If you are into slide phones,
and who wouldn’t be, with their pop-out keyboards and switch-blade like action,
the Nokia 6500 should be on your list of phones to consider. This is a sweet
little feature phone that is designed to be a sleeker, sexier feature phone
than you are used to seeing by Nokia. Nokia is known for creating durable,
reliable hardware, and this is no exception.
A Feature-Rich Phone
Nokia has added a feature to
this feature phone that pairs rather well with the 3.2 megapixel camera. Included
in the box is a cable to connect the phone to your television set, enabling you
to view the phone’s screen on your television screen. While this might not be a
good idea for regular phone calls, it is capable of turning video calls into a
Skype-like experience or allowing you to show-off your photo collection without
having to plug into the Wi-Fi network to email them to a computer.
The 6500 comes ready to rock
and roll on the 3G network, hence the need for double cameras, enabling users
to video call with ease while also viewing the person on the other end of the
line. Text messaging and calling are the specialties of the 6500 Slide. Voices
sound clear and there is a low gain microphone for clear voice pick-up in noisy
conditions. The buttons might be a bit small for the largest of fingers, but
otherwise the keypad is laid out well for either texting or scrolling around on
the internet.
With the 6500 Slide comes
loaded with Bluetooth capability, making it a simple matter of connecting to
your home computer for updates and loading contact information. There is also
Wi-Fi for browsing the web or checking email while in line at the book store.
While a bit heavier than other
phones in its class, the 6500 does its best to maintain a slimmer profile than
some other Nokia handsets. Do not go into this purchase with the idea that this
is a ‘slim’ phone, it is not. Slimmer than feature and candybar phones brought
out by Nokia, it is.
The Nokia 2200 Slide Phone
If you are into saving even
more money, take a look at the Nokia 2220 Slide phone. The 2220 lacks many of
the features of the 6500, but does have a retail cost of only £25, and with the
right pay as you go plan, even those on the strictest of budgets can squeeze
this phone into their life. The 2220 has no Wi-Fi or 3G, so you won’t be
emailing at the cash register or talking and texting at the same time, so this
is more a starter phone than one for entertainment or application heavy use.
There is a shortage of user
memory on the 2220, with only 32 MB internal memory and no micro SD slot. The
music player will allow you to customize ring-tones with your favourite MP3
tracks, meaning no more listening to those tinny ring-tones that come loaded
with the phone from the factory.
There are currently no
contract plans available on the Nokia 6500 or 2220 Slide phones, so you will
need to purchase one outright in order to get your hands on one. The full
retail cost of the 6500 is going to be around £115, while the 2220 can be found
for a wallet-friendly £25. After choosing the Nokia Slide phone that is right
for you, it is time to shop around for networks with pay as you go smart packs.
These are blocks of minutes, text messages and data allowances that can be
added each month or as needed, and come in £10, £15, £20, and £25 increments,
depending on the operator you choose.
For the truly adventurous, you
could put a few dollars at a time on the phone and pay the minute by minute
prices of the networks, but paying 30p for a minute of phone talk time would
put a damper on anyone’s enthusiasm for mobiles, most of all those on a strict
budget that already forced them to choose a budget phone.
The Pay as You Go Options
T-Mobile, Vodafone, Virgin and
Orange all have deals on packs of minutes for pay as you go phones.
Each of these companies has roughly the same break down for deals on the
minutes, text messaging and data allowances they will give you. The big
difference in each is going to be the wording and whether or not there is a £20
a month pricing option. T-Mobile does not offer a pay as you go plan for £20,
but Vodafone and Orange do.
Looking at the £10 pay monthly
plan offered by T-Mobile and Vodafone, customers get 100 talk time minutes, 400
text messages and 1 GB of data to be used within the month. If the customer
uses more than that in the month, all or part of the deal can be revisited,
which is both the best and worst part of pay as you go plans. The flexibility
is nice, and there are no monthly bills, yet once you have used up your 100
minutes, you must put money on the phone before making any more phone calls.
For £15, T-Mobile and Vodafone
will each give customers 200 talk time minutes, 600 text messages and 2 GB of
data. This is a fairly high data limit already, so only minutes and text
messages are on the lower side of things. If you are going to be doing a fair
bit more calling than 8 minutes per day, you will need to either visit the £25
plan or consider a contract phone with more minutes attached.
At the £25 pay as you go smart
pack deal, T-Mobile and Vodafone again line up with 500 talk time minutes,
unlimited text messaging and 3 GB of data. Everything looks good here, and with
the unlimited text messaging, you can avoid paying extra tariffs by texting
rather than calling when and where possible.
Sam Jones understood
the attraction of the Nokia slide phones but wanted to compare
deals. Comparison sites such as uSwitch
were ideal and getting the right information could be done quickly and easily.