In test the "first" UMTS terminal of the Finnish company: Nokia 6630
Introduction.
After having proposed the test of the Samsung D500E here is a road test of the Nokia 6630, perhaps the most archenemy of the Korean terminal.
What do the two terminus in question have in common? Little on a technical level, but they certainly represent the "musts" of Christmas 2005 for various reasons
The rush to the shops to grab them began some time ago and shows no signs of diminishing, even after the Christmas holidays, perhaps thanks to an inadequate distribution that delivers terminals with a dropper (in Naples in the center "the Telefonino" largest have touched the 250 reservations).
The 6630 represents for Nokia more than just a mobile phone: the symbol of the renewed interest in a technology that had been decidedly overshadowed by the Finnish manufacturer. In fact, Nokia has greatly surprised the market, which is now used to associating this name with a company capable of keeping up with its ever-aggressive rivals, giants such as Motorola LG Samsung and others, proceeding at a slow pace in the development of mobile phones equipped with cameras, large screens recently introduced colors and other features.
The situation persisted even when the competition began to produce the first mobile phones with support for the new UMTS network, with the difference that on this occasion Nokia publicly showed its lack of interest in third generation telephony and this clearly affected both on market shares and on the offer of products that are not always at the forefront.
In the subtitle a mistake was deliberately made: the 6630 is not the first nokia for the UMTS network, in fact towards the end of 2002 the 6650 that already supported it was presented, but a device in which the Finnish house had not believed much even in following the disappointing results of the tenders for the third generation which in England had not met the hoped-for interest.
As already mentioned, the 6630 is instead a turning point: It is the first UMTS mobile phone equipped with a symbian operating system, with a large color screen, a good camera, and a much better design than previous devices.
The release on the market as already mentioned was wisely chosen: just in time to take advantage of the delicious Christmas period, offering a good product capable of attracting a lot of attention. The premises are all there, but the question remains: will the 6630 be able to meet our expectations?
The mobile phone is the evolution of the very successful 6600, to tell the truth without prejudice to the support for UMTS and EDGE networks, the 6630 does not bring with it major innovations but refines the already remarkable qualities of its predecessors. on 7610)
It is a terminal with interesting features:
3G speed with Series 60: WCDMA + EDGE broadband access
-1,3 megapixel camera sensor, 1,23 megapixel effective resolution for image recording (1280 x 960 pixel resolution)
-Smooth 6x digital zoom and sequential shooting
- 10MB internal dynamic memory with hot swap and 64MB small size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC)
-Movie recording up to 1 hour per clip
- Web browser with improved HTML support
-Direct printing of photographs at home, in the office, at retail outlets or through online printing services
Packaging.
The packaging is truly minimalist in perfect nokia style (and it is certainly not a merit): square box with an anonymous structure inside of a really horrible and very thin black plastic that first shows us the phone in all its glory, then , below offers:
-Charger
-DV-RS-MMC 64MB (including standard MMC slot adapter) *
-Data cable with USB connection
-Cd with the software necessary for PC SUITE synchronization
-Stereo headset
-Standard battery
-Manual in Spanish
The Tim version of the mobile also includes a 5 euro card.
All in all then apart from the packaging, Nokia does not miss anything and without fear of denial we must say that the equipment is really complete!
Layout.
The mobile is solid and the materials are undeniably of a good quality. Constructed with care, without burrs and is completely free from creaking or overly delicate parts. Honestly, the direct contact with the 6630 has removed, at least from the writer, many of the perplexities regarding the aesthetic side: it is a nice terminal, even more beautiful than the 6600 and certainly more solid.
On the right side we find the power button (much more convenient than that of the 6600 and markedly easier to operate than the bad button of the 7610) and the housing (closed) for the memory card.
On the left side there is space for the button for voice calls. The housing for the charger connector and the headset is located on the underside.
Very well done (finally) the central joystik, so that you no longer risk clicking left or right when you want to select the central position!
At the top right of the terminal we find something that can easily be confused with a status LED, it is actually a brightness sensor that optimizes the backlight in relation to the external light: remarkable!
As soon as it is switched on, the sharpness of the 176 x 208 screen and 65000 colors is striking. Symbian 8.0 loads faster than previous Nokia; even if at the beginning at the first start-up, perhaps because in the initialization phase, we timed 45 seconds, to settle definitively on 15/20 at the following start-ups.
At the first start it will be necessary to enter the information regarding the city (resign, you will only find Rome) time and date; to confirm the initialisation, the full-screen “TIM TURBO” logo welcomes us and reminds us that the cell phone we tested is branded by the first telephone operator.
The keyboard is very well made: solid and comfortable to type, certainly better than that of the 7610.
TIM brand.
The sample being tested, as already mentioned, is branded TIM and once again congratulations should be made to TIM for having preferred a minimally invasive personalization both in terms of aesthetics and software.
Externally we find only two small logos: one on the front below the screen and one on the back of the phone; at the software level, however, we first of all specify that there are no blocks imposed by TIM as regards connectivity.
