Camera Phones Plaza

In a time when the world seems to be overwhelmed by the size and design in all aspects of our lives, moving from very small to very "glossy", Nokia brings a phone that includes a perfect balance between a discreet look and useful features under the name of Nokia 6600 slide.

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Nokia 6600 slide's package box contains a decent and complete content. The phone comes with a Nokia battery BL-4U, which is a very light and thin battery at 1000 mAh and 3.7 V, sufficient to give life to the new Nokia model. We continue with the memory card MU-28 which is a microSD card with a capacity of 512 MB, perfect for storing music, software and your data. Last, the Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-101 is actually a high-speed microUSB cable (USB 2.0) for bidirectional data transfer with the personal computer and at the same time, an alternative charger.

Being as easy as a feather is a huge advantage in the mobile industry, but Nokia 6600 slide does not come under this category, but rather in the average category because it weights 110 grams.

The case is made of bright steel and has carefully designed lines so it fits perfectly in your hand, making it at the same time very easy to handle. The first part, represented by the 2.2 inch display, 2 buttons with double functions each and one aluminum multifunctional center button, cover perfectly the bottom where the phone keypad is located.

On the top right corner, we find the secondary camera used during video calls. The primary camera impressed me with the generous number of megapixels, replacing a decent digital camera. If you like to modify pictures generally, the phone has a limited number of special effects available that may be applied after or while you are taking the picture. The camera can make films at a VGA resolution and only with 15 fps. The other camera functions has autofocus, macro, flash, digital zoom and video calls.

The first part of the phone is almost entirely occupied by the TFT screen with over 16 million colors, a diagonal of 2.2 inches and a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. Under the TFT screen is the first keyboard with 3 buttons, 2 of them with dual functions such as taking calls, refusing calls, access the functions shown on the screen to the right of each key and the third button that makes it possible to navigate both vertically and horizontally. The keyboard is "hidden" under the first part of the phone occupying no more than 30% of the phone's length, with well defined and spaced keys. The charger slot is on the right side. On the top side, we have the microUSB port and the headset port, both covered with plastic lids. The hand strap support is located on the upper right corner.

On the phone's backside, we find a 3.2 megapixel primary camera with flash. Unfortunately, at least for me, the phone is only available in one color: black gloss.

Unfortunately, Nokia 6600 slide is not a smartphone and does not benefit from an operating system such as Symbian or Windows Mobile. The phone comes with graphical interface Series 40 edition 5, which includes Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME) for services and applications richer in content.

Nokia 6600 slide's accelerometer is used to determine where an object hits the phone. This function is used to stop the phone from ringing using a tap on the screen or to reject certain calls. The great disadvantage of the Series 40 interface, is that this interface has no multitasking as other phones have, so the phone cannot run 2 or more applications simultaneously. For example, you cannot listen to music while at the same time you add contacts to your phone. This thing is disappointing, because phones with more limited features than the Nokia 6600 slide have multitasking mode.

Another minus is the small memory available, only 18 MB of internal memory, but the phone supports microSD cards so you can add up to 4GB of external memory.

After you select a picture, in the phone's gallery, you have more options available. You can view the picture in several ways, including normal mode or Full Screen mode. Thanks to the picture editor, included in Nokia 6600 slide, we can edit photos directly on the phone. Thanks to the generous 3.2 megapixels camera, the photos have a very good quality. Images can have a resolution up to 2048 x 1536 pixels and you can adjust some options before making a picture, such as white balance, three quality modes starting from basic to high and various special effects.

The audio player from a phone is the direct rival of an MP3 player, or even of an iPod. The graphical interface is well defined and designed to be productive. The audio files can be sort by artist, album or genre. The audio formats supported by the audio player are AAC, AAC +, eAAC +, MP3, MP4, WMA, AMR-NB, Mobile XMF, SF-MIDI, MIDI Tones (64-tons only) and True tones. It has five themes available for the player.  Besides the default theme, we have Blue Moon, Asteroids, Dot Matrix, Sound Waves and Black. Like any player, it has an equalizer that contains 5 predefined modes or you can create 2 new presets.

