Nokia 6280 - First look . . . .

[Bleubean]

Well after a great deal of thinking and pondering (20 minutes infact) I bought a shiny new Nokia 6280 on Three.

My first impression of the phone is that its no way as big as it looks in the photos. The phone is actually the same size as the SonyEricsson W800i which is quite small. I think its the phones massive screen that makes it look big.

The feel of the fone is quite plastic like, but i dont think this detracts from the quality of the handset. It feels extremly light in the hand and great to grip. The way the 6280 feels reminds me of the SonyEricsson S700i because it has a fantastic screen with little clutter on the front. Nearly everything can be done without even opening the slider.

The menu system on the 6280 is not symbian, however, it could easily fool a newby into thinking otherwise. The Series 40 menus look and feel very much like Symbian Series 60, however multitasking abilities and more advanced office-type applications are not present. Infact, for the typical user who wants an advanced, but simplistic phone, then the 6280 is a really good choice. The way the phone works seems to make sense. Menu items are placed where they should be and the options are exactly where you would expect.

The camera on this very very good!! Moving from a SonyEricsson W800i with a 2 Megapixel camera means the camera quality isnt as shocking as it would be if i were moving from a VGA camera. But it is very good. The large screen is perfect for showing off pictures. The video taking is of course, marvelous. The quality is just like that of the Nokia N90! (See my N90 review).

As my handset is on Three, I was bearing in mind that it might have a few troubles network wise. However, this could not be further from the truth. This phone is undoubtedly the BEST phone i have ever used on the Three network. The phone is fast when browsing Three's services. There is no lag or delay. Streaming on the 6280 is very fast, with no massive wait times. The quality is superb. I could not complain one single bit.

For me, this phone and Three are the perfect combination.

As this is only a brief review of my few hours with this little biaaatch of a phone, I will obviously load up some pics taken with and of the 6280 itself and do it justice with an indepth review.

But so far this phone gets 10/10!!!./

[Bleubean]

As promissed here are some pics of the lovely herself, Miss 6280

[Bleubean]

And some more.

[Ben]

Fantastic writeup and pictures! Is that an inline remote I can see on that headset?! I don't suppose the sound quality of the headset is any better than previous Nokia's? Listening to MP3's on my 6680 was somewhat disappointing, especially after hearing the difference of the W900i! As you're coming from a W800i I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts.

What are your thoughts on the quality & feel of the various keys & keypad, and of course the all-important slide mechanism?

[Bleubean]

It is indeed a remote you can see there! Well spotted!

As you said, I am coming from a SonyEricsson W800i which was an EXCELLENT phone. In comparison the 6280 is slightly wider, and thicker. The 6280 also feels more delicate. I dropped/threw/bounced my W800i a number of times and it came out unscathed. I dont think the 6280 could take it.

The keypad on the svelte 6280 is a delight to use. Its smooth and very compact, but in a good way. I love the fact you can do virtually anything on the phone without having to open the slider which makes using the phone great.

Speaking of the slider...its great. Its very very smooth but firm. It wont slide open without force, but the force can easily be applied with your thumb. I like also the fact nokia have added a rim above the navigation keys that you can use to open and close the phone.

Bad points so far...its a finger print magnet, but that is partly due to the fact I keep molesting the poor handset.

Battery life somehow seems to go up and down. Ive left the phone for an hour or so and went back and found it has somehow gained charge?!? Whether this is some software issue or something else is yet unknown....i shall keep an eye on it tho.

[getti]

I tried to get one a few days ago on 3 but that would have meant i had 2 contracts..... unfortunatly it got declined so i had a long 1hr journy back dissapointed.

But someone i know well over at What Mobile was due an upgrade but he didnt want the phone and was going to ebay is. So he went for a Nokia 6280 and has said he will sell it to me.

I dont get paid til the 17th Feb but he is still keeping it back for me which is great. Means i can keep my 1 contract and use a great new phone which i will also be able to review once its here

Looks like the next 2 months will be heavy nokia oriantated with the 6280 being reviewed and also it looks like a N90 is heading my way and then i should be getting my hands on a review N80 and N91 sometime soon also

Originally Posted by Bleubean

I like also the fact nokia have added a rim above the navigation keys that you can use to open and close the phone.

I'd have to agree with the you on this, the rim is very handy for opening and closing the phone easily, but unfortunately I seem to have more bad things to say about this phone than good.

