Stylish slider unleashed... Review on Nokia 6500S

I purchased this fone (silver-black combination) near about 20 days ago and here goes my total unbiased review of this Nokia slider.

Build quality, Design, Ease of use & Ergonomics:First thing first....the design of this fone is excellent!!! The front and back facia is made of stylish and glossy steel (the silver part) and plastic (the black part). The plastic is well and though the steel part attracts very much but it is also prone to scratches if u put it on your chest-pocket and also if u have a tendency to put some coins etc along with it.

Other wise, the build quality is good. But one should keep in mind that being a slider it has more moving parts than normal candy-bar, so handling it requires more care.

The sliding mechanism is superb....u can easily open it with single hand. There is a small rubber pad under the display to make the sliding mechanism more convenient. The volume key is on the right side and it is not very easy to press sometimes. The conventional D-Pad here is great to use, so as the two soft keys and 'call receieve' and 'call end' key.

The numeric key pad also gives excellent tactile feedback. The display is superior with 2.2' diagonal though u cant change its brightness. It produces 16 million colors and it is crisp. But under direct sunlight, I faced some problems (but it may be caused due to the unclear screen protector). Dedicated Camera button is also on the right side. Left side doesnot contain any keys. Memory card slot is not hot swappable, u have to open the back cover, though u dont have to remove the battery. The bottom  is left blank. Top  contains charger port, headset port (2.5 mm), back cover removing latch and the USB connector. Speaker grill is on the backside, along with 3.2 mp camera (with Carl Zeiss lens) and flash (which cant be used as flash-light unlike some sony-ericsson handsets). There is a tiny slot of neck-strap but u have to remove the back cover to set the strap. One additional thing to mention is that in my case the fone came with 1GB Micro SD card.

Basic and other fone features:Reception quality is very good. In my office I faced severe call drops while using Sony Ericsson K750i, W810i; but with 6500 slide, making and receiving calls are smooth enough. Voice clarity through earpiece is ok. The speakerphone also produces good output but as it is in the backside, the sound gets much lowered when u put it on table or other surface. Bluetooth connectivity is standard, no problem here. USBconnectivity with PC is very good. Particularly in mass storage mode, transferring data is reasonably fast. But USB charging Is not possible.

The major problem is the battery life. I have to charge it every single day with moderate use. A more powerful battery was required because display is not small. I will recommend not to hear songs etc with the loudspeaker. Instead, use the headset because it is  more power-saving. Normally I found Sony Ericsson’s batteries to be much better performer than Nokia’s (whichever the model may be) though most of the SE’s display are of 1.8-1.9’(except some newest models).

Software performance & Multimedia: Here the software is Series 40 and it has great usability. It works very fast till sufficient fone memory is free (i think the fone memory is 28-30 MB and not that sufficient). U must be transferring some songs, videos or pics through the bluetooth and they get stored in the fone memory first. So be sure to check the available fone memory from time to time. Because low fone memory can cause hanging problems some times, atleast I have faced 2-3 times. Otherwise, though Series 40 till now does not have that much 3rd party software support, but the overall look and feel of the software interface seem to be appealing. It comes with 5 pre-installed games and 4-5 preloaded themes (my software version is 06.60, RM-240). Organizer is satisfactory with calculator, notes, to-dos, stopwatch etc, but one thing I must mention  here in this section is that…i really missed the Code Memo feature of the Sony-Ericsson handsets. I did not manage the time to experiment with the GPRS browser but I think that will be typical Nokia. Texting is fun with any Nokia. Unlike Sony-Ericsson W810i or K750i, u can store all your message categorically in the Saved Message folder and can also create additional folders. Sending 2-3 msgs together was pain in SEs, but in Nokia no such issue will raise. In Settings menu, there are numerous options available to customize your fone in every aspect.

Music player is like the typical Express Music fones', i.e, it is quite good. There are 2 skins of the music player. Equaliser settings, stereo widening are also available but do not turn on the stereo widening feature while listening through headset as it tends to distort sound a bit. FM radio reception is ok but not that much mentionable. This fone supports almost all current mobile video and audio formats. Though it is not a music fone, but with a little higher side price tag, I really cant tollerate the bundled headsets. They are really really pathetic while listening to songs. For calling it is better than SE's Fontopias, but regarding music.........it is a real pain. Bass is too low as it is not in-ear type headset like the Fontopias or Nokia 5700’s headset. In addition to that, u cant use other 3rd party headsets as it has no standard 3.5 mm jack. So I am using a 3.5mm converter cable and using SE HPM-70 heaadset with it. Now it sounds superb!!!....I will recommend to shell out some extra bucks and go for the Creative EP630.

Camera is above average with some typical settings. Picture and video quality, video recording time, effects, white balance etc are customizable. Camera sounds can be turned on and off. VGA Video recording (640X480) is supported. Night mode is strong to some extent and flash is there. When the flash is set to ‘always on’ then night mode cant be activated. When night mode is on, u cant access ‘white balance’ settings. Outdoor shots are more decent than indoors. Picture quality is good but  in N73M, it is much better. Recorded video looked quite pleasing in the handset display but when transferred to PC, I faced severe brightness problems especially with those which were taken at night. Autofocus feature is there which does a decent job. Picture can be taken with dedicated camera key or the huge middle key of the D-pad. In one sentence, I am satisfied with its video and camera performance.

Conclusion: After buying it, I think that I have made correct choice. It is the sexiest slider fone from Nokia stable I think. It looks absolutely gorgeous and it also has a wide range of features. Performance is also above average. Just buy it…buy a 3rd party in-ear headset, get a converter cable and keep your charger handy. And the day will be yours!!!…

As this is my first review in this site, do rate it friends and leave some comments....thnx in advance.