Nokia 6610i Review
First Impressions
My first impression of the 6610i was that it was just another standard Nokia, which to some extents it is. The 6610i is another step up from the Nokia 6610 with the addition of a camera and a few other additions, but its basically the same. With the 6610i the first thing that I noticed was how loose and squeaky the faceplate is on it, which gives the impression that the whole phone Is going to fall apart in your hands.
Sizes & Dimensions
The 6610i is a dinky little handset measuring just 106*44, and weighing in at just 87 gm, so its small enough to carry in a pocket, although it feels so flimsy I wouldn't want to put it in a pocket.
Features
- Integrated camera
- Stereo FM radio with earphones (supplied)
- Speakerphone
- Pop port interface connectivity
- Infrared
- Tri band
- Wallet
Keypad
The keypad is quite small, with the keys close together, making texting really difficult, especially as the keys are not flush but bevelled. Sometimes the keys also need to be pressed more than once to select the function, so not the easiest keypad to use.
Menu Structure
Nokia are renowned for their easy menus. From the start screen when you press the menu button you have, messages, call register, contacts, profiles, settings, radio, camera, gallery, organiser, games, applications, extras, connectivity, services, go to and my services, once selected its easy to navigate inside these folders.
Camera
The camera is a CIF camera and in my opinion much better than the other low end priced Nokia cameras. The resolutions are high, normal and basic, with high being 288*352. You have an option to change the camera sounds either on or off. You also have a self-timer and a night mode. The camera is situated on the back of the phone with the viewfinder used as the display. The thing that concerns me is that there is no sliding cover over the lens to protect it from damage. Also you only have the facility to store up to 13 pictures.
The Display
The display has just 4096 colours, which, for a camera phone is not very good. The screen appears bright but very blocky and so the pictures you take and display are not very attractive at all. The display settings offer you a choice of, wallpapers, use the preloaded ones or download new ones or use the camera function to display your pics as wallpapers. Colour schemes, choose from eight different colours to personalise your display, menu view, which means you have a choice of a grid or list to display your menu functions, list is by far the easiest because with the grid view the icons are all cramped together too much. You have operator logo display, screensaver timeout and display brightness, that's all the display options covered.
Memory & Media
The total memory in the 6610i is 4mb, which is shared between text and multimedia messaging, phone book, games and applications, to do notes and calendar and also the ring tones and pictures that you have stored. The phone book hold up to 500 contacts, with space for email addresses, postal addresses, notes etc, the phone book is also a picture phonebook so you can assign pictures to your contact numbers. The 6610i supports MMS but the largest file you can send is 45kb, which is a bit, limiting. The calendar can save up to 250 notes. There are two onboard games included, a chess game and bounce with the facility to download more to the handset. There is an MMS function on the handset and predictive text makes the whole job of texting that much easier and faster.
Battery Life & Signal Strength
Nokia are renowned for their battery life, and this model is no different. The official guide estimates battery life to be anything between six to eighteen days on standby, but I found in reality that the battery lasted around eight days with average usage and quite high usage of texting. The signal strength was perfect almost all the time and the phone never dropped any calls.
Browser
The 6610i is GPRS enabled so it allows you to browse and download quite quickly. The browser options give you storage to keep your bookmarks; also there is a service settings menu and also a download links. The one thing about accessing WAP using a nokia compared to other models is the amount of times you need to click to access the services or input passwords etc. Downloads are fairly fast and you have a choice to put the download into the galleries photos, tones or graphics folders for easy finding afterwards.
Personalisation
Nokia are one of the easiest handsets to personalise, from games to wallpaper and ring tones they are all easily available. However the polyphonic on this handset sound rather dated and they are on the quiet side. You can buy exchangeable fascias to change the look of your handset, with these being readily available.
Summary
The Nokia 6610i has to be one of the more basic and easier to use handsets, but the only obvious difference between the 6610 and the 6610i is the addition of a camera and the wallet function. The overall design in nothing exciting and the flimsy feel to the handset makes the whole thing feel cheap and unreliable; the call clarity is not the best either with a fair bit of hissing in the background. The addition of infrared is a nice feature enabling the transfer of data to your PC. Overall I wouldn't recommend this handset as it is nothing special and the build quality suggests it wont last long.
- Discuss in the mobile phone forums