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Phone Reviews Nokia 6682 Editor's rating (1-5): Discuss this product Review posted Nov. 18, 2005 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief The 6682 is Nokia's latest Series 60, now called simply, S60, Smartphone in the US. It's offered here by Cingular and carries on the tradition started by the Nokia 3650, 6620, the N-Gage QD and most recently the stylish Nokia 7610. The 6682 is a phone first in terms of ergonomics and features, and second a basic PDA with organizer functions, Outlook syncing and support for a strong selection of 3rd party software. The unbranded and unlocked Nokia 6682 which comes in pearl white. The Cingular version is silver.   The Nokia is a triband GSM phone supporting both US bands (850 and 1900 MHz) as well as the 1800 Mhz band commonly used in Asia and somewhat in Europe. If you're a world traveler frequenting Europe, the lack of 900 MHz won't appeal to you, but for the rest of us, the triband radio will offer optimal coverage. The unit supports GPRS and the much faster EDGE standard for data, offers a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and a dual voltage RS-MMC slot for memory expansion. Standard high end stuff. . . throw in a web browser that supports HTML as well as WAP sites, speakerphone, voice dialing and a set of multimedia applications that include LifeBlog, Nokia's answer to cell phone photo and video blogging, and you've got the 6682. In the Box In the box you'll find: the phone (10 megs internal memory + 64 meg dual voltage RS-MMC card), Nokia BL-5C battery, world charger, stereo headset with mic, manual, USB cable for syncing and printing to USB printers, software CD with PC Suite for syncing with Outlook. Design and Ergonomics Like prior Series 60 Nokia phones, the 6682 is relatively large by phone standards, though no giant and certainly smaller than PDA phones and the largish Nokia 3650. We're still not sure why S60 phones must be so large given the 2.25" display and standard internals, but that's life with Nokia's high end smartphones. The phone feels good in hand and stays put despite the showy chrome strips which flank the sides. Nokia's very attractive pearl finish dominates, complimented by bright silver trim and the more subdued silver keypad and display surround. The Cingular version is silver and looks a tad less pretty, but also less feminine. Though not flashy, the phone is good looking and classy. We wish the shiny silver bits didn't show fingerprints quite so much but these are easily removed with a wipe across a shirt or towel. Comparing phone sizes: Motorola V60, Motorola e815, Sony Ericsson T610, LG VX9800, Nokia 6682, Nokia 3650 and the Nokia N-Gage QD.

Dual Voltage RS-MMC cards: What is dual voltage? Many new phones require memory cards that run on a lower voltage (1.8V) in order to reduce battery consumption.  Because most standard devices still run a higher voltage (3V), dual voltage cards accommodate both voltage levels.

The backlit keypad has a gentle upward curve and is quite standard in layout- nothing fancy or odd like the Nokia 7610. Despite the phones generous proportions, the keypad keys feel a bit small, likely due to their curves which makes for a somewhat odd-shaped target. Two soft keys surround the excellent and roomy directional pad and the standard S60 keys flank the number keys (call send and end, application home screen launcher, clear button and the pencil button). The voice command button is on the upper left side of the phone, and the power button and RS-MMC slot are on the right. Both unusual and intelligent, the speakerphone is located up top, (don't mistake it for the RS-MMC card slot). This makes it easier to hear the speakerphone whether in hand or on a desk, yet you won't be deafened if you hold the phone to your head while the speaker is active.

Left side of the Nokia 6682

The sliding back panel on the rear of the phone protects the camera lens and LED flash. Slide it open to launch the camera application, thus no need for a dedicated button. Leave it shut when you launch the camera application and the phone will remind you to open the cover. We applaud the lens protection: no more lint, grease or worse on that lens.

Reception, Data, Voice and Phone Features

The Nokia 6682 is a GSM phone. It's available unlocked for use with any GSM carrier and in another version that's locked to Cingular in the US (only Cingular SIM cards will work on the locked version). As mentioned, it supports the 850/1800/1900 MHz bands and has both GPRS and EDGE for data. We love Nokia's GSM phone reception and the 6682 is no exception with great RF even in weak signal areas. Call clarity and volume, both incoming and outgoing are very good and the speakerphone is reasonably good. You can use a wired or Bluetooth wireless headset rather than hold the handset to your head, of course. The phone has speed dial (numbers 2-9), supports conference calling and comes with a demo version of Voice Signal's excellent voice command and dialing software.

EDGE is great (3G would be wonderful but we don't have a wide deployment of 3G on GSM networks yet in the US). Expect speeds between 60 and 120k, depending on reception and network congestion levels. That means the included web browser downloads web pages reasonably quickly by phone standards. Speaking of the web browser, it supports WAP, HTML and XHTML along with cookies, bookmarks and caching. If you desire a more full-featured web browser, consider Opera or Netfront.