Sure, you can do almost anything without actually having to open the phone, apart from lock the keypad?!?!? You have one of two options, you can either press the button in the centre of the navigation key, then open the phone and press *, or you can slide the phone open and closed again, at which point the word 'lock' appears on the screen, then you can press the centre button again to select lock.

Such a simple thing, you would of thought someone at Nokia would have had the common sense to create a shortcut to lock the keypad from the front of the phone

Anyway, thats just a silly niggle that I had to get out. Its not actually the really problem. Ive been finding the phone very slow. Slow going from one screen to another, browsing around menus, slow on web access, and extremely slow on changing the background theme of the display, and opening my photos (bearing in mind I have only taken 10 or so photos, whilst mucking around with the phone yesterday, how slow will it get when I have taken more!)

Also worrying is that when browsing around the menus earlier this morning, I could not find the 'memory card folder'. I had seen a few extra themes and ring tones on the card yesterday, and wanted to have a 2nd look but it was no where to be found.

Feeling slightly puzzled, thinking 'Im sure I remember it being in this menu earlier on?' I came to the decision that I was losing my marbles and must have remembered it wrong. I sat there for at least 15 mins going through every menu option on the phone, looking for the memory card folder with no joy I took the card out, checked for dirt or fluff, then popped in back in. Went through all the menu options again, but still no folder to be found.

At this point I resorted to reading the Nokia user guide, but even this didn't help. Took the card out, and put it back in once again, and as if by magic the memory card fold appeared in the right menus.

Now I know what your thinking,

'silly woman, she hadn't put the card in properly'

but I assure you I had. I know its spring loaded and you have to click it down so that it stays in, before closing the cover, so I am inclined to believe its a phone problem.

To put it simply, this phone does not fill me with confidence. I worry that it will crash and go into meltdown if I ask to much of it. Maybe there was good reason it was delayed for so long

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

[Bleubean]

In regards to the key lock issue; my handset's left softkey on the main screen has the lock option on it. One click and it simply locks the handset. If you open the slider again it unlocks the phone. Also you can always set the automatic key lock to come on after a few seconds.

Take a look round the shortcut options on the phone to find one to add a lock option to the main screen.

I personally find my phone to be very very fast. Applying themes obviously takes sometime but no more time than it would on a SonyEricsson.

[Bleubean]

Ok ive just had a look. To put a Lock option on screen do the following

Settings>My Shortcuts>

Then choose the key you wish to be the lock key. In my case its the left softkey. Then select the option you wish to apply to that key.

Hope that helps

Thanks 4 the tip about the keypad locking. Feel a bit silly considering it was that simple.

Just hope the phone speeds up a bit though. Honestly, its like I've gone three steps back with this phone, my last one seemed so much quicker (and it's 18 months old now, I thought technology was meant to help speed things up )

Oh well. Im sure things will sort them selves out. And I can almost forgive the poor little phone, because it is just so dam pretty after all.

Just enjoying downloading all my fav tracks onto it at the mo. Havin a music player on the phone is not something Im used to

Am trying to buy the Krusell 6280 phone case, but as with all things 6280, its not actually out yet. Guess us 6280 folk just like waiting 4 things

http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/9195.htm

[Bleubean]

Just thought id let everyone know that i have had to return my 6280!

The phone would randomly crash when accessing certain menus and functions, until last nite whilst i was in the middle of writing a text, the phone screen went blank. The phone kept resetting itself repeatedly as though it was stuck in a loop.

So i rang Three, got through to a helpfull Australian girl, she told me if i wanted a new handset id have to take out a new contract, or they would just replace the 6280 with a new one.

Having heard not so good reports about the 6280 from other users, i have considered taking out a new contract with an N70 which is a shame because the shape and size of the 6280 is excellent!

[a_ukboy]

Really, an N70? that's what i want but Three tell me they don't do it anymore, i have a 6280, had it two days now, i like the phone but i think the battery performance is very poor, mines only lasting me 12 hrs both days so far, my LG 8120 would give me 2 days!!!

[3GScottishUser]

Carphone Warehouse and it's subsiduries (e2save, onestopphoneshop, etc) seem to have N-70's available.

They buy direct from Nokia and have a deal with 3 to provide subsidy to them.

Worth checking out.