Review of Nokia 6500 Classic: AfterthoughtRecently we have introduced you the review of Nokia 6500 Slide. As you remember, the article ended with our promise not to delay a review of another very interesting Finnish model, which is likely to have one of the best sales among Nokia devices in 2008.However, its main advantages will be discussed in our review, but now we’d like to remember you that our today’s guest is Nokia 6500 Classic. Some of you may think that the models with the same index (this time it is 6500) slightly differ in design or in some functional features. Yes, previously this guess could be true. But nowadays Nokia makes its customers accustom to different style of naming devices. Since now, they have been betting not on the indexes, but on a series name. As a matter of fact, you have already seen this solution, but may attach no importance to it. If we trace back the Nokia models appeared for the last several years, we can single out the definite series. They are as follows: Classic (Nokia 3109/3110, Nokia 6500, Nokia 6120), Sport (Nokia 5500), Navigator (Nokia 6110), Music (Nokia 5300, Nokia 5310, Nokia 5700), Slide (Nokia 6500, Nokia 6280, Nokia 6270). Here we can also name some peculiar obscure series, for example, Nokia E90 Communicator. But today we are not going to talk over the marketing strategy of the company, though to know the aforementioned facts is undoubtedly useful. We’d like to convince our readers, that the same index in the phone name doesn’t mean the similar models. You should attentively read the name of the series, as it will be the basic factor, as Nokia is to stick to this policy. As to our guest, you are sure to guess that Nokia 6500 Slide and Nokia 6500 Slide are diverse cellular phones aimed at different groups of customers. It is interesting how Nokia 6500 Classic appeared in the market. If you glance over the all series of the Finnish giant, you don’t find models with pretensions to the overwhelming slimness. The slim-fans were carried away by Samsung and Motorola devices. There is no denying, these vendors made their names producing ultra slim handsets. It may seem to readers that Nokia has always gone its own way without yielding to the everybody’s fad. Actually, it isn’t true. The Finnish giant didn’t miss this opportunity and 2005 saw Nokia change their product strategy. But to do that they had to take drastic measures. The chief designer, the famous Frank Nuovo, who launched in Nokia dozens of very interesting handsets, had to resign. Nevertheless, since then we observe the drastic changes in the plans of the company. In the result, some of you have already use Nokia 6300, which became the bestseller among the middle-priced phones due to design, utilized materials and good functionality. But few of us know that the design of Nokia 6500 Classic was worked out at the same time with Nokia 6300. At one time somebody was lucky to see the pilot models of these handsets made of a simple plastic. Of course, the hardwares of the devices are different, and the time when they appeared in the market also strongly differs. But it is interesting, that the main design solutions of the phones are similar and appeared almost in the same day. But let’s follow our theme. Our today’s material is devoted to Nokia 6500 Classic, which should come in sales long time ago and is likely to become an interesting thing to talk over. Why? Let’s see. Sales Package The Classic ships in the box designed in the same manner as the one we saw Nokia 6500 Slide in. The only difference is that it becomes a bit smaller. But it is not surprising, as the dimensions of the handset allow to pack it in the smaller box.  When opened it, we found a thin user guide that is inherent in all top-stylish devices like Nokia 8800. This guide relates in a very vague way the main advantages of the handset. This guide becomes a common thing to some cellular phones of the company. As to the sales package itself it contain the following things:
Being a middle-priced phone, it has rather good sales package. The only thing we miss a case, which can be found in Nokia 6300. Some of our readers may notice the absence of a usual memory card, but the latter can’t be here, as the device lacks the corresponding slot. But we’d like to calm you, as it isn’t a great drawback of this handset. Though, let’s not hurry, later you’ll learn everything.  We’d also like to mention the headset HS-82. Besides the control pad allowing you to receive calls, as well as to adjust volume, the headset boasts about a handy stripe with a length regulator.  Besides, the wires have a bribe making the headset more eye-catching and protecting it from breaks.   So, after we’ve checked out the sales package, it’s time to put it aside and look at our guest Nokia 6500 Classic. Believe us it deserves the most careful look. Appearance. Design Those, who happened to hold Nokia 6500 Classic in their hands, noted, that the design of the device features few familiar features. This wrong opinion may be caused by a perfunctory look. In fact, the true statement is that the device lost everything reminding a customer about the previous design solutions of the Finnish manufacturer. Don’t forget, that Nokia 6500 Classic was worked out, when the company needed fresh and clearly new changes in its design of cellular phones. That time can be accepted as the start point of a new line of the Nokia phones.  