Overview
Introduction
Nokia’s newest high-end business handset is built for the demanding users in today’s fast paced working lifestyle. The Nokia 6220 is made to go the distance, with a new robust design, without losing the ability to use Xpress-on™ colour covers. Both the front and back of the 6220 can be changed.
Physically looking like the United States’ model 6200, the 6220 has much more on the inside, included the internal digital camera.
Support for super fast EDGE data transfers at rates close to 120kbits/s in selected areas, transferring data and other over-the-air based activities will be fast and reliable. When not in EDGE range, GSM and CSD/HSCSD dial-up connections are supported for data transfer. The internal xHTML browser over WAP 2.0 enables you to view rich colour and sound based mobile internet pages, and download everything you need to keep up with a busy business life.
Not forgetting the features now customary in most handsets like MMS, the 6220 has all you need, and more.
New/outstanding features
Enhanced Data rate for the GSM Evolution, also known as EDGE, the 6220 is the first handset for the Asia Pacific market with support. Business users will find this feature extremely useful, able to reach speeds of 118.4kbits per second. Synchronizations over the air and mobile internet browsing will be fast, so you can access what you want when you want it - fast.
The integrated camera on the 6220 is the same as that on the 7250i, CIF. It is able to capture photos at 352x288, but unlike the 7250i video capture has also been included. You can record a max of 20 seconds per video, at normal CIF size. The videos are then playable on the 6220, and you can also send them via e-mail or MMS to all your friends =)! Pictures can be taken at all different settings, and even added to contacts so you can see a thumbnail of your caller - along with their name. You can read more and view examples from my trial with the 6220 in the “Camera Quality/Performance” section.
Something great which I personally think should be included on all mobile phone handsets is the ability to externally change the look. At first glance, you wouldn’t notice that the front of the 6220 can be removed, but it can, along with the keypad. Xpress-on covers are then available from Nokia to personalize your phone. Read more about removing the covers and replacing them in the Build Quality section.
The internal memory of the Nokia 6220 has been boosted to almost 3mB, shared between all aspects of the phone. The memory is a bit smaller than other handsets on the market today, like the Samsung E700 with almost 8mB of internal memory.
Physical aspects
From the front, the Nokia 6220 looks similar to other series 40 Nokia models, like the 6610 and the 7250i. The standard black and grey Xpress-on™ covers in the sales package successfully stereotype the phone to look like a business persons handset, somewhat like a suit!
Seen on other series 40 handsets, the up and down volume button is located beside the display on the left side. When in a call you can use these two buttons to change the volume. On the other side of the phone, in the same spot is a bumpy section, and the microphone is located just next to that. This microphone is also used for playing ring tones, and acts as the hands free speakerphone (if activated). Sadly, a dedicated button on the side of the phone wasn’t included to start the camera, but a keypad shortcut does the job just as well.
Once again in this handset, the antenna is internal.
Considerably light, at 92grams, and being 107 x 45 x 19 mm, the Nokia 6220 is a bit thicker than the 6610, but the features make up for it. You can fit this great device from handset in your pocket without it looking bulky, and carry it in your bag whilst not feeling like carrying a brick. Metallic looking, the 6220 would compliment any look. Xpress-on™ covers available from Nokia are in other colours, such as Plum, Silver, and more.
The 6220 has a slightly different keypad design than other series 40 models. In other models from the series, the two soft selection keys and the hang up/pick up buttons have been connected. In the 6220 they are actually separate keys. The key mat also gets smaller as it gets down to the bottom, so the * and # keys are smaller than the 2 and 3 keys. The keys are also much softer than those found in the 7250i, so they shouldn’t give you sore fingers.
All together, the 6220 is a treat to the eyes, all the colours and the lines complimenting each other. Nokia have done a really great job on this model, and we haven’t even got onto the inside!
User Interface & display
The Nokia 6220 is a series 40 phone, so the user interface is very easy to use. If you’ve used other phones from this series like the 6610, and 5100 you shouldn’t have a problem navigating around this handsets menus.
The display on the Nokia 6220 is a 128 x 128 pixel 4,096 colour display, able to display up to 8 lines on one screen. Once again, the type of screen used in this handset makes it quite hard to see anything in direct sunlight. Cupping your hand over the top of the screen is the only way to see anything. You can read the problems I had with this type of display in the Problems/Issues section of this article.
In this handset, the menu can be displayed in a grid format, or you can scroll through it. The grid format gives the phone a series 60 feel, and looks really cool as well. You can easily identify which button does what, you won’t have any problems. Messages is the first menu option displayed, and from this menu you can access text messages (SMS), multi-media messages (MMS), e-mail messages, and voice messages, along with all the settings you need to get everything working message wise.
