Nokia 6220

Click for more pictures of the 6220.

Camera-phones are big business these days, and no one knows it better than Nokia. The Finnish market leader is gradually adding integrated cameras to its existing cell phone lines, but incremental upgrades have a price, too. As this year's Nokia 6220--a dead ringer for this year's Nokia 6610--shows, this results in more model numbers to remember, but a little less in the way of innovation.

Design
When it was first released early this year, the 6610 was the executive cousin to the stylish 7210. Likewise, the 6220 is the more somber version of the 7250i. Our unit came in the safe hues of black and gray, with square, flat buttons. The similarities in design between the 92g 6220 and its 6610 predecessor may put off current users of the latter--of which there are many. After all, when you purchase a new phone, you expect a brand new look as well.

The interface of the 6220 is similar to the 7250i. You can opt for Nokia's traditional scrolling menu or the prettier icon-based version. Either way, the interface is customarily responsive and intuitive. The choice of a "diamond" graphic to represent the favorites folder is however a tad baffling.

Features
One of the newest features in the 6220 is its support for EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) networks. Although likely welcomed in some countries, this improvement will be lost in others, including Singapore, where operators will not be adopting the technology.

Another key technology is presence-enhanced chat. A presence user will be able to update his current status on his cell phone, and by doing so, allow his authorized friends to check whether he's available, busy, or free for a chat. It's a nice idea, except that the 6220 is one of the first handsets to offer it, and compatible networks and handsets will be in short supply.

We don't fault Nokia for the lack of network compliance--someone has to do it first--but we can't expect customers to pay extra for features they can't use, either.

Otherwise, there isn't much here that we haven't seen before. The 4,096-color display makes a return, looking increasingly dated by the day. There is a small stable of interesting wallpapers to ease our disappointment, though.

The 6220's camera can be easily launched by pressing "up" on the direction pad. The passive-matrix display, as noted before, isn't the best in the industry, and serves primarily for framing. In fact, the phone appears to deliberately degrade viewfinder scenes, so "live" images appear noticeably worse than those already shot.

The phone is only capable of shooting photos with up to 352 x 288-pixel resolution. When viewed on the desktop, these photos were surprisingly good, with the accurate color reproduction worth special mention. There's 4 megabytes of phone memory with about 3MB free, so hundreds of such photos can be stored.

Reception And Battery Life
The 6220's reception was good and we experienced no problems with signal or voice quality. The Lithium-ion battery was also credible, lasting us four days of normal usage.

Verdict
The 6220 now goes for S$688 with a two-year contract or S$888 without line. This is a more than S$200 hike over the 7250i. The new Nokia contains two key features--EDGE and presence--that may justify the higher price tag. But with the potential of these two features not yet fully realized, the 6220 remains a pretty ordinary mobile with little to recommend over its rivaling siblings and other competitors.

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