Images
Fashion or features? That’s the choice you’re making with Nokia’s classy new 6500 Series Duo. Do you plump for the size zero Classic candybar, cutting an incredibly slender 9.5mm thick figure or make a beeline for the more feature potent Slider handset?
It seems an obvious choice when you consider the 3G-roving 6500 Slider packs a 3.2MP snapper and is just as refined as its Slim Jim partner.
Smooth operator
Taking the design of the 6288 handset as its starting point, Nokia has hewn the Slide out of brushed stainless steel, giving it a finish almost as luxurious as the 8600 Luna and 8800 Sirocco. This metallic overcoat also gives it a nice heft but is not so weighty its provokes pocket sag.
The slider action is smooth, gliding open firmly but fluently to reveal an overly glossy keypad. Still, it’s spacious and geared nicely for speed texters.
The 2.2in QVGA display is similar to other high-end Nokias we’ve played with recently, brightly brimming with 16-million colours and crisp detail. Nokia has decided on the Symbian Series 40 OS for the 6500 Series and this is naturally imbued with the Finnish manufacturer’s intuitive and friendly outlook.
It’s a booty Carl
Apart from the expertly crafted metal torso, the 3.2MP shutterbug is the main draw here and the Slide takes the honour of being the first non-Nseries member to be fitted with a Carl Zeiss lens.
The picture quality leg up compared to common-in-law optics is apparent with autofocus and an accomplished power LED flash to help out. Focus is keen apart from some occasional blur on the picture perimeter and colour rendering is vivid. We’re impressed, but picture definition is still not as slick as the Sony Ericsson K810i.
Video capture is also impressive, despite only filming at 15fps. The maximum VGA-quality gives the footage a little polish, despite the appearance of judder and drag, but for YouTube shenanigans, the quality is well up to the job.
Mod music
Eagle-eyed Nokia fans will notice the music player interface has been graphically spruced, along with some quality audio mods to boost the sound.
Disappointingly, the Slide only harbours a 2.5mm headphone jack but the sound is still pretty dynamic through the supplied earphones. Plug in your quality cans via an adapter and you’ll receive more low-end thump. Stereo Bluetooth is also ready to serve should you go wireless.
The Slide isn’t short on the internet and email extras either with the peerless Opera Mini web browser and the Yahoo! Go apps embedded to make surfing and email access painless over the 3G connection. Setting up your web-based or home email account directly on the handset is also just as easy-peasy BlackBerry squeezy.
The 6500 Slide is a classy number, taking a dash of the 8600 Luna’s hi-grade steely glint and instilling it with top-notch features. Highly recommended.
Tech Specs
- Bluetooth
- Yes
- Dedicated MP3 player software
- No
- Dimensions
- 96.5x46.5x16.4mm
- FM radio
- Yes
- Main camera resolution
- 3.2MP
- Memory card type
- MicroSD
- Operating system
- Symbian Series 40
- Quad band
- Yes
- Screen resolution
- 320x240
- Standby time
- 310 hours
- Storage
- 20MB
- Supported music formats
- MP3, AAC, WMA
- Talktime
- 6 hours
- Video resolution
- 640x320 (15fps)
- Weight
- 150g
- Wi-Fi
- No
- Xenon flash
- No
Comments
jordysimmo9
3 years ago
I have had this phone for a few months now and well I wouldnt recommend it. A few of my friends have it too and well we all witness the same problem, which is every so often after a few calls or text the screen goes white and the phone resets itself this has been a problem ever since Ive had this phone but other than that it works fine, normal nokia features and very simple to use, :)
konekosaru
4 years ago
I really wanted to like this phone. So much, in fact, that I am now on my fourth since I upgraded to it just before Christmas. Finally, I've thrown in the towel, and I am giving up. It's sleek, it's pretty, and yes, there are some pretty nice features on it like the expandable memory, but it's just not enough to overlook the fact that each and every one of these phones that I have had crashes. Randomly, but continually. This is my only phone, I need something reliable, and unfortunately the 6500 slide just hasn't been it. That said, I am impressed with the backup feature on this. It creates an exact image of your phone as it is, to the point of saving personalised settings, themes, ring tones and, best of all in my opinion, every last one of your messages, so that when you put your sim and SD card in another (presumably Nokia) phone, you still have everything there as it was. The battery life isn't bad, I mean, I use it fairly heavily (I've unlimited sms's on my account, and really do need that), I use a lot of data, and still get near enough two full days before I really need to think about charging. It's user interface is, as always with Nokia, faultless, the easiest of any make of phone I've experienced. Many pros, and a few cons - if they could sort the crashing issue out, make it feasible to charge via the USB, and change the camera so that there's actually a cover over the lense so it doesn't get scratched, then you really would have a superb bit of kit. Come on Nokia, it can't be that hard....