Any future for the Nokia Internet Tablet? Doh! Yes!

When I first encountered the Nokia Internet Tablet, I thought, “Gosh what a great e-reader!” I’ve used each NIT as an e-reader but I learned what it’s great at is, well, doing the internet thing. As its name suggests.

I thought GPS was a natural win. The big screen made maps easier to read than on most dedicated devices. Still, I used my tablet for email more often than GPS.

The voip calls with visuals blew me away. Except no one with a tethered connection bought into cam-calling.

The 770, the N800, the N810 — these were all complete computers! They meant I didn’t have to lug around a laptop just in case I had real work to do. But I did most of my real work on a real computer and my wife never got the hang of using a NIT. My son’s friends found the iPod Touch easier for surfing and he never cottoned to it.

With its touch screen, I didn’t need a keyboard, but I liked the N810 keyboard. The keyboard made apps easier to port anyway.

And Flash! Once it became clear that “internet” meant surfing without sideways scrolling, email, and videos on YouTube, the internet tablet excelled at giving me the internet.

Well, excelled in lots of circumstances. Without a cell-plan data connection the walkaround web had no impact on NIT users. The Apple iPhone has a minuscule segment of the smartphone market but generates 50 percent of mobile web use. Apple’s genius wasn’t in the interface but in browbeating AT&T into affordable web access.

Does the Nokia Internet Tablet have a real future? We have a $200 netbook and it’s easier for conference notetaking than an N810. I have an Amazon Kindle 2 and I can get books for it that aren’t available for FBReader on my NITs. Half the cars have GPS built-in now anyway. So what’s the sweet spot for the Internet Tablet?

Doh!. The internet, same as it’s always been.

Except these days, “the internet” means Twitter, too. With multi-tasking so I can tweet full-screen and use multiple screens to follow several hundred people (in more than one group). With keyboard and touch-screen and audio and photos too. And from anywhere I might be, um-m, walking around.

I can tweet from a phone now, thank you very much, but making sure it fits is no piece of cake. Tweeting means editing down to 140 characters without having to struggle. And reading (following), tweeting and surfing simultaneously? Hey, where’s my computer again? At least Maemo was built for us to do more than one thing at a time.

I expect there will be lots of cellphones released this year that have keyboards and screens of a satisfactory size and cameras. Just having good specs won’t draw much attention. But if the next NIT can ace the Twitter test and fly the Flash flag, it’ll be very much in demand.

The Nokia N900 all-in-one: camera, phone, video player, internet device — and Kindle partner

I’ve put my take on the Nokia N900 as an ereader up at Teleread.org. For books, I think the N900 fits better than an iPhone as a Kindle companion reader.

I’ll post the same conclusion but from the perspective of a Nokia Internet Tablet user here shortly.

Active Forum Topics

• Nokia N900: Mobile Phones Direct N900 Customers (2,402) by autodrivel - 0 mins ago
• Nokia N900: Flash test... (19) by noobmonkey - 1 min ago
• General: FS:Brand New Apple iPhone 3GS 32GB Unlocked $320 USD (1) by eikido - 3 mins ago
• Games: Zeemote driver (16) by ArnimS - 10 mins ago
• Maemo 5 / Fremantle: japanese language input (2) by 白い熊 - 10 mins ago
• Nokia N900: Conversation emoticon bug (13) by joppu - 10 mins ago
• Nokia N900: FS: Brand New Nokia N900 Internet Tablet Unlocked $300 USD (1) by casper27 - 13 mins ago
• Maemo 5 / Fremantle: N900 doesnot play divx (1) by joppu - 14 mins ago
• Brainstorm: [Sandbox] BRAINSTORM: Set bootscreen video... Easier. (47) by amer19 - 15 mins ago
• Maemo 5 / Fremantle: MicroB & jump to top? (2) by mehdiE - 16 mins ago
• Nokia N900: What will be new in major FW release? (22) by etuoyo - 20 mins ago
• Buy & Sell: FS:Brand New Blackberry Bold 2 Onyx 9700 Unlocked $320 USD (0) by tmevlut - 22 mins ago

Nokia 6600i slide Review

Nokia 6600 launched in April last year received a facelift, even though the handset is no older than one year. The new device is called Nokia 6600i slide and features just about the same technical specifications, as well as design. Still, the few differences between the two might tip the balance in 6600i's favor, as it has a longer battery standby time, Flash Lite 3.0 support and a better 5 Megapixel built-in camera. Add to that a revamped designed and you have a genuine slider capable of good market sales. Small and chic, Nokia 6600i slide can be a good choice for those looking for a simple phone, but yet powerful and sturdy. The metallic surfaces of the handset make it highly resistant to possible drops or scratches, so this is just another advantage that you get for a not so high price.

