Nokia 6680

Design
Design In terms of looks, the Nokia 6680 has little going for it. The plain, straightforward candy-bar form factor weighs a hefty 133g and comes with an unusual keypad layout where the important buttons (menu and call buttons) are thin and vertically aligned with the sides of the phone. Although it can't be compared to the big screen on the Motorola A1000, its bright 262,144-color display (176 x 208 pixels) still looks good and also features an active matrix where brightness is automatically adjusted in response to the lighting of your environment.

Besides the on/off and Push-to-talk keys, everything's controlled via the keypad on the front. Most of the keys give a soft and plastic feel, but they're generally big and easy to manipulate.

At 108.4 x 55.2 x 20.5mm, the rather large, rectangular handset doesn't have many design features, except for one commendable element--the sliding back cover for the main camera. This cover serves to protect the lens and activate the camera quickly simply by sliding it open.

The major difference between this phone and Nokia's previous 3G model, the Nokia 6630, is its secondary camera. With the previous model, you have to mount the mobile on a separate accessory (with the camera directed at you) when making video calls, which is rather inconvenient for those on-the-go.

As with the Panasonic X800, the phone's volume is adjusted via two of the directional keys instead of an external button option.

Features
Sticking to the Symbian Series 60 platform, the only new addition is that of a Palm-like main page where all the calendar events for the day are listed. At the same time, there's a panel of five (customizable) icons on that screen for quick menu access, similar to that of the Motorola A1000.

Boasting a full range of PIM features, this is no ordinary triband. It is also a dualmode phone as it supports WCDMA 2100 networks, too. Thus, you can travel to five different continents with no worries about network coverage. Switching between bands and modes is automatic and there's even an option to work "offline", which operates like the "Flight mode" of the Nokia 7710 and restricts usage to imaging and non network-related features.

Other PDA-like options include compatibility with a proprietary wireless keyboard and an email client that's easy to set up and supports attachments (jpeg, 3gp, MP3, ppt, doc, excel and pdf files). In addition, it automatically resizes your images to fit MMS, which is handy when sending picture messages.

With regard to connectivity, this phone has an extensive range including 3G, Bluetooth, GPRS, WAP and the Nokia Connectivity Cable (USB) DKU-2. The mobile's feature-rich browser comes with a full-screen mode, download progress bar and adaptive history list. What's interesting is the new Video-Sharing feature where you can share videos while in the middle of a video call. Usual voice features like voice dial, record and handsfree speaker are included.

Besides supporting Java, the 6680 comes with hot-swappable Reduced-sized MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC) slot. The sales package also features a 64MB RS-MMC and an adapter for normal-sized MMC slots. This is on top of the internal 10MB of memory.

Video calling is smooth and although the secondary camera (the one on the front) is only VGA, picture quality is quite good. The 1.3-megapixel back camera features an integrated flash (effective up to 1.5m). Our grievance is that there's only a limited selection of camera functions such as night mode and color tone settings.

Additional features, packaged on the RS-MMC card, include many useful applications such as Quickoffice, Photo Editor and Kodak Mobile. The last function allows you to transfer photos directly to a compatible printer or photo kiosk via Bluetooth. The phone also comes with the Nokia XpressPrint Printing Solution, which allows direct photo printing via Bluetooth or USB connection to a PictBridge-enabled printer.

Both music and ringtones are supported via the RealPlayer Media Player, which means you can stream, download and play video and audio files.

Reception, Battery Life And SAR
During testing, we did not encounter any problems with reception and voice quality. On moderate use, the propriety 900mAh Lithium-ion battery lasted about three days.

The highest SAR value for this handset is 0.63W/kg, which meets international guidelines for exposure to radio waves.

Conclusion
The Nokia 6680 may not look fantastic, but it ranks high on functionality and is filled to the brim with features. If you are looking for a feature-rich 3G phone on the familiar Symbian 60 OS, this is the ideal handset for you. If 3G isn't what you want or need, look out for the upcoming Nokia 6681 which is actually a lighter version of the same phone without 3G capabilities and secondary camera.

It is currently available at S$868 (US$639.07) with a two-year plan and S$1,368 (US$1,007.19) without.