A phone that's just a phone rather than a "multimedia computer". Now that is likely to be music to some readers ears. But is the promise of simplicity and ease of use really there? We get dialling with the Nokia 6600 slide to find out.
Like previous models from Nokia in the past, the Nokia 6600 slide is the half brother/sister to the Nokia 6600 fold, and while they share the same name they are actually very different handsets - well sort of.
The main difference is given away in the name, that's right, it slides rather than folds and the promise from Nokia that it will "smoothly glide open in the hand" is true. The gliding action is very smooth, probably due to the fact that the phone is a well-built device. Coloured metal front and back with well-designed, simple, buttons mean this isn't a piece of plastic that will cut your fingers.
The Nokia 6600 slide is one of Nokia's smallest sliders to date (90 x 45 x 14mm), however Nokia has still managed to fit in a 2.2-inch 320 x 240 pixels, 16.7 million colour TFT QVGA screen screen on the front that, as with all slider designs, dominates proceedings. A simplified range of quick keys is found underneath. There are no hidden buttons that light up to touch: what you see is what you get. Elsewhere there is a video camera for video calling although we doubt you'll never use it.
Around the side you'll get a 3.5mm headphone jack while the back offers you a 3.2-megapixel camera complete with double LED flash - an improvement on the 2-megapixel offering on the Nokia 6600 fold - and you'll get VGA video recording at 15fps, and QVGA at 30fps if you need it.
Get beyond the design and aside from the surprising, but welcomed inclusion of 3G, the phone lacks most of the bells and whistles you find on high-end handsets. There might be a microSD card slot, Bluetooth, and an FM radio (as long as you plug in the headset), but there is no GPS even though you get Nokia Maps pre-installed, no dedicated music buttons, no accelerometer, nothing really - all a good thing in this instance.
Why? Well because there is little to confuse or get wrong. The 6600 slide runs Symbian S40 rather than S60 and in reality that means that even the grid menu offering nine applications / folders isn’t even filled out (there is a spare slot).
Our quick take
The Nokia 6600 slide is an incredibly basic and simple phone to use, however it still manages to pack 3G and a 3.2-megapixel camera into the mix. The battery life is also really impressive, unlike some of the latest smartphones, you'll easily get through several days on a single charge.
Of course if you're in the least bit swayed by the high-end phones from the likes of Samsung, LG, Apple, BlackBerry or even Nokia, this would be like being stuck in a village in deepest darkest Yorkshire. However, if that village sounds appealing, this might just be the handset for you.
Nokia 6600 Slide - 4.5 / 5
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To recap
It might be simple, but if that's all you want - this is a great little handset