A predecessor of futuristic phones

GIZMO GALLERY/Nokia 6600

Smartphones are the rage in Europe, where the accent is increasingly on data and business applications. Phones in this category include the "pencil box" Nokia Communicator series, Sony Ericsson's P800/P900, the O2 or the SPV E200 that runs on the Microsoft Smartphone software. Also, muscling into this space are PDA (personal digital assistant)-converts like the Treo 600 or the Palm W.

The Nokia 6600 is the latest smartphone model from the Finnish phonemaker based on a Symbian operating system; the first being the Nokia 9210 Communicator.

For those who came in late, Symbian "" owned by Ericsson, Nokia, Panasonic, Psion, Samsung Electronics, Siemens and Sony Ericsson "" licenses its open standard operating system for data-enabled mobile devices.

To date, my experience with smartphones has not been too great with the exception of the P800 (although that beauty hanged on me a couple of times). Until now, that is. The Nokia 6600 is a compelling piece of electronics. The "form factor" or design is certainly chubbier than any normal phone, but it stops well short of getting clunky.

In fact, it is lighter than its predecessor, the 7650. It is about half a centimetre shorter than a P900, but 1mm wider and has basically the same thickness; but the P900 has a larger display and greater functionality.

Nokia has made a couple of changes from its traditionally super-efficient design. For one, you could miss the power-on button along the top of the phone. I did. Next, the menu key is placed on the left edge of the phone just below the call button. The disconnect button in on the right edge.

Further, the softkeys ("Select" and "Back") are placed a good centimetre below the screen. Perhaps this is the first step to accommodate more keys and functionalities in the space freed up in future phone models.

Having said that, the phone retains all "" and more "" the brilliant navigation features and functionalities for which Nokia has earned a reputation. A miniature joystick with five degrees of freedom enhances the user interface further.

The 6600's 2.1-inch TFT display, which delivers 176 by 208 pixels and 65,536 colours, is the most compelling aspect of the device. It is everything a display should be: bright, colourful, and easy to view in all conditions with some brilliant resolution. It has a highly reflective backing and can be easily seen in even the harshest of lights.

Combined with a VGA-resolution camera at the back of the phone, the 6600 makes for a amateur, trigger-happy photographer's delight. The camera comes with a 2x digital zoom and boasts of time delay and night mode settings. In video mode you get about nine seconds of recording "" with audio and zoom options "" that an embedded RealOne Player plays back.

To play video clips on your desktop or notebook PC, you need to install the bundled PC Suite application. The PC Suite program also backs up your contacts and calendar, as well as synchronising and transferring files. Also bundled in the package is the Nokia Multimedia Player that plays .3gp video files from the 6600 on the desktop.

A key application aimed at the business user of the 6600 is the xHTML browser that supports secure email access via 128-bit SSL encryption and a mobile VPN, although I must confess I did not use this functionality.

Also, if your service provider supports it, the phone allows you to download a browser like Opera microbrowser to surf the web. In addition, you can record calls or make voice recordings.

Other pluses of the phone are its triband (GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz) options, Bluetooth (and infrared, of course) connectivity, support for Java applications, speakerphone with a decent timbre quality to the sound, polyphonic tones and, finally, excellent battery life. With all this, it is not surprising that this excellent phone is not cheap. It retails in India at a shade under Rs 27,000 apiece.

(The writer works with content company perZuade. His views are personal and may not be endorsed by his employers, the company's investors, customers or vendors. Comments may be sent to josey@perzuade.com)