As to our today’s guest, it stands out of its cousins by many criteria. Firstly, the company hypes this solution as the stylish one. Secondly, as well as in case of the previous guest Nokia 6500 Slide, the vendor bets on the utilized materials. These facts are the most important to many buyers.  The phone has the really proper appearance. Here we have the thought-out construction and pronounced design. Nokia 6500 Classic attracts attention not with the shocking or bizarre solution, but with its solid and steady appearance. The phone looks expensive and confident without possibility to be mixed up with its rivals. The main task, namely to match the user style, is performed perfectly.  Moreover, Classic perfectly matches both a business suit and a luxurious evening dress. Besides, you are free to choose among two available colour schemes – black and bronze. The latter scheme is perfect to accompany the fair sex.  Now let’s look at the materials utilized in the device. The manufacturer claims here we have a deal with anodized aluminum casing that is absolutely true. In reality the most elements of the phone are made of aluminum. Which elements are aluminum, we’ll learn a bit later, but now we’d like to note that the chassis of the device are made of this metal.  Another moment , which is worth paying attention to, is a front and rear furnishes. The same as in Nokia 6500 Slide, here we deal with a coarsely polished metal making the furnish clearly felt. This solution just makes the design even more attractive. Nokia emphasizes that there are no similar patterns of the polishing, that’s way each device is absolutely individual. The fact, that Nokia turned the common technological feature into the skilful marketing trick, arouses admiration. But in reality few customers will scrutinize the microscratchings of the polished surface comparing them with the ones on another phone. Nevertheless, in the back of mind the trick works well, as the idea of having a unique handset touches the heart of a user.  Now it is time to put aside our abstract speculations and move to the material values, as our guest has already been waiting too long. Thanks to the good shape of Nokia 6500 Classic, it perfectly fits a hand of an average size. The curved edges of sides and bottom end contribute to the comfort as well. Finally measuring 109.8x45x9.5 it has, in our view, an optimal weight 94 g, that is sufficient to feel it handy in the hand and don’t worry about stretched heavy pockets of clothes.  The built quality is perfect. No squeaks and creaks were found during the test. The construction looks solid and firm. The utilized metal makes you even solider. The front panel of Nokia 6500 Classic is composed in the common way. The display and keypad are marked out by the metalized frame and lie on either side of the logo.  The design of the keypad is rather interesting and matches the whole appearance of the device. The plastic keys are placed in the so-called “in ledges” or “terraced” way (as you wish).  The size of buttons is average and with the juts they are not always handy to be pressed. But it might be only our personal niggle. Other users may find the work with the keypad much handier.  At the same time when pressing keys, you distinctively feel it owing to the clear response and moderate travel distance. The latter causes no problem. A white and even backlit is well visible in the darkness. The navi pad is also very convenient. The broad navi key framing the “OK” button is perfect, as well as the wide soft-keys and call and end buttons.  Above the display you can find a cut hiding an earpiece and light sensor.   The sides are free from any element.  The top houses the microUSB port covered with a rubber plug. This port helps to connect the device with a USB cable or a headset or a charger.  The cable and the headset are fixed in the port very strongly, that’s way it’s occurred to us, as there is no a stripe whole, the phone can be carried on the neck when wired to the headset.  The bottom part of the phone features a microphone pinhole.  The uncovered camera lens is framed by the metalized band. Next to it you find a LED flash and cuts of a system polyphonic loudspeaker.  To get access to the battery you should remove the cover, which is a bottom part of the casing. It is as a cradle put on the chassis of the phone. This solution is rather unusual, and causes no discomfort. Moreover, the cover is fixed very firmly and can be removed easily thanks to wide surface you grab when pulling it down.  After removing the cover, we get access to the sim inserted in a common slot.  As the phone features no slot to the memory cards, the vendor provided the device with a rather impressive amount of the onboard memory. The news about the available 1 GB of RAM is written above the battery compartment.  