The video player supports videos in 3GP and MP4 format, and the movies can be played in full screen mode. The video player has fast forward and rewind. All the themes used with the music player are compatible with the video player. Because most of the movies come in an AVI format, you can use Nokia Video Manager program to convert movies. The same camera can make videos with 15 fps and with a VGA resolution.

Nokia 6600 slide has a new way to communicate via USB, called USB On-The-Go (USB OTG). The difference between the normal USB and USB OTG is that in the first case, the phone is considered a peripheral and the computer is considered a host. In USB OTG's case, Nokia 6600 acts as a host that has more peripherals. The possible peripherals are USB devices or flash memory card readers.

The internet connection can be done using GPRS, EDGE or 3G technology. Because of the Series 40 interface, finding a certain applications is easier. Many websites offer free Java applications that are compatible with this interface. However, Nokia 6600 slide does not come empty, and it has a good number of preinstalled applications, besides the classic Calendar. Yahoo! is present in this phone through a search type engine like Google. There are 5 preinstalled games, from the classic Snake to complex games and 3D Soccer. Other possible applications: Widgets, Mobile Search, Yahoo Go!, Windows Live, Download!, Calculator, Converter, World Clock, My Nokia and Presenter.

Nokia 6600 slide is a phone that has the perfect balance between the discreet look and useful features. It addresses to the most users, it is easy to handle and complete in terms of multimedia features.

The E series from Nokia has been always dedicated to business people. E71 is a successor of E61, borrowing quite a lot from it. However, Nokia E71 looks much better and is slightly thinner. Now it is much easier to keep it in your pocket, and it is more beautiful and more powerful. It is a smartphone for business people and it is very much appreciated. We will see that in this Nokia E71 review.

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Nokia E71 measures 114 mm in length, 57 mm in width and it is only 10 mm thick. It weights 127 grams, like most smartphones do. Because the phone is very small, its weight gives you the impression that the phone is very compact and solid.

E71 has a stainless steel and plastic case. The metal makes it look very good and gives the feeling of a solid phone. It is available in two colors, black and white.

On the top side of the phone, we have the ambient light sensor, and on its right, we have the video calls camera. A half of the phone's front side, is occupied by the 2.36 inch screen, followed by the navigation keys and a full QWERTY keyboard. Very well located and useful are the shortcut buttons because, with a push you make your way to the contacts, calendar and the email menus. The microphone is on the front side too. It has an unusual location, because usually it is near the Charger plug. On the left side, we have the microSD card slot and the microUSB port. The two slots are covered with plastic lids to prevent dirt and dust. I am surprised to see that the phone still has infrared port, because only few phones still have it. On the right side, we have the 3.5 mm jack for the audio headphones found in the package box and, slightly below, we find the volume control keys. Among them, we find the voice command button. On the bottom side, we find the charger plug and the hand strap slot.

The backside looks very good. It is made from high quality stainless steel. It looks perfect until the fingerprints make their appearance. Above the battery cover, the phone has a 3.2 megapixel camera and a flash with LED technology. In addition, we have a mini-mirror, which helps you do your portrait pictures easier.

Nokia E71 works with Symbian S60 technology. This platform gives us stability. To demonstrate that it is a business phone, it has quick access keys that help you browse very quickly through the menus and access some applications with a single button. One of these keys is Home, which takes you back into the background, no matter the menu in which you are. Although simple, this function is very useful when you have many applications running and you quickly want to pass them in the background. As I said before, in this category of direct access keys we include the email, the calendar and the timetable.

Nokia E71 has a 2.36-inch QVGA screen, which offers 16 million colors and a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. The screen is slightly smaller than E61's screen, but the phone looks much more compact. The image offered by the screen has a good quality, even under bright sunlight, and you can easily read the information displayed. The screen has an excellent contrast and vivid colors.

Although E71 is a business phone, the multimedia functions are very good. The music player is the standard player used by Symbian and I think it is good enough. It can sort tracks by artist, album, genre and composer. After you add music using the USB cable, the Bluetooth or the memory card, the player automatically scans new files and adds them to your album. The player comes with five equalizer presets, but you can modify them afterwards. Nokia E71 has Bluetooth and A2DP support, meaning you can listen to stereo music on wireless headphones.

