Nokia 6820 Review

By Allen Tsai | Tue 3rd, June 2008

Nokia has released the 6820, its successor to the overwhelmingly popular 6800. With improvements on many of the features consumers loved on the 6800, the release of the Nokia 6820 brings new innovations to the market.

The 6800, was Nokia's first phone geared towards typing. While folded, it looks like any other phone. The flip lid, however, opens to reveal a full QWERTY keypad.

Up until the release of the 6800, consumers had limited choices for phones with adequate text messaging capabilities. Devices either sacrificed size with a full keypad, or sacrificed typing ease and speed with awkward numeric keypads. The Nokia 6800 offered a welcomed alternative that combined the best of both worlds allowing for much more natural and quicker text messaging while remaining at the size of a standard phone.

Bundled with text messaging features such as Wireless Village chat, EDGE high speed wireless access, and Bluetooth, the 6820 has an impressive set of connectivity options as well.

Design

Not much has changed in appearance from the 6800. The 6820 still retains the same revolutionary flip QWERTY keypad. A few additions and improvements have, however, been added. Since the 6820 was designed with text messaging in mind, it is chock full of text messaging features. Among other things, users can SMS to send standard text messages, or attach pictures, sounds, or video clips with their MMS messages. A fully functional email client contains POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP capabilities for receiving and sending email from 3rd party sources.

A built-in 352 x 288 px CIF camera with video recording and playback capabilities peers out from the back housing of the 6820. The phone has a variety of shooting modes such as Standard Mode, Portrait Mode, and Night Mode. Self portraits are possible with a self-timer delay function. As with most camera phones, users should not expect standalone digital camera quality. Pictures taken with the Nokia 6820 are great for capturing impromptu moments, or attaching images to caller information and business cards, but anything more is best served using a dedicated digital camera.

There are, however, a few features missing from the 6820's precursor, most notably the built-in FM radio. Users who still desire a radio have the option to purchase it as a separate plug-in accessory.

Improvements in the audio capabilities of the 6820 have lagged. Unfortunately, the 6820 only supports 16 chord polyphonic ring tones. More and more phones are supporting upwards of 40 chord tones or even MP3s. However, Nokia seems not to have focused on improving the 6820's multimedia capabilities and instead catered the 6820 towards the business consumer. Consumers who want MP3-like sounds will not get it from this device. The 6820 also does, however, contain a loud and clear speaker and a microphone with a good degree of sensitivity.

Other features worth mentioning are the downloadable Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) games and applications. The versatility of this feature lets you install and delete software from the internet. J2ME is the most popular mobile programming language with hundreds of games and applications available for download. Some for free, others for a fee.

Even with the addition of new features, Nokia has managed to make the 6820 smaller than the 6800. At 107 x 47 x 20 mm, the 6820 is over 10 mm shorter. The less bulky design will make the Nokia 6820 much more attractive and easier to fit in pockets.

In the end, much of the 6820's strengths lie in its messaging capabilities. The phone is geared towards a particular segment of the consumer market. For the serious text messaging user, the 6820 is the phone they've been waiting for.

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