Nokia 6700 Classic

Prelude

I had the opportunity to get my hands on a spanking new Nokia 6700 Classic lately. While I am so used to Nokia mobile phones, I would not mind having another go at another Nokia mobile phone. With me is the Nokia 6700 Classic on Virgin Mobile.

I don't have much criticisms about this mobile phone but I do have lots of praises for it. To me, the Nokia 6700 Classic is a medium range phone, much like the Nokia N95 8GB but without the big screen, wi-fi and the spacious keyboard. However, not many people will agree with me. Most of them would compare the Nokia 6700 Classic to the Nokia Sirocco but in a lite version.Anyway, I'm going to give a review about this mobile phone.

The Nokia 6700 Classic

From the start, I had to recharge the mobile phone for 8 hours before I started playing with it. The 970mAh BL-6Q battery is quite strong for the phone. It lasted more than two days after moderate use (less than 30 minutes on the phone per day; running fring for around one hour a day and sending and receiving text messages all day long). It is amazing that a battery so small could hold up to two days worth of beating. I'm sure that if I were to take too many pictures, the phone's standby time and talktime will be reduced significantly. That will be another topic which is to be discussed.

5MP Digital Camera with Autofocus and LED flash

After recharging the battery for first time use, I have started to play with its functions. I was quite impressed with its 5MP camera onboard the mobile phone with autofocus and LED flash. After comparing it to the pictures which I have taken on my Nokia E72, I have to say that both cameras produced the same level of quality in its images taken with the onboard LED flash. Pictures taken using the Nokia 6700 Classic is snappy and it is so much easier to do so as compared to the Nokia E72 but hey, the E72 is not a multimedia focused device anyway. I'm pretty impressed with the 6700 Classic's performance.

Video recording on the 6700 Classic is as expected at 15 frames per second. It is not as good as the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic as the 5800 XM could record movies at 30 frames per second. The 5800 XM is also using a Carl Zeiss optics lens too. Overall, I'm satisfied with the video quality of the Nokia 6700 Classic. It is alright but not brilliant as you have to expect jerkiness if you move too much.

PIM Services

Leaving the 5MP digital camera, I turned to its PIM services. It is quite standard for a Symbian S40 device. Since I'm quite used to it, I have to say that a user will not need to remember the menu too much if they are used to the Nokia 6500/6600 range. It is almost the same and you will not need to look into your instruction manual. It has bluetooth 2.1 with EDR but it does not have infra red. I think there is no such a need for infra red anymore as bluetooth is sufficient.

The Nokia 6700 Classic comes with a 2.2 inch screen which supports 16 Million colous. Althouh the screen is rather small as compared to the mighty N95 8GB or even the N96 and N97, it is lighter in weight than most of the N series mobile phones. As for its radio chip, it supports quadband GSM and triband UTMS. I'm loving it!! It will surely help when you are a frequent traveller to the USA. It helps a lot!

Data Capabilities

The next item which I would like to talk about is the 6700 Classic's data capabilities. The downlink and uplink speed of the phone is the same as the Nokia E72 - 10.2Mbps/2Mbps. I'm pretty impressed! It is easy to browse on the 6700 Classic when you have 3G service. It is so much faster as compared to the first generation of 3G mobile which only offered a maximum downlink speed of 3.2Mbps. You can also perform video calls and I have to say that the quality is not as good as the good old Nokia N95 8GB. Probably because the 6700 Classic does not have the multimedia chip inbuild onboard the N95 8GB.

Adding additional memory is a breeze as you can add up to 16GB of memory through the microsd slot available on the phone. A typical 16GB microsd card will settle you for around £39 if you look around on ebay. Bravo to Nokia!

A-GPS

A Nokia 6700 Classic customer will be able to utilise its inbuild A-GPS chip through Nokia's Ovi Maps. Ovi maps are superb although it is rather pricey to me. Nevertheless, the Satellite Navigation on the Nokia 6700 Classic is superb. Ovi maps ran flawlessly.

What can I say about the Nokia 6700 Classic? It is brilliant as it has e-mail facility. You can send or receive your work e-mails too from the Nokia 6700 Classic. With the brilliant keypad, I don't see that it is a problem for anyone who wants to use the Nokia 6700 Classic for a long time though, taking into account that the Nokia 6700 Classic is sturdy and the back cover of the phone could be used as a mirror!!!

Last word on the Nokia 6700 Classic...

If you want to buy a mid range Nokia phone, think no further but the Nokia 6700 Classic. Although it has aits own shortcomings as it only runs on the Symbian S40 OS and it only has a 2.2 inch screen and it does not support wi-fi, it is still the better phone to own right now if you are not the touchscreen type of person...It is also very user friendly...just like a Nokia which you expect it to be! I like to use it along with my Nokia E72 as the Nokia 6700 Classic uses the same charger head as the E72 and I don't need to buy another charger to charge the 6700 Classic!