Announced in May 2009, Nokia 6600i slide was made available on the market only in October and can be acquired for about 200 Euros, excluding taxes and subsidies. The slider is available in two colors, Black and Silver.


Design

The resemblance between Nokia 6600 and 6600i sliders is astonishing. Both have the same sizes (93 x 45 x 14 mm), even the same weight (110g including battery). The only thing that looks different is the four buttons surrounding the D-pad. While the 6600 slide features two buttons arranged on two vertical plates, the 6600i slide has its four buttons arranged solely around the D-pad. I think this makes it easier to use the keys, as well as the D-pad. The metallic cover that encloses the device is just another guarantee that the phone will last longer than the usual plastic covered handsets. The sturdiness of the device is unquestionable, as well as its closing mechanism, which seems to work smoothly and doesn't jog at all. Its small size is another advantage, as it will perfectly fit in any pocket, the only issue probably being the weight.

Nokia 6600i slide features a 2.2-inch TFT display and a secondary videocall camera just above the screen. To the left of the secondary camera, an ambient light sensor can be noticed and the in-call speaker. Below the screen, there's a D-pad controller surrounded by four keys: two contextual keys, Accept calls and Reject calls keys. On the right side of the slider, near the top, there's a small 2.5-mm port jack, which indicates that the gadget is not a music phone. On the top of the handset, there's a small microUSB port covered by a small plastic band and a small button that will help users pull out the back cover of the slider.

The only thing I found as a downside for the phone is the keypad, which is very small overall. That will probably create some problems for the people whose thumbs are a little bit bigger. Otherwise, the keys are responsive enough and benefit from good backlighting. On the back side, there's a 5 Megapixel camera with autofocus capabilities and flash.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have any protective cover, so it is exposed to scratches. Another downside of the device might be the fact that its microSD slot card is placed under the battery, which makes it impossible to pull out while the phone is powered on. Overall, Nokia 6600i slide is one of the best designed in terms of ergonomics and look. If you are crazy for slider handsets, Nokia 6600i is a very good choice, as its price and stylish look

are sure to meet every expectation.
Display and Camera

Nokia 6600i slide benefits from a 2.2-inch TFT display that supports 16M colors and a 240x320-pixel resolution. Taking into consideration its target, the size of the screen doesn't bother too much. The colors, contrast, as well as the quality of the image displayed are some of the best. Add to that the perfect sunlight eligibility and you get an excellent display that can meet any user’s expectations. The phone also benefits from the accelerometer feature, but only for the clock and turn-to-mute feature. These can be activated by tapping the back of the gadget twice when it's in standby mode. The clock will be displayed on the screen for a few seconds. The accelerometer doesn't work for any other feature in the phone.

The 5 Megapixel camera embedded in the Nokia 6600i slide has auto-focus and LED flash. In terms of performance, the camera makes quite nice pictures, even though you have such a small preview screen and a standard interface. The only drawback I found is the fact that the gadget lacks a dedicated camera button. Users will have the option to turn the screen on portrait or landscape, before picturing, and mute the camera sound. Geo-tagging function is out of the question as the device misses a built-in GPS receiver.

The user-interface settings are standard for a 5 Megapixel camera and don't include anything revolutionary. The maximum resolution supported is of 2,592x1,944 pixels. The autofocus works like a charm and the D-pad button must be used as shutter button.

There are no specially created functions for this camera, but, as you can see from the screenshots, all of them remain very easy to use. The same goes for the video camera, which can capture VGA (15fps) clips in the MP4 format or 3GPP, depending on the quality you choose.


Menu and Software

6600i slide runs on an S40 6th Edition interface, which is the latest user-interface coming from Nokia. One of the most user-friendly interfaces on the market, the S40 seems unchanged on the surface, and offers the user an excellent experience. Still, there are some tweaks and reshapes, which are taking this experience to a new level. The icons of the menus have been changed, but the 3D animation has been taken off.

The icons in the main menu can be rearranged to simulate the older 5th Edition interface if you feel you like it more. The firmware includes the Flash Lite player, which has been updated to version 3 and Flash Lite content can now be used as an “organic” wallpaper. Also, MMS has been updated to version 1.3 and message support has been improved to accept 600KB attachments. There is some better support for WMA and WMV codecs, the most important improvement embedded in the S40 6th Edition interface of the new web browser. It now includes the Web-kit based browser that was ported from the Symbian smartphones.