You can easily jump to a menu quickly if you know the number of the menu. For example pressing the menu key and then two, the phone will jump straight to the Call Register menu. This is a great feature if you need to get somewhere fast, without scrolling through menus. Another ease of use feature put in this handset is the ability to change what the right selection key does. You can make it jump straight to your contacts or to your “Go To” menu, where different options from throughout the phone are displayed in a simple list.
Like in the 7250i, when you hold down the ‘0’ key the phone will start to connect to your GPRS homepage if it has been set up. This is very convenient if you need to connect quickly and access information on the go. Other keys do more than one function, like the four way navigational key. If you press the up button when the keypad isn’t locked or in any menus, the camera will start in Standard Photo mode. Pressing the left key will open a new SMS message, and the right key will show you the calendar for the month. The down key will go to your first contact in your phonebook when you press it, and holding down the ‘1’ key will call your voicemail. These can’t be changed like the right selection key, but who would want to, they’re a great help.
The calendar on the 6220 is very user friendly. You can input meetings, birthdays, appointments, reminders, and reminders to call people all from the easy menu.
The backlight of the Nokia 6220 is perfect for viewing anything in low-light situations. The fading out effect is also compiled into the 6220’s neat package. Up to 8 lines can be shown on the screen at once, no need to scroll through pages and pages of text messages because the font is too big. Selectable is a small or large font, it all depends on what you want.
Colour scheme of the 6220 can be changed also to match your background, or just be changed to your favourite colour. This will change the bars at each side of the display to the selected colour, along with all the menus and the background colour of menu icons.
Making and receiving calls
The 6220 offers a great range of polyphonic ring tones pre-installed to the phone for you to select from. These ring tones make receiving a call delightful, and with great audio quality from both ends you won’t have any problems hearing. I didn’t have the audio on full strength and could hear perfectly.
The phone is perfect size to hold in your hand when in a call on either ear. The buttons indent in the middle, so you won’t have the little bumps on the “5” key jabbing into your face making it uncomfortable. The back part of the phone is a different plastic so it isn’t slippery so you can grasp the phone nicely and not have to worry about it slipping out of your hand. And because of the bumpy bit on the right side of the handset your thumb can hold onto the phone also.
When an incoming call is coming through you just have to press the green accept button to initiate the call, or press the red reject button to forward the call to any active diverts you have, or to have the call hung up on.
If you want to make a call from your phone book, just have the person or phone number highlighted, and press the green accept button. To quickly jump to a contact just enter a few letters of the first name. If you wanted to call someone named “Lolly” in your phone book, entering “Lol” may come up with “Lolly,” and “Lolly Home,” or any other names you have that start with “Lol.” When you have selected who you want, press the green button. This will start the call to the person you had highlighted in the phone book, or the number you had highlighted. This green button can also be used to call most other numbers that you may receive in an MMS or SMS message. Just extract the number and call.
You can change the volume when in a call by pressing the up or down button on the left side of the phone, or pressing the up or down button on the keypad. If you don’t want to hold to the phone to your ear when you’re talking just activate the speakerphone inbuilt into the Nokia 6220. The volume is automatically loudened and will come out the second speaker instead. The person will be louder, and you can just talk normally for them to hear you. A range of headsets are also available from Nokia, such as the Boom Headset for talking while on the road.
You can make two calls at once if your network supports it by putting one caller on hold and calling another. These two calls can then come together for a conference call. You can have a conference call with up to five users, and you can put one or more on hold and have a private conversation at the same time, and then rejoin the conversation later.
Rejecting or ending a call is simple; just press the red hang up button. This is great when you have an image attached to a contact in your phone book, because you can make up your own mind if you want to cancel the call for a certain person.
Messaging
Support for MMS & SMS messages, extra long SMS, e-mail messages, EMS messages, and two types of chatting are all available on the Nokia 6220. Whichever method of messaging you choose you will be satisfied.
The fastest and easiest way to input text on the Nokia 6220 is by T9 predictive text input. That said, you can also use the multiple press method, but that will take much longer than using T9. You can use T9 in SMS, MMS, e-mail, and all other text-based functions on the 6220.
T9 is an easy way to type messages because the text is predicted for you, so you don’t have to press a single key more than once to get a letter. If you don’t get the word you want, press the star key to change the word, and if the phone doesn’t have the word in it, simply input it and it is saved for later use. The normal input of text from all Nokia phones is once again brought into this handset, meaning 0 is used as the space key, a long hold of * will insert a symbol, the 1 key is the full stop and other selected symbols, and the # key will change the case. Another shortcut not commonly known in almost every Nokia phone is that holding down the hash key will change the input to numbers, so you can just press the numbers instead of going through the letters.
