Slim, sleek and sexy

There are a million ways to describe gadgets nowadays — just as there seem to be a million or more gadgets out there to choose from. 

Cellphones are the gadgets that almost everyone I know has a penchant for watching out for. No matter the brand, almost everyone I know has an opinion of a particular brand of cellphone. This is mainly because almost everyone I know owns a cellphone or two, or three or more. 

So, when Nokia recently launched its slim and sexy Nokia 6500 Classic, the Nokia lovers among my friends, and cellphone lovers I never met wanted to know what makes the 6500 a classic. 

Well, for starters the Nokia 6500 Classic brings back memories of some of the first Nokia cellphones launched in the market. Designed to be precisely balanced in the hand, with large keys and ergonomically correct dimensions and surface, the Nokia 6500 Classic was created with maximum usability in mind. Along with third-generation WCDMA technology and sleek, contemporary design, this new device features carefully engineered touches that help ensure that the beauty endures. 

“Nokia is a recognized trailblazer of the 3G revolution and a pioneer in the use of new and innovative materials for mobile phones. With the 6500 Classic, Nokia is skillfully combining these areas of expertise to deliver a compelling blend of design and technology at a mid-range price point,” said Alex Lambeek, Nokia vice president for mobile phones sales and portfolio management in the Asia-Pacific. “While features like the aluminum ‘loop’ structure of the Nokia 6500 are present, it is the skillful balance of features and style that will make them irresistible to customers.” 

OK. So, what was the first attribute that attracted me to the Nokia 6500 Classic? 

I would have to say its slim, super sleek and classy looks. For me, it was love at first hold with the Nokia 6500. Instantly recognizable by its seamless case crafted from 360 degrees of anodized aluminum, the Nokia 6500 classic is a 9.5-mm thin statement of unsurpassed attention to detail. As an expression of individuality, each Nokia 6500 Classic is individually polished, ensuring that no two phones are exactly alike. 

But let me say that Nokia not only considered the looks of the phone, it also gave great attention to the details making the 6500 Classic more than just a skin-deep beauty. Featuring dual-band 3G technology for fast and easy downloads and browsing and quad-band GSM for worldwide roaming, the Nokia 6500 Classic delivers state-of-the-art connectivity options for the most demanding of consumers. 

A full 1GB of internal memory means that the Nokia 6500 Classic has capacity for far more pictures, videos, contacts, songs, messages, and other content than the vast majority of other mid-tier mobile phones.

Although I did miss the presence of the now standard memory card, I knew that the one-gigabyte memory would be more than enough for my needs.

Nokia’s dedication to usability is also evident in the Nokia 6500 Classic. The Nokia Series 40 interface, familiar to millions of users around the globe, provides easy access to the powerful feature set, including a two-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and an integrated music player. 

As I am often told, beauty and real function are found in the details. So let me give you a techie lowdown on the Nokia 6500 Classic.   

Small is techie-right

Weighing only 89 grams and measuring 110mm x 45mm x 10mm, the Nokia 6500 Classic is a compact little candy. Its design makes use of simple lines and curved surface. The 6500 Classic’s 16 million color display may only be two inches in size, but its QVGA resolution makes for some very sharp looking images.

I like that it is easy for my fingers to work the keypad. That is, once I got the hang of it. That is because the Classic works quite well, thanks to its easy-to-find and raised silver edge that surrounds a large central select button. The alphanumeric keypad takes some getting used to, though. The raised silver bars on the keypad separate very small keys. The silver bars cannot be pressed, but act as guides for the pad of the fingertip. You can use a fingernail to press the hard and somewhat stiff keys, but most people will find that a fingertip works best. All of the keys and buttons are back-lighted well.

Let me just say that what I found most unique about the Nokia 6500 Classic is that the phone is not flimsy to the touch. It feels just as sturdy as other thicker cellphones. In fact, tough and sexy are two words that come to mind when dealing with the Classic. 

Making calls and good connections are just a few key taps away with the 6500 Classic. The call audio quality is very good, though. The speakerphone also provides good quality audio to both ends of the call, but lacks volume. Our 6500 Classic manages four hours of talk time, which is good enough for the talker that I am. 

The contacts system on the 6500 Classic is fairly complete in terms of the data stored, and also offers a good multi-character search function. I love the profiles of the Nokia 6500 Classic. What I love is that, like most Nokia phones, it is easy to make personal and that, for me, is what makes or breaks a phone. And for anyone who has come to love the Nokia cellphone, the personalization function is what keeps this Finnish handset one of the top brands in the market. 

Of course, Nokia knows it has a winning cellphone with its standard features like speed dials which are assigned from the contacts editor, and can be accessed by long pressing the associated keypad key. The 6500 Classic’s speaker-independent voice dialing and command application are another plus up this Classic phone’s sleeve. 

E-mail and the typical SMS and MMS messaging functions work great. I was able to set up and use an IMAP-based personal e-mail account without any problems at all. SMS and MMS also worked just as expected. The 6500 Classic supports EDGE and GPRS data on any of its four GSM bands and faster 3G UMTS data on the 850 and 2100MHz bands.

The camera on the Nokia 6500 Classic is equipped with a LED flash. Photos, photos and more photos of furry canine companions were a click away. In the music department I was able to sync the application with Windows Media Player and Nokia’s own music manager on my desktop PC, and the player supports on-phone playlist creation, multiple equalizer settings, and features such as stereo widening. The application organizes music found on the phone’s 1GB internal memory by artist, album, and genre. I found the audio quality to be acceptably good, and was overall quite pleased with the music experience on the 6500 Classic.  

Lest you begin to think that the 6500 Classic is all business, think again. This beauty has a few games pre-loaded, including a decent version of Rally 3D and Nokia’s own Snake III.

It’s the Yuletide season and to make it really happy I have made sure that I was good throughout the year. And if Santa is reading this piece he knows that I have set my gadget-eye on the Nokia 6500 Classic. If I were you, I’d do the same, too.