Nokia 6500 slide Review

Introduction:

Mobile phones’ manufacturers are fairly creative setting up their market strategies in the pursuit of attracting greater attention towards their products. As a rule, Nokia phone models have been known for their “letter-number” codes, yet complete names have also been introduced recently. This is a good move to accentuate a specific product (or series) with the goal to facilitate its fixing in the customer’s mind. Developing the idea further, the Finnish announced two new models with identical number codes but different extensions: 6500 classic and 6500 slide.

Today, we will review the capabilities of Nokia 6500 Slide in more detail. The name itself gives a hint at its type. This is an attractively designed up-to-date unit that belongs to the upper medium class, featuring the well-known Series 40 user interface, enabled to operate in 3G networks, and disposing of a 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss optics camera.

Sales package contents:

• Nokia 6500 slide
• Nokia Battery BP-5M
• Nokia Charger AC-4
• Nokia Wired Stereo Headset HS-47
• 256 MB Micro SD Memory Card
• Micro USB Cable CA-101
• TV-Out Cable CA-92U
• CD ROM
• User guide

This is a good set with enough accessories to immediately commence utilizing the full potential of the device. In case the micro SD card would seem small to you, bear in mind that the phone officially supports up to 4 GB memory, which is the maximum for this standard. There are, indeed, the so-called hi-capacity (HC) memory cards with even larger memory space, which are not supported by the phone, though.

Design:

As you can see, the Nokia 6500 has a plain design, underlined by the black glossy plastic and the stainless steel, which adds to its stylish and pleasant appearance. At the very first touch one will feel the coolness of the metal, which, in addition to the 123 gr weight, calls forth the same sensation as the one we experienced at the first touch of 8600 Luna – that of luxury and perfect quality. The above feeling is also enhanced by the fact that all the inscriptions on the metallic part are in high relief rather than being simply cheap drawings.




The slider’s dimensions are 96.5 x 46.5 x 16.4 mm and it is just 30 mm longer when unfolded, which is compact enough not to embarrass the user while carrying it. Sliding relies on spring support to easily open the unit; and in order to save the trouble of guessing the right spot to press with your thumb, Nokia constructors have placed a rubber tape just above the company logo. The connection between the two parts is very secure and without any play (as in many other sliders), which testifies to the precision and accurateness of every one construction detail.



The display is 2.2" QVGA (240 x 320 pixels), supporting up to 16.7 million colors and very well visible at even direct sunlight. Colors of the screen image are saturated and bright; as for setting the brightness – this is done by a light sensor depending on the surrounding illumination. We notice the trend that the new high and medium class models of the company should feature this type of display (variously sized). Besides all the above qualities, they have a very good visibility angle in each direction.



As with most sliders, the buttons here are also distributed between the upper and the lower part, which means that you will not have to open the 6500 unless you need the numeric keypad. Its flat buttons are arranged tightly next to each other and in order to be more easily recognizable, they have a round edge, bordering the row line. Control keys at the upper part of the phone are equally tight. Both the soft and the call/end keys are large and flat, whereas the five-position navigation button is in relief and has raised edges, allowing for effortless detecting by touch and distinguishing it from the rest. Backlighting all the keys is white, with only the control ones lit in their respective colors. All buttons are very easy to press and despite the medium tactile feedback, controlling the unit is pleasant and trouble-free.



We wish we could say the same about the volume key, located on the side, but alas, things are different here. The button itself is almost at the level of the panel so one can hardly feel anything on the surface. Deciding to increase the volume during conversation will trigger a long search on the side and in case one manages to accidentally find the key, there is the second setback: pressing it. You have to choose between the two options – either using the tip of the thumb with less effort, or its soft part, but exerting a much stronger pressure. For us, the first approach proved less inconvenient. During the entire period of our usage of the phone, we were not able to find an easier mode of operating the above button. This may serve as a good example of how the desire to strictly adhere to a certain design concept will result in inconvenience. The camera button is on the same side, only slightly lower, almost at the end of the corpus. This one is comparatively big, so once in position to take pictures you can easily and conveniently press, no matter which part of the finger you use – the soft or the tip.