Mainly included for the business users of the 6220 is support for sending, receiving, and reading e-mail messages. We all know you can send them via MMS from your phone, but what about checking those e-mails from the server you use at home or work? On the 6220 you can do just that, as it is compatible with POP3 and IMAP4 servers, which are the most commonly used servers for mail handling. Once you have set up all the settings for e-mail, like server name, username and password, etc, you can download messages from your e-mail box over GPRS or EDGE, depending on what your service provider supports.
I used the e-mail application on the 6220 for handling some of my mail, and found it very useful. You can do almost everything you can do with programs like Outlook Express all on your mobile handset. It’s fast and a very stable application from Nokia, and at only 67kB it’s small as well.
Some users from Nokia phones such as the 3310 and other models will know about SMS chat, where messages you send are displayed looking like chat messages on a computer. Available on the Nokia 6220 is a different way of chatting, over TCP/IP protocols to online users. This means that you can view a contact list of people that are online, and send them messages over the GPRS (TCP/IP) connection, and not incur a SMS fee for every message, just a data fee. You can also talk to more than one person at a time, like a conference chat! This chat feature is only available on some service providers, so you will have to check with them before you attempt to log in and chat away!
Multimedia messages, known as MMS to most is another feature thrown into the 6220 for good reasons. The internal CIF camera is able to take photos, and videos, so these can both be sent via MMS if you service supports it. The 6220 supports receiving MMS messages that are up to 100kB in size. If you don’t have this much memory on your phone, it will not be able to accept the message(s). Multimedia messages on the 6220 can include the following file types: JPEG, GIF, WBMP, BMP, and PNG image files, Scalable Polyphonic MIDI (SP-MIDI), AMR audio and monophonic sound files, and video clips in H.263 format with SubQCIF image size and AMR audio. You can record AMR audio voice files on the phone, so you can really say “Hi!” to your MMS recipient. The standard video clips recorded on the 6220 are H.263 files at SubQCIF image size with/with out AMR audio. Your MMS messages can be sent to a handset, or sent directly to an e-mail address.
Connectivity
The Nokia 6220 has a range of connectivity options, but sadly Bluetooth isn’t one of these. However, you can connect your phone to a computer or other service via the Infrared port on the phone, a data cable utilizing the Pop-Port™ of the phone, or even over GPRS or EDGE data.
Infrared means that you can connect to a computer or other phone wirelessly. With Infrared you must have the Infrared port in viewing range of the receiving device or adapter; otherwise a connection will not be established. Infrared is probably the most easy and cheapest way to connect your phone to a computer or laptop and transfer data, synchronise and more.
Using a data-cable available from Nokia will use the Pop-Port™ on the bottom of the 6220, and either connects to a USB port or serial port. These kinds of connections are very stable and can be relied on always, and are quite speedy. However, Pop-Port™ data-cables may be very expensive, possibly even more than infrared.
The EDGE data capability on the 6220 means that when in range you can send and receive data at approximately 118.4kilobits a second. The phone will automatically switch from normal GRPS to EDGE data when it finds a connection. You can browse the mobile internet and perform other data-over-the-air services using the internal xHTML browser over WAP on the 6220. Everything is available at your fingertips on the mobile internet, and now it’s super fast. =)
Build quality
I would expect nothing less than perfect marks in this section from Nokia phones, and that’s just what the Nokia 6220 got.
When I first looked at the 6220, I thought to myself “This can’t possibly have changeable covers!” On second look through the manual, I found out that in fact you can change the front cover and the back outer “shell.” The bottom part of the phone comes off like it does in the Nokia 5110, except you press the bottom button in, and then pull off the shell. This exposes the battery, where you can remove and insert your SIM card. Taking off the front cover and keypad is simple. Just pull it off from the left and right side. Everything clicks back into its spot, and you can’t put anything in wrong or incorrectly. No extra force is needed either.
Battery life
The battery used in the Nokia 6220 is a great choice by Nokia.
Usually using the camera chews up the battery quite a bit, but in the 6220 this isn’t the case. It does use more battery life than normal functions on the phone, but you won’t need to recharge every time you take a picture.
I experienced great battery quality with no drop outs, and always had enough time to recharge my battery before it had run out.
The estimated battery life from the Nokia website says up to 2-5 hours talk time, and around 150 to 300 hours standby time.
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Take a closer look!
Take a closer look!
Overview (Page 1)
