Nokia 6220 classic Review

Introduction:

We are about to take a closer look at the Nokia 6220 classic today. This is a midrange smart-phone, equipped with a decent number of functions that neither clearly make it a business device, nor a multimedia one. Still, given its contemporary design and smarty OS, i.e. Symbian S60 3rd Edition with Feature Pack 2, we do expect to see it perform reasonably in both areas. Here is what you´ll find in the box:

Design:

As we mentioned, the Nokia 6220 classic sports a contemporary design that is certainly eye pleasing, even if not groundbreaking or something unseen before. There is a 2.2-inch QVGA display with a light sensor that regulates its brightness right above, next to the video call camera. The screen delivers 16 million colors, so get ready to indulge an image quality with saturated colors that is also perfectly OK for a bunch of other things than business. It´s a good thing that the display remains usable outdoors - details are easily discernible and clear despite the colors become somewhat worn out in the sun.



You can compare the Nokia 6220 classic with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The keyboard is far from being the most comfortable we have ever used. The first thing we came to dislike was the soft keys. They are hard to use, plus you need to press right in middle, since pushing down on any other part of any of them, say the upper, will most probably fail to register. The same goes for the numeric keys. Unless you use both your hands, you may find it difficult to press the buttons in the most inner column. Fortunately, we do not have any complaints about the D-Pad, it´s stable and easy to use.

Fortunately, the buttons on either side don´t give any trouble. The one that starts Nokia Maps, along with the microSD slot are on the left hand side, volume rocker and camera shutter - on the opposite. The on/off button is on the top, while microUSB, 2.5mm and charger ports are all on the bottom side of the phone.



You will find the 5-megapixel, Carl-Zeiss optics camera on the back of the device, accompanied by something camera phone buffs will find most welcome – a xenon flash. The lens is protected with a small flap you can open or close using a somewhat flimsy sliding mechanism.

Interface:

The Nokia 6220 classic runs Symbian S60 OS with Feature Pack 2, which will hardly take you by surprise if you happen to have used it before. Let´s recap for all of you, who haven´t. the Symbian S60 is an operating system that looks much better than Windows Mobile 6.1, for an instance. But as we all know, most smart phone customers are far more interested in what functionality a system offers, rather than the way it looks in particular. Well, the S60 is a great performer in this respect.

Contacts have retained the same pleasing interface. You can search by given or family name, but unfortunately the phone doesn´t offer the search function that compares consecutive letter values of any digits you punch in to the letters in the names of your contacts, in other words punching in 6 (mno) - 3 (def) - 6 (mno) won´t lead to the phone finding your Neo contact. Still, there are numerous information fields, so adding as many details into your contacts as you wish is not a problem at all.



Being an S60 device, the Nokia 6220 offers an extensive organizer and office assistant functionality. Your calendar allows you to take a look at your schedule in month, week or day view, plus you have a to-do mode that, as its name suggests, calls up all your to-do notes on screen. There are also calculator, notes, dictionary, unit converter etc. Quickoffice is started through the office folder and does a great job opening and showing Office 2003 documents. The thing is you will have to shell out some extra cash if you feel like editing office files. There is also a preloaded Adobe Reader LE 1.5 that helps you read PDF files.





Messages, Internet and GPS:

There is nothing thrilling about typing away text messages, but you’ll soon find out using the keyboard makes for one indeed, since it´s as far from being the most comfy pieces of hardware out there as it gets, especially for people with thicker fingers.

If you are up for surfing the Web wherever you are, you are in for a nice surprise - the Symbian browser is really nice. It loads pages in a snap, properly visualizes all content and formats and aligns any text so that it´s comfy to read. What else could a web buff need? Plus we didn´t encounter any issues opening heavy or complex pages either.



The Nokia 6220 sports a built-in GPS receiver and comes with Nokia Maps that offers great 3D view of the Globe. In serene weather the GPS managed to find our location fast after a hardware restart and almost momentarily the second time. The phone comes with a turn-by-turn voice navigation pack that is free to use for three months.

Camera and multimedia:

One of the key features of the Nokia 6220 classic is its 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and xenon flash. Starting up its interface you will have the opportunity to relish smooth animated transition to landscape view mode, with the menu and all its options appearing in the right end of the screen. It has monochrome icons that look incomprehensible, but you can rearrange them to better suit your taste and need. Of course, options like white balance, exposure, sharpness, etc. are all here.



There were enough details in all snapshots we took, although colors looked a bit surreal, overly saturated in certain places and scanty in others. The xenon flash does a great job lighting up dark places and performed well even in pitch dark. The thing is if you go for a snapshot in completely dark places keeping away from the object you are trying to take a shot of, the phone might not be able to properly focus. Still, the camera offers much more functionality than most devices as a whole.




You can capture videos with 640x480 pixels resolution at 30 frames per second. The sound is loud and clear, so the 6220 classic performers pretty well here as well.

Nokia 6220 classic samples video at 640x480 pixels resolution

There was no way we didn´t test the Nokia 6220 classic as an entertainment device, so we started the audio player and… bang! Everyone turned our way, astounded at the loudness of the built-in speaker. It packs a lot of punch and provides more than satisfactory sound quality. That´s the ticket, Nokia! Surely, the next thing we got down to was the 2.5mm earphones that came in the box. Their qualities definitely didn´t manage to leave us gasping for air. While trebles were distinct to the point we felt like turning the volume down at times, you need not worry that doing the latter would make the bass frequencies suffer, since they are not there anyway. All told, we were utterly unimpressed by the earphones.



It´s a crying shame, but the video playback capabilities of the phone are really disappointing as well. The manufacturer claims the device should be able to play H.263 and H.264 video content without a hitch, but the only test file we were able to run was an MPEG-4 video with a 320x240 pixel resolution. So, if you want to make sure all your videos run smoothly, you better convert them into the above mentioned format.

Broken spirited by the laughable video performance, we said to ourselves “Well, there should be games at least”. Yes, there… is just one going by the unimaginative name of “Marble” that actually turned out to be pretty amusing indeed, so we guarantee you´ll get hooked up on it for a long time. Of course, you can always install more titles.

Performance and Conclusion:

What is a phone good for, be it smarter than Einstein, if its telephone function is below par? The Nokia 6220 classic is a mid-range performer in this respect. We were able to hear people we were talking to relatively clearly, but their voices sounded muffled, so you better leave important conversations for less noisy environments. We were heard much better on the other end, with sound being a bit sharper, but clear and loudness neither low, nor excessively high.

As for its computing power, the 6220 classic is high-tech enough thanks to its 369MHz ARM11 processor. If you are one of those people who tend to decorate their smart phones with all sorts of applications much like a heavily-adorned Christmas tree, bear in mind you´ll have to make do with the meager 128 MB of RAM the manufacturer has equipped it with. On the other hand, we didn´t experience any slowdowns or sluggish responsiveness in menus or applications, so we believe it´s unlikely you encounter issues due to lack of hardware resources.

The Nokia 6220 classic is a nice phone with pleasing and unobtrusive design that offers more than what most customers need these days. Unfortunately, we are not convinced the device is a great piece of workmanship. If you go for it, keep in mind that getting used to the keyboard takes some time. What the phone has going for it are quality display, powerful xenon flash and excellent internet browser. And don´t forget the mighty loudspeaker that lets you throw a party wherever you are.

Nokia 6220 classic Video Review: