Introduction
Nobody has been waiting for it. There is no hype about it. It doesn’t have to face expectations. It’s not too expensive, it’s not too cheap. It doesn’t have any extra. It’s not a milestone in design. But this might make it successful. Nokia 3600 is a completely average cell phone; everyday design for everyday use.
When I got the handset from XXL GSM, along with 7610 Supernova, I have already felt that there aren’t many differences between the two models in features. Even the sliding mechanism is similar, but here’s another example of how much can the case do: Supernova draw everyone’s attention, while no one was excited to take a look at 3600. The first is more feminine, while our current phone could be completely neutral if I wouldn’t have had this color.
Nokia took some elements that they have been using for a long time, that are not expensive, but not lame either and created a model that is ideal for the average user, it has the usual “Nokia quality” feeling, the usual design elements and it can serve its future user without any unpleasant surprises. I am pleased to report: they’ve made it!
Exterior
The box has a charger, a stereo headset and a USB cable besides the phone. The handset – since it has no other option – attracts attention with its color. It’s not the claret color that matters, but how Nokia combines this with good taste with the brown back, so it gets darker and darker on the front (going upwards), and on the top it becomes completely black. There is a dark grey edition too, so many will think it’s a Samsung, it even happened with this one.
Even though the keypad is very “Nokia-like”. There is a navigation ring with a large central button under the QVGA display, while on the left and the right there are the usual function keys. The shiny cover makes it look a bit cheap, but at least it’s easy to wipe off if some fingerprints would appear sometimes.
There is no revolutionary new stuff on the sides of the handset either, on the left there is only the covered microUSB connector, while on the right we can see the camera’s hotkey and the volume control keys. On top of 3600 there is the power button, the charger and the headset connector, which is 2.5 mm, so we will need a converter for standard headsets.
The camera and the speaker’s grating are emphasized on the brownish back. After sliding the phone open we get to see the keypad with a white backlight. The buttons are okay, easy to use, appropriately soft; we can say nothing bad about them. The sliding mechanism is also high-quality, there is only some very small play when the phone is open.
Basic functions
The rest is the usual. The 240 x 320 pixels large display is a good partner; the Series40 platform has the usual structure and functions. There are four themes included; the red one matches the most the phone’s design. The main menu display 3 x 3 icons, it has 10 icons in total, so we have to scroll in order to access the applications. If this is annoying, the main menu can be switched to list view too. We can activate active standby too on the main screen. 3600 warns the user of missed calls and messages by flashing the light of the navigation key from time to time.
The phonebook has no extras. It can theoretically store 2000 entries, but if we attach a couple of data to contacts then this decreases capacity. There are lots of data to be attached, Series40 never had problems with this, there are many phone numbers, email address, postal address, image, sound, URL, birthday and note.
We cannot complain about messaging either, we have the good old functions over here too. Besides text, multimedia and email messages, 3600 also supports flash SMS messages too, which are displayed instantly on the addressee’s display. Text entry is no challenge, thanks to the good keypad, if someone prefers T9 it’s also supported. The email client supports attachments and authenticated SMTP servers too, but since there’s no 3G this handset will probably not become the medicine for email-maniacs.
We won’t find any extras in the organizer functions either, the calendar (having month, week and day views) is the usual one, the stopwatch has lap timing, there is a to-do list, a scientific calculator and a countdown timer too. The alarm clock can store only one time point, but this can be set to repeat on given days, and those who like to oversleep can set a snooze time of up to 60 minutes.
Multimedia
The camera on 3600 is evidently better than the ones one similar phones. It has been strange at 7610 Supernova too that a fashion phone has a 3.2 megapixel camera and we can again feel that this feature is somewhat better than expected, as the phone could have been sold simply with a 2 megapixel image sensor with fixed focus, but of course I don’t want to give hints to the manufacturer, it’s a great thing that they didn’t save on this. There is a double flash, which is although not better than the models that have a xenon flash on phones, but it’s one of the best of the similar ones.
The software, after pressing the button on the side, starts in landscape mode after we slide the phone open. There is nothing extraordinary at the settings, but the most important features (image quality, size, white balance, self timer, night mode) are present. The camera focuses when the button is half-pressed and takes the picture if we fully depress the key. The pictures would be quite fine for such a phone, but they have lots of noise, there are some test pictures below. There is no problem with videos either, as VGA is the highest available resolution, even though this can be done only at 15 fps.