Display, Sound and Multimedia

A roomy (by cell phone standards) 2.25" display that shows 262,000 colors bodes well for multimedia work, though resolution hasn't increased from old series 60 models and is still 176 x 208 pixels. The 6682's stereo output through the included Pop-Port headset, further heightens expectations. Indeed, the phone makes for a handy, if low capacity, MP3 player with RealPlayer included for MP3 and AAC playback (OMA DRM v1.0 supported). You're limited only by RS-MMC card capacity, and 512 megs is currently the max for dual voltage RS-MMC cards. You can play back RealPlayer videos, MPEG4 and 3GP using the included player and more formats using 3rd party video players. Video playback performance is decent, though not groundbreaking. Keep encoding under 300 kbps for best results.

Software

The 6682 sports the familiar and reasonably friendly icon-based Series 60 user interface. To access applications on the phone, press the app launcher button (lower left shiny button). Move the d-pad to select the app you wish to use (the icons are labeled so you need not guess what each means).

Nokia's email client, Messaging, supports IMAP, POP3, multiple email accounts and scheduled email checks as well as attachments. How to read these attachments? For MS Office documents, Nokia includes QuickOffice which can read MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. If you wish to create and edit Word and Excel (but not PowerPoint) documents, you'll need to purchase an upgrade to the pre-installed version. Adobe Acrobat Reader LE 1.10 is included as well, making the 6682 a well-rounded solution for those who need to read business documents on the go.

Since the Nokia 6682 is a smartphone it offers full featured PIM applications (contacts, calendar, notes and to-do) which sync with MS Outlook on the desktop using the included USB cable and PC Suite syncing software. If you prefer, you can sync over Bluetooth instead, and Mac users will rely on iSync rather than Nokia software for syncing. Contacts offers fields for first name, last name, title, company, addresses (work, home), phone (work, home), mobile number (up to 3), fax (2 max), email address (up to 3) and thumbnail photo. The calendar offers day, week and month views as well as reminders and notes.

To capitalize on the very good camera, Nokia includes several apps such as Kodak Mobile, their own LifeBlog application (create and maintain your own photo and video blog using your phone and its Internet connection), even Nokia XPress Print, an application that allows you to print to USB printers with the included cable.

Camera Nokia makes some of the best phone cameras in the US. We loved the megapixel camera in the Nokia 7610 and the 6682 ups the ante with a 1.3 megapixel camera that takes even better shots. The camera can shoot at a maximum resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels, and they're actually good enough to print in snapshot sizes. Colors are accurate by camera phone standards, contrast is pleasing and there's little noise or color fringing. Sunny days don't overwhelm the camera, though white and near white subjects do blow out, as you can see in the cat's chest in the sample image below. Dark places aren't a camera's friend, but the Nokia 6682 manages well, even capturing the colors of the sunset taken below. If you're one of those folks who highly values the camera feature, the 6682 should please you. The camera has an LED flash which you can turn on, off or set to automatic. Even when the flash is turned off, it will light just a bit (perhaps to prevent you from taking surreptitious shots of people). 6x digital zoom helps you get in close; handy given Nokia phones' rather short 4.5mm focal length. To take a photo, just slide open the rear lens cover and the phone will launch the camera application. Videos aren't quite so impressive: color is good as is lighting, but videos are very blocky. The camera can shoot video with audio at a maximum resolution of 174 x 144 pixels. You can play these back on the phone using the included RealPlayer and on the desktop using Apple's QuickTime.

Battery

For staying power, the Nokia 6682 has a 900 mAh battery BL-5C Lithium Ion battery (same as the Nokia 7610). Nokia claims it's good for 4 hours of talk time and that seems on target. Flight mode is handy when you wish to use the phone as a multimedia or PDA while the phone's radio is turned off (good luck convincing the airline attendant that your phone really isn't "on" though). Nokia claims 11 days standby which might be a bit optimistic, but we did manage 8 days.

Bluetooth

As you'd expect from a high end Nokia, the 6682 has Bluetooth 1.2 with support for handsfree car kits, headsets, file transfer, DUN (dial up networking) and keyboards. The phone worked reliably with a number of popular headsets including the Motorola HS820, Bluespoon AX2, Plantronics Discovery 640 , the Motorola H700 and the Plantronics M3500. We got good range (typically 20 to 35 feet), good voice clarity and volume with out test headsets. I left Bluetooth on at all times and it didn't have a major impact on battery life since the device sleeps the Bluetooth radio unless a connection is active.