iMarc

Originally posted here.

The Nokia 6630 is Nokia’s latest smartphone offering with a 1.3 megapixel camera, 10mb of internal memory, a 200mhz processor, Bluetooth, 3G, stereo MP3/ACC playback and the latest Symbian operating system, version 8a.

The basic functions work well, the processor is the fastest yet to be used in a Nokia phone, and makes the menu lags and photo delays that dogged many previous Symbian based phones a thing of the past. The fast processor does take its toll on battery life however, with the average battery time with Bluetooth switched on with moderate usage of the phone about 2 days. My old Nokia 6100 lasted about 4 days, so this short time is by and large the biggest shock to me, but its not as bad as it sounds. This is a smartphone running many processes at a time and so battery life was always going to be an issue. The 6100 was a series 40 Nokia that didn’t do much at all. It’s a case of features vs. battery life, and since I am don’t need to take this phone out in the wilderness for days at a time without mains power access, the 2 day battery time is not a problem.

Texting is a joy on this phone, the keypad is small yet responsive enough to text very quickly. The screen is so large that you can fit a whole text message on the screen without the need for scrolling, and of course with 10mb of memory there’s plenty of room for hundreds of text messages, and multimedia messages. The messaging application also has a POP3 and IMAP client, which is flawed because it doesn’t let users choose any port to connect on – such a basic concept and Nokia have left it out. So unless your ISP uses the standard ports for email (Gmail don’t!), this will be of no use to you. Other email applications can be installed, but many of them cost money.

Making calls on the phone is also easily done, just like any Nokia in fact. The loud speaker isn’t as loud as I’d have liked, but it does the job and I seldom use it anyway. The phone, being a 3G phone also supports Video calls – in my opinion the stupidest idea ever, why would I want to pay over the odds to see the person I’m calling when I can just hear them? For those that do see a use for this, and can afford it – the phone makes it easy, when you select call a menu pops up allowing you to select phone or video call. There’s no camera on the front, so in order for the other person to see you you need to connect the phone to the stand, which comes in the box. Not exactly video on the move, but adding another camera to the front would just add to the bulk and Nokia have obviously realised that hardly anyone wants to use this feature anyway.

The camera on this phone is brilliant. It can take photos at an amazing quality, but its such a shame there’s only 10mb of internal memory. This trivial amount of memory is simply not proportionate to the other great specifications of the phone. The video recorder also captures sound, and can record for up to an hour if you have a big enough memory card. The phone takes dual voltage reduced-size multimedia cards. Why couldn’t it just take standard MMC cards? Is it a plot by the memory card manufactures to make people like me who already own an assortment of memory cards go out and buy more? The reduced-size card comes with an adaptor that is suppose to make the card fit into a standard MMC slot in a card reader. IT DOESN’T WORK. Mine doesn’t anyway, and so I’ve had to use the data able that came with the phone to access the phone’s memory and the card. The phone comes with a 32mb card, enough for about 8 music files at a decent quality.

MP3 playback is average and no way near as good as my PocketPC. Vodafone decided to restrict the phone so you can’t set MP3s as ringtones. Luckily you can set AAC files as ringtones, AAC is Apple’s music format and you can create AAC files using iTunes. Music playback also drains the battery big time, but its good enough if you don’t want to be carrying a phone and an MP3 player all the time. Playing music for about 4 hours a day made the battery last about a day and a half. I’ve used it extensively with the supplied headphones (which also double as a hands-free kit) and found them to be lacking in base, I think this is not because the speakers are no good, but because there’s no equaliser on the phone.

Browsing the web is also a joy on this piece of equipment, the large screen and Opera web browser make it a easy and fun The 3G speed is also blindingly fast, and with a free program called Agile Messenger, MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ can all be used on the move. Watch out however, 3G is stupidly expensive. The fast speed simply means you spend more in less time, so I’d advice anyone to switch off images on the browser to save them selves money. One day maybe we’ll get mobile data at a decent price, but Vodafone charge a whopping £2.75 per megabyte!! Daylight robbery, but fair enough they did give me this £400 phone for free on a £33/ month contract which is a pretty good deal.

Word and Excel file can be viewed on this phone using the built in QuickOffice applications, there’s also a first-rate image viewer that displays images in a rotating wheel format, or as a slideshow with fade-in animations. This is useful for showing your mates a collection of photos in full-screen. There’s also a photo editor, where photos can be cropped and borders added to them. Its quite difficult to use, and I think I’ll stick to sending photos to my PDA via Bluetooth, and editing them on the PocketPC – some tasks are just easier with a mouse or stylus. Then there’s a video editor, videos captured can be slowed down (good for photo finishes) and background music can be set (disappointingly not any music file, only MIDI files). You can probably do more, I haven’t had a chance to play with this application much yet.

Overall: A very impressive phone with nearly every feature I could want.