Post: Nokia 6680 thoughts
So, I have a Nokia 6680. What do I think of it?
First off, iSync is lovely and wonderful and just plain wins. With almost no effort whatsoever (beyond pairing my iMac with the phone, of course) my calendar and contact list were synchronised within two minutes, contact photos and addresses and all. Very swish.
The main camera (yes, the phone has two of them) is also very impressive, as you can see in this photo: of course it doesn’t compare to the quality you’d get even with a fairly cheap digital camera, but it’s more than good enough for quick snaps, especially for someone who has a habit of taking pictures of inappropriate uses of everyone’s favourite font.
As regards the 3G features of the phone, I haven’t yet had much opportunity to try them out. In theory I get 300 free off-peak minutes I can use for either voice or video calling, other than the two minor problems that I don’t know anyone else with a 3G phone and O2 haven’t yet set up 3G coverage in my area yet (although they apparently have it planned for some time in the next three months). For the purposes of data I haven’t really dared to play around with it much, not when it costs a whopping £2.35 per megabyte. Cool as it was to take a look at my blog on my phone, I’m not sure that any site is worth paying about 10 pence per page to view. Without images. On a small screen. Ain’t gonna happen.
I’ve also had a problem this morning with the phone failing to start. It went something like this:
- Phone turns on.
- Phone displays Nokia logo.
- Phone fades to white.
- Repeat.
By a process of trial and error, I found out that this was due to some kind of problem with the memory card: while the phone would happily read the card once it had started up, starting with the card in the phone was a no-go. I reformatted the card (losing the bundled games, the QuickOffice suite and Opera, among others) and it now works fine. A somewhat inauspicious start though, considering I’ve only had the phone for four days.
In summary: many of the phone’s features are wonderful and lovely, the data rates are obscenely overpriced and I’ll hopefully tell you in a few months whether the video calling is up to scratch.
I’ve also been very impressed with iSync. Particularly cool is the way in which you can also import your Backpack reminders onto the phone by subscribing to the Backback iCalendar, and setting that calendar to sync with the phone. You can’t write back to Backpack in this way (iCal has it as read only), but it’s quite neat.
Do you not get any inclusive data with your contract? I’ve switched off images on my K700i and for occasional use travelling on trains, happily browse my regular blogs and have never exceeded my inclusive megabyte. Can be quite handy, and gives you a massive appreciation for including accessibility enhancements in pages.
“… especially for someone who has a habit of taking pictures of inappropriate uses of everyone’s favourite font.”
It may amuse you to know that it’s used on all of our exam papers. (And you think I’m kidding!) They say it’s easier to read, and after getting over the initial cringe moment of horror expressed by every first year geek when they open their first paper, they may actually be right. However if you would like a shot for your collection I’ll happily oblige. But I agree that it definitely makes posters look really, really nasty.
My 7610 sometimes doesn’t want to boot up, but frankly I rarely switch it off, and it tends to work the next time I try to switch it on anyway. Reformatting seems somewhat drastic, but if it does the job…
I really don’t understand O2’s policy on data transfer – I’m absolutely certain I’ve gone over the 1 Meg limit every month so far, and yet they don’t charge me for it, nor yet even mention it on the bill in the “inclusive allowances” section. Very curious.
I think a more appropriate word than “amuse” might be “horrify”: a picture would be most welcome, if for no other reason than that I still can’t quite believe it…