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There is no problem with the music either, at least the software has anything we could ever need. The redesigned player works nicely, it can run in the background and it sorts tracks by ID3 tags. The equalizer is fine too, but if we want some more serious musical experience we should obtain a better headset with a converter (2.5 mm – 3.5 mm), or a stereo Bluetooth accessory. There is a great FM radio too, that has RDS support.
As for the other software we have Yahoo Go!, which brings us news, weather and infos about our Yahoo profile if we have one, there is a pre-installed Opera Mini and a unit converter. There are five games on 3600: Sudoku, Backgammon, Snake III, Golf Tour and City Bloxx, which is one of the best pastime games – at least in my opinion. Maps needs an external GPS receiver, after that it can download maps from the Internet and it can also plan routes. It doesn’t have as many features as Nokia Maps on Symbian phones, but it has the essentials if someone prefers this way of getting around.
Data transfer, battery
Although Opera Mini makes the software part of browsing great, but the hardware is no partner in that. There would be no problem with the 2” QVGA display, but the lack of 3G hurts, maximum speed can be obtained via EDGE, which is not too much and WLAN is still not fashionable for Series40 phones (except Nokia 6300i), so if we would still like to browse the web we have to watch the phone suffering at GPRS/EDGE speeds.
There are no problems at local level, though, Bluetooth and USB are both of version 2.0, the cable is inside the box, along with the software. Data on the included 512 MB memory card can be accessed too, if we connect 3600 as a Mass Storage device and thus moving data doesn’t take much time.
Nowadays Nokia phones have a nonfigurative pattern under the back cover, but the main point is the 860 mAh battery which keeps the phone alive for 2-3 days. As there’s no 3G the display is that requires the most power, so we should expect an average standby time.
Summary. 3600 slide has a balanced set of features, the exceptions being the better camera and the few data transfer methods. On the whole the price of ~ €190 EUR is still a bit too high, if it drops to about €150 EUR it will be an absolutely realistic choice for those who need an easy to use Nokia with a decent design and that is – hopefully – reliable. Due to its price this is the best it can get:
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| Nokia 3600 slide |
Bog
Translated by Szaszati
Nokia 3600 slide has been provided by XXL GSM.
The handset can be purchased at:
Budapest VI. Jókai tér 6.
Specifications
| Nokia 3600 slide | ||
 | General | |
| Technology | GSM | |
| Size | 97.8 x 47.2 x 14.5 mm | |
| Weight | 97 grams | |
| Available colors | red, grey | |
| Display | ||
| Display diagonal | 2” | |
| Display resolution | 240 x 320 pixels | |
| Display type | TFT | |
| Number of colors | 16 million | |
| Memory | ||
| Phonebook capacity | 2000 entries | |
| SMS memory / max. MMS size | na / 300 KB | |
| Internal memory | 64 MB | |
| Memory expandability | microSD (in package: 512MB) | |
| Data transfer | ||
| Frequency bands | 900/1800/1900 MHz | |
| GPRS / EDGE | Class 10 (4+1/3+2) / Class 10 (236.8 kbps) | |
| UMTS / HSDPA | none / none | |
| IrDA / Bluetooth | none / 2.0 (A2DP too) | |
| WiFi | none | |
| USB | 2.0 (microUSB) | |
| Push-to-talk / RSS | present / none | |
| GPS receiver | none | |
| Basic functions | ||
| Profiles | present | |
| Vibra function | present | |
| Built-in handsfree | present | |
| Voice dialing / voice commands | present / present | |
| Sound recorder | present - 1 hour | |
| Alarm clock | present, also when turned off | |
| Predictive text entry | T9 | |
| Software | ||
| Platform | Series40 | |
| WAP / HTML browser | 2.0 / present | |
| E-mail client | present (POP3, IMAP4, authenticated) | |
| Java | present, MIDP 2.0 | |
| Games | 5 | |
| Currency converter | present | |
| Extra software | Converter, Maps, Yahoo Go | |
| Multimedia | ||
| Main camera | 3.2 megapixels, autofocus, flash | |
| Secondary camera | none | |
| Video recording | present (VGA, 15fps) | |
| Music player | present, can run in background | |
| Equalizer | present | |
| FM radio | present - RDS | |
| Battery | ||
| Main battery | 860 mAh Li-Ion | |
| Standby time | 280 hours | |
| Talk time | 330 minutes | |
| Other | ||
| - | ||
