Simon Reeve

Having lived with my N73 for some two years, I thought it time to update and fancied a phone with GPS. My N73 served me well, but it’s heavy and rather slow to respond, especially with programs and data stored on a memory card.

So how did I choose the Nokia 6220??

So why the 6220?
I plumped for the 6220 over quite a few other phones. It was hard at first to narrow down the choice and harder still to take the plunge, since you only have to delay buying a new phone and new models apear before your very eyes. Technology moves real fast.

How about an iPhone 3G?
I looked at the iPhone 3G. For those outside the UK, the TV adverts harped on about how fast it was now it has 3G, and even led you to beleive 3G is new! I bit my lip and said nothing, in case I ended up buying one. Whilst out shopping I had a play with one live.

It certainly looks slick and the interface is very clever and impressive.  I searched the internet, viewed my blog which was all very easy.  The responsivenss of the display is fantastic. 

So why didn’t I buy it?  The main reason is the touch screen.  Whilst it’s very cool at navigating around, I found typing a bit frustrating with me hitting the wrong keys, at least the iPhone thought it was me .  I occured to me that it would be hard to use without loking at the device, unlike my old fashioned N73.

Next reason?  No flash!  Whilst I know mobiles still can’t replace even the cheaper point an shoot cameras, they are more useful, since you always have the phone with you, and that includes in low lit situations.

Another reason?  It’s bit.  Yeah,  it might be thin, but it’s not going to do my suit jacket any good.  Plus, what would happen if you sat down with it in the back pocket of your jeans?

So it’s a now for me to the iPhone, untill they do an all singing and dancing nano version.

Next up, the N95-8GB
Well, this one was very tempting, especially as it’s operating system is merely an improved veriosn of that on my N73.

It seems to have eveything, large screen, maps, phone with decent camera, normal 3.5mm headphone jack.

BUT!  It’s a big fat thing and quite heavy.  Then there’s no lens cover, and there’s nothing more annoying than a scrathed camera lense.  There’s no slot for more memory cards, though 8GB would have been OK.

Others?  Sony Ericcson K850i?  no GPS!  I thought I’d mention it though, as the strangest thing about this phone, is it has a lense cover, but on the inside??  How pointless is that?  I’m not one for wanting to keep my phone in a protective case, rather just shove it in my pocket.

Having looked at others, it was clear I wanted something light and small, yet with enough toys to keep me happy for the next phone contract.

That’s when I spotted the 6220
Now it might not be a ‘cool’ as some other phones out there, but it’s looks are certainly deceieng.  This thing is very light and much smaller than a lot of the comptetion.  It has GPS, 5MP camera with Xenon flash (with lense cover!), FM radio with RDS and the latest version of Symbian OS.

The 6220 is far faster than my old N73, and can easily flick between multiple apps.  I wasn’t sure about the GPS, but I have used it for real and it got me to my destination.

It’s light and shilst the screnn is smaller than the big phones, it’s still more than adequate. Oh and it has traditional keys.  The camera is quick and inital thoughts are it’s good.

There are some interesteing feauteses, like the fact it can read out your SMS or EMail messages! 

It’s not perffect, but no phone is.  I’ll follow this up with a more detailed – living with the Nokia 6220 soon….