There are no buttons on the other side – only a small hole is clearly visible. Initially it is quite easy to mistake it for a loudspeaker opening, but after removing the back lid one can see that this is where a hand- or a neckstrap should be tied. The loudspeaker openings are quite far from here – they are actually the five lines on the back panel.

The whole rear section of 6500 is so constructed, that taking pictures should be made as easy as possible. The objective of the 3.2 megapixel camera as well as the LED flashlight are located in one of the corners, thus securing the easy grip and eliminating the likelihood to place a finger before them. The lens is covered by a protective glass and the entire objective – encompassed by a metal frame, literally welded to the steel lid. The camera button is at the most proper place indeed – under the index finger when you are ready to take a photo.



For the sake of not spoiling the look of the handset, constructors have even “concealed” the additional memory card slot under the back lid. The microSD can be inserted/removed while the device is on, but the phone will automatically cut off all access to it at the very opening of the lid - it is as if it were non-existent. It has been made with the purpose of securing more reliable data storage and higher safety when handling an additional memory.



One very clever move – we saw it in 7500 Prism as well – is concentrating all the connectors at one location, in our case on top of the phone. This facilitates the usage, putting an end to the “groping” all over the sides of the unit when one has decided to charge or connect it to a PC, for example. Here you will find the microUSB port, the charger connector, 2,5 mm Audio Video socket, as well as the eject button for opening the lid. This is the place where we are accustomed to finding the on/off switch, but in this case its role has been taken by the red receiver key. Of course, it cannot now grant something we are also used to - fast access to the profiles menu.

About the only thing left is locating the second (videochat) camera and the microphone. Although this is a joke, it may well be that one faces the need of such a search. The camera is so small that the constructors have managed to insert it right next to the loudspeaker grille on the side, opposite to the light sensor. The microphone also features a similar “hidden” position – exactly between the 4 and 7 keys (on their left).

Interface:

Nokia 6500 slide uses Series 40 5th Edition user interface.When the phone is at standby, in the upper part of the display, information appears about the signal strength, battery status, the clock and the mobile operator. In the lower part, the functions, related to the left and right selection keys, appear, which are „Go to” and “Names” by default and you can adjust them, as well as the functions of the menu key to your liking.


The icons in the main menu are animated and are located in a 3x3 grid, as you can displace as you wish to ensure your own convenience. You can also set them to appear as List, Grid, Grid with labels or with Tabs. Working with the phone and menus is very easy, the order is intuitive and logically connected and will hardly be difficult for you. The phone’s response is fairly fast, so you will not get nervous and rap with fingers while a menu or a sub-menu is being loaded. The only delay is when browsing folders with numerous files, saved therein; it will take around 4 seconds until the phone has opened a folder with 200MB of videoclips.

Except for changing the main menu view you can also personalize the whole view of the phone by choosing one of the 6 themes. You have at your disposal 7 profiles that you can adjust at your own discretion; the flight profile excludes the tones and the connection with the operator, so that you can use the other functions of the device.

Phonebook:

The Phonebook is visualized as a list of names, but there are two other options: name and number and name and picture. When you introduce a new contact, you can enter two names and a number, but in order to add more information (ringtone, picture ID, etc.), press ‘add detail’ from the options menu. During an incoming call, the picture associated with the contact, appears and takes almost the whole screen, but when you dial, the picture is very small. Except for a picture, you can add to the contact a video clip, as its sound serves as a ring tone, while the video plays on the display.


An important drawback of the phonebook is the fact that you can look for the contacts only by the first name, you entered, which can cause major inconvenience when working with the phone.

Organizer:

Theorganizer includes the following: calendar, to-do list, notes, аlarmclock, stopwatch, countdown timer and calculator. The alarm clockoffers the following settings: alarm time, alarm tone and snooze timeout, and except for a single alarm, you can set the phone on an alarm,which goes off on certain days of the week. The calendar can be viewedby months and weeks, as you can add new notes with options for meeting,call, Birthday, memo and reminder. You have at your disposal also astandard, loan and scientific calculator. The rest of the organizer’soptions are the standard ones and are not going to be discussed.


