Nokia 6111 review: Venus and maybe Mars too

It takes some practice

The sliding mechanism isn't by far as easy as it is in the top construction of Samsung D500/D600. The assistant strings react not before the half of the track and you have to spend grater energy on it. When we add to this the glossy casing, we can say that the drawing-out of the Nokia 6111 with one hand isn't easy at all and requires practice.

The phone drawn out

The lower part hides the alphanumeric buttons of the keyboard. They are produced from the same material as the back cover and the panel of the display, so they have similar characteristics - they are fingertip magnets and are slithery. It is not positively a drawback, fingers don't hitch as in the rubber keys' case and the writing can be really fast.

  
The keyboard is good, but easy gets stained

When closed the phone is also well operated due to the context keys and call control buttons. These are available under the display. There is a four-way navi-key between them, which would satisfy the ladies, because it can be easily controlled with fingernails. My finger tip was too big for the thin edge of the four-way button.

 
The main operating buttons

The loud clicking of the navigation button began to annoy me in the course of time, but my fears about the insufficient size of the confirming centre, provoked by the official photographs had disappeared. The illumination is enough and even, excellent on the upper sliding part. Only the lightening trough some gaps between the buttons or the clutches under the border ornament of the cover is not good.

The lightening of the main operating components and the keyboard

An average display

The display looks small even on such a small phone. The reason for this are the cut corners of the upper sliding part, resp. the optical perception, which they provoke. No one would believe about the factual proportions of the display - 28 × 35 millimeters, the same counts also for the 256K colors.

 
The display in the dark

The display has a resolution of 128 × 160 pixels. Such a resolution means just a medium quality nowadays; the screen raster is apparent; extra pixels would suit better to such an expensive phone. The contrast and the luminance are good enough; it is not problem to read text messages or insert events into the organizer even at direct sunlight.

The user interface is slightly upgraded, compared to the older Series 40 phones. That's why besides the wallpapers on the standby display you may be welcomed also by the so-called "active standby mode". It doesn't reach the functionality of the smartphones, but is very useful.

  
Display in standby mode • the main menu • sub-menu

Due to it you don't have to look in the calendar every day, all current events are shown directly on the main display. You may scroll through the days directly from stand-by mode. The shortcut icons are on the top, the two middle fields are for the music player and the built-in FM radio.

Example of the active standby display

The left context key serve for the "Go to" function; you may set the function of the right key. To activate the navigation of the lists in the standby mode you just have to use the up or down directions of the navigation key. Then you can use the left and right directions to work with the selected list.

"Go to" folder and its organization

Pleasant is the fact that there is a variety of colors in phone standby mode - the white characters don't fade away in the dark wallpapers. Just pity that this change is not available in the whole menu, most of the dark wallpapers of the color themes are accompanied by the dark background of the rest of the menu. All items in the menu and "Go to" folder may be easily moved elsewhere. The selected icon or title is highlighted in green; then you may move it around.

  
Font color selection for the stand-by mode • moving menu items

Clear sound, but not loud enough

The speaker is taken out only to the left opening of the shiny phone frame. Its sound is clear enough; the volume however could be higher; I have experienced problems on a noisy street and had to draw the phone close to the ear. The microphone is mounted on the upper sliding part, so it doesn't matter whether Nokia 6111 is closed or not. There are loud handsfree available during the call, to which I have the same criticism like towards the speaker - they could be louder.

Speaker outlet

The speakerphone, mounted under the grid on the left side takes care of the ringing. The bass element is missing and is even flatter than we have usually used to in mobile phones. In addition, the speaker is more than ever prone to muffling in the pocket or in the hand.

The ringing may be quickly set with the help of the profiles. They are five in the phone; you may change the ringing melody and the sound alert, it doesn't affect the time expiration of the profile. Besides the polyphonic ringtones you may play also your favorite MP3 track as a ringing melody.

Profile expiration setting