Sindre Lia examines another clamshell phone from Nokia, the 6170, sporting among other things a 65K colour screen and 0.3 MP camera.
An arguably more masculine version of the recently reviewed Nokia 7270 fashion phone, Nokia's 6170 hit shelves late in 2004 sporting steel covers and a clamshell design - let's find out what hides beneath the tough appearance.
Superb navigation
The Nokia 6170 is quite the heavy hitter, weighing 121 g and measuring 88 x 46 x 22 mm. Featuring an external 12-bit display with a resolution of 95 x 65 pixels, information on incoming calls and messages is readily at hand in closed mode. In addition, the external display can also be used as a viewfinder for the integrated 0.3 MP digital camera.
When opening the 6170, ones attention is drawn to the internal 16-bit colour display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels - and just as with the 7270, it proved both bright and crisp. Pleasantly surprising, the 6170's 5-way navigational button was found to be far better implemented than the one found in the 7270. In fact, the entire keypad of the Nokia 6170 performed superbly during testing.
Low on memory, high on usability
The Nokia 6170 offers GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz functionality, Push-to-Talk, HSCSD, GPRS Class 10, and EDGE for high-speed data connectivity. Supporting WAP 2.0, the installed browser is capable of viewing XHTML pages and JPEG/PNG images. An infrared port enables PAN connectivity, whilst Bluetooth is unfortunately not available.
Messaging features such as SMS, MMS, and e-mail are also present, as is support for polyphonics and MP3 ringtones. The 6170 does however not offer a FM radio, and the phone's internal memory is limited to a meagre 2 MB.
Still pictures taken with the 0.3 MP digital camera in daylight are of average quality. The camera can also be used as a video recorder at a resolution of 128 x 96 pixels, and in both modes offers 4x digital zoom and fast camera mode switching courtesy of the navigational pad.
The Nokia 6170 is powered by the now well-known Series 40 platform, offering an intuitive menu system as well as great interaction with the keypad. The reception and voice quality of the Nokia 6170 are excellent, however the battery life is best described as mediocre with its 3 hours talk time and 5 days standby-time as opposed to Nokia's claim of 4 hours and 11 days, respectively.
Availability
The Nokia 6170 is at the time of writing available in several European markets, selling for approximately $400 USD without subscription.
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