Major features...
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Auto-switching tri-band EGSM 900/1800/1900MHz
Be confident that wherever you travel your phone will work with the 6600. Auto-switching between EGSM 900/1800/1900MHz bands doesn’t involve the changing of settings or anything like that, it all happens in silence. Most continents other than the Americas use these three frequencies, so you and your 6600 can travel together to almost anywhere.
Symbian 7.0s operating system
The Operating System of the Nokia 6600 is Symbian 7.0s, the most widely used systems in mobile handsets. The Symbian platform can be built on using applications of any description. Software developers are building Symbian Software to tackle the things that a handset may have left out, in the long run making the users life easier.
The Symbian operating system on the 6600 is very much like the OS on the Siemens SX1, if you’ve used either you will notice the similarities.
176 x 208 pixel 65,536 colour TFT LCD display
The large display on the 6600 brings everything to life. The full colour LCD is bigger than most in the 6600’s price range, being 176 x 208 pixels. The display acts as the viewfinder for the camera, and images that have been shot show up clear and crisp.
Nothing is cramped in the menus, in part thanks to the width of the display. Well done to Nokia for this large, colour rich display.
VGA camera (still and video)
The VGA camera on the Nokia 6600 produces great quality still images and video (with sound!). The still images that can be captured are up to a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, and has three modes - standard, night, and portrait. The video capture on the 6600 can be two sizes, 176 x 144 or 128 x 96 (QCIF/subQCIF) and both still images and video can make use of the 2x digital zoom. Video is produced in 3GPP format. You can read more about the camera in the Camera Performance section of this article.
Internal memory with MMC support
The internal memory on the Nokia 6600 is around 6mB, which in my opinion isn’t enough by itself, so this moderate internal memory with MMC card support make the perfect combination. A 32mB MMC card is included in the sales package for you to use, and it sits underneath the battery adjacent to the SIM card. Some 512mB MMC cards are supported on the Nokia 6600, but the limit is usually 256mB. Either way that’s a lot of memory to fill up!
MMC cards are great if you have an all-in-one reader for your PC, as you can transfer your data to the MMC card from the handset and then get what you want onto your computer easily without the possible problem with IrDA disconnections.
SMS/EMS/MMS messaging
Messages galore! Whichever format you like, full colour images and video with sound and text MMS messages, long SMS messages, or EMS messages all corners are covered with the 6600. You can both send and receive EMS/SMS/MMS messages, and MMS messages even have support for video files.
E-mail sending and receiving (IMAP4, SMTP, and POP3)
When you’re not near a computer and have to check your e-mails for important details or send an e-mail immediately, the 6600 comes to the rescue. It supports three e-mail protocols, IMAP4, SMTP, and POP3 - the most common ones.
E-mail messages will be downloaded via your active GPRS settings, and then displayed for you to read and if you want, reply to. If you are replying to several messages and don’t want to start a new GPRS connection for every outgoing mail message, you can set the 6600 to send in one big hit, saving on GPRS costs.
Local and remote synchronization
To ensure that your PC and phone are in sync and on time, all the time, the Nokia 6600 is able to synchronize over the air to remote synchronization server, and locally with a computer connection. The PC Suite that comes in the sales package of the 6600 has all you need to do a local sync, and then you can set up remote synchronizations on the handset it self.
GPRS/HSCSD data transfers
GPRS enables over the air data transfers of data that enable a user to send MMS messages, or connect to their favourite WAP sites. GPRS is getting faster and faster, so streams of data can be seamlessly accessed any time of the day or night.
General Packet Radio Service and High Speed Circuit Switched Data are both over the air services and HSCSD is around four times faster than some GPRS connections. Whichever you choose GPRS or HSCSD; you’re guaranteed high speed data transfers.
xHTML browser
xHTML MP is another step in the mobile telecommunications world towards 3G. xHTML gives users WAP pages in richer colour that are easier to navigate around. Together with faster GPRS speeds, WAP is becoming more like the fixed internet that you use at home or work on a PC.
Advanced PIM applications
PIM applications, also known as Personal Information Managers take on board important dates and meetings to remember, and almost remove the need for a hand written date-book. The calendar is only one of the applications on the 6600; there is a to-do list, call logs, alarm clock, notes, currency converter, e-wallet, voice memos - all available from the “Extras” folder in the main menu.
Voice functions
Voice commands make the phone perform selected functions without you having to manually go into the menu. The voice functions are easily set up and can be used immediately. Some things you can command the phone to do include changing profiles, starting the camera, Bluetooth and other connection options.
Bluetooth wireless technology
Bluetooth is the wireless connection of the future here and now. No silly line-of-sight infrared business, Bluetooth works over short-wave radio frequencies and doesn’t restrict data communication with wires. Bluetooth enables connections to all sorts of additional hardware, like headsets, other mobile phones/PDA’s, and your PC too. You can transfer data like you would with a data-cable or Infrared adapter using Bluetooth with a Bluetooth adapter.
Infrared
Infrared is the most common data-transferring standard used today by anyone wanting to transfer data from a computer to a phone, or from one phone to another. The 6600’s IrDA port is located on the left hand side, behind a black shield. Once activated it can be picked up by any IrDA adapter or phone, and you can transfer data immediately. The PC Suite software can recognize and IrDA connection and start up the software.
Anything can be transferred via IrDA, so pictures, ring tones (polyphonic and wav), Symbian programs, Java games and applications are all supported, along with much more.
Java MIDP 2.0
Java games and applications have always been supported on Nokia phones, and the 6600 isn’t any different. Games that are installed onto the 6600 are moved into the dedicated “Games” folder in the main menu, and applications are moved to the end of the main menu and have their own little icon.
They are easy to install directly onto the handset using PC Suite software, or you can install them on the phone by transferring the correct files and then moving them to the internal memory or MMC card.
Polyphonic and *.wav ring tones
Polyphonic ring tones are always fun, but are they growing out of fashion? More and more handsets support MP3 or WAV files, which enable full vocal ring tones. The 6600 supports both the polyphonic format, and WAV file format. Polyphonic ring tones come pre-installed, but WAV files must be transferred to the phones memory or MMC card manually.
MP3’s on your computer can easily be cropped into small segments and then converted to WAV files, and then put onto your 6600 as a ring tone. I did this to several of my favourite songs, and people were amazed when someone started singing from my pocked when I got a call!
Help files
Not many handsets around have this feature, and I must admit when I come along it I’m quite impressed. So you don’t have to whip out the manual and find what you’re after, most of it has been put into the handset, and you can search it as you would help files on a computer operating system. You can search the help files by keyword, or you can browse through the categories.
When you go to the options on most menus, a little “Help” selection is available for you to select and be taken to the appropriate help file.
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