The handset has some useful applications, such as Search, Alarm clock, Calendar, To-do list, Notes, Calculator, Countdown timer, World Clock and Stopwatch. The menu is fully customizable and you can designate any MP3, MIDI or AAC file as a ringtone. The phonebook can store up to 2,000 contacts, and each can be filled with up to five different phone numbers. The fonts can be customized, but only those displayed when opening the Contacts, Web browser and messaging sections.

Also, some Java games come preinstalled – Bounce Tales, Brain Champ, Seasweeper and Snake III. The phone is compatible with Java MIDP 2.1 applications, but there is a limit to the size of any application that you might want to install on it, and that's the usual 1MB. This might be the case for most Java-compatible applications, but I noticed that I could run some files that were around 1.5MB in size. Nevertheless, not all Java applications will work on this mid-end device, so you might want to try that out for yourselves.


Communication

Nokia 6600i slide is fully compatible with GPRS and EDGE Class 32, as well as the 3G networks. Benchmarks revealed that the device attains good scores in terms of the data-transfer speed (EDGE 148 Kbit/s download and 77 Kbit/s upload; 3G only 322 Kbit/s download and 93 Kbit/s upload), but that may greatly vary depending on the location and carrier.

The phone also features Bluetooth 2.0 and microUSB 2.0. Synchronization with the PC is possible through the proprietary microUSB port, but charging is also possible through the USB cable. The phone lacks a built-in GPS receiver, but it features Nokia Maps.

In terms of messaging, the gadget accepts standard text messages, MMS 1.3 (600 KB attachments), as well as emails. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one email account.

The quad-band (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network-compatible slider has a good GSM signal reception. The sound is above average in quality at both ends, and pretty loud. The vibration alert is very low, which means you will miss lots of phone calls if you keep it on the Silent profile.


Processor and Memory

Nokia 6600i slide isn't compatible with JBenchmark Pro, so I was forced to use the obsolete JBenchmark 1.0, 2.0, 3D and HD. Even if current devices are over-optimized against many of these old tests, I say that the results are pretty relevant if compared with other products in its range.

The slider is powered by an ARM11 family processor running at speeds of up to 465 MHz. While not the fastest phone on the market, Nokia 6600i slide features the same CPU that is usually embedded in the latest Nokia smartphones. The handset will not lag even when running a music player or radio in the background.

The Nokia 6600i slide phone embeds 20 MB of user free internal memory, which can be expanded up to 16GB, as it has a microSD slot card. The memory is not hot-swappable, as you must pull out the battery to be able to access the microSD slot card. The sales package also contains a 1GB microSD memory card.



Multimedia

As Nokia 6600i slide is not a music phone and does not target those looking for this kind of handsets, do not expect too many multimedia features. It only features the soon universal microUSB port together with some poor wired stereo headset (WH-203). Furthermore, as there's no 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter included in the sales package, you won't be able to change the headphones.

The slider has a cool, integrated MP3 player, compatible with MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA formats. The interface of the MP player looks extremely well and supports album animations, plus some basic settings such as the Equalizer, Stereo widening, Shuffle and Repeat. The Equalizer can be customized, or you can use the predefined settings: Normal, Pop, Rock, Jazz and Classical.

The lack of music-dedicated external keys can be replaced by a Bluetooth headset, as the phone supports the A2DP profile. The small loudspeaker on the back sounds average in intensity, but clearly lacks any sort of bass. There's also an FM radio with the RDS function that can replace the music player.


Battery

The 1000 mAh Li-Ion (BL-4U) battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 348 hours (300 on 3G) in standby and about four hours (three hours on 3G) in talk-time mode. If you're a heavy phone-talker, you will need to charge it once every two days. Overall, I'd say that the device's autonomy is not that good.


Impressions

Even though you might think that Nokia 6600i slide is an enhanced version of the 6600 slide handset, the improvements are reduced to two or three elements. The better camera is a worthy addition, but the real improvement is the enhanced standby time of the battery. It is a chic and stylish slider, which can be a very good choice as a middle class device.


The Good

Some of the highlights of the slider are the 5 Megapixel camera, the excellent display, as well as the nice look, which is a very important trait for a mobile phone nowadays. Also, the new, improved UI S40 6th Edition makes a good addition to this device.


The Bad

Only small drawbacks might stop someone from buying this phone. The small and crowded keypad or the low talking time offered by the battery are some of these downsides. Also, the lack of a dedicated camera button and 3.5mm audio jack port could be some of the negative aspects of the slider.