The sound quality is good. We used both the standard headphones, and some other pairs and I was happy about the sound quality. It is still a phone, so it cannot be compared to a powerful player, but if you occasionally listen to music then the audio player is very good. The sound is clear, but the volume is not that good, so if you are in a noisy area you will not be able to concentrate on the music.

The camera has 3.2-megapixels and a LED flash. The lenses are not protected by plastic. As time passes, it is possible that the lens will scratch and the pictures will come out worse. The second problem is that we do not have a dedicated camera button. These two issues clearly show that Nokia has thought from the beginning that we will take photos with E71 only occasionally. The picture quality is average. The colors are not too real. The video recording does not manage to impress. With only 15 fps, you cannot make a decent video. The video player is the well-known Real Player. How the phone's screen is already horizontally, the player works only in landscape mode.

The FM radio is good if you get bored of your own music and want to listen to something new. It can automatically scan and save channels in your area. If you access the Internet, the Visual Radio application can download all the local stations and save them in your phone. This is a old version and it does not have RDS. I was not bothered by that.

Nokia E71 is very rich in the connectivity chapter. It even has infrared technology and it can be useful if you want to transfer something to an older phone that does not have Bluetooth. Of course, the Bluetooth is not missing.

For the Internet, we have WiFi and HSDPA. Therefore, you will have better transfer speeds in your operator network, and in hotspot areas. It is a pleasure to surf on the Internet with Nokia E71's web browser. The fact that the screen is already placed horizontally makes the pages fit better and it does not need so much horizontal scrolling. The pages load quickly and are rendered well. As you already know, the Symbian browser is very good, so I did not felt the need to install anything, although there are alternatives like Opera Mobile for example.

Because it is a business phone, I was mainly interested in what applications the phone has for time management. Nokia E71 comes with one of the best organizers any phone has released so far. It is easy to use and highly functional. Dates can be displayed in four ways (in days, weeks, months and to-do lists). You can add more types of events such as meetings, memos, birthdays, etc.

The Office applications are not missing. All Nokia Symbian phones come with QuickOffice, which lets you view Word, Excel or Powerpoint files. Nokia has a better version of QuickOffice on E71, and you have the possibility to modify the documents. This version must be paid on other Symbian phones. E71 can read PDFs too, and it even has a ZIP extractor application.

Nokia E71 has a built-in GPS. With the big horizontal screen, it might be very good to use it for navigation and you will not need to spend money on a dedicated GPS. For navigation, E71 comes with Nokia Maps. The maps are good, but if you want to have voice commands, you will have to pay for each country.

From this Nokia E71 review we found out that it is one of the best equipped Nokia smartphones. No wonder it became so popular. It moves well, it looks good, it has a more than reasonable size and it offers an excellent connectivity.

Nokia has found a profitable segment of customers and exploit it fully. It's about customers with money, who appreciate design more than functions. They realized this since 8800, but they are so sophisticated now that they have more expensive and weak product lines to satisfy all tastes. Whether we talk about the 8800 Sirocco or Arts, the attributes are high cost, distinguished design, but very modest functions.

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Here is a new Nokia phone has arrived in stores, with the hope of convincing women that they really need it. This is about 6600 fold. Nokia is relatively new on the clamshell phone market, but after a few fails (phones too square), they managed to do beautiful things. And when we talk about beauty, 6600 fold deserves all  the praises because it looks really good.

The accessories that come with the phone are the usual ones: a charger, a microUSB cable, manuals, software CD, handsfree with remote control on the line. The only thing we do not find in most phones is the cover. This cover is another proof that women are the target for 6600 fold.

The phone is extremely compact. I could not believe it is so thin. With just 15.9 mm, is thinner than most candybar phones. Weighing about 110 grams it seems slightly large for a phone of this type, but that is because it has many metal parts. The 110 grams are not at all excessive, the phone makes you a first impression of compact phone that is pleasant to hold it in your hand. It fits in any pocket, without problems.

