Nokia 6600 Fold review

Generally speaking, when the description 'all style and no substance' is used, it’s not meant as flattery. While Nokia’s 6600 Fold epitomises that idea, it’s not a bad thing – after all, there’s nothing wrong with pretty and fun, right?

So while the specs won’t blow your mind, there are some nice additions that give the Nokia 6600 Fold a slick, cool feel.

Relatively weighty at 110g, the clamshell has a super sleek metallic finish. While it picks up fingerprints and smudges like all shiny handsets, Nokia has cleverly included a carrying bag which has the warming effect of polishing the 6600 everytime you slide it in.

Our review version was a deep purple with soft grey and silver offsets; a black and silver alternative is also on offer. The front features a soft light which does that “breathing” thing Nokia likes to include on their phones. Every few seconds, it gently illuminates, just to let you know your phone is still functioning.

But here’s where the first wow-factor feature comes in. Tap twice on the shiny front, and the time and any missed events – such as calls or messages – illuminate through the front of the phone on a secondary display embedded in the cover. Incoming calls can also be silenced with a pair of taps on the front, and if the music player is on, song titles are displayed. Sure, it’s not exactly new tech, but Nokia has integrated it well, and it does look amazing.

The back of the phone loses the metallic finish but gains the two-megapixel LED-flash camera. Picture and video quality is disappointingly substandard, a shame on such a socialite-friendly phone as this.

On one edge of the phone is a USB port, which has no cover – no problem if you keep using the enclosed carry bag, but which could cause trouble if the phone is just dumped in a handbag.

The USB is the only connection port, so it’s used for charging, connecting to computers, and also for listening to music using headphones. While USB headphone jacks are generally a pain - as they require jacks if you want to listen to your own - Nokia has kindly included not only a pair of decent bud earphones, but also a 3.5mm jack so you can use your own.

The other edge of the phone features the second wow-factor feature: a button which flips the phone open using electromagnets. Although this is hardly a cutting-edge feature, it gives the phone a super-slick feel. However, you need to keep your fingers out of the way otherwise the phone cover doesn’t flip cleanly – and the phone beeps angrily while an “open Fold manually” message appears on the external screen.

Once flipped open, the 6600 Fold is a bit more standard. A secondary camera sits at the very top, above a bright 2-inch QVGA screen.

The large keys are nicely lit and easy to press, with the middle row a different, softer material, which not only feels nice on the fingertips, but makes texting without looking easy.

The 6600 Fold also features the standard Nokia music player, as well as an FM radio player and voice recorder.  Sound quality is pretty good over both the included headphones and the external speakers. The Nokia 6600 takes microSD cards, but only up to 4GB, limiting how much music it will hold.

For applications, it comes preloaded with maps, as well as Flickr, Opera Mini and Yahoo! Go. This isn’t a phone with business pretensions, however, as it doesn’t open documents. While it offers 3G, GPRS and Bluetooth, it doesn’t implement HSDPA.

So the 6600 Fold has just a basic camera, limited memory, standard features, and no innovations. Yet, it looks and feels like something special. Pull this out at a party, and everyone will want to see it. Indeed, it’s like showing up at a party with a bit of arm candy – your date might be a bimbo, but when they look that good, everybody else just can’t stop staring with jealousy.