Youcan use voice commands for some of the functions, as well as a voicesetting for the contacts in the phonebook. For this purpose it is notnecessary to record them with your own voice because the text can berecognized as speech and it is necessary only to press and hold thelower part of the volume key in order to make the voicesettings/commands active.

Nokia 6500 slide have 30 MB internal memory and additional microSD slot supporting up to 4GB cards.

Messaging:

Themessaging menu is exactly what you can expect from Nokia. T9 helps youenter text faster and there are a few templates by default in thephone. You can create text, multimedia, flash and audio messages.Additional features are Instant Messaging and Email Client.



Connectivity:

Nokia6500 slider is a quad band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and dual bandUMTS (850/2100 MHz), which allows for its usage worldwide. Our readersin the USA will be glad to learn that they will be able to make use ofit in 2G as well as in 3G networks – an advantage to be appreciated bymany.

The internet browser supports HTML/ XHTML and WAP 2.0. Astatus bar is being displayed at the lower part of the screen duringdownload. It shows the percentage of current page loading – a veryconvenient extra, especially when trying to acquire content with plentyof information. We tried to load www.phonearena.com but the browsercouldn’t visualize the page correctly: pictures were arranged in a way,different from the real one. Had we not known how our site looked, wewould never have got on the right track and been able to understandwhich item was after which.
For local connectivity you can use boththe Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and the microUSB port. The transfer speedvia Bluetooth can actually be as high as 75 KB/sec, which means thatrecording a 7 MB song will take about a minute and a half.

Camera:

Nokia 6500 slide is equipped with 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, auto focus, and 8x digital zoom, which is activated fast enough in order not to miss a worthwhile moment. The interface is in a landscape orientation and the display shows information for the number of pictures you can take before the memory is exhausted, the resolution and the quality of the pictures, as well as the regime – picture or video shooting.

You can choose from among a total of 6 different shooting resolutions varying from 2048 x1536 to 160 x 120, as well as from 3 image quality options: basic, normal and high. You can also make pictures with specific effects like false colors, grayscale, sepia, negative and solarise.

When taking pictures in the open, the images have very real colors, good detail, and almost no “noise”. Indoors, the camera also copes with its task well; in case it is quite dark, we recommend the use of the LED flash, which is effective at close range. The saving time of a photo depends on its size, which, on its part, varies with the kind of objects, being photographed. Perhaps this is the only occasion when 6500 slide will make you wait a little longer, with the average timing to save at maximum resolution being about 7 – 8 seconds. If you plan to photograph texts from a book or magazine, you will not encounter any problem reading them afterwards. The handset can boast a marvelous macro-mode and, as you can see for yourselves, will flawlessly reproduce even very small characters.



The maximal resolution for the video recording is 640 x 480 pixels (VGA), and there are additional three supported: 352 x 288 (CIF), 176 x 144 (QCIF) and 128 x 96 (SQCIF). The four modes differ not only in video resolution, but also in the number of frames per second, shot by the camera. For instance, at maximum clip resolution (VGA), there will be 15 frames per second (FPS), whereas you can make QCIF video at 30 FPS. As a rule, video results are good with high Nokia series: this unit gets close to N95 and N93(i); what is different, is the 30 FPS at VGA and the 15 FPS at slide for the latter two. This is a fairly good resolution that is close to the television one (not the HDTV, of course), yet, the clips you get would seem partitioned (“chopped”) due to the fact that the human eye is only able to perceive smooth motion at over 24 FPS. We presume you have noted the lack of QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) selection option, which is a much more widespread format n the Internet (YouTube for example) than the CIF. And it is rather peculiar that the display, being a QVGA one at that, does not dispose of the above resolution.

Nokia 6500 Slide sample video at 640x480 pixels resolution

Multimedia:

The video player supports H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, WMV codecs and formats. According to official Nokia specifications, the slider is capable of video displaying up to 30fps in VGA for H.263 with 2048 kbps bitrate and up to 15fps in QCIF for H.264 with 192 kbps. We were curious to know whether the handset would manage files with the above settings at the maximum, so we made a few tests. There was no problem for video, encoded with a H.264 baseline, but these settings can only provide quite a poor quality, which, in reality, will render watching pointless. In spite of the fact that the phone was able to cope with the H.263 file as well, it did not do so well: at times the sound stopped and image was dead, which lasted for about a second. It did much better at QVGA with 30 FPS, but also slightly “chopped” occasionally because of missed frames.

