Nokia 6700 Slide Review

Welcome to the Nokia 6700 Slide review page.  There are 2 different 6700s out there, the 6700 Classic and the 6700 Slide. They have the similar names but are quite different phones. See the separate review on the 6700 Classic on a different page.  The 6700 Slide was released in mid-2010 with a $349 outright price tag at many stores so it is not over priced BUT not as good value as the 6700 Classic.

We’ve have finally got to sample one in our hands and we can report that the 6700  slide is one of the best designed slider phones encountered to date (May 2010).  The curves and they way it is put together feels more expensive than the price tag.  The mostly metal body is nice to touch and the whole thing noticeably lighter than the older 6500 which the design is based on yet the slide mechanism feels as solid as the 6500. Since it has multiple 3G frequencies it will work on all mobile networks including Telstra’s 850Mhz NextG BUT you have to make sure you get the version you get if purchasing outright has the correct ones.

The 6700 Slide is one of the first handsets that use the latest styling theme.  It’s a cool metal minimalist theme that looks better in real life than pictures.  We think it looks like a bigger version of the iPod Nano. One of the most interesting things about the 6700 Slide is the number of colors you can get the phone in (at least 6 at the time of release). It is also one of the few S60 based sliders that we think is quite stylish.

In terms of software the the 6700 runs Symbian S60 so once again if you’ve used prior mobiles with S60 you will be instantly familiar albeit with a few improvements or additions to the interface.  The screen quality was very good too considering that it is a reasonably-cheap priced phone. It also came with word, excel and powerpoint, viewers and a very decent FLASH compatible browser. The web browser is the same one used on the E-series Nokia phones so it does work very well despite the small screen.

Our latest powersaver applications also work perfectly on.  Unfortunately like all S60 based phones active animated wallpapers do not work on them.

The phone works in a responsive fashion, we where impressed with the button feel and overall operation because it does feel made for a higher price bracket.  However the operating system is showing its age and the lack of fluid transitions including the not quite in sync open and closed slider event sound can be annoying.

The only other issue we already have with the phone is that it does not appear to come with A-GPS chip which indicates that this is going to be a reasonably priced mobile to get. However they claim that it will use the a 600Mhz CPU which means this will be one of the fastest responding phones from Nokia.

Based on our sample the 6700 Slide is a very good standard 3G phone and we can recommend it for talk, text, video calls and emails. It will work reliably and most of all keep you happy until you are ready for more or the next model comes out!

However the 6700 Classic has more features like inbuilt A-GPS for about the same outright price.  The 6700 Classic is not being sold as a pre-paid yet but it shouldn’t be too long now.  Once the happens, dependent on price the 6700 Classic will probably by our recommendation.

Specifications

• Nokia 6700 Slide
• Network
  Quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900
  Dual-band 3G 850/900/1900/2100 (Dependent on country)
  HSDPA 7.2 Mbits data speed (download)
  HSUPA 2 Mbits data speed (upload)
• Design
  Slider
• L95.2 x W46.1 x D15.9 mm
  Weight 110 grams
• Display/s
  External Mono-TFT 240 x 320
• Camera
  5MP
• Video Camera
  640 x 480 pixel @ 15FPS faster if using less 352 x 288 setting
  Video call camera 176 x 144 pixel
• Connectivity
  Bluetooth V2
• CPU
  600Mhz
• Memory
  Up to 50MB available to user
  16Gig micro-SD card slot
• Ring tones
  MIDI, MP3, Video, vibration and others
• Features
  Ambient Light Sensor
  Accelerometer Sensor
  Music and Media player
  Organiser/Calender
  SMS, MMS, IM, Email
  JAVA MIDP 2.0
  FM radio with RDS
  Speaker Phone/Hands free
  USB charging
  BL-4CT 3.7V 860mAh
  Up to 12 days Standby
  Up to 4 hours Talk Time
• Price history
  Under$229 AUS Mid-2010 (Pre-paid)
  Under$349 AUS Mid-2010 (Outright)