Nokia 6260 review: Symbian in a flip

Sort of a strange camera

Nokia 6260 with its construction adapted especially for photography pretends to be a capable camera phone. But it can take pictures only in 640 x 480 pixel resolution and even this resolution is not always available.

You won't believe that, but if you shoot in a "camcorder" style with the display turned by 90 degrees, it allows you to take pictures only in resolution of 480 x 360 pixels. Just if you turn the display upside down and close it to the keypad, you can get the 640 x 480 pixels format. Shooting this way is like using these old reflex cameras where you look in the finder from above. I don't understand the purpose of this limitation.

Like this you'll make a small picture • and like this a bigger one

Camera functions are still the same as before. Again there is no exposure compensation available, so users can't tune too bright or dark pictures. The 6260 model features 2x digital zoom only, a possibility to choose small pictures format to a directory and it allows you to take pictures in night mode. Photos can be saved either in the internal memory or on the memory card. It's possible to select three quality levels; the highest level has produces extremely big files (low compression). Whilst mid-quality level pictures in format of 640 x 480 pixels take 20-30 kB, high quality will take 160 kB in average.

Display by shooting with a normal open phone • after you tilt a display, also an image is adjusted; pity of the unused space, pictures could be in full resolution • camera context menu

Nokia claims officially that there is 6 MB of free memory in the phone, but two different methods showed that in fact there are 2 MB more. After the phone is switched on, there is more then 8.3 MB RAM available.

Multimedia files gallery • pictures overview • integrated file manager isn't a top class one

Quality of the pictures from the integrated camera is just average, same as with video that Nokia 6260 can record in 3GP format and in resolution of 128 x 96 pixels. Sample video.

Sample pictures

Three quality levels: from the best to the worst

Digital zoom demonstration

If you'll shoot camcorder style, you'll get just the small picture format

For text copying contemporary camera phones are still not good enough (bigger and smaller format)

Sample pictures in 640 x 480 resolution

Functions: quick flight

The review is now in the phase, which I'm starting to dislike: functions description. Nowadays phones are so uniform, that I am just repeating what I've already written. Nokia 6260 is a standard Series 60 mobile phone, the same as the 7610 model, and with some small exceptions is identical to Nokia 6600. Hence I won't describe all functions in details. If you want to know more about them, read the Nokia 7610 review. They are really identical from the functions point of view. But phones often differ from each other by sound quality during telephony. Nokia 6260 is not going to get good marks in this subject, because it can be heard quite strong noise of higher frequencies in the earphone. It's worse than e.g. with Nokia 7610 to which I can compare it straight to. Call volume is sufficient and loud handsfree is also well heard.

Entering a number • dialing a number • missed call notification

Address book and other databases can use up to 3.5 MB shared memory. The address book works with multi-items of course and it's possible to search in it by gradual writing of letters; also it can be synchronized with a PC. Nokia can play polyphonic melodies with 48 voices, but it's more impressive to use an MP3 file as a ringtone.

Searching in the address book • name detail • ringing profiles overview • profile settings (MP3 melodies)

Almost a music mobile

One of the key innovations comparing to the previous models is the choice of music functions. Nokia 6260 features an integrated stereophonic radio and headphones are delivered straight in the package. The headphones must be connected also if you listen to the radio over a loudspeaker because they work also as an antenna. It seems that the Pop-port connector is not well designed because it's not holding the plug really steady and sometimes the sound comes from the one earphone only. You can tune stations in range from 87,5 to 108,0 MHz, and you can save your favorite frequencies; tuning can be set to manual or automatic and a function for saving all accessible stations is also available.

I am sure you want to know more about the MP3 playback. The first point is that both earphones play and the phone doesn't take those as an unsupported accessory. That wasn't possible with previous Nokia 7610 and 6670 models(although some people said they were successful with that). Neither the integrated RealPlayer nor the Ultra MP3 program was able to play MP3 files in stereo - just mono. It's a pity, but the important thing is that in case of Ultra MP3 the sound quality is good enough.

Real Player • sound player

So, Nokia 6260 isn't still a full music phone, but the radio is useful and we can rate the MP3 player as usable.

Word and PowerPoint

I am not going to repeat myself about the messaging functions. Users can write SMS, MMS, emails; instant messaging client and T9 dictionary are also available.

Messages menu • selection for new message creation • writing an SMS • writing an MMS • instant messaging client

It's interesting that the email client supports some of the office formats. Word documents and PowerPoint presentations can be open straight thanks to the new QuickWord and QuickPoint applications. Also you can read PDF files, but the PDF+ application is just a trial version in the phone - after the third run you have to buy and register it.

Emails list • look at the PDF document (2x) • a Word document

Attachment in ZIP format • I installed a ProfiExplorer that handles ZIP files • you can attach a picture, of course