As a whole we would recommend encoding video files at lower settings in order not to take up the entire processing power of the phone while reproducing. This will ensure trouble-free watching.

The slide supports MP3/AAC/eAAC+/WMA formats for reproducing of audio and the strength of the sound through the loudspeaker is little above the average. While playing music the display shows the name of the song and album and album cover art if there is one. You can break the monotony of the player by choosing from one other theme apart from the standard one. Also, if you want you can play with the settings of the equalizer and the stereo widening, to look at the music files, arranged by artist, album or genre, as well as to add and manage playlists.


The phone does not pretend to have the options of the full functional music player, but nevertheless you can listen to stereo by the headphones in the set or by wireless, by the use of the Stereo Bluetooth A2DP profile.

Since the headphones were missing from the set that we got, we had no opportunity to test the performance of the radio. We tried to plug in a few standard 2.5 mm headphones, but to no avail – the device did not recognize them.

The slide has an FM radio, which gives the opportunity to memorize up to 20 pages with names. It is mandatory to connect the stereo headphones from the set, because they serve also as an antenna. Afterwards, you can transfer the sound to the loudspeaker, as the headphones stay switched on. You can listen to music or radio and at the same time to work with the phone menus, as the sound stays as a background.



Software:

As most of the phones of the series 40, Nokia 6500 comes with several preloaded applications: Converter, Download, Opera Mini, Presenter, Search, Sensor, World Clock and Yahoo! Go.


Nokia has taken care that you are not left without entertainment in your free time, therefore six games have been loaded to this end: Backgammon, Golf Tour, Highroller Casino, Rally 3D and Snake 3*. The names of the games are indicative as to their content; one is well aware that Nokia have installed various genres so that any taste and mood of the user can be met.

The phone supports Java MIDP 2.0, so that you can install all kinds of additional applications at your need and discretion.

*Games may vary according to region

Performance:

The overall impression is that working with the slider is easy and trouble-free; it is also sufficiently fast not to induce irritating slow-downs or messages of the “please wait” sort. During the whole period of our testing and overloading with tasks, not once did it crash or restart. The phone even easily handled performing more than one task simultaneously: we had no problem to make a call and at the same time – download a file via the Bluetooth and charge the battery.

As for using the 6500 as a phone, it rings loud and vibration is easy to feel even in the jeans’ or pants’ pocket. In case you have set receiving/rejecting a call by sliding the upper part, a slowdown of about a second can be noticed from sliding until actual answering. It might be a bit irritating and difficult to get used to, so do not make haste to start talking immediately after sliding.

The 6500 left a good overall impression with us as regards sound quality during conversation: volume was a bit above average with just a little background noise, though lacking the high frequency of voices. At the other end of the line the situation is even better: despite the slightly muffled speech without high frequency, sound volume is unusually high. Signal reception is close to the medium level; in this respect we would rate the 6500 performance as similar to that of Nokia 5700 and Sony Ericsson K530, evaluating it at 4.5 out of 10.

According to official Nokia specifications the 900 mAh (BP-5M) battery will endure up to 6 hours of talk time or up to 320 hours in stand-by mode. We subjected it to a long-talk test until it was totally depleted; the unit kept on working for 4.2 hours (252 min), which measures up to 60% of the official specifications data. Definitely, it is not the greatest asset of the phone, but still it is not a timing to cause real inconvenience.

Conclusion:

In Nokia 6500 we notice a combination, on the one hand, of the 8600 Luna sensation with a very good camera, on the other, but at a lower price. Special attention has been paid to every detail; the objective of this perfection in manufacturing being satisfaction of every customer requirement. Though the steel panels make a heavy phone, this weight and the cool sensation underlie the feel of luxury and style, and without the need to be deprived of the basic functions of a really cutting-edge device at that.

If design may be considered the main factor for your choice of a phone, the 8600 will prove to be more attractive; and if it is the all-in-one you want, you are likely to have already become a proud owner of N95. But if it is your desire to possess a little from both, do not miss the opportunity to consider 6500 prior to making your final choice.