Nokia 6500 S
Sanny Olafeso
The Nokia 6500 classic is a mobile phone from Nokia announced on May 31, 2007. The phone runs the Series 40 platform. The case is made of brushed aluminium. At just 9.5 mm thick, the 6500 classic was Nokia's thinnest phone when released in October 2007. It is notable for being Nokia's few Series 40 phones with a large internal memory, 1 GB (along with the Nokia 7900 and others). It also had a similar sliding variant called Nokia 6500 slide. Both of them were the first Nokia phones where the miniUSB port was replaced by microUSB.
Nokia 6500 slide was announced together with its slim sibling Nokia 6500 classic, but is far more than just an attempt to diversify the supply beyond the traditional bar form factor. Both handsets...
Both the Nokia 6500 slide and 6500 classic are 3G quad-band mobiles using the latest version of Nokia's hugely popular Series 40 platform that'll be familiar to anyone who's used a Nokia in recent years.
But the headline features, look and feel of these two models part company soon after that point. Whereas the 6500 classic is a chic, ultra-slim candybar mobile, the 6500 slide is a more substantial sliderphone that has a smart brushed stainless steel casing. The 6500 slide bears more of a family resemblance to Nokia's high-end N95 smartphone than it does its 'classic' namesake.
Majoring on its imaging capabilities, the Nokia 6500 slide sports a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back panel, equipped with high quality Carl Zeiss-sourced optics, autofocus and macroshot mode. By comparison the 6500 classic makes do with a Nokia standard-issue 2-megapixel camera.
The Nokia 6500 slide outdoes the 6500 classic again by including a secondary camera for 3G video calling on the front of the phone, above the display - something that's missing from the classic's specs.
The 6500 slide supports all the regular 3G features, including video and audio downloading and streaming, plus Nokia has included in here a couple of browser options - Nokia's own surfer software plus the small screen-optimised Opera Mini browser.
There's a multi-format music and video player onboard, which uses Nokia's latest player user interface. While the Nokia 6500 classic is stocked up with a heavyweight 1GB of internal memory, the 6500 slide goes light on built in memory - just 20MB - but offers MicroSD card memory expansion instead.
Nokia ships the 6500 slide with a 256MB card in the box, although users keen on using the slide for tunes may want to spend a few quid on a higher capacity card. MicroSD cards up to 4GB are supported.
The flip side is that this solidity makes it comfortable to hold, and it doesn't feel like it'll slip out of the hand easily. The reverse of the phone reflects the digital camera aspirations of this mobile, with the minimalist brushed metal casing giving it the required compact digital camera look. The weighting and balance of the phone work in its favour as a camera too as you hold it in landscape format.
The controls on this phone are simply laid out and straightforward to use; there's the regular Nokia navigation D-pad in the centre, a couple of softkeys either side above standard call and end keys. The slip-down keypad has a pleasingly smooth action; keys are simply laid out in the usual grid pattern, and are large and responsive.
Sockets are all on the top of the phone - you get a micro USB port for data connectivity with a PC, a standard charger socket and a 2.5mm jack output. The 2.5mm socket is for the supplied stereo earphones, but is also used for another function - a TV-Out facility.
A cable is supplied that can plug into the phono sockets on a standard TV set, enabling you to see what's on the phone display on screen. You can display video clips or photo images, play games, surf the web, listen to music and even make or take video calls while it plays through your TV. It's a feature we've seen before on other phones, but it's interesting that Nokia has chosen to enable it on this mid-tier handset.
With its Carl Zeiss supplied optics, Nokia is pitching the 6500 slide as much for its imaging qualities as for its tidy design. The camera can take images up to 2048 x 1536 pixels, with six size settings depending on how you want to use the snaps.
Nokia hasn't gone to town on numerous settings adjustments, however. You can change white balance setting, brightness and quality levels, and set the flash. There's also a self-timer and a few shooting effects (sepia, negative, greyscale) you can add.
You can get in really close for shooting too with the automatic macroshot facility, which produced good detailed shots within a few inches - albeit with a bit of trial and error. The camera generally produced some pleasing images, detailed and colourful.
The automatic settings adjusted pretty well to changing lighting conditions too. Video recording is better than the usual cameraphone performance too, with VGA quality (640 x 480 pixels) recording at 15 frames per second.
