Camera Phones Plaza

Beauty comes from within. That is how I can best describe this phone. It is true that the people from Nokia, do whatever they do, but some of their phones look not that good. This rule applies to Nokia 6555 too. However, because it is not nice to judge a book by its cover, we will proceed with the analysis.

Nokia 6555 is a clamshell model that seems to borrow some from the "look" of Motorola models like W377, W490 and other models, and I say this because the two sides of the phone, the cap and the bottom cover are not equal, the symmetrical appearance of the phone being visible only when the phone is closed.

As I said earlier, this model is not among the most beautiful phone models on the market. Nokia 6555 is a middle class or mid-level (mid-range) terminal. It measures 99.6 x 44.3 x 19.6 mm and weighs 79 grams. It is not the thinnest, but it is easy and this is probably because of the phone’s case, which is made from a cheap plastic. The test phone came in black, but it is also available in other colors: red, silver and beige.

With that being said, we should start a more detailed analysis of the Nokia 6555. A screen with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels and 256,000 colors, which indicates the time by a clock dial, occupies the front of the phone, but this theme can be changed. Also on the front side of the phone, we find the speakerphone, the Nokia logo and the 1.3 megapixel camera.

The back side is represented by the cap that covers the battery. In this phone’s case, we have a Lithium-Ion battery with a capacity of 1020 mAh, which in theory, holds up to 300 hours in standby mode and up to 390 minutes of talk time. In this part of the phone, we have a little inconvenience, the microSD card slot, which is also under the battery exactly like the SIM card. The good news is that the phone accepts memory cards up to 4 GB.

We move forward and we reach the left side, which has two buttons, one to activate the camera and one for the volume control, and lower, a miniUSB cable slot. The right side is poor too, because here we find only the 2.5 mm jack for the headphones and a slot for peripherals attachments that in Nokia 6555’s case is the charger.

When we open the phone, we “meet” the 2-inch screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and 16 million colors. Below the screen, we find the keyboard. The D-pad is large and easy to use. The first row of buttons, correspond to the shortcuts submenus, Go to (on the left), the main menu shortcut - Menu (in the middle) and the Music shortcut - Music (on the right).

By pressing the left button on the D-pad, you will be sent directly to the messages, down in the address book, right in the calendar and up in the camera application. As I said earlier, the camera can be accessed directly through the dedicated button on the cover. In addition, in the D-pad perimeter, you can also find the Answer / Dial and Reject / End call buttons. Under the D-pad, we find the three rows of the standard alphanumeric keyboard. To send a message with this phone is very easy, because Nokia 6555’s keys are big and provide a quick response.

Now that the details that belong to the "look" segment were established, is time to talk about the brain behind the case. The interface that Nokia 6555 uses is the 5th edition of series 40, which is already highly used by the Finnish company. A thing not so gratifying, especially because the series is not improved with anything. However, we cannot let the menu pass us up, because is different from newer Nokia menus, which are quite confusing, and it is very intuitive and "user friendly". Here we have to mention two things: first, the menu consists of icons arranged in a matrix 3 x 3 and two, the icons display screen is almost double. I say "almost double" because you have to surf some more down the "page" to reach all the phone menus. Navigating through the phone is easy, the phone not having big pauses when entering into a menu.

We move on and if we are on the menu, we focus on some functions, such as the messages. Nokia 6555 supports SMS, MMS and e-mail. The SMS and MMS share one inbox and the e-mails are saved separately in another inbox and support standard protocols POP3, SMTP and IMAP4.

If you hoped for this phone to be a "media tower”, then you were very wrong. The camera has 1.3 megapixels, and comes with no flash or autofocus. It is understood that the pictures taken with this phone do not impress.

Nokia 6555 has an MP3 Player too. The music player supports MP3, AAC, AAC + and WMA. The sound played by the speaker is not good at all. If you think that will not use the MP3 player and you will listen to the FM Radio, then you will be surprised, because Nokia 6555 does not have that function. The “thing” with the MP3 player is slightly bizarre. The phone can use a 4 GB microSD card, but does not have a good music player. Besides, the phone package comes with no headphones and no USB cable to transfer data, and this is where the question comes:  why so much storage space? If someone is thinking to buy a microSD card besides the phone, I think it would be a waste of time and money.

OK, I admit it. In the connectivity chapter, Nokia 6555 scores the most. The phone comes with GPRS, EDGE and 3G on board, if it would have had Wi-Fi, it would have been easier to live with its “defects”. In addition, the phone comes with Opera Mini browser on board. In combination with the 2 inch screen with 16 million colors, surfing the net is more than easy and fun.

Nokia 6555 has many weaknesses, but also plenty of pluses. Because it is a mid-level phone, we can overcome the cheap look, but we can find better mid-level phones on the market. The phone receives some points on the 2 inch screen with 16 million colors, but is then pulled down by the lack of a decent camera and the fact that the package does not include a microSD card, a pair of headphones and a USB cable. What brings it to the surface is the 3G connectivity, the Opera Mini browser and Yahoo! Go, the last two functions being pre-installed.