The Nokia 6260 is among the first few flip phones produced by the Finnish cell phone giant 'Nokia'. In fact 6260 is the first Nokia smartphone with a (Clamshell) flip-open design.
What I intend to give here is my first hand user experience of this phone. In the text that follows, I shall list out the ''Good, Bad and Ugly'' of this phone, further down take-it or leave it is for you to decide.
Like my earlier reviews, I shall refrain from mentioning any ornamental features like covers and colors and so on.
^The Good^
#It?s a smartphone
For those who are yet unaware of what a smartphone is: it?s a communication device, which runs on a full Operating System (OS). The OS could either be either Symbian or Windows Mobile 2003. More or less a smartphone is like a desktop computer, where you can add features by installing applications according to your needs, whims and fancies.With a smartphone in hand, what you literally have is a PDA.
The 6260 is a Symbian based smartphone which follows the Series-60 user interface standards. Well, Series-60 is way-too-technical to be explained here. In simple terms, 6260 follows a pretty decent user interface standard.
#Clamshell Design and looks:
Picture this, your cell phone rings and you swap it out of your pocket, flip it open and answer the call. Compare this to a normal bar phone, where you pull it out and simply press a boring button to answer a call. That?s exactly the idea behind flip phones, ''the Style''.
All the while I've been using the 6260, it sure has turned heads when I've answered a call. It comes in a sleek body, curved and straight designs in the right places.
#Camera:
The camera on the 6260 is placed sideways on the lower half of the phone. Compared to other bar phone designs where the camera is fixed at the back of the screen, the 6260's design has managed to keep the screen and the camera separate. By twisting the screen flap one can take pictures and shoot videos with ease using the sideways placed camera. If you still dint follow what a sideways fixed camera is, take a look at a few pictures of this phone from the Nokia site.
#Preinstalled features:
6260 comes with Word and Powerpoint viewers, which let you read and view your favorite .doc and .ppt files on the move.
With the preinstalled music player you can listen to music formats like .wav, and .mp3.
#FM Radio:
The FM Radio on 6260 is a blast. With the stereo headsets that come with the sales pack, one can listen to FM music channels in full stereo. This adds loads of entertainment value to the phone. The speaker playback is pretty decent which plays in MONO only.
#Connectivity:
Bluetooth, Ir, USB, VPN (network connections), think of it and the 6260 has it, connectivity modes I mean. It also comes with a decent GPRS modem with sadly no support for the upcoming GPRS Edge technology.
The 6260 lets you read and write emails once your networks and settings are correctly configured.
For all those IM (chat) lovers, 6260 supports Presense, which lets you log on and chat over proprietory IM networks.
6260 also supports the foldable keyboard (keypad) through its bluetooth connectivity options.
^Bad^
#Bulk:
This phone has dimensions, which beat other typical sized Nokia phones. It?s not very heavy to carry around, but does manage to take up a good part of ones pocket.
#Delicate & Loose body:
Being one of Nokia's first flip phones, the 6260 comes with a loose fiber body which appears to be rather delicate. In some corners of the 6260, the phones cover seems to slightly open up which calls for care and attention while using the phone in extreme conditions (on the run, bikes, rains etc)
#Firmware Bugs:
Very sadly Nokia has carelessly slipped in some software bugs on this phone. Most of these are set to be sorted out in upcoming firmware updates from Nokia
%1 Volume Control:
Initially when I bought the phone, the volume control just would not work. The speaker ran at full blast, as also the headset. It gave just 2 settings - a full volume or a total mute. Decreasing the volume control would not help. I got my self around this by doing a full software reset on the phone. And now this works just fine.
%2 Symbian Camera applications:
Due to its flip phone design and different camera position, most of the Video related Symbian applications that I?ve tried haven?t worked on this phone. This though would be a matter of time until some 6260 specific Video applications are released in the market.
The 6260's camera functions differently from the other Nokia camera phones. As you twist the screen and get into the camcorder mode, the Camera application starts automatically. What appears is that the Camera application has been linked up with the phones operating modes.
(Browse Mode: screen twisted and placed upwards,
Normal Mode: flip mode and
Camcorder Mode: screen twisted to shoot pictures and videos)
%3 Lower than announced picture/video resolution:
The images captured on 6260 have a resolution of 480X360 pixels. This is lower than the standard VGA resolution of 640X480.
The images have a smaller size as compared to the Nokia 6600 which has a similar power camera(2X zoom).
The same applies to videos shot using the 6260, they are smaller than the announced video resolutions.
I am hoping this can be rectified through some software adjustment, which should be out in the next firmware update.
^And Ugly^
These following issues add great negative value to 6260's otherwise amazing feature set.
#Phone Freeze:
While trying to format my 512Mb RS-MMC card, the phone would just freeze. Only getaway being to remove the battery and a restart. On checking up with Nokia forums and smartphone help groups, this more or less seems to be a problem in some unfortunate 6260 phones.
I hope it?s another firmware issue, which should be sorted out in an update form Nokia.
#Blank Out:
The phone would simply shutdown and blank out on its own free will. Usually while on a long call or after playing music/FM for a while my 6260 goes plunk.
This again is my personal experience. I haven?t heard similar complains from other 6260 users. I am looking at a bad battery, which would need some visits to my cellphone dealer to have them replaced with a new set of batteries.
My Verdict
Personally I like the phone from a feature point of view. The 6260's got most of the features I'd been looking in a phone - a good entertainer, good connectivity on the move and good looks. For the defects and software bugs, I am still holding on to my devotion with Nokia and its ability to sort them out.
All said and done, I seem to be hooked on to the 6260 until another smartphone catches my eye.
Until next,
Cheers!