6600 fold is made out of quality materials. I already said it looks solid, I will mention it is shiny. That makes it look good, but attracts fingerprints. The phone is available in two colors, black and purple. The problem with fingerprints is more evident for the black version.

Most clamshell phones stay closed with the help of some little springs that hold them in this position. 6600 fold has a different but interesting approach. The phone stays closed because of small magnets, which are located inside, above the screen and the keyboard. The magnets are colored and well masked. Moreover, the opening is made by pressing a button on the right side. When I saw this, I remembered the Ericsson T28.

On the sides, it has only one button and two connectors. On the right is the button that opens the flap and the plug charger. On the left we find the microUSB port. On the backside, we have the camera with a dual LED flash.

The graphic interface of 6600 fold is Nokia's S40 5th Edition. It is the operating system that Nokia installs on all its phones that are not smartphones. The menus are easy to use after you familiarize with them, even if they sometimes are not the intuitive.

The keys are well made, even if they are quite small. Between two adjacent keys is a small ditch that will help you push the right button and even write messages without looking at the screen.

The main screen has the OLED technology, 2.13 inch and 240 x 320 pixels. Compared with a TFT screen, the colors are more vivid and the pictures are sharper. The problem is that in strong sunlight is very difficult to use it because the screen becomes difficult to read. The external screen has 1.36 inch and 128 x 160 pixels resolution. It is also based on OLED technology.

The music player of 6600 fold is the standard one from all Nokia S40 phones, but you do not need more. It knows how to organize your songs by artist, album and musical genre, it has equalizer and even album art. The sound quality is quite good, I did not expect to be too excited about a phone that is not considered a "music phone". Furthermore, we also have an FM radio with RDS. The list of pleasant surprises continues, because although the phone has a 3.5 mm audio jack on it, the remote for the headphones also has an audio jack, so you can connect your headphones using this adapter.

The video player is also the standard one, it is not very impressive, but it does its job well. It supports 3GP and MP4 files. If you want to watch movies from your PC, you must first convert them into one of these formats.

The camera is poor. Already, 3 to 5 megapixel cameras are considered standard and most manufacturers offer 8 megapixels; not to mention the xenon flashes and other wonders of technology. Well, Nokia 6600 fold has only a 2 megapixel camera. Not having autofocus, you can not take close pictures, it will come out blurry. Therefore, it remains useful only for poor picture, best to send via MMS. The camera knows how to take pictures at a 640 x 480 resolution, but only 15 fps.

Nokia 6600 fold supports GPRS / EDGE / 3G, so you can quickly navigate on the Web from your phone. There is no HSDPA or WiFi.

The browser of the phone is reasonable. It is comparable to the Nokia Symbian phones, but I saw many worse browsers. Nokia does not have a very good impression of their browser so they installed Opera Mini. A decision worthy of all praises, because Opera Mini is rendering pages faster and more accurately than the standard browser. However, I do not think that anyone could sit all day on the Internet from 6600 fold, the screen is not very big so, it is not that comfortable. The email client knows POP3 / IMAP and SMTP. It sends and receives emails as text messages. Nokia 6600 fold has Bluetooth and miniUSB, but it has no infrared port.

From all of the interesting applications that come installed, I noticed Nokia Maps. So far, Nokia put Maps only on Symbian phones. They did a version for S40. And they did well because it is a good application. Unfortunately, Nokia 6600 fold does not have GPS, so I was limited to just look over the map; we made simulations for different routes and that is about all. The good thing is that you can buy a separate GPS receiver, which communicates via Bluetooth with your phone. In this case, Nokia Maps can be used for navigation.

Nokia 6600 fold comes with several games installed. Besides the preinstalled applications and games, you can install many other Java programs.

It was always easy for me to put a label on a phone so targeted as Nokia 6600 fold. So if you like the design, buy it. You can talk and send messages. Do not purchase it to surf on the Internet or to modify Excel files. The phone does not know how to do things that are too complicated. Nevertheless, that does not make it less beautiful.

The image of a business phone has been associated, from the beginning, with Nokia Communicator series, some mini laptops if you want. These models had a huge success among those who need access to e-mail, Internet and mobile office functions during trips.

