Best multimedia phone

I got my Nokia 6600 for Christmas. It is in addition to the Nokia 3510i I already have.

The phone is only slightly heavier and bigger than my 3510i, but then the screen is bigger so it has to be. My main gripe is with the buttons, which when texting due to the fact they are all flush, it is all too easy to press one key instead of the other, so I can’t text as fast as I can on my older phone. I’m very aware of the large and fragile screen, the heart of this phone. Care should be taken to protect this at all times. The joystick allows quick and easy navigation of menus, one of the best features of the phone.

I wanted this phone because of its video and photo taking abilities. With 6 megabytes of internal memory to play with, plus some of the 32 MB card it comes with, there is plenty of storage space. But beware this phone is not a camcorder. The software limits video clips to 10 seconds in duration, which can be annoying. It takes time to save a clip before you can start recording again. Software is available to join clips together, but you have to pay for this and is available as a trial on the memory card. Pictures are of good enough quality given the inherent limitations of the 640 * 480 resolution, but again beware, as there is no flash pictures can only be taken in fairly good light conditions although there is a low light exposure mode. On the normal setting I’ve taken 200 pictures of the inside of my bag accidentally. You don’t need a USB bluetooth connection to print pictures. Simply register on the Kodak website, and use the application they provide to send your pictures to the Internet and print them. Of course remember that you are charged for every kilobyte you send. The sound recorder is able to record phone conversations as well as being a Dictaphone but the maximum duration of any one recording is one minute again limiting its usefulness. The Opera Internet browser allows viewing of full sized Internet pages and images in colour. The only site I can’t seem to access is my bank account which I think requires addition security protocols. Don’t get too carried away and run up your phone bill. The call register is a very useful feature. The call counter is common to most Nokia’s and logs total outgoing, incoming and GPRS bytes sent and received, useful for checking how many of this months free minutes, but in addition logs every call you data and voice you send and receive, the time and date of each call, whether in or out, and the duration for the last month. The other features of this phone such as the calendar, To-do list, contacts list, messaging ability are all examples of why in my opinion Nokia leads the way in mobile phone applications. A you can personalise the fonts, colours and even design the wallpaper for the phone from a photograph taken using the camera.

Only 2 come with the phone. Snake E.X and a slider puzzle which like the wallpaper can use photos you have taken as the picture to be assembled. These are quite poor in relation to what the phone is truly capable of. On the memory card you get a trial version of Pinball, which makes full use of the colours and pixels available on the screen. You can of course download games from the Internet.

I haven’t a bluetooth headset or USB connection but the phone is backwards compatible with the standard Nokia charger and non-wireless headsets.

Having a large colour screen is with its many applications; this phone is going to use the battery. I’ve had 2 days use out of it before recharging, which is fine considering I use the photo and video capture ability heavily. Using the phone only as a phone should yield longer standby times, perhaps up to 5 days.