Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Nokia 6060 review: Magical attraction

and an exceptionally comfortable keypad. It plays MP3 files as well. Yet, the number of minuses is somewhat high: Nokia 6060 does not have an external display, its antenna sticks out and the polyphonic sound is low-quality. There is however one thing that this phone does not lack for sure - it literally exudes charisma.

Key characteristics

  • Elegant design
  • Large functional keys
  • Comfortable keypad
  • TFT display
  • MP3 ringtones

Main disadvantages

  • No outer display
  • External antenna
  • GPRS Class 6 only
  • Limited communication options
  • Low-quality polyphonic ringing

In June this year Nokia launched at once. Among them was the clamshell we are presenting you today, Nokia 6060. It is made to meet the demand of all users, who long for style and good functionality. The phone does not have a camera. Yet, I have no fear that it will suffer lack of attention.

Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060
Official photos of Nokia 6060

Small, but with external antenna

Nokia 6060 has a body of 85 × 44 × 24 mm. The quoted height does not include the antenna, which is 1.5 cm long. On one hand, mobiles with antennas seem to be loosing popularity nowadays. On the other hand, there is a certain group of customers, who are looking for exactly this type of phones.

Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060
Live pictures of Nokia 6060

Whatsoever, we decided to classify the presence of an external antenna as a minus for Nokia 6060, mainly because in today's mobile world it is no more a problem for a built-in antenna to achieve a high-quality signal reception. The one of Nokia 6060 seems quite easy to break and what's more, it creates mysterious bulges. The phone weighs 93 grams. Although we can effortlessly find even lighter clamshells on the market, this Nokia model still belongs to the group of the small and light ones.

Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060
Nokia 6060 open

The phone has been presented in two color versions. Both are marked by a solid chromium-covered frame, but differ in the design of the covers. The latter can be either black or silver. I admit that the silver version corresponds better with my gusto, most of all because the black plastic material used in the other is glossy and reflects every finger print. Not to mention the fact that the surrounding chromium frame does not look that cheap when placed next to the silver cover.

Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060
Nokia 6060 in a palm • comparing phone's size with a credit card

Red alert

Let's pay a little bit more attention to outlook of the phone. The most attractive element on its front upper part is the narrow red strip of the status LED. The diode emits white light. What adds the magenta shade is the tiny red plate placed under the small glass cover. The LED is very strong. It can be seen even at daylight. Good news is that there is no need to turn Nokia 6060 face down at night, as it happens with some mobiles with the so called "disco lights".

Nokia 6060
There is a status LED on the front upper part of the phone...

The pity here is that the LED is not equipped with different color for incoming message or missed call alerts. It just keeps on blinking in silence in one and the same way, no matter what comes in. When the phone rings, it blinks twice and then takes a long break before it repeats the alert. Well pals, there is no doubt that you will get used to Nokia's functional system. We have seen smarter phones though, haven't we?

Nokia 6060
... it blinks in red

The sides of the phone are perfectly unoccupied. There is no wavy element, no control key, no volume button...The bottom part is the only exception, being equipped with two connectors - the charger and the handsfree set ones. Between the connectors is the Plug-and-play slot, which Nokia first promoted as a new alternative interface to co-exist with Pop-Port. At the same time, by this very moment Nokia has not manufactured a cable to serve Plug-and-Play. Or this connector has been elaborated for service aim only? Why has it been given such a "multimedia" name then?

Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060
Nokia 6060 from all sides

The loud speaker is embedded somewhat deeper on the opposite side of the body, right next to the antenna. The speaker is secured by a fine grid. When you switch to the built-in handsfree while in the middle of a phone call, the sound performance is not only quiet, but is also accompanied by an unpleasant hissing noise, if set a bit louder.

Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060
Outer antenna and loud speaker's grid

Breathing silently behind the back cover is the Li-Ion accumulator, with a capacity of 760 mAh and a maximum stand-by of 400 hours or 210 minutes of talk time. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to test the phone thoroughly in order to confirm if those numbers are true or false. I guess, however, that the realistic times are approximately half the ones officially published.

Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060
Removing the back cover • battery • SIM card slot • SIM card mechanism

Open again and again

Once the opposition of the connecting spring has been broken down, the display lights up, the second part of its mechanism gets activated and picks off the upper wing of the shell upwards. In order that the closing back-move is safe, there are two rubber spring bumpers at the corners of the phone, just below the keypad.

Nokia 6060
There are two tiny rubber spring bumpers under the keypad

As for the keys - they are praiseworthy. Even though they are only barely protruded, they are comfortable and decent. They are made of hard plastic. They all are easy-to-press and react properly without exception. Nokia 6060 has apparently followed the example of the 6030 model it has copied its large control keys, whose main characteristic is the extremely low uplift. As a result, work with this phone is a pure pleasure.

Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060
Main control buttons are really big and comfortable • buttons stand out only as much as it is necessary

The entire inside part of the phone is designed in black. It looks really good. The surface is matt, so finger prints are not visible. The overall impression is only disturbed by the main four-way control key with its confirming middle part.

Keypad's backlighting is blue-white and is strong enough where it is most necessary: below number and letter keys. Every three horizontally located keys are light-framed. A bit less light intensity has been conferred on the call-control keys, the context keys and the main control button.

Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060
Keypad in the dark

The display in Nokia 6060 is 35 mm high and 28 mm wide. It has been made with the help of TFT active technology and is able to show 65K colors. In terms of picture quality it hits the current middle class. 128 × 160 pixels on such a big surface is not much, but is enough. The display is especially easy-to-read in direct sun light.

Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060 Nokia 6060
Display at daylight • and in the dark

The lack of external display is quite significant disadvantage. You will need to open the phone almost constantly - an action that may turn to be especially unpleasant, if done with one hand. If you do not open it, you will not be able to see who has called you, nor will you quickly read a newly received message. At the same time, the market is rife with competitors with two displays, all in the same price category.

Samsung i300 review: Smartphone with a hard disk

There is no doubt that the new Samsung i300 smartphone represents the best of the best Windows Mobile OS can offer nowadays. It has a 3GB hard disk, a high-quality display, a unique steering control button as well as plenty of functions, of which the music ones are probably the most successful. The phone's equipment is wrapped up into a compact and quite elegant body.

Key features

  • Windows Mobile OS
  • 3 GB hard disk
  • Brilliant display
  • Standard connector for earphones
  • Megapixel camera

Main disadvantages

  • Slow data transfer (USB 1.1)
  • No EDGE, Wi-Fi or 3G
  • 3.5mm audio jack only through adapter

As smartphones represent a top-class technological achievement in the business with mobile phones, it is a matter of prestige for each manufacturer to be able to offer a smartphone. Hence it is no wonder that a device of that high a category has appeared in the offer list of the Korean company Samsung. By the way, Samsung is known for its tendency to often change the OS of its smartphones. The mobile phone we have just tested - Samsung i300 - was announced with Microsoft Windows Mobile 2005, but the final version works with Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 OS Second Edition.

Samsung i300 Samsung i300 Samsung i300 Samsung i300
Samsung i300

Samsung i300 was shown for the first time this year, at the European trade show CeBit, along with several the slider Samsung D720 featuring Symbian Series 60, the clamshell D730, also with a Symbian OS, and the communicator i750, which has a touchscreen and a slide-out keypad, and works with Windows for Pocket PC OS. Yet, Samsung i300 was the most successful in holding visitors' interest, mainly because of its 3GB hard disk.

Samsung i300 Samsung i300 Samsung i300
Samsung D720 • Samsung D730 • Samsung i750

This phone is a tiny spectacle

When I first saw Samsung i300, I could not help but getting the impression of a quite big and edgy device. However, after having tested the phone for several days now, I would not dare change its size of 113 × 48 × 20 mm even a little bit. The phone is comfortable to hand-hold and stands firmly. The edges are round enough and thus assure easy work. In addition, the location of the control buttons is nearly perfect. It is only the weight of 130 g that makes difference when compared to other mobile phones.

Samsung i300 Samsung i300 Samsung i300 Samsung i300
It looks like Siemens, doesn't it?

Nearly half of the front side of the phone is occupied by its big color display. As expected, the latter is active and allows the TFT technology to brilliantly show all its strengths. Display's surface is 3 X 4 cm big. It fits 76800 pixels in a 240 × 320 matrix. Each pixel is able to show 262K colors. The display can fit from 6 to 11 text lines according to the used mode.

Samsung i300 Samsung i300 Samsung i300 Samsung i300
It sticks to your hand... • comparison to a credit card

The new Samsung i300 display is truly a top-class one. Its quality exceeds all expectations. The graphic image looks very natural due to the combination between high resolution and reasonably big surface. Diagonal lines are far from jaggy. Redrawing speed is exceptional, just like the evenness of the backlighting. The display is perfectly readable under direct sun light as well.

Samsung i300 Samsung i300
Display is very good

Spin it around

Have a look at the discreet silver cover of the receiver. On both its sides there are two color LEDs, which alert you about phone's basic functional states. Personally, I am quite fond of this type of indicators and I am sorry to see that the more the time goes the less it is being applied by the manufacturers.

The real control innovation however can be seen on the block below the display, where 6 functional keys are dominated by a silver control button. The latter is quite strange and at the same time habit-forming. Its silver ring can be used as a standard navigation button. In other words, you can move within the phone and control its functions by pressing the wheel in four ways. A press on the black middle part confirms the choice. The silver ring, however, features an additional peculiarity - it steers both clock- and anticlockwise, in a way similar to the one we know form the iPod first generation music players. A small projection on the ring prevents user's finger from slipping away when steering. Navigation within the phone by means of a steering ring seems to be a most logical and natural solution.

Samsung i300 Samsung i300
All-way control button - can be both pressed and steered

The block of functional keys is quite standard. Right below the display you will find a pair of soft keys, followed by the back button and the one for quick access to the main menu. The last to come are the red and the green receiver buttons, which serve incoming and outgoing calls.

Samsung i300 Samsung i300 Samsung i300
Keypad is extremely comfortable

The keypad gives no reason for complaints. The keys are made of solid plastic; individual lines are separated by clearly cut spacing and touch orientation is easy. Perhaps the touch marks on the middle key could have been a little bit more tangible. The keys show no delay, their uplift is ideal and their reactions are easy to notice. All this allows for quick and comfortable writing with minor, if not insignificant keying mistakes.

Samsung i300 Keypad backlighting is deep blue