Hi guys,
Well, it's been about 2 weeks since I bought my 6600. I've read thru many posts on here and thought I'd share my experiences with you.
Firstly, I have to say it really is as good as I thought it would be. I remember someone posting in here when Nokia announced it and I thought then that it was a major improvement on my 7650.
Don't get me wrong, I love my 7650. I don't care what anyone says, as far as smartphones go, it was a trailblazing device and still worthwhile today. My only real beef with it was the paltry memory.
Of course memory is not a problem with the 6600. I currently have a 128MB card in there, which has loads of video's and MP3's on. Ok, so the sound quality doesn't do the MP3's justice, but it's a handy thing to have (I use Ultra MP3, btw). When it came to video's, I initially struggled in getting them recorded, but I found Real Producer Basic (free from realnetworks.com) and this converts my avi's that I create using Softcam. I tried Helix Producer (free version) but this didn't seem to work for me (not sure whether this was user difficulty or not 🙄 )
My next test is going to be putting a whole movie on there. I figure it'll take up about 80MB, so plenty of room for that.
I have read about peoples problems with their 6600's, such as being unable to delete stuff and basic unreliability. Well, I have not encountered any of this yet, but I would hazard a guess that it is mostly down to the firmware. All 7650 owners must surely remember the early 7650 firmware's and the issues they had. Both mine and my g/f's 7650's crashed and locked until Nokia released a more stable firmware. I think i'm running 3.42 on my 6600 (I say I think, coz I'm too damn lazy to go downstairs and check 😃 ) but I have a very helpful local Nokia Service Centre who are always very willing to upgrade as necessary.
3rd party software is still thin on the ground, but it's early days yet, and look what we ended up with for the 7650. Some of my fave 7650 programs such as sLauncher and Stacker are now redundant as far as I'm concerned. Themes on the 6600 are great, although I agree with the complaints about Nokia's Theme creation software. I run XP Pro, and run the software in W2K mode, but it runs very slow...too slow for me to want to persevere with it. I am also a little peeved that pieces of software like Blacklist and others use IMEI numbers to generate registration codes. I resent having to pay again for something that will work on my new phone.
But my main joy with the 6600 is that it actually seems that Nokia took onboard the critisicm's of the 7650 and also looked to see what 3rd Party companies were producing for it, and then came up with the 6600. In fact, looking at Nokia's current and upcoming product range, I think Nokia are poised to take back a large share of the mobile phone market. I mean, just look at the 7700, 7600, N-Gage, 7200 et al....all great pieces of technology and some pretty radical designs too. I've used other makes of phone, but Nokia has this blend of style, practicality, familiarity and ease of use that makes them a joy to use. Sure, they have their problems.....but show me a make of phone that hasn't, coz there isn't one.
My mobile phone history started with an analog Panasonic back in 93, then one of the first digital Ericcson's, then a Bosch until I discovered Nokia. Since then I have had a 6150, 6210, 7110, 6310i, 3410 (all work phones) and a 7110, 8210, 8310, 7650 and finally 6600. It's the best Nokia yet and I'm sure they'll make loads more 😊
All the best,
Rob.