Nokia 6600i slide review: I slide, you slide

Introduction

A while back Nokia released the 6600 pair - the slide and the fold - which we fell for, big time. The seemingly more popular sibling got an update and the 6600i slide will keep on cashing in. Slightly revamped, it brings a beefier camera and a new paintjob to boot.

Looks have changed just a bit and we honestly think they did it right. The consciously minimalist design of the original didn't leave much room for frills anyway. Alright, the 6600i slide is a no-frills package overall, but don't go saying we didn't warn you. It's enjoyable and addictive.

Nokia 6600i slide

Key features:

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support, dual-band UMTS
• 2.2" 16M-color QVGA display
• 5 megapixel camera, autofocus and LED flash
• VGA video recording at 15fps
• S40 user interface, 5th edition
• Bluetooth (with A2DP)
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• microSD card slot (up to 16 GB), 1GB included
• Ovi Maps for S40 come preinstalled
• Ovi Contacts, Share on Ovi, YouTube, MySpace and Facebook applications preinstalled
• Really compact and extra smooth metal body
• Sweet oval shapes and neat slider design
• Accelerometer for tap-for-time and tap-to-mute

Main disadvantages:

• No HSDPA
• Display brightness is quite low
• Poor browser and no Opera Mini preinstalled
• Memory card slot under the battery, no hot-swap
• No dedicated shutter key
• Below par camera quality
• No 3.5 mm audio jack or a two-piece headset in the box
• No smart dialing
• No multi-tasking, especially uncomfortable in Ovi Contacts and the social networking applications
• No office document viewer
• Loudspeaker loudness is only marginally improved

No need to tell you, the "i" in any Nokia model designation is there to save face. It's like Nokia saying: here's a phone that sells big, so be our guest - keep on buying it. It's more of a relaunch than an update. And we're not pointing fingers here - if you have a massive seller the first thing on your mind would be to keep it rolling.

Just remember the 6300 - it did wonders for the Finns, so the 6300i followed in due course. Yes, it added Wi-Fi to its predecessor's feature set but that can really be seen as an exception and was meant for select markets only. And by the way, Nokia might have a point. The 3G-enabled 6600 slide can do without WLAN and a better camera will perhaps serve its market better.

Anyway, "i" models are incremental updates - they build on the previous device rather than turn it into something completely new. In that sense, the last people to be viewed as potential customers are current 6600 slide owners. If we were to upgrade from Nokia 6600 slide, we'd probably be considering Symbian - or maybe an all-in-one feature phone like the 6260 slide.

Accordingly, the real job of the 6600i slide is to pick up the customers the original missed and serve the Nokia midrange more in keeping with the time.

Neat and friendly is the name of the game

We've made it safely to the first jump, so you get ready to head to the next page, while we bring up the Nokia 6600i slide retail box and prepare to look inside.