nokiaven

The next review it?s for the phone Nokia 6220, and its software described below:

Software: V 3.07
Date: 21-08-2003
Model and type: 6220, RH-20

As you all know, this phone it?s only for sale in HK since the provider CSL got their EDGE network from Nokia, I?ve got a hand on this phone since I bought it through eBay at a price of 470USD, expensive? Yes, worth it? Yes.

I know how little information on this headset we can find on the net so far, so I?ve decided to put a personal review of it for those interested. Any questions you may have after reading this review, I?ll gladly respond them.

I?ll divide the review into several topics, and I won't include much info of the functions already known by most of the users, like grid menu which it's supported, and calendar, and so on, here's my take:

Display - Screen

As we know, the phone comes with a 4096 color passive matrix display; it has a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels and has the ability to show 5 lines of text and a service line. When messaging, up to 8 lines of text can be displayed on the screen.

Compared to my Nokia 7210, I can see improvement, of course, I would love if this phone came with a 65K screen like most models on the market or soon to be released, but I can?t really complaint. It?s brighter, and looks overall sharper than the rest of nokia phones out there. Contrast actually helps when changing color themes, since previously you could see some errors in the bars when some colors were used like grey, or green for example.

Nokia does need to update their screens once and for all in the upcoming models, specially those who will be expensive in their releases like this one, being a business phone, I?m sure users would love to see a better screen for the price they?re paying. Don?t get me wrong, it depends on the user at the end?me? I?m in no extreme need of a better screen, but facing reality and facts, other companies are indeed making an effort to support much better resolutions, and a better quality overall.

Controls - Keypad

A blessing indeed. The numeric keypad of this phone it?s a welcomed change from nokia, knowing they do tend to experiment with keypads designs every now and then. It?s easy to use, it?s well distributed, and the number keypad comes with 2 grooves indented, so it?s easier to know exactly where you are in the keyboard without the risk of miss-pressing an undesired button.

Finally nokia got their act together when it comes to lighting of the keypad, you can see it brightly and perfectly, all numbers light up, there?s no different in the lighting like on previous models like the 6610 or the 7210 were some keys were more illuminated than others. I believe they did a bit of research and knew exactly where to put the keypad led on this phone.

It comes with a 4-way scroll key, which we can use to navigate through menu, phone numbers, and settings or move the cursor or highlight in text editing. When the phone it?s on standby mode, pressing the keys will give you quick access to certain functions:

? Press < to create a text message.
? Press > to open calendar
? Press [down] to open the phonebook
? Press [up] will open up the camera, once in the camera you can change modes by pressing and holding keys [ < or > ], standard photo it?s the default, pressing said keys will change to ?portrait photo?, ?night vision? and ?video?.

Also, selections keys are here, which as we all know will perform the action above it. In this phone model, you can change the text above the right key, which it?s often used for contacts. Options to change are ?go to?, ?calendar?, ?radio? plus others. A welcome addition, for those like me who want quick access to the most used functions, so ?go to? will do the trick.

Memory - Storage

The headset comes with a shared memory of 4megs, which it?s divided for the use of:

- Contacts
- Text and Multimedia Messages
- Gallery [ ringtones, wallpapers, videos, recordings ]
- Organiser
- Applications and Games

Memory it?s dynamic. We all know what that is, so I won?t go further.

Being a business model, this phone could come with a slot for memory cards?since it support edge and it?s designed for that type of user who needs to constantly download content from the web. But 4megs it?s not that really bad for a user like me. Also, I think the need for more memory ranges from user to user.

Camera

The equipped camera on this phone can take photos or record video clips. It produces pictures in JPEG format and the video clips in H.263 (SubQCIF) format at a resolution of 352x288. Photo quality can be changed, the better the quality, the bigger the size of the picture will be. Video clips are not 15 seconds like it says on the nokia page, but 20, with audio included. You can also mute the audio later on during playback.

Like other models, taking a picture it?s easy; you use the phone display as the viewfinder. Quality of the camera? Fair, it could be better, especially in dark scenarios, but pictures I?ve taken so far in daylight are clear, like I?ve said at night, it could be a problem. If you use the night mode, the camera will slow down somewhat, so it?s not very useful when it comes to making videos.

Modes of the camera were previously discussed. And it comes with a self-timer function of 10 seconds with a lapsed beeping sound. 3 times in the course of the first 8 seconds, and on the last second it beeps 3 times and then it takes the picture.

The father you are from the camera, quality will decrease. It doesn?t come with a zooming option to solve this sadly, though after taking a picture you can use the ?zoom? function of the software to navigate through the picture with a closer look at it.

I saw a question from a user somewhere, asking if you could set an image to a contact so it could display a picture of the caller. It?s supported, you can set pictures for your contacts so when they call, and you will see the picture on the right-low corner of the display. Portraits picture fits the best, though you can use standard photos as well.

The contacts menu will also give you the option to display ?name and image?, or other options like ?name and number? or ?name list? like before.

Connection

Infrared on top of the phone next to power button, Pop-port? [pop-port is a Nokia designed outlet that automatically identifies accessories attached to the phone] on the bottom of the phone next to the charger port. And like the 6200 it comes with SyncML, which allows you to synchronize contacts, calendar and more with your pc.

I haven?t tested the pop-port yet, with any other device other than the stereo headset [ for radio use and hands free use ] but its use will be for the music stand, and other nokia original accessories that will come due time.

A data cable will be released hopefully, but right now there?s no support of the phone in programs such as ?MobiMB? or ?Polyphonix Studio? to name a few.

Ringtones

For many users this was a topic of confusion. Some of them said the phone supported 4 chords, others said it supported more than that. It does, 16 simultaneous chords can be played on a single ring tone, and a welcomed changed indeed. Of course, we can find better models out there that play more than 32, but this doesn?t seem to be a priority for nokia right now. Not in this model at least.

It does improve from previous models. I mean, the 7210 tones are really crappy?they could only play 4 chords and the volume of it was lousy to say the least. In the 25 ringing tones that comes with the phone, nokia did their best to show how much improvement there was, there?s tones like ?Pursue? to name one, which not only have the 16 instruments playing at once but the volume of it it?s flawless, finally, you can hear your phone in a crowded place.

21 calls tones, and 4 messages tones are pre-defined in the headset I got. All of them supporting a vast range of instruments and also including vibration on them according to the beats.

You?ll be able to set a tone to a caller group from the gallery, and also the tone message can be changed to one within the gallery. Software in this phone it?s flawless so far, they thought of the mistakes they?ve done before, and fixed it.

A nice addition which it?s not mentioned on the nokia site, the phone also supports AMR files as ring tone. Whether you want to record your own sound [with the voice recorder included] ?incoming call? or whatever with your own voice or you can easily convert a wav file to amr and play it on this cell phone. I love this function, I absolutely do.

The speakerphone it?s loud and clear as well, very much like the one in the 7210.

Battery

So far, it?s been fair. I need to charge the phone every 2 days, and I play with it very often. I?ve noticed that the more I play with the camera, the less battery life you get.

But on stand-by, or even with a frequent use of calls. You can easily get more than 4 hours of calls, and more than 3-4 days on standby.

Call Quality

I have to say that this phone has the best quality of any other nokia I?ve tried so far. There?s absolutely no hiss, nor unpleasant sounds when you make or receive a call. The quality of the earpiece it?s awesome and it?s well placed so you can hear everything clear and loud. Volume went up a little bit too much, since sometimes I do need to drop to lower volume settings during a call and especially on the radio, it sounds amazing. Really amazing.

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