Nokia 6500 Classic

release date: October 2007
colours:
 
black
 
bronze
Nokia 6500 Classic

RATING

4.5 stars

Pros

  • Slim and stylish
  • Excellent build quality
  • 3G
  • 1 GB phone memory

Cons

  • No memory card slot
  • No FM radio
  • No video calling
  • Battery life

SUMMARY

Stylish 3G fashion phone. Excellent build quality, slim and lightweight. Simple design, good at the basics.

Review

The Nokia 6500 Classic is a slim, lightweight 3G phone phone. Released at the same time as the more feature-rich (but bulkier) Nokia 6500 Slide.

Nokia 6500 Classic vs 6500 Slide: The 6500 Classic has 1 GB phone memory, but no memory card slot. The Nokia 6500 Slide has a microSD memory card slot (supports up to 4 GB). The Nokia 6500 Slide has more features, a better camera, FM radio, video calling camera and TV-Out. The Classic has no FM radio.

The 6500 Classic is thinner, slimmer and is a lot lighter. The 6500 Classic's battery life is only 3.5 hours, compared to 6 hours on the 6500 Slide. The Classic could be considered a more trendy and stylish phone - it has curves... meow... Both mobile phones have excellent build quality. The Classic is also a little cheaper than the 6500 Slide.

Design

The Nokia 6500 Classic has excellent build quality. As with the Nokia 6500 Slide, the Nokia Classic has a quality solid feel - black aluminium casing. From the Nokia 6500 Web site, the Classic has a:

"seamless case crafted from 360 degrees of [black] anodized aluminium... Each Nokia 6500 Classic is individually polished, ensuring no two phones are exactly alike, while diamond polishing used on the bevelled display aperture and cold stamped logo demonstrate the highest level of craftmanship."

The 6500 Classic has smooth curved (bevelled) edges and no buttons on either side. The back cover is made of shiny plastic, not aluminium - gets a bit grubby looking from fingerprints. The battery cover is easy to remove.

2-inch screen: Very good quality.

Keys: The flat plastic keys are easy to press. They're tightly packed, but each key is a decent enough size. Perhaps a little cramped if you have big fingers. A raised sliver strip sits at the bottom of each key, giving you some tactile feedback.

The navigation keys above the keypad are a decent-enough size. They are easy to press.

No side buttons: The 6500 classic has no buttons on the left or right side of the phone. Quite unique. There's no camera button and there's no volume button (use the navigation key). A microUSB connector sits at at the top of the phone.

Features

2 MP camera

2 MP (1600 x 1200 pixels), quality modes, 8x digital zoom, night mode, white balance, macro mode, multi-shot and no auto-focus. Image quality is OK for taking snap shots in good quality light. Not as good as the Nokia 6500 Slide's camera, or any of the 3.2 MP+ camera phones.

There's no dedicated camera button - use a selection key to take a photo in landscape or portrait view.

Video capture: Just 176 x 144 pixels - not very good resolution. The Nokia 6500 Slide has 640 x 480 capture at 15 fps.

No video calling: There's no front-facing camera for video calls. The Nokia 6500 Classic does not support video calling. No great loss, given the expensive per-minute video call rates. Much better to do long-distance video calls at the home/office - big screen + Skype + Web cam = winning combination!

Other features:

S40 user interface with music and video player, music and video player, no FM radio, voice commands, SMS, MMS, Email, AMS (audio messages), flash messages (displayed instantly upon receipt) and quad-band.

Bluetooth: As with the Nokia 6500 Slide, the Nokia Classic supports many Bluetooth profiles: SIM access, object push, file transfer, dial-up networking, stereo headset (A2DP), hands-free, service discovery application, generic access, serial port, and generic object exchange.

Battery Life - Could be Better

Nokia quote just 3.5 hours of battery life on a 2G network. Use a 3G network, whack this down to 2.5 hours. Not great. You can reduce the frequency of battery recharges by switching off the 3G and Bluetooth. Charging the battery takes 2 hours.

Web browsing, Text Input

2-inch screen - poor browsing experience. EDGE and 3G particularly offer decent download speeds, but browsing the Internet is not good on a tiny screen. Accessing the Internet on a larger 3.5-inch on the Apple iPhone is better, but still not ideal.

Text input: No QWERTY keyboard - just ABC and T9 predictive text.

Summary

Stylish, excellent build quality, slim and lightweight. Simple design, good at the basics. If you want a more feature-packed phone, consider the Nokia 6500 Slide or any one of the latest best mobile phones.

Features / Specifications

* confirm features at manufacturer's Web site.

Release Date
October 2007
Size
109.8 x 45.0 x 9.5 mm
4.3 x 1.8 x 0.4 inches
Weight
94 g
3.3 oz
Colours
 
black
 
bronze
Screen
  • 2.0-inch TFT
  • 240x320 pixels
  • 16700000 colours
Memory
  • 1 GB phone memory
Networks
  • Quad-band (GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 Mhz)
  • EDGE
  • 3G (UMTS 2100 Mhz)
Battery Life
  • Talk time: 3.5 hours
  • Standby time: 216 hours
  • 3G talk time: 2.5 hours
  • 3G standby time: 210 hours
OS
Series 40 3rd edition user interface

In The Box

Nokia 6500 Classic handset, stereo headset, charger, battery, USB cable, instruction manual, leaflet, CD-Rom.

Connectivity

  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • USB 2.0

Camera

  • 2.0 MP Camera

  • features: Quality modes, 8x digital zoom, night mode, white balance, macro mode, multi-shot and no auto-focus

  • QCIF video resolution
  • 15 FPS video capture

Messaging

  • SMS, MMS, AMS, Flash Messages

Entertainment

  • Music Player
  • Video Player

Internet

  • xHTML browser, WML browser

Installed Applications

  • PIM: PIM tools
  • Voice commands, voice dialling, voice recorder

Prices

Prices coming soon.