This is the end of the design review. In conclusion we’d like to note that the Classic can’t be mixed up with other phones due to the successful and memorable design. The device attracts attention and corresponds to its stylish orientation. The utilized metal elements emphasize the high level of the device and make it even more impressive. Functional and Communicational Features Nokia 6500 Classic is a well equipped device. Moreover, being the model of the middle price range its functionality can in most aspects be named as the impeccable one. To begin with, we’d like to note that the cellular phone supports not only all GSM ranges (GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900), but also UMTS (WCDMA 850/2100). The only restriction is caused by the lack of the secondary camera used for video conference. And of course the device can boast about GPRS and EDGE (class 31). We’ve already mentioned that the phone lacks the memory card slot. Instead of it the manufacturer provided rather impressive amount of the onboard memory. To meet user demands the phone ships with about 1GB of RAM. This amount is enough to the most targeted customers of this model. To sync the handset with PC you use as usual the USB connector. As to Nokia 6500 Classic, it features the micro USB socket, which we have already seen in Nokia 8600 Luna and in recently tested Nokia 6500 Slide. The same port is used to wire the headset and the charger. The manufacturer claims it support USB 2.0. In reality the data transfer speed amounts to 500-600 KB/s. When wired to the PC, the battery charges and you can pick one of three available types of connection: USB Mass Storage, PC Suite (Nokia Mode) or modem mode. Nokia 6500 Slide supports EDR –enabled Bluetooth version 2.0 as well as many profiles. They are as follows:
The Bluetooth works well; there is nothing to add to it. The device is equipped with a QVGA (240x320 pixels) display. The TFT-matrix supports up to 16million colours and measures 31x41mm (2”). The peculiarity of the display is the lack of the protecting glass that can be found almost in all cellular phones. It means in Nokia 6500 Classic we have to deal with the “naked” matrix that is prone to the environment. Generally speaking there is nothing bad in it, but we recommend you to put a protecting film on it after you purchase the device. The antiglaring coat is used in the phone making work with it in the sunlight more comfortable. The picture quality is on the same level with the best Nokia devices, you have no problem with it. The colours are bright and rich; the viewing angles are sufficient. You are unable to change the backlit brightness manually, as the ambient light sensor is in charge of it. It works rater well, but in some places we’d like to beef the brightness up. But in the sunlight you don’t face any problem, as a text is readable, an image is well discerned. The on-board polyphonic loudspeaker is placed on the rear fascia. In our view, it works on the same level with other devices of the company. We’d like to add, that the sound is clear even at the maximum. It is loud enough to be heard even in the noisy street. Of course, this feature goes without sayings nowadays.  Nokia 6500 Classic utilizes a standard 830 mAh Li-Ion battery BL-6P. The manufacturer claims the battery is capable to provide up to 215 hours in the stand-by mode and up to 9 hours in the talking mode. In reality being used intensively, the battery runs two days. This result can be estimated as a normal one to the modern device. We can’t but mention that this specification puts the Classic before Nokia 6300, as the latter has a week point concerning time of work. Camera As well as Nokia 6300 our guest is equipped with a 2-megapixel CMOS camera. Nowadays this solution looks a bit out-of-date and doesn’t stand out of the rival handsets, though it is powerful enough to the middle-class models. Nevertheless it is inherent in the company, which has an accurate bound when marketing its devices. If you want to get a perfect cameraphone, you should look for it among the line of multimedia smartphones from N-series. But the Series 40-based phones have to be contented with a cheap digital module. Though Nokia 6500 Slide has broken this tendency, it looks more than exception, than a common rule and can’t be taken into account.  The supported resolutions are as follows:
It is worth mentioning, that the stills with resolutions 320x240 and 160x120 can be chosen as the wallpapers. There are three types of quality of JPEG-files: base, normal, high. The available effects are False Colours, Greyscale, Sepia, Negative, Solarize. They can be adjusted either before taking snaps, or utilized to the photos that have already been made, it is very handy. There is also a sequential shots mode. With this mode active, the camera takes 3 stills in succession. The settings don’t differ from those when you take one picture. Those, who keen on taking self-portrait, will find here an autotimer. There is also 8x digital zooming, but you shouldn’t abuse it. The viewfinder is represented by the whole display. With the help of joystick you control zooming and a shutter release. Time necessary to take a snap is mediocre and amounts to 2 seconds. After that you can either to view the still, or without spending you time on it continue shooting (it depends on settings).                