When you think of whippet-thin phones, you’re likely to think Motorola or Samsung rather than Nokia. There are no buttons besides the keypad, and the only port is a micro USB socket that lurks stealthily at the top of the handset. The front of the 6500 Classic features a 320 x 240-pixel QVGA display with a thin silver perimeter. In an inversion of the usual nav-key configuration, the centre selection button is sunken rather than raised above its surrounding ring of directional keys.
The Classic’s aluminium body has a solid feel — this is no flimsy phone. As with a heap of other recently released phones, the screen and piano-black sections attract smudges like Britney attracts controversy, but the fingerprint-farm factor is something we’re learning to live with. Nokia calls its 6500 Classic “the fusion of form and function”. While the handset doesn’t represent the pinnacle of mobile telephony, there are enough useful and entertaining features to keep most users happy.
Nokia’s new focus on digital music — incorporating a downloads store that will launch locally in 2008 — is reflected in the sleek media player application found on the 6500 Classic. We can’t rustle up much negativity for the 6500 Classic’s performance. The lack of shortcut keys such as a volume rocker or dedicated camera button can be frustrating — if you need to take a quick snap, you’ll have to navigate through the menus.
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