The i of Telecom Mobile is present only in the initial logo (replaceable) and in the various icons of the menu (as usual in branding, the icons are not distorted but an "i" of "iTim" is added) as well as, of course, in the logo preset.
What we want to underline, however, is the possibility left to the user to eliminate almost all the distinctive signs of branding simply and without artifice, and it is no small feat.
Menu
As we have already said, the 6630 does not differ much from the 6600 and 7610 in the menu.
The Symbian is confirmed as stable and well made and has no obvious bugs.
As in its predecessors, the menu is large and highly customizable.
The software equipment is discreet with video and photo editor, recorder, print utility and so on, but from our tests many software for the 60 series are fully compatible (about 70/75% of those in our possession).
We report the presence of Quick Office for viewing (not creating) word and excel files on the phone.
We are surprised by the lack, in this context, of a dedicated Mp3 player (Mp3 files are played by real player); the net is full of mp3 players for the 60 series, but honestly since Nokia decided to equip the stereo audio output terminal with a home mp3 player it was all right.
Audio Reception and Connectivity.
RECEPTION
No problem from this point of view, on the contrary, the signal is always present and stable and in any case never below the minimum threshold for a clear conversation. When there is no UMTS coverage the switch is fast and does not create difficulties. Even where the 6600 fails, the 6630 goes on with ease: excellent
AUDIO
Perhaps one of the best aspects of the 6630. The audio on call is always clear, non-metallic and always free from background hiss, and when you consider that the main reason for buying a cell phone is, or should be, to talk to it. , of course this becomes fundamental.
Good external speaker and excellent stereo performance through the supplied earphones thanks to which it is possible to make a small play-list without regretting the mp3 players too much. (Availability and price for RS-MMC is getting cheaper)
CONNECTIVITY
Bluetooth wireless technology and USB 2.0 at full speed via Pop-Port interface.
Recalling once again the absolute groundlessness of the rumors that the 6630 Tim was blocked in the file transfer, we found this terminal perfectly in line with its predecessors as regards connectivity, indeed, in the case of bluetooth we must say that the 6630 behaves even better. del 6600: Stable and fast data transfer both via usb cable and via bluetooth.
Tim obviously presents us with a terminal already fully configured and ready to whiz in very fast navigation with the UMTS. In particular with Umts it is possible to reach the maximum download speed of 384kb per second; upload 128 kb per second. In EGPRS (Class B, Multislot Class 10) the maximum download speed 236.8kbps while the upload speed 118.4kbps
No problem for video calls thanks to which you can show your interlocutor what is around you. The choice not to equip the mobile phone with a double camera like most of the UMTS devices on the market.
As we had mentioned, in the package we will find the software for synchronization with the PC: The PC Suite vers. 6.4 allows us to easily transfer files (music and images), manage software installation and so on.Unfortunately once again Mac users are discriminated against by Nokia who insists on not providing software compatible with the house of the bitten apple .
Also present are the drivers for using the 6630 as a modem: navigation is stable and installation does not present particular difficulties; obviously with the data cable you have more security on the stability of the connection.
Remember that to connect to PCs equipped with Windows XP, Service Pack 2 is required.
Camera.
1,3 Megapixel and 6x digital zoom.
This should be one of the 6630's strengths and it proves to be a good camera, but it suffers a little in lack of optimal lighting.
Great in perfect lighting conditions, but rather poor in other situations (perhaps a step back from the 7610's great camera).
We tried to re-photograph the same subject (a digital one) from the same position and with the same light with which it was photographed with the D500E: with the default settings the 6630 is decidedly worse than the Korean cell phone with an evident graininess of the photo.
However, we reserve the right to retry the camera in all conditions in order to be able to make a direct comparison between the 6630 and the D500E
For now, suffice it to say that the 6x digital zoom is quite unrealistic since if you exaggerate the image quality is really bad. In any case, the zoom is fluid as in few other terminals.
The camera allows you to take pictures in standard and sequential modes (6 images in 2 seconds)
For viewing images the compatible formats are: JPEG, GIF87a / 89a, EXIF, WBMP, BMP, MBM, PNG
In terms of video, the Nokia 6630 performs very well:
-Resolution: 174 x 144 pixels or 128 x 96 pixels (QCIF or Sub QCIF)
- Recording time up to 1 hour for video clips against 10 minutes for 7610 (in any case unlockable with third-party software)
-6x adjustable digital zoom
- 3GPP video streaming
- Recorded formats (encoding): .3gp file format, H.263 video clip and AMR radio
Conclusions.
The 6630 is definitely a mobile of great versatility and longevity thanks to Symbian and Nokia quality guarantee; A terminal with which Nokia tries to counter the supremacy of Koreans in the UMTS market
Ultimately, we would therefore like to recommend (as long as you find it in stores) the purchase of this phone from the TIM price list for only 349,00 euros: a really competitive price if you take a look at the offer of other manufacturers that offer expensive terminals. and certainly lower value.
Article published in Hirc on December 26, 2004 by the same author.