The acceptable stills can be taken only in good light. In this case you will get rather clear image without noises and artifacts. The white balance is quite acceptable. Whereas the dynamic range isn’t wide, so you’d better avoid very contrast objects. If you happen to take pictures in poor light or even at night, you won’t get good stills. The long time of exposure makes you either hold your hand firmly as if a tripod or put up with blurred images. Besides, the stills will feature mammoth noises. Video sample, 3gp, 292 KB >>> The video can also be taken with the help of Nokia 6500 Classic in 3gp format. The available resolutions are as follows: 128x96 and 176x144. All settings that we’ve met in the camera are presented in the video mode. The duration of a clip can be either limited, or occupy the whole free memory. Video clips are even, without juts and look pretty well on the phone screen. Besides, you are enabled to use a digital zooming when recording a clip. Menu. Inside Like the previously viewed Nokia 6500 Slide, our guest is based on the updated software, namely Series 40 5th Edition. The latter hasn’t change since the Slide. Of course, we have to note the new menu themes and some applications, but the idea remains the same. That’s why if you have already scrutinized our review of the Slide, you’d better skip the menu and switch over to the conclusion. But to satisfy those who haven’t seen the review of the Slide let’s look at some items of the menu.  The main screen hasn’t changed at all. We can still choose several variants of the information displaying: the shortcut icons of apps cycled through with the help of the joystick or very handy Active Standby are both available. Besides, each of the soft-keys can be in charge of some actions, for example – the active menu can be called up with the help of the left soft-button, the multimedia player – with the help of the right one. The Active Standby mode looks like the prototype of the home screen of a smartphone. That is, the screen is divided into several parts: the upper part is occupied by the shortcut icons, below you see the radio and player status bars, calendar and notes. Of course, all the elements in Active Standby can be arranged according to your wish. The upper part of the screen is occupied by the status icons depicting the battery charge and signal receive level, as well as other icons, such us alarm-clock, active EDGE and GPRS and so on. Series 40 fifth edition depicts in the stand-by mode the number of the missed calls, as well as the photo of the person (of course, if you has it in your phone book). The menu is accessed after you press the middle of the navi key. It can be viewed in several schemes: list (5 items), grid (12 icons), grid (9 icons) with labels and tabs.       There is no sense to view each item of the menu, as the Classic menu copies Nokia 6500 Slide one. The only difference is in the themes and on-board applications, which we scrutinize below. The preinstalled themes perfectly match the design of the handset and make its appearance even more attractive.   As to the applications and games, they are common, but there are fewer of them in comparison with Nokia 6500 Slide.    The available games are as follows: Backgammon II, Golf Tour, Highroller Casino, Snake III, Sudoku.         Among the apps we can find Converter, Opera Mini browser, World Clock.        Of course, this set of apps doesn’t resemble the business phone, but to install Java-apps is still possible. Conclusion As usual in the end of the review we’d like to sum up. Now we can surely say that Nokia 6500 Classic can go together with a proverb “better late than never”. Nokia has always been ready to boast about lots of stylish solutions, but they often are typical to this vendor. Of course, Nokia fans like it, but mass of customers spoilt by ultra slim devices prefer Samsung and Motorola. But now the buyers have more things to choose among, as Nokia 6500 Classic can be a perfect solution for those keen on slim editions. Moreover, the Classic looks very advantageous against the background of rivals. Perfect design, good ergonomics, aluminum casing, qualitative built quality and famous brand are likely to attract heaps of customers. If we add good functionality, perfect display and improved since Nokia 6300 battery life, we get very balanced handset. Of course, it has some disadvantages, but they are likely caused more by marketing, than by the platform itself. On one hand we’d like to see here better camera and memory card slot, instead of non-extending 1 GB of the user memory, but on the other hand, do we really need it? Many customers take these factors as insignificant drawbacks. Anyway, it is you, who should decide, but we’ve got to note, that Nokia 6500 Classic will see its success. And it can be even more successful, than Nokia 6300. Though, it’s remains to be seen. © Written by Andrey Boytsov, Mobiset.ru Translated by Arina Urban. Published — 19 February 2008. |
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