Mobile Phone Review

The Nokia 6500 Classic (actually, Nokia insist on calling it classic with a lowercase "c" but it doesn’t seem right to us) is a relatively lightweight and slim 3G phone aimed at the mass market.

At just 95 grams, the 6500 Classic is light for a 3G phone. It is also only 9.5mm thick, and the attractive casings are individually polished to make them individual and are available in Black and Bronze colours.

So far, so good. The 6500 Classic is really pitching itself as a 3G fashion phone. But despite the confusing name, the 6500 Classic isn’t as sophisticated in most respects as the Nokia 6500 Slide, and it has trouble competing with the upcoming Nokia 6120 too.

There’s a 240x320 pixel display in 16 million colours, a 2 megapixel camera with flash, dual-band 3G (850/2100 MHz), an MP3 player and stereo output to wired headphones (the 6500 Classic does not appear to support stereo Bluetooth). The Nokia 6500 Classic’s battery gives up to 5.5 hours talk and 12.5 days standby time which is quite impressive (assuming those are 3G figures). One drawback on the 6500 Classic is the lack of video calling, and also the video capture on the primary camera is only 176x144 pixels.

One impressive feature with the Nokia 6500 Classic (apart from the looks) is the whopping 1GB of internal memory. This should be enough for most people, but it cannot be expanded with memory cards. Connect the 6500 Classic to a PC with the supplied microUSB connector, and you can use the phone as a sort of memory stick.

Unlike many other phones in the Nokia range, the 6500 Classic isn’t a smartphone. If you’re looking for a lightweight 3G smartphone from Nokia, then the Nokia 6120 is a better bet (and it’s a lot cheaper).