Reporting from Cannes, Jørgen Sundgot shares his first impressions of Nokia's first Nokia 3G smartphone to sport dual cameras, the 6680.
It sure took them long enough, but handset maker Nokia today finally unveiled its first video-oriented 3G smartphone, the 6680. Following initial reactions of curiosity at the launch of the single-camera 6630 3G smartphone, many have been waiting for the introduction of a dual-camera device from the world's number one handset maker - and first impressions are anything to go by, users won't be disappointed by the 6680.
 | | Nokia 6680 |
Offering the same solid software bundle as the 6630, the 6680 is comparable to its predecessor both in terms of size and features. A quad-band device supporting tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz and WCDMA 2100 MHz, the 6680 offers most connectivity options under the sun including HSCSD, GPRS, EDGE and of course 3G, yet maintains a form factor nearly as slender as other recent Nokia smartphones.
Despite its somewhat angular appearance, the 6680 is very comfortable to hold and offers a pleasingly normal keypad with excellent tactile feedback. As with other recent Nokia smartphones, the 262K colour screen is both superbly crisp and bright, and makes an excellent job of viewing video calls - although in the name of honesty, performance in this particular area appeared no better than that of Nokia's many competitors.
Two integrated cameras enable the video call experience, one of which is faced towards the user and offers VGA resolution, and the other of which faces in the opposite direction with a resolution of 1.3 Megapixels. Cleverly, the hind camera lens is protected by a slide-down cover which automatically opens or closes the Camera application according to its position.
 | | Nokia 6680 |
A number of other highlights are also to be found, including Bluetooth support, PictBridge technology for direct-to-printer output, a built-in Flash, and an RS-MMC slot for memory expansion in addition to the 10 MB of integrated non-volatile memory. There's far too many features to mention them all, so suffice to say that the 6680 is Nokia's most feature-rich smartphone to date, and quite possibly also the most capable device the company has ever produced.
Overall, users who have taken a liking to the 6630 are sure to appreciate the improved feature set of the 6680. For users in Europe, it's also the most well-rounded smartphone with 3G video call support, and at such a small size it's hard to avoid the conclusion that Nokia is poised to crack the market for video calls wide open - and certainly so if the already-low price limbos even further.
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