Nokia 6220 Classic

release date: June 2008
colours:
 
black/grey
 
purple
Nokia 6220 Classic

RATING

4 stars

Pros

  • 5 MP camera with Xenon Flash
  • Lightweight
  • Symbian OS 9.3
  • Good price
  • GPS
  • 3G and HSDPA

Cons

  • No Wi-Fi
  • Build quality - shiny black plastic
  • No hardware QWERTY
  • Small screen - 2.2 inches
  • No 3.5 mm audio jack

SUMMARY

Lightweight Symbian OS 9.3 smartphone with 5 MP Xenon flash camera, Assisted GPS, EDGE, 3G and HSDPA. Small screen, no Wi-Fi. Good value handset.

Review

The Nokia 6220 Classic is a lightweight (90g) Symbian OS 9.3 smartphone with 5 MP camera, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA and GPS with Nokia Maps 2.0. The Nokia 6220 Classic is available in black/grey or purple colours.

Design

Glossy black plastic front and matt grey back. Universal truth - shiny black plastic on mobile phones = cheap. It looks naff. Cheap. Fingerprints are also quite noticeable.

Nokia 6220 Classic

It's quite light - 90g. Currently the 17th lightest phone in our lightest phones list. It's also reasonably small for a smartphone - 66cc. 108 x 46.5 x 15 mm.

Quick tour:

Front: Earpiece, secondary camera (CIF), light sensor, 2.2-inch QVGA (240 x 320) up to 16 million colours TFT screen. The screen is bright and crisp.

Navigation keys: A little cramped together, you might make accidental presses. The shiny black plastic keypad keys are a decent size. Easy to press. The bottom corner keys are curved and aren't as big.

Classic Keypad

Bottom: Microphone, micro USB connector, charger connector and Nokia AV connector (2.5 mm). No 3.5 mm audio jack. Use the supplied stereo headset (OK) or get a 2.5 mm to 3.5 mm adapter.

Left: microSD card slot (supports microSDHC). The Nokia Web site says it supports up to 8 GB. 16 GB microSDHC cards are now available. 32 GB cards will be available first half 2009. We guess the phone will accept these cards, although there might be performance issues.

"My own key" - by default opens the Nokia Maps application. A blue GPS light (4-point star) is next to this. The light flashes blue when trying to get a GPS connection. Stays blue as long there is a GPS connection.

Right: Volume button, camera button.

Back: Carl Zeiss 5 MP camera lens, Xenon flash, camera cover slider. Slide open the lens cover to start the camera. The bright Xenon flash is good for taking photos in low light conditions.

Top: Power key, loudspeaker (good volume. Tinny - much like other mobile phones).

Features

5 MP Camera, Xenon Flash

5 MP camera with S60 features. Auto-focus, multi-shot, 20x digital zoom, scene mode, flash settings, geotagging (assign locations to your images) and a decent VGA 30 fps camcorder. Image quality is perhaps not quite as good as higher-priced camera phones - EG: Nokia N82, N95 8 GB or N96, but the image quality will be fine for most people.

5 MP Camera

Xenon flash is good for taking low-light photos. A front-facing secondary camera is used for 3G video calls.

Nokia Maps 2.0 and A-GPS

Get GPS location information and voice-navigation with Nokia Maps. A free 90-day voice-navigation trial is included. Assisted GPS (A-GPS) uses your mobile network to help get a quicker location fix. You are charged data rates to transfer this information. 4 hours GPS usage before the battery needs recharging.

Nokia maps are pre-loaded on the phone. Download more for free at the Nokia Maps Web site. Best option is to download the maps to a computer, then transfer to your phone.

Adaptive Multi Rate

From the press release:

Wideband speech coding technology, giving a more natural sound to human voice in phone calls. It helps when having a conversation in a noisy environment such as in traffic or public place.

Nokia Music Store

Search, browse, and purchase music for downloading to the Nokia 6620 Classic. Internet charges apply. Nokia state 13 hours music playback. OK.

Battery Life

5 hours talk time (2G). Average. 13 hours music playback, 5.5 hours video playback, 4 hours GPS usage.

Call Quality

Decent enough. Calls were clear when we tested them on a 2.5G network.

No Wi-Fi

Would have been nice to have Wi-Fi and a slightly larger screen.

Symbian OS 9.3

Download applications, QuickOffice, Adobe PDF document viewer, PIM applications.

Other Features

Music player, video player, Nokia S60 Web browser, RSS reader, FM radio with RDS and Visual Radio, Push-To-Talk, no accelerometer, installed application, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, voice dialling and 3G video calling.

Summary

The price is tasty - just £260 SIM free at launch, expect to buy the 6220 Classic for under £200 SIM-free or even cheaper on PAYG. Pay-monthly contacts start at just £15 per month.

Who should buy the Nokia 6220 Classic? Anyone wanting top-end features at a mid-range price, and don't care about the small 2.2-inch screen and lack of Wi-Fi. HSDPA, GPS and a 5 MP camera with Xenon flash all in a lightweight design is the main draw.

Features / Specifications

* confirm features at manufacturer's Web site.

Release Date
June 2008
Size
108.0 x 46.5 x 15.2 mm
4.3 x 1.8 x 0.6 inches
Weight
90 g
3.2 oz
Colours
 
black/grey
 
purple
Screen
  • 2.2-inch TFT
  • 240x320 pixels
  • 16000000 colours
Memory
  • 120 MB phone memory
  • microSD memory card (8 GB max)
Networks
  • Quad-band (GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 Mhz)
  • EDGE
  • 3G (UMTS 2100 Mhz)
  • HSDPA (Max: 3.6 Mbps)
Battery Life
  • Talk time: 5 hours
  • Standby time: 300 hours
  • 3G talk time: 2.5 hours
  • 3G standby time: 280 hours
OS
Symbian 9.3 with S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 user interface

In The Box

Nokia 6220 Classic, Nokia BP-5M 900 mAh battery, stereo headset, compact travel charger, connectivity cable, video-out cable, 1 GB microSD card (Nokia Maps 2.0 pre-loaded), user guide, CD.

Connectivity

  • GPS
  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • USB 2.0
  • TV-Out
  • Video calling

Camera

  • 5.0 MP Camera

  • features: 2592 x 1944 resolution (5 MP), Carl Zeiss Lens, Xenon flash and autofocus light, 30 fps VGA (640 x 480) video capture, timer, multi-shot, effects, automatic red-eye reduction, S60 camera features, geotagging photos. autofocus, 20x digtial zoom, video zoom 4x, F-Stop/Aperture f/2.8, 4.6mm focal length, scene settings, macro mode, secondary CIF front camera, gallery. flash mode, sequence mode, image quality

  • VGA video resolution
  • 30 FPS video capture
  • 0.1 MP front camera

Messaging

  • SMS, MMS, Email
  • Software QWERTY

Entertainment

  • FM radio
  • Visual Radio
  • RDS Radio
  • Music Player
  • Video Player

Internet

  • Nokia S60 Web browser
  • RSS Reader

Installed Applications

  • Nokia Maps 2.0 (on memory card), WidSets service, Send content to Flickr, Nokia Ovi, Vox, Nokia Podcasting application, Accuweather, Twitter, Web applications
  • Document viewer
  • PIM: Contacts, organizer, to-do list, calendar, notes, alarm clock, countdown timer
  • Voice recorder/memo, voice dialling

Prices

Prices coming soon.