At last I have an 6680. Not that I had to wait several months, but the weeks that passed since 21st February and today had the same feeling�
Well, since there are not too many reviews of the 6680, I tried to do a review of my own, approaching the aspects that I see people are most interested in. I didn�t tested all the functions, specially the network related functions (such as PTT or Video calling), because there is no settings so far for my network, and because I don�t know anyone who also have a 3G handset. So if you were looking for this two specific items, there�s no need for you to keep reading. But if you want to know something else, than I�ll do my best!
When I first saw the phone it seemed smaller than I thought. I think that the phone feels smaller than 6600 (my previous phone) and it�s thinner too. The square factor makes it this way. I can compare it to the 6630 only by what I saw in stores, but the 6630 is bigger. Specially because of the round bottom.Although the phone feels well built, the sliding camera cover gives it a sense of fragility. This cover may give problems in a future, but the slide mechanism is very smooth, it reminds the one used in Samsung D500. No matter what, it�s very comfortable.
The chrome parts get greased very easily, but since it�s not a big surface, it�s not a problem. At least in my point of view.The keypad is very good, no clicks here, but the "2" key could be a little bigger. It shouldn�t be so tiny, specially for people with big hands. It�s also not a major problem, and you get used to that, but it�s something to look to. The directional key, I think it�s not as good as the 6630, but if I have to give them points, I�d give 100 to 6630 and 97 to this one. So it�s not better, but it�s not much worst.The soft keys are very large, and they feel very good.The overall ergonomics is very good, as it is with the majority of Nokia phones.
After I turned the phone on, there is a long waiting time until the phone asks me for the pin code. But it�s not as much as it was with the 6600. In terms of speed, the 6680 behaves extraordinary well. It�s very quick opening the menus, applications, etc. The transition between the camera lenses is also fast. This means, that if you go to "camera" with the back lens covered, the front lens starts working. When you slide down the cover, automatically it turns to shoot what�s behind the phone, and the image becomes much better.
Regarding the 262k vs 65k issue.. Well.. it�s a bit hard to evaluate this, but I think the colours are noticeable. I mean, you can�t see the difference as you could between 4k and 65k (which was huge), but you can see the screen is more smooth.. The shades (specially the shades) look more natural. And Iguess this is it. I was however well impressed with the improvement of the video quality. I think the new screen is the responsible for this. There�s not so many "pixelation" as with previous models.
With so many good things there�s what I think is a bug. The screen has several variations of brightness. It�s like you are changing the brightness of the phone automatically. First I thought it was the "white balance" thing, but it� not.. It�s random. It also happens with the keypad. Sometimes the lights are off. Sometimes they�re on, and sometimes they seem to be faded� Strange to say the least, but it doesn�t ruin your overall appreciation of the phone. This phone has all the capabilities to became a best seller, and it will bring 3G to the masses. I�m preety sure about that. Let�s wait and see. Nokia will sell it just like it sold 6600, or even better, depending on how much it takes to show new and better equipped phones.
Now, let�s take a deep look into the phone�s applications
The Messages.
Everything is just like the other Series 60. You can choose where you want to place your messages (phone/mmc), models, reports, etc.
The media gallery.
Well, the media is different than 6600, but very similar to the 6630. You have everything there. Images, Videos, Tracks, etc. A nice thing is they are now all listed in the same folder, so you don�t have to choose between phone memory and mmc memory. The files stored in the mmc card (or should I say the DV RS-MMC) are marked with the correspondent icon.
The Log.
Typical Series 60
The Contacts.
Typical Series 60. You can add the thumbnail picture, assign different ringtones, group contacts, etc. Now you also can copy the contacts to and from your memory card, which is good when you change the phone and don�t want to copy all your contacts, cpecially if they�re hundreds..
The Camera
Great quality. The zoom is smooth as it was with the 6630. I think it�s basically the same thing.. The flash is good, and it really lightens up in dark situations.There's also the brightness/contrast settingsa and the possibility of give effects to the pictures. Normal/Sepia/Black & White/Negative are the available modes. The sequence mode pictures are just that. 6 pictures taken in a row.
The frontal camera, is a normal vga camera, but the viewfinder is very noisy. There's not a sharp picture here. No effects apply except from brightness and contrast�
The video recorder.
Here, the good thing is that you can record as much video as your memory card can hold. The reproduction quality, as I said before, seems better thanks to the 262k screen.
The Agenda
Typical Series 60. The new thing is that the items are now shown in the Active stand by screen. (I�ll talk about this later)
The Real One player
A normal player. You can choose the clips you want to play, the contrast, and you can also choose proxy settings to see streaming video or music. It�s the phone�s music player.
The Extras
Well the extras are no longer in a folder. Now we have "Office" with the list of Todo�s, Calculator, Convertor, Recorder, Notes, Printing, Quickword, Quicksheet, Quickpoint, BT Keyboard and Adobe PDF. What this programs do have already been widely explained, so I won�t take more of your time with them.
Themes
There�s 5 themes. (Pics Attached) The Nokia one and another 4 themes in the Memory Card
Tools
Inside the "Tools" folder we now have some apps that weren�t there. The profiles, and the themes (used to be in the extras) for example. There is now also a Settings wizard which works well, and it �s basically an app that recognizes your SIM card and transmits to the phone the correct settings for mms, wap, etc
Phone Settings
It�s in here that you choose if you want or not the active stand-by screen. I think it�s useful, but not very flexible. You have 2 options. 1) you have 5 shortcuts in active stand by screen; 2) You don�t have a stand by screen. It works like an improved "favourites", and the 5 icons can all be customised with all the functions present in the phone. Frome Snake Ex to New mms� The great thing is that even installed apps like file explorer can be assigned. Wich in my point of view is great!
Profiles
Nothing much to say. The usual stuff. There�s a lot of ringtones to choose between .mid; .aac and .mxmf
Bluetooth
The Bluetooth worries me. There�s a strange lack of compatibility between Bluetooth 1.1 and 1.2 I passed my contacts through Bluetooth between a 6600 and my 6680, and 40% of the time it was "impossible to connect". And that�s not due to a bt connection still active. But from the 6680 to a N-gage, I had no errors.
Games
Snake Ex and Card Deck
Other software
Apart from all this we have the Kodak software which seems to be to upload pics and then get them printed at a Kodak store. We have the HP software, to print contacts, pics, meetings, to a hp bt printer, lifeblog, muvee, and picture/video editor.
And that's it.
Resuming.. the phone is very stable, don�t have the strange restarts that early 6630 had, but the screen brightness bug is something that must be reviewed in a next firmware update. Overall the phone is very good. Quick, effective and a powerful office tool. The image capabilities are not state-of-the-art as we all know, but I�m not a 5Mega pixel phone guy, ao the 1.3 is enough for now.
I hope you have enjoyed this review.
PS. I don't send photos because there are so many photos of the 6680 that I don't know what else could I take to be original, so I send the 5 themes instead
