Gadget Blog

Nokia‘s new clamshell smartphone, the 6650, was released on T-Mobile UK this summer. Sporting Nokia’s powerful S60 user interface and a 1500mAh battery, the device is sure to impress heavy users as well as S60 fans. The 6650 also features a built-in GPS receiver for navigation with Nokia Maps, and an external display with touch-sensitive keys. Pretty decent specs for a clamshell device, but read-on to find how it fares in our tests.

Aspects
The Nokia 6650 is quite an attractive phone, with lashings of brushed stainless steel covering its exterior. In terms of size, the 6650 is fairly average, measuring in at 100mm x 47mm x 16mm (3.9″ x 1.9″ x .6″) in the closed position. It weighs in at 112g, giving it a very solid feel and nice weighting. The clamshell mechanism felt very sturdy and would spring out to its final resting position from about 90 degrees onwards.
In the center of the device’s outer front panel is the 128 x 160 pixel exterior display, which is capable of showing up to 262,000 colors. This display was easy to read, even in direct sunlight. Below this display, hidden within a glossy black area, are the device’s exterior touch-sensitive keys. These are used to operate the limited functions that are available via the exterior display. There are three touch-sensitive keys, with menu scrolling being achieved courtesy of the volume controls that are located on the left side of the device.
Just below the exterior touch-keys you’ll find the device’s loudspeaker, cleverly hidden in an extremely narrow slit that most people will likely not even notice. Below this is the T-Mobile logo, tastefully engraved into the metal casing of the phone. Above the exterior display is the Nokia logo, also engraved. Above this is the device’s 2.0 megapixel camera and flash, which protrude slightly from the device. The bottom edge of the front panel is made from a matte grey plastic, which also covers the sides and the bottom of the device where the antenna is positioned. The rear of the device is otherwise dominated by the brushed stainless steel battery cover, which is easily removed for access to the SIM card and the enormous battery.

On the left side of the lower half of the clamshell you’ll find the Nokia 6650′s micro-USB port, covered by a small plastic flap. On the right side you’ll find two more plastic flaps that cover the microSD slot and the headphone and charger ports. These flaps help to finish off the tidy appearance of the phone, and have symbols on them to indicate what they cover. It’s a shame that the charger and headset sockets were placed at the bottom right corner of the device, as this makes it difficult for right-handed people to use the device whilst charging or listening to music.

Upon opening the clamshell you’re greeted with a very simple yet stylish keypad. The keys are all flat, but, cleverly, each of the numbers/symbols have been slightly raised so that you can feel your way around. The keypad is well spaced and feedback is good, despite it being perfectly flat.
Just above the numeric part of the keypad are the send/end keys, S60 menu key, cancel/clear key, right and left softkeys, and the 4-way d-pad and select button. The 6650 can be switched on or off by holding down the red ‘end’ key, which also doubles as a shortcut to the profiles menu. Just click the end key once from the standby screen and the profile list is brought up, along with options to switch the device off, switch into ‘offline’ mode, remove the memory card, or lock the device with a PIN code.

Functions
The call audio quality of the Nokia 6650 was very good and callers sounded clear, with ample volume. Battery performance on the 6650 was very good indeed, with the device packing a large 1500mAh battery that seemed to fill the entire lower half of the phone. Battery life is estimated at 14.5 days of standby time and 6 hours of talk time from a full charge, which is very respectable amongst the current power-hungry 3G devices that are currently available.

