I tend to spend too much time elaborating and talking about the S60 user interface of Symbian here, so I was on the lookout for something some what different for quite some time. Finally I came across the Nokia 6500 classic. I considered S40 to be very similar to the UI used in Sony Ericsson, an interface I used extensively before I switched to S60 some two years ago. In this piece, I'll be focusing more on the physical traits of this phone, and will have a write-up of the functionality and software portion of this phone.
The first thing that stands out when you pull this puppy out of the box is it's remarkable build quality. It is a combination of brushed metal and hardened plastic, somewhat different than the plastic used in the N95. The 6500 classic feels solid and great in the hand, no cracking noises, and doesn't feel brittle or vulnerable when trying to bend it along its length. On the back yo can find the 2.0 MP camera, LED flash, and the speaker grill. To finish it off, it has a somewhat surprising heft, and definitely does not feel like a toy. (Do you hear S60 phone designers?)
The phone is a hair less than 10 mm, which is at least 50% thinner than the N95 and 8 mm thinner than the N82. This translates to a very thin phone which is barely noticeable in the pockets of your jeans. The phone is box shaped on the top with curved edges, and the bottom of the phone is somewhat round again with curved edges. The phone has minimal grooves on the top and the sides.
The intention of the phone is to attract the fashion-conscience, and it doesn't disappoint. The phone pursues a minimalistic design, with the omission of the volume rocker on the spine, lack of a dedicated camera button, and finally exclusion of a dedicated power button. In practice I find that the lack of a volume rocker is annoying, and probably wasn't worth the sacrifice.
Again with the minimalistic philosophy in mind, the phone has a all-in-one micro USB port for charging the phone, using the provided headphones, and utilizing the USB cable for data transfers to the onboard 1GB memory. Again this is a disappointment, because it is impossible to use wired headphones and charges this phone at the same time. And the target market of this phone will be very less likely to use A2DP bluetooth headsets and charging their phone at the same time compared to the average S60 user.
The last bits I want to touch on are the screen and keypad. The screen is 2", so it's not the biggest screen, but for the most part gets the job done for this phone. The screen is plenty bright, and has decent resolution. As for the keypad, I'm satisfied with the d-pad, and seldom have any issues mis-hitting it. The keypad itself is somewhat stiff, but on the bright side I don't have problems mis-typing, and as with minor practice one would master the keypad.
The only word that I can use to describe this phone is sexy. Stay tuned for the write-up regarding the OS and functionality of the phone.
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