Nokia 6220 Classic Review

The new 6220 Classic must be wondering what it has to do to become a fully paid up member of Nokia’s elite Nseries range. Just take a shufti at its feature set and you’ll see why: a five megapixel Carl Zeiss lens with autofocus and Xenon Flash, VGA quality video capture, built in A-GPS with Nokia Maps, Symbian Series 60 OS, and HSDPA download speeds. That’s some line-up.

Mid-range madness
Okay, admittedly it doesn’t pack built-in Wi-Fi, support for N-Gage gaming or an integrated 3.5mm headphone jack, but we’re flummoxed to see the 6220 bearing the Classic tag rather than an Nseries badge. And even more amazing is the fact that Nokia is touting the 6220 as a midrange blower. Someone has clearly been spiking the Finnish giant’s drinks.

There is a hint of the Nseries DNA in the 6220’s design, sporting that signature overly glossy façade, but it’s a lot more compact than the flagship smartphones – think a slightly trimmer Sony Ericsson K810i.

Nevertheless, the keypad is still invitingly spacious despite the buttons being overly firm and sticky at times. Its general operation is also smooth and stable for a Symbian smartie with its nippy processor imported from the likes of the E71, E66, N78 and N81.

Flash Harry
The 6220 ‘mid-range’ status shows its colours on the rickety sliding lens cap but the rest of the camera set up is up there with the N82.  Although not as blinding as the N82, the Xenon flash is highly capable, evenly illuminating subject areas while picture quality displays acute detail, especially on close-ups, and vibrant bold colours.

Video capture also hits the VGA/30fps heights of top hounds like the N95 and N82, so footage is the slickest currently available. Support for A-GPS also means locating a sputnik fix is pretty swift and, with the latest Nokia Map 2.0 software on board, you’re privy to a competent A to B navigation performance.

Web wizard
With Wi-Fi off the menu, web surfing is still hassle free with full fat pages loading snappily over HSDPA and, thanks to the Mini Map browsing technique, they’re easy to read and navigate around the 2.2in 16-million colour display. Similarly, while not bestowed with N-Gage fun, the 6220 still supports Nokia’s other app sidelines like Widsets, Ovi Share online and Music Store downloads.

It may lack the all out blazing power and occasional attention to detail of a lot of the Nseries phones but the 6220 Classic is still mighty smartie, even eclipsing the N78 on camera and video recording front. Not bad for a ‘mid range’ handset.