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Many years ago, RIM Blackberry has become the preferred business phone, due to its small sizes, the QWERTY keyboard and the push-email function, which allowed the delivery of emails to your phone within seconds, after receiving the messages on the email server.

From the appearance of the first Blackberry, many phones, that had several attempts to imitate the success of RIM, appeared, but only few of them manage to win significant market share. Now I look at the Nokia competitor, eager to regain the lost crown. The model is called Nokia E61i, and is the successor of the E61 model, towards which brings some improvements, some minor, others major, which justify launching a new model.

The comparison of the two models (E61 and E61i), reveals the narrow profile of E61i comparable to a wallet without any money in it. E61i has a smaller amount of internal memory compared to the E61: 60 MB compared to 75 MB. It lacks the FM radio, but it has a 2 megapixel camera without autofocus and flash.

At a first look, you will be impressed by the thickness of Nokia E61i, which, with its 11.5 mm, enters on the territory of Samsung. Once taken in hand, things change; it weights 150 grams, falling in the PDA Phone category it.

The metal caps, that cover the back and the front of the phone, contribute to the mainly increased weight. However, they give you a feeling of strength and resistance to prolonged use. The camera is placed on the back of the phone and is framed by a metal ring. The lens is not protected, so beware of how you keep the phone in your pocket. On the phone's side, on the left, we find the volume control buttons and a button used for initialization of a new audio record.

Placing the screen of the phone horizontal, allows to view the information easily, especially Web pages. Unfortunately, the large screen size could have had a high resolution, at least 416 x 351 pixels, like on Nokia E60 and E70 models. The screen behave decently in direct light, but there is room for improvement.

A real Communicator must have a very good keyboard and Nokia E61i no exception to the rule. The good, hard keys prove excellent at writing email and SMS messages, where E61i excels. The keyboard automatically illuminates when the sensor records that there is not enough light. The illumination is done uniform, being among the best phones that I have had in my hands. The battery, which has an impressive capacity of 1500 mAh, is one of the strengths of the phone.

Nokia E61i is powered by the Symbian 9.1 Series 60 UI operating system, so we have installed a derivative of the Mozilla web browser, QuickOffice suite, Flash player, audio, video and PDF files viewer. A notable absence is Mail for Exchange program, but it can be downloaded for free.

E61i's processor, a Texas Instruments OMAP, behave decently most of the time, but not well enough for those who were used to PDAs powered by Intel PXA270 processors, which allow viewing of uncompressed DivX movies.

Phone - PC synchronization is made with Nokia PCSuite that is a program very easy to use, improved with each new version. For the connection, you may use a USB cable or Bluetooth.

Initiating conversations, sending SMS messages, call record, all phone functions are identical to those on Nokia models powered by Symbian 9.1 S60. As a personal observation, a Symbian smartphone is closer to a mobile phone, while a PDA phone powered by Windows Mobile is closer to a PC than to a phone.

Any Communicator should excel here, at the connectivity chapter. Nokia E61i is no exception: we have Bluetooth 1.2, Wi-Fi 802.11b / g, HSCSD, EDGE, 3G and IrDA. All work as you expect, that means without problems. A great plus to the wireless connection wizard: you can scan available networks, select desired network, enter password if necessary and that is it, you are online.

Although it is a business smartphone, E61i is equipped with a decent media player, but it does not have advanced functions. The camera takes pictures ok, but do not expect the picture quality of Nokia N95.

The supplied headset is mono and it cannot offer a good audition, compared with N series or Walkman series phones from Sony Ericsson.

It is distinguished by:
• Large screen
• QWERTY keyboard
• battery life
• connection possibilities
• solid construction
• very thin

Disappoints by:
• large width compared to a typical phone
• weight
• slow processor (sometimes)
• mono headset

I do not know what happened to the designers at Sony Ericsson, but it is as if all their phones look the same lately. Sony Ericsson W910i is no exception in this case, but promises to impress with a rich functionality. It wins by its small size and its excellent Walkman functions.

