Damn! the Nokia 3660 is one ugly phone, but I guess its all genetics. I mean when has Nokia ever made a decent looking yet uniquely stylish phone? I am not a big fan of Nokia, but in all honesty they do have some good things going for them, like the loyal followings of the masses and this means that they can come up with all sorts of weird and sometimes wonderful designs and be sure that people will buy them no questions asked lol.
Right off the bat, I didn't buy this phone but I used it over a period of 5 days, (me and my mates frequently exchange phones to check them out).
Style and Shape: 1.8/10
Its looks and shape are by far its major shortcomings. Its sort of a mix between one of those phones your grandma has (with the winding dial) and a back massager. Its too bulky and large and looks like you're carrying a concealed weapon in your pants when you're walking. The size of it in your pocket can be a safety hazard as low lives may want to add this 'unique' Nokia to their collection (ie steal it, lol).
If the phone was smaller it would be far better. It is also quite heavy at 130g, but then again this has to be the case because of its size, the Motorola v600 is something like 125g and is only half the size. So the 3660 isn't that bad.
I guess the good thing about most of Nokia's phones is that they come in a variety of colours so you aren't stuck with the standard colour. The Nokia 3660 uses Nokia's Xpress-on covers. The phone I used came in red but I changed it to blue because I think it looks better. I've also seen the phone in orange and a very cool looking black.
Screen: 8.3/10
The Nokia 3660 sports a 65,536 full-colour excellent screen. The screen is large (176 x 208 pixels) and is very sharp. The quality of the screen is much like the Motorola v600 and a bit better than the SonyEricsson T610. It has been greatly improved over the Nokia 7250. Overall an excellent screen which is imperative to any multimedia phone.
Video and Camera Capabilities: 8.7/10
The photo quality on this phone is not exactly perfect, but then is it on any mobile, ...yet. Its image capture resolution is 640 x 480 pixels.
The good thing that Nokia has done is implemented a night option to make photos in the dark a little better, but not too good. Like most phones on the market it doesn't feature a flash facility for taking photos in poorly lit areas. The most innovative thing about this phone is by far the video feature. The quality is surprisingly good. It uses RealVideo, RealAudio and RealMedia software. For some reason you get a lot of ghosting in playback. Warning that the phone crashes a lot and says that its memory is full even though its not, damn it this isn’t a Siemens, Nokia get your act together.
Connectivity: 10/10
It offers both Bluetooth and Infrared. Bluetooth is fantastic I always use it, but infrared (on any phone) is a waste of time, its very fidgety to work with and can disconnected easily.
SMS/MMS: 9.1/10
Well, well, well, this upgrade has at least made writing SMSs bearable, in contrary to the 3650 with its 'innovative' keypad. But because of its round bottom area its difficult getting use to it. Group messages are easy to set up for someone who has used previous Nokia phones (By the way, many people say that Nokia's menus are the easiest to use, that’s only because for a long time the only phones anyone used were Nokias more or less, and we have evolved into using their system, making the use of Motorola and Samsung menus a brain straining experience, but since I’ve been using Motorola phones for more than 2 years now I find them easier to use, only coz I use them more, geeeezz). Maximum characters per SMS is 160, like most other phones, but you can go over and it'll just send the message in 2 messages.
The Nokia 3660 also implements MMS, which allows you to send video, photos/pictures, sounds and texts in a message, but costs more. Due to the 3660s fantastic multimedia capabilities you will find MMSs fun to use and send.
Applications and Games: 7.2/10
Notebook, ring tone composer, calculator, and alarm features are great and the ‘to do list’ is fantastic but then again these are not new features most of them were also on the 3210 from way back in 1999 lol.
The 3660 comes with 3 games but you can download more. It also supports JAVA.
Reception: 5.4/10
Generally not perfect, its not quite the Motorola T720i or the v600 which is like talking to someone right next to you, however its sufficiently good. One problem which I encountered on this phone and on the SonyEricsson T610 is an interference noise (much like hissing). Generally Nokia phones have reasonable reception but for some reason this phone wasn't up to scratch.
Battery Standby/Talk time: 3.7/10
Standby, ok. Talk time horrible. This phone has really bad talk time, once only 1 hour or so before turning off (on full battery), and sometimes more. Also because of its many multimedia capabilities you will find yourself charging your Nokia 3660 more often then you would like. I had to charge this phone every night for it not to start beeping at me wanting a feed.
Polyphonic Ring tones: 4.8/10
Great sound, poor default tones. While you can download better ones, this shouldn't be the only option. Nokia has had a history of shoving really bad polyphonic ring tones in their phones, which can be very annoying (prime example 7250). The phone does support MIDI and WAV files but not MP3 files. Since it syncs quite well with your computer you can download tones straight off your computer instead of paying to download them through its WAP connection.
Overall Score: 5.9/10
(not an average of the individual scores but a score with various weights on different categories)
Overall I wouldn't recommend this phone. This phone isn't for everyone, it has a face only a mother would love. While I do like the features it has, its form factor is ugly and its too big. I'd prefer the Samsung v200, the Ericsson T610 or the Motorola v600. If however you want video capture there is many other phones on the market and you don’t need to stick with this Nokia.
Price and availability:
A couple of Nokia Priority Dealers here in Delhi say that this model has been phased out. But it is still available with some dealers for Rs. 11,500 with bill and one year warranty. According to me, this is not a good buy for such money. I'd prefer the Motorola v600 any day. For die hard Nokia buffs, I'd suggest them to spend 2 grands more and go for the 6600. Hope this helped. Chao.
