Nokia 6020

Print

Email

Bookmark

Share

It's easy to get lost amidst all the fanfare surrounding megapixel camera-phones and music on-the-go, among others. But ultimately, if you know you would hardly touch those features and don't mind paying less for, well, less functions, then save yourself some dough. Thankfully, even within the lower end of the mobile phone choices, little gems like Nokia's 6020 do exist.

Design
As far as entry- and mid-level handsets go, Nokia appears to have hit the sweet spot with the 6020's clean yet classic design. The review unit's predominantly silver facade with a white finish looks very appealing. At 90g, with dimensions of 106 x 44 x 20mm, the size is perfect for a comfortable grip, and build quality is excellent.

The keypad is also outstanding. Adequately spaced and blue backlit, each button is slightly contoured and produces an extremely satisfying tactile response when pressed. The central joystick is a little on the stiff side, though. Less commendable is the top power button which, despite being as wide as the handset, bends rather oddly at the ends.

The 128 x 128-pixel, 65K-color LCD screen is standard Nokia fare for a Series 40 model. You can use preloaded themes for a customized look or set your own wallpapers.

Features
No worries about laggy interfaces here as the 6020 is as fast as any other Nokia phone model. Messaging is smooth and loyalists will feel right at home with the menu interface. Along with concatenated SMS and T9, email support is also available.

The integrated VGA camera, which is positioned slightly too low behind the handset for comfort, produces casual snapshots with unspectacular quality. Shutter lag is negligible, but sadly so are imaging tweaks which are virtually non-existent. Video recording is also limited to 50 seconds in maximum length.

Besides standard applications such as a calculator, timer and calendar, the 6020's voice dial feature records and recognizes voice tags accurately. Voice recording will also prove useful for taking down the odd conversational note.

Along with xHTML Web browsing over GPRS, the 6020 is equipped with EDGE and push-to-talk capabilities. Unfortunately, both are currently unsupported by local operators.

Reception, Battery Life And SAR
Using a 760mAh battery, the Nokia 6020 lasted close to four days on normal usage which is pretty impressive. We had no reception problems, either.

The phone meets the international requirements concerning exposure to radio waves with the highest Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) value of 0.52W/kg.

Conclusion
At S$378 (US$269.25) with a two-year plan and S$528 (US$376.10) without contract, the Nokia 6020 is a reasonably priced handset with a lovely design and excellent battery life. Though the feature set isn't outstanding by any means, those looking for a midrange model that does what it does well, will not be disappointed.