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Because of the design, that I consider conservative, Sony Ericsson has made a fan base which remains loyal to the brand because of the mobile performances. Let us see how good Sony Ericsson W910i is and if it is right for you.

W910i comes in a medium sized package box. It has all the accessories you need: the charger, the HandsFree, the USB cable, the Memory Stick Micro M2 memory card, the card reader, manuals and the software CD. The card reader is very useful because it allows you to quickly copy files from your PC to USB card and to use them on your phone. It is ideal for music, because it is faster than Bluetooth and easier to use than a USB cable.

The phone is made from quality materials and it is solid, even if it is a slide model. Being thin and relatively easy, I could slip it smoothly into any pocket. The screen is large, it has 2.4 inches, and occupies almost the entire surface of the phone. The number keys are available only after opening the slide. Most functions can be used without opening the slide, with the help of the keys that are below the display.

Near the speaker, there are two buttons that are used only to view images. One of them opens the album and the other selects  larger image. I would have liked to have other uses, depending on the application open.

On the sides, the phone has the volume control buttons, the card slot, the camera button and the Fast Port. The Fast Port is a proper format for PC, handsfree and other accessories connections. I am for standardization, so I would have preferred a miniUSB or microUSB port. If I do not have a cable around, there are high chances to find one at my friend or to buy one at a lower price, but a specific producer cable is harder to find and more expensive. On its backside, a 2 megapixels camera without flash was added.

The screen has 2.4 inches and a resolution of 240 x 320, and it does its job well. The images are clear, and the text can be read very well. Even in bright light, the screen remains visible.

Sony Ericsson W910i is a walkman phone, so listening to music is a pleasure. The audio player is one of the best players. We used the MegaBass equalizer and we were very happy about it. The coolest function is the Shake Control. You can control the player with hand motions. Therefore, you can skip songs or activate random playback.

Another unique function is SenseMe. SenseMe automatically adds a tag that reflects the mood and the tempo of the songs when you copy it to your phone. Using the audio player, you can choose to listen to songs that are tagged with the tempo and the mood you want. If you want to add tempo and mood tags, it is necessarily to transfer your songs using the software phone. From this, I concluded that the PC software analyzes and adds these tags, not the player of the phone.

The video player is also very good. It has all the controls you need. The phone has an auto-rotate function, which does its job well. I was happy with the image gallery too. Sony Ericsson W910i has an FM radio with RDS.

The camera has only 2 megapixels, no flash and no autofocus. This means that the picture quality is average. If you try to take a picture at a close range, it will not come out clear. The pictures are good enough to see them on your phone screen or send them via MMS, but if you copy them on your computer or if you put them on a photographic paper you will not be happy. The camera can record videos at a resolution of 320 x 240 with 15 fps.

It has everything you need except for a WiFi connection.  It has GPRS, EDGE, 3G and HSDPA. That means you can quickly navigate on the Internet. The Bluetooth supports A2DP, which means you can connect your Bluetooth stereo headphones to listen to music. It does not have an infrared port.

The browser made by Sony Ericsson is NetFront and it is reasonable. I like the browser on the Symbian Nokia phones better because they render pages faster. You have the option to install Opera Mini, but I never had to do it.

The email client of the phone is even better than I expected. It supports POP3, IMAP and SMTP and can do a lot of configurations. It has a separate inbox for SMS / MMS. The attachments can be saved in the memory of the phone and if the file type is known by the phone it can also be opened.

Sony Ericsson phones have always had reasonable organizer functions, although they are not smartphones. The calendar can add any events and they can be synchronized with Microsoft Outlook. You can even add to-do. I liked at Sony Ericsson that I could add a to-do as a call type. When the alarm of the reminder rings, you just have to click a button and the call is made.

Do not dare to think that Sony Ericsson W910i is suitable for mobile office. This privilege remains to BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile phones. Therefore, there is no support for Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Excel. I guess someone could have made a Java application for this thing. W910i comes with three games pre-installed, but you can install yourself many Java games.

Sony Ericsson W910i is a phone suited for those who listen to music on headphones a lot. You can copy many songs on the memory card and it has a good audio player. Users searching for a smartphone should look elsewhere.