After using the
Samsung R225 with T-Mobile for one year I decided to upgrade to the
Nokia 6610. There were several reasons for that with the first and foremost being the sound and reception quality. The R225 could drop calls unexpectedly and experienced dropouts and low reception in some areas, which (I suspected) was due to the phone and not to the company/coverage.
The Nokia 6610, indeed, provides me with better reception, sound quality, fancy features and longer battery life.
Looks
The phone I got is silver, but you can get snap-on faceplates to convert it into many different colors. I don’t care about the color (unless it is something hideous), as long as the performance is there. The phone is compact and quite lightweight.
The phone doesn’t have a protruding antenna, unlike the R225, but it does not degrade its performance. It doesn’t look as durable as Samsung was, but it should survive. Especially taking into account that I am not the kind of person to drop phones. Also, the button backlight could be better.
Update (15 months later): the phone proved to be quite durable, despite its apparent flimsiness. It still works well.
Battery
The phone uses quite small battery that has surprisingly long life. The manual recommends to fully discharge/recharge the battery three times and only after that the battery should gain its full capacity. But even the first charge lasted more than 4 days of standby with about 20 minutes of talk.
Charger
The supplied charger recharges the battery in about 1 hour. I was surprised to find my completely discharged battery charged in only about one hour (even though you can keep the charger plugged in for more - Nokia recommends 3 hours to obtain full charge).
The charger is a "travel" type. It is compact and can charge the phone in other countries as well as it supports 240-110V 50-60Hz current. This is much better than my previous Samsung's "travel" charger that can only use 110V 60Hz (US) or my newer
Motorola C650's charger (ditto).
Reception/Sound
The reception is better than it was with Samsung and the sound quality is noticeably better as well. The phone also has a speakerphone mode. And it comes with a good hands-free kit, where the microphone is attached to the earpiece on a protruding plastic rod. It is a much better design than the Samsung’s (where the microphone is on the cord and people cannot hear you unless you yell or hold it closer to your mouth).
Color Screen
The phone has a color screen and lets you choose the color scheme in several colors. You can set different “wallpapers” and send/receive pictures.
Ease of Use
The phone is very easy to use, more so than the Samsung. Also, it doesn’t have the delays the R225 has while operating menus or locking/unlocking the keys. There are “Help” prompts guiding you all the time if you forgot something.
You have to know that when you save the phone number/name, it is saved in the phone internal memory by default and not on a SIM card. If you want it saved on a SIM card, you have to go to the number and select "Copy" and then Copy or Move.
As you are scrolling through names, you can see a little icon depicting the SIM card in the upper right corner of the screen if the current name/phone number is on the SIM or nothing if it is in the phone's internal memory.
Infrared
The phone has an infrared port for information exchange with other phones or computers. It is located on the top of the phone as does the power button.
Games
The phone comes with a couple of games, one of which is the chess puzzle.
Rings
The phone has polymorphic tones (polymorphic tones use MIDI files and sound like a cheap radio). Several are preloaded and you can download more if you so desire. I don’t.
The ring volume can range from low to very loud (to a point where it is scary). There is also a vibration mode available. You can set several profiles (Normal, Silent, etc.) and switch between them.
Organizer
The phone features some organizer functions: calendar, appointments, etc. It also has calculator, stopwatch and times, and other features.
World Phone
This model is a Tri-Band phone and will work in Europe and Asia (GSM). I used my Samsung (dual band) in Europe and it worked well. I also used this Nokia 6610 in Europe (Denmark, France and Belgium) and it work very well.
Overall
I am happy with my Nokia 6610. It provides the qualities that are most important to me: good reception, excellent sound quality, compact size, good battery and fast operation.
See also: my
Motorola RAZR V3 Review
