First Impressions Count

My first impression of the Nokia 6630 was the packaging. Wow, real purpose made moulded parts hold everything in its place. All colour coordinated in black and orange. Well done Orange - a terrific start. Now the phone.

Of course, the Nokia 6630 is not just a phone - its a smartphone. Looks - talk about an odd shaped phone with a hidden agenda. This one has a 220MHz processor making it a real powerhouse in the shape of a 3G Series 60 Smartphone.The shape does bother me. But then the Nokia 7600 sold like hot cakes so I will steamroller past the odd shape issues and simply say its not for me.

Don't look at the back of this phone. Yawn what's going on here - nothing other than the camera lens.

In terms of size, there are no real issues here. Nokia have crammed so much into this smartphone as you can see on the right. It does feel compact in the hand.

The on-board camera is a 1.3 megapixel camera which produces results as good as any other camera phone currently available. If you wanna be a paparazzi photographer, this phone has a new feature called "sequency" which provides for fast sequential picture snapping.

The big disappointment is the lack of a camera on the front of the phone. This has big implications when video calling. You can only make a video call using the rear camera ( what you see ). It is not possible on this phone to see the caller and the caller sees you at the same time.

To get around this you can use a Nokia video call stand - see picture on bottom left.

The 6630 comes with a hot-sappable RS-MMC slot on the right hand side of the phone. But note this a is a new card with a new format and older cards are not interchangeable.

The battery is no lightweight performer and is likely to give you about 4 hours talktime.

Is It The Bomb ?

The main disappointment is the lack of video calling capability unless you can carry the video call stand around with you. No thanks.

The Nokia 7600 sold really well. However, the public is now somewhat smarter as to what a 3G phone should do and the lack of inbuilt video calling is likely to put many people off.

The Nokia 6630 is not quite the bomb but its a great idea and design build by Nokia. Most of all its a good all round performer.

Kevin Thomas scores the Nokia 6630

Whilst every care has been taken in the preparation of this review, Kevin Thomas nor 3Gcouk cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or authenticity of the information it contains, or any consequence arising from it.

This is a review of the Nokia 6630 handset and was undertaken in March, 2005 by Kevin Thomas of 3G.co.uk. This review covers the phone only and does not address the performance of Orange's 3G Network.