The contacts system on the 6650 was a typical Nokia affair, with hoards of data points available. It’s possible to store multiple phone numbers, email addresses, birthdays and anniversaries, notes, addresses, and plenty more. Contacts can be added in a variety of ways, from entering them in the contacts menu or standby screen, to saving them from an email or text message. The search system worked well too, finding both forenames and surnames at the same time.
The option for speed dialing is also available, and is easily accessed from the standby menu by pressing any number from 2 to 9 on the keypad, followed by the green ‘send’ key. This will immediately call the contact that has been assigned to that particular number. Voice dialing is also supported on the 6650, and thankfully is speaker independent. This means that users don’t need to set tags for each contact/function that they want to use voice control for. In our tests the voice independent dialing worked well, and there were plenty of other functions that could be operated by voice command. It was possible to open the camera, gallery, and music player with voice commands, as well as messaging, organizer, profiles and tools. You can even ask the time, and the 6650 will speak it back to you! There is also a speakerphone function on the 6650 that, though not particularly loud, is sufficient for use in a relatively quiet environment. This speaker can also be used with the MP3 player, but the audio quality isn’t great for music, lacking warmth and clarity.

Profile support on the Nokia 6650 was as we’ve come to expect from the Finnish manufacturer, with good customization and MP3 ringtone support. Users can quickly switch between a selection of customizable profiles, which allows settings to be instantly adapted to the current environment. Timed profiles are also offered on the 6650, allowing users to set their device to change profiles automatically at pre-determined times. An ‘offline’ mode is included too, so the device’s offline functions such as its MP3 player or camera, can still be used during a flight.

When it comes to data connections, the Nokia 6650 is fully loaded, featuring a 2100MHz HSDPA 3G connection. To accompany this, the 6650 also has a built-in GPS receiver, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and a micro-USB connection.

Multimedia / Applications
The Nokia 6650 comes equipped with a 2.0 megapixel fixed-focus camera and an LED flash. The camera is probably the weakest part of the phone, being adequate only for basic pics to view on the phones’s screen.

The camera doesn’t feature a macro mode, so close-ups come out blurry and unfocused. However, it does feature a night mode, sequence mode, self timer, and limited adjustment of white balance and color tones. The sequence mode basically takes 6 shots in a row, in quite slow succession. Videos are recorded in MP4 format, so can easily be viewed on a computer or compatible MP4 player, if you wish.
Web browsing on the Nokia 6650 was a breeze thanks to the 6650′s S60 HTML browser and speedy 3G connection. Websites were displayed well, with images and rich text loading up as expected.The YouTube application on the T-Mobile ‘Web ‘n’ Walk’ homepage worked well on the 6650. It almost seemed that an HSDPA connection was being used, as everything loaded up very quickly, even without the device displaying the 3.5G (HSDPA) logo in the status area.
Nokia 6650′s MP3 player simple to use and easy to navigate, with all options being laid out clearly. Playlist creation was present, and playlists for ‘Most played songs’, ‘Last played’, and ‘Last added’ are automatically created as you use the music player. Music can be searched for by artist, album, song, playlist, genre, and composer.
The 6650 can synchronize with a compatible computer via the included PC Suite software over Bluetooth or the included micro-USB cable. It can also connect in ‘mass storage’ mode via the cable to allow access to files on the memory card, ‘Image transfer’ mode to connect it to a PictBridge-compatible printer, or ‘media transfer’ mode to synchronize compatible media files with Windows Media Player or any other MTP compatible player, such as Winamp. The Nokia 6650 has 30MB of internal storage, and our test unit came packaged with a 1GB microSD card to expand storage further. We also tested the device with a 2GB card without any issues, and it supports microSDHC cards, too.
User Interface

As can be expected from Nokia’s S60 platform, the menu system is well organized and easy to navigate. The main menu is set to a grid layout by default, but can be changed to list, horseshoe, or v-shaped alternatives. Submenu items are split down into lists, to differentiate them from the main menus. Within the main menus, it is possible to quickly select an item by pressing the corresponding keypad number key, although this can be difficult in anything other than the grid layout.
As you’d expect from a Nokia device, customizable themes are supported on the 6650. Menu themes are bright and colorful and this adds to the overall playfulness of the user interface. It is also possible to change the screen saver and power saver settings, as well as the call image and keypad color. Users can even change the theme and background picture of the external display.

In conclusion Nokia 6650 is a great device: stylish, very sturdy, and packed with features and connectivity.