Nokia's first ever clamshell smartphone has just debuted: Editor-in-Chief Jørgen Sundgot has spent time with the swivel-display, Bluetooth-equipped and camera-toting 6260.
Click here to read infoSync World's review of the Nokia 6260.
It hasn't been long since Nokia solemnly vowed the company would never bring forth clamshell handsets - but times, they are a'changing. Under pressure from competitors ranging from Sony Ericsson through Samsung, Siemens and more exotic Asian manufacturers, Nokia first buckled with the 7200, and today introduced two more clamshells - one of which is the 6260 smartphone.
Running the Symbian OS powered Series 60 platform, as is the case with all Nokia smartphones, the 6260 is Nokia's very first clamshell smartphone, and one with a swivel display at that. Rather large and unwieldy, much like Sony Ericsson's Z1010, the 6260 lets users configure its display into one of three modes: conventional open, camcorder style and tablet style.
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The first mode requires no further introduction, however the camcorder style mode enables users to hold an operate the 6260 much like a digital camcorder - an amusing feature, although whether it is truly useful can be debated as the camera of the 6260 offers a mere 0.3 Megapixels. In tablet style mode, users open the handset in conventional mode, swivel the display 180 degrees and fold it back onto the numerical keypad. This does indeed have its moments, and particularly so when viewing data as the 6260 is less unwieldy in this mode - but still, it does not add much to the usability factor.
Due to the large form factor of the 6260, its keypad is a pleasure to use with large keys offering good tactile feedback - with the possible exception of the action function of the five-way navigational pad. Overall, the 6260's performance seemed snappy, with good viewfinder frame rates and rapid response times from the operating system in general. As is usual with Nokia cameras, image quality from the VGA camera also proved to belong to the upper class. Its screen did not appear as bright as that of the Nokia 6630 smartphone - also announced today - however, but was perfectly adequate.
On the note of the Nokia 6630, I was surprised to find that the Nokia 6260 is considerably larger than the former mentioned. As keen observers will have noticed, the 6630 offers a more advanced feature set including support for EDGE and WCDMA, as well as a 1.2 MP camera. Keeping this in mind, it would appear Nokia has not applied itself particularly when it comes to miniaturization of the clamshell design; hopefully, future models will do better as the 6260 is in the very upper reaches of what the average user will tolerate in terms of size.
An additional hi-res picture of the Nokia 6630 is available on the following page.
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