It still doesn't have the smooth look you'd get off a camcorder, but it does give you the option of shooting reasonable quality clips for fun. Nokia has added the facility to upload images and video clips to the Flickr online service directly from the handset, which is useful - though you should be careful about incurring data charges from network operator if you're not on a flat rate data deal.
It may not have the built in memory of the 6500 classic, but the 6500 slide shares its music player software capabilities - which is a good thing. Load up your tracks, by either syncing with a PC via USB using the Nokia Audio Manager application (part of its PC Suite software), or by drag and dropping tracks directly to the phone's memory card in data storage device mode.
You can send tracks by Bluetooth too, and the phone is equipped to download tracks over the air from mobile network operator's own downloadable music services (check your network for compatibility). The music player supports MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA files, and tracks are arranged in familiar MP3 player categories: playlists, artists, albums, genres, and videos.
These are an OK sort, as handsfree sets are, but you can boost quality by using a 2.5mm-to-3.5mm adapter and plugging in some quality in-ear 'phones or headphones. You can also stream tracks via Bluetooth to suitable wireless headphones (or one of the growing number of Bluetooth speaker systems).
You can play tracks back (loudly) through the speaker in the back of the phone, but the metal casing does veer sound towards vibrating-tinny at top volume. The 6500 slide's FM radio function is a welcome extra too, giving you some extra free music for your cash.
Other features installed by Nokia include a regular browser, plus an alternative Opera Mini browser application. Opera Mini reconfigures regular web pages to make them user friendly and easily scrollable on limited mobile phone displays. Even with 3G boosting the regular browser, the Opera Mini app can prove a useful - and better - option for browsing some websites.
Nokia has set-up the 6500 slide with a selection of other web-based applications too. It has included an internet Search facility and embedded the Yahoo! Go mobile application - which includes a widgets style carousel of automatically updated information services plus fast access to a variety of options including email, maps, oneSearch and Flickr.
The usual Nokia Download! Service is included, for buying content. Nokia has also included its Sensor Bluetooth-based short-range social networking application, and a Bluetooth-operated Presenter remote control program for PCs.
Other functions include push email with attachment support and instant messaging, plus there's the usual spread of Nokia organiser options - calendar, notes, to-do lists and contacts can be synced with a PC using Nokia PC Suite.
Calculator and stopwatch functions are included, plus there are World Clock and Convertor apps in the Applications Collection folder. Gamers might appreciate the five games loaded up here - Backgammon, Golf Tour, Highroller Casino, Rally 3D and Snake III.
With generous use of the phone's functions, we managed 3-4 days between charging, though sustained music listening will reduce juice considerably. Call performance was excellent, with no issues about signal strength despite the metal casing.
The Nokia 6500 slide may not be a groundbreaking mobile in terms of functionality or looks, and some may not like its solid design. But it does offer a generous spread of features - including a decent camera and fine music player - and a high-level performance in a refined, smooth design that's bound to attract many admirers.
The 6500 slide is a premium phone; built from brushed stainless steel with a clear coating to reduce fingerprints and scratches. It also includes a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and Carl Zeiss optics, and TV-out support.
Review With its recent 6500 Slide and Classic models, Nokia has introduced the most unlikely twins since Schwarzenegger and DeVito. Although they share the same model number and 3G capability, the 6500 Slide and 6500 Classic are very different devices both in looks and key features.
Unlike the Classic, the 6500 Slide does not come with 1GB of built-in memory, shipping with a modest 20MB of onboard memory. However, this is complemented by MicroSD card expansion up to 4GB, providing a more flexible approach to storing music, video and images. Nokia supplies a 256MB card with the Slide, but users who want to make the most of the camera and music player might want to splash a few quid on a higher-capacity card.
Nokia 6500 slide was release on September 20, 2007 along with release of Nokia 6500 classic or Nokia 6500c. In October 2007, Nokia 6500 slide was release in Canada and United Kingdom, in November 2007 release in China with Chinese language.
In February 2009, Nokia announced they will be discontinued of Nokia 6500 slide because was no longer and along that discontinued of Nokia 6500 classic. That Nokia 6500c will discontinued in June 13. In July 14, 2009. Nokia 6500 slide was ended of support and discontinued in worldwide.
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