stock it I'm sure you would be able to order it. The phone is available in Bronze, silver, black or black and silver. If you are buying this phone outside of a contract (i.e. you want to have it on Pay as You Go) then the handset costs around £150 all the way up £239...so shop around!
OVERALL OPINION Having had a few bad experiences with mobiles in the past, I was reluctant to try a new one after my 6233. However, when I received the 6500 I was very pleasantly surprised. It has a lot of very useful and exciting features all of which work well. It's easily navigated around and its basic functions (messaging, calling) are fantastic. I highly recommend it!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Very detailed. Excellent review. Just got this phone and i really like the look of it.
becky_tredget 19.04.2008 23:40
Great, detailed review. Have another E :o)
egan-wegan 15.04.2008 20:15
Nice detailed review which addressed everything that you would want to know before purchasing. Very infomative and well writen. Oh yeah, in the review it mentions that you canot end the call by shutting the phone but you can by going to settings-->call-->slide call handling.
Advantages: can drop it and it won't turn off all the time Disadvantages: mainly batterly life, unclear sound, heavy, low memory, junk buttons and more
fuckthisphone 30.05.2008 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: not helpful
Review of Nokia 6500 Slide
Advantages: Integrates seamlessly with laptops, ability to push emails, good user interface, aesthetic design Disadvantages: Bluetooth limitations, Battery Life when using all functions, limited to one mobile phone network
pysgodfish 28.07.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
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