Nokia 6670 review

Full Review

Based on the popular 7610, the 6670 tries to offer the same features but merely in a different packaging, but is it enough to woo the public once again?

The phone itself is a fairly standard, 140 minutes talktime, with 240hours standby and coverage of the standard GSM tri-band frequencies. Options such as being able to record 10 minutes of video with may also be useful, as might the 64Mb reduced size MMC card that comes lodged in the phone's belly for storing images and tones.

Design aficionados may think it terribly deconstructionist to have the numeric keys arranged in slanting pattern, but the pond-hopping business exec can easily tire of such novelties. That said, the designers of the new layout should have made the 4-way paddle in the centre of the keys larger, as the centre depression is not precise enough and often as not you end up changing direction rather than selection and option.

The real points of interest seem to be the new software Nokia, and chums, are collaborating to deliver. NetFront, the well know mobile browser has been included in this version, seen first a while ago in the Sony Clie PDA's, before they were untimely ripped from the UK markets. Look out also for ‘Lifeblog', even though the name is almost too pretentious to stomach the idea when bugs are resolved, is quite sound. The Lifeblog is designed to seamlessly store all the images recorded and messages received, on your phone, onto your computer. This keeps a permanent record of the phones activities, with out having to fill the relatively small onboard memory. Complaints have arisen that the relatively new software is still a little buggy and can result in bringing down Windows XP, and I concur after the downloaded version reduced my office PC to a black-screened paperweight, so there's still work still to be done on this program. Many of the applications, as well as the standard OS, require repeated confirmation of actions before they are completed, frustrating as this is it also means that you are pounding the keyboard a lot more than needed.

A poor man's GPS system has also been included in the form of an application called ‘Positioning'. This basically triangulated to the phone's position within the cell it is currently receiving a signal from. Nokia point out, this can vary from 300m, in the centre of large city, to 15Km in the great outdoors, so not really designed for pinpoint precision, more as an aid to locating services in your proximity. At the time of this review Nokia seem unable to confirm to this function being included on all networks.

Verdict

The 6670 is also one of the new breed of handsets to be designed excluding infra-red. Of the recently released models, the 6630, 7610, 7710, 2650, 3220 and now the 6670 have all had this mainstay removed. It seems that Bluetooth is striking the death knell for IR.

Overall the 6670 is a showboat. The large memory and high definition camera are simply vessels with which to demonstrate the latest software developments. Mobile phones are no longer about the basic functionality of the handset, or even the design of the body or the configuration of the keys, they are about the software the phone carries inside. That's ironic, considering there's virtually no mobile phone shop in the UK which allows you to see a working version of the handset you're trying to purchase.

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