Nokia says their stylish multimedia flip phone can do a lot of fancy things. But was the multimedia experience at all worthwhile?
Review summary of the Nokia 6555:
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 It seems like the 6555b is doing its best to outperform an outdated package. Messaging will never be ideal on a numeric 12-keypad, TV will never be ideal on such a tiny screen, and without a solid music service or intuitive interface, the 6555b drops the ball on the one thing it probably could have done well, being a music player. That being said, messaging performed well in spite of its hardware limitations, and Nokia was smart enough to make commonly used features like speakerphone, Bluetooth and the music player easily and quickly accessible from the home screen. Release: September 2007. Price: $50.
Pros: Smooth lines, intuitive messaging software
Cons: Atrocious music downloads, software and overall experience
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Full Nokia 6555 Review:
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Design - Good
Nokia's 6555 is a flip multimedia phone, which admittedly looks much better open than closed. A bit thick compared to many contemporary flip phones, the individual buttons were convex and subsequently easier to differentiate. While open, the lines on the phone are very smooth, and the slight curvature seems to work well when held against your face. The large joint looks markedly less attractive when closed, but we still liked the clean lines on the back of the phone.
The 6555 has a few dedicated buttons, one for internet, one for the camera and one for CV (cellular video). The external LCD is large for its type (128 x 160 with 262k colors), but the internal LCD isn't, measuring a standard 2 inches with QVGA resolution (240 x 320) and 16 million colors.
Calling - Good
We found the microphone to be mediocre, as our callers could definitely tell we were calling from a cell phone. They said our voice sounded muddled and fuzzy; background voices came in surprisingly coherent, and whispers were picked up well, as we were clearly able to hear which words were being said, even if the tonal quality was similar to that of loud voices. Pairing with our Bluetooth headset was problem-free, and the speakerphone was loud, if not terribly clear. We liked how we could easily toggle the speaker on and off with one of the soft keys during a call, and we also liked the available live searching from the contact list. There is a voice dialing feature, but to access it you had to drill through submenus, which we found inconvenient.
Messaging - Very Good
One easily overlooked but undoubtedly annoying trait of the 6555 is the lack of a dedicated back (clear) button. When typing out a message, you have to use one of the soft keys to erase letters, which may seem like nitpicking, but when typing on a numeric keypad, it slows the user down even further. We liked that we could immediately begin composing a message from the top screen with the touch of a button right out of the box, but our favorite messaging feature was the scrolling menu along the bottom of the compose message screen, which allows users to insert images, sound clips, calendar notes, address book cards, themes, links and videos.
There was no pre-loaded email client, but we were able to download and install a Gmail client from Google and check our emails with ease. We saw no way to disable T9 typing (which we find cumbersome), but after several attempts to punch in our Gmail username (not an English word) we were able to manually type in the characters we needed. There was no pre-loaded IM client either, but Yahoo! and MSN messenger were both available from the MediaNet home page, as well as AT&T's web-based Facebook client.
Multimedia - Good
We liked that "Music" is a top-level menu option, though the music experience on the 6555 left much to be desired. The device plays MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA formats in bitrates up to 320kbps, and the video player plays 3GPP, H.263, MPEG-4 and AMR video formats. MP3, AAC and eACC+ tracks can also be used for ringtones, games and alerts.
Sideloading MP3s onto the device was not difficult, requiring a simple drag and drop into the My Music folder on our microSD card. Our 128MB card worked with no issues, however every time we tried to use our 2GB card, the phone crashed. Nokia claims support for microSD up to 4GB, however. Playback options were minimal, but we were able to create playlists on the device as well as see artist, track and album information. There was no 3.5mm headphone jack, but our stereo Bluetooth headphones worked well.
Video loaded very quickly, never once pausing for buffering, and while we weren't impressed by the resolution (especially for being on such a tiny screen), the volume sounded extremely loud and clear on the 6555's external speaker. TV clips available from CNN, ESPN, NBC and others all looked good, and we were also able to watch full episodes of ABC's "LOST," although they were considerably choppier, lower quality and broken up into multiple parts. We liked having the option, though, and in a pinch we might actually see ourselves using it.
The built-in camera--despite having a 1.3 megapixel sensor (1280 x 960 resolution)--was atrocious, with poor light management, blurry edges and an overall lack of clarity in any conditions. We also had trouble sending photos to our computer using Bluetooth.
The included Web browser was able to open our homepage with minimal problems; while a few images overlapped and the layout was distorted, all images and text were loaded to the tiny screen. Considering the graphics-intensive nature of our site, the page loaded relatively quickly.
Odds and Ends
Nokia includes the absolute bare minimum with the 6555, packaging only the device, charger and battery in the box. The lack of headphones is disturbing if not surprising, as is the lack of a microSD card, without which the device's paltry internal memory makes its use as a music player impractical.
Price and availability
The Nokia 6555 is available from AT&T Wireless for $50 with a contract and a $40 instant online discount. A mail-in rebate of $50 is available, when signing up for a qualifying plan. It is also available as a prepaid phone for $175.
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