Reviews and tests | Nokia 6555 Review

Sales statistics illustrate the maximum pressure from the rivals on the North American market, where the company is under a permanent siege by Motorola, which still holds leading positions on their native soil despite all the bumps and downs on the foreign markets; Samsung and LG only add to this pressure. In response to this assault, Nokia designed a number of exclusive models shipped especially to the said market - for example, E62 and N75 are exclusively provided to the Cingular carrier company, 6263 followed their steps and 6555 is the latest member of this division. The model won't be sold anywhere outside the North American region. Its principal selling points include a stylish design and an unusually designed opening mechanism - the two factors primarily catering to the female half of the humanity. The 3555 model can be seen as a counterpart to 6555, however it is supplied with a worse camera, has less vivid design and not so good looking plastic. In addition to this, a full support for 3G networks stands among the model's strong sides. Such a functionality combined with the low price will surely make a very appealing product for the carrier companies offering package deals (which was Nokia's exact reason to start the development)

Nokia 6555 is positioned as an inexpensive, stylish folder for the ladies: the overly rounded shapes, passionate color variations and a design far from the conservative side will hardly please the male despite all the goodness concealed within. The estimated price equals to 200 euros, effectively reduced to zero when you get this handset for free as part of a package deal with Cingular. The 3G support is nearly as important in the marketing plans for this handset as its design, providing higher data transition speeds, which is rarely found in this price bracket.

Unfortunately, no shipments of Nokia 6555 are planned in the European direction - it would make a girl bestseller for sure. In the closed state, the hanset looks quite unpretentious - just another shelf filler, at the first glance. But when the halves split and the phone unfolds, it makes almost a straight line - the angle between is almost 180 degrees and the mechanical joints remain unseen. This makes an illusion of a monolith - save for a small 'ditch' running across the body. Once thick, now the handset becomes charmingly slim. A certain allusion to the well-known 'razor' phone comes to mind as well due to the narrowed upper part of the folder.

The exterior screen of Nokia 6555 makes a home to the pretty looking analog clock which gets highlighted on flipping. The exterior screen is encased into a glossy framework, which both enhances the visual impression and exposes the surface to fingerprints. The same kind of surface is used for the back panel as well. The rest of the surface is a quality matte plastic. The model comes in black and red colors; the former could do for a male but the latter one is definitely a feminine piece of technology.

The dimensions are rather moderate; the phone might look a bit too thick in the closed state, though, due to the powerful battery inside; this will be reviewed a bit further. Regardless of the thick figure, the phone sits in the hand quite comfortably (99.6x44.3x19.6mm), but the weight is a bit too big - 97 g.

The exterior screen uses a TFT matrix with an effective resolution of 128x160 pixels and a color palette of 262K clors. Quite enough for a decent call picture, would also do for a viewfinder while making a self shot. Unfortunately, the screen goes blind in the sunlight. Similar to the 7390 and 6267 models, no extra controls are provided for the exterior screen, so you can't control the player when the phone is closed, for instance.

The interior screen employs a quality TFT matrix with a resolution of 240x320, its color pallete sports 16M colors. The brightness and contrast levels are close to ideal, no pixelization is visible by the naked eye. The screen never once went blind in the winter sun, though we aren't sure about the summer sun. The screen diagonal equals to 2 inches, the same with 6300 and 6500 Classic. The size is quite comfortable, everything is quite up to the standards for a modern slim phone.

Traditionally, all the keys are split into two groups: the controls and the keyboard keys. The former group is formed of large buttons with a four-position soft button in the center which envelops a smaller confirmation button right in the center. The soft buttons encircle this foundation.

The numerical keyboard has very distinct button terraces with narrow ditches between the rows of buttons. The buttons are large and convenient in operation. The keyboard backlighting is of a white even color. Our test revealed a very low mistype rate even in the darker environments due to the comfortable key arrangement. There's no luminance sensor that would control the keyboard backlighting level.

The top end of the device has nothing interesting about it, lacking even the traditional power on button, which passed it function to the drop call button. The right edge is the home to a couple of slots. The upper one is the 2.5 mm headset socket compatible with a minijack adapter allowing for larger headset jacks. The lower right corner hosts the charger slot. The opposite surface features a microUSB slot compatible with USB 2.0. Ironically, you don't get the cable in the sales package, so if you fail to find one on your own in the retail stores, the only thread between the phone and your PC is the Bluetooth technology. Two buttons on the left sitting right on the cover bring up Razr reflections. Though we wouldn't speak about plagiarism in this case - Motorola was but the first who implemented this successful solution, and successful solutions normally tend to be copied in the rivals' products unless they are patented. One of the buttons serves to adjust the audio level, the second acts as Shoot / Play for the camera and the player respectively. We didn't like the lack of the wrist band oar which would make a handy addition to the design.

Nokia 6555 utilizes a powerful Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 1020 mAh, which is not by chance. The availability of 3G support and the two ultra bright screens stands for higher power consumption rates, so the weaker batteries wouldn't do. The battery is hidden beneath the back cover, in turn it covers the SIM and microSD card slots. The maximum supported capacity for the memory card is 4 Gb.

As claimed by the manufacturer, the maximum talktime provided with a full battery charge amounts to 3.5 hours, which is also enough for 10 days of standby. A regular duty cycle (including about an hour of talking and two hours of listening to the music) lasted more than two days before the battery was out of charge.

Our tests revealed quite decent results:

Nokia 6555 Battery

The device is designed to operate in GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks as well as WCDMA 850/2100, GPRS and EDGE are supported. Nokia 6555 stands among the few rare devices which combine a vast connectivity and a low price. All the generic Bluetooth profiles are supported including A2DP, the protocol version is 2.0 + EDR.

Bluetooth 2.0 Profiles: A2DP, DUN, FTP, GAP, GOEP, HFP, HSP, OPP, SAP, SDP, SPP.

The Bluetooth visibility status is customizable within a range from a minute to an hour. However it remains unclear why, at that, Nokia didn't include an option to switch the Bluetooth unit automatically after a specified period of time.

Nokia 6555 is based off the fifth revision of the Series 40 platform, which deservers a more detailed description. Series 40 v5 was first announced on May 7, 2007; the key differences from the previous versions are: support for MIDP (2.1), JSR-248 and a number of newer specifications. At first, the differences appear unimportant, however this is a large step forward for the software developers. JSR-248 was developed by the end of 2006 (the final version was out on December, 21) with significant support from the Vodaphone carrier company to provide compatibility with Java applications by third party developers. JSR-248 is also one of the key components of the S60 platform, which provides for a mutual compatibility between applications designed for S40 and S60.

The MIDP update from 2.0 to 2.1 also introduces support for media keys in Java applets (for example, Nokia 5300 can’t use its media keys to control Java applets while with newer handsets this limitation won’t be present).

As compared to earlier models, the new features include a Java API update for Bluetooth (JSR-82) from v1.0 found in Series 40 v3, FP1, FP2 to v1.1; Mobile Media API (JSR-135) – Java applets can now gain exclusive access to audio and video storage; Security and Trust Services API (JSR-177) now utilizes SATSA-CRYPTO; Java applets now have 3D sound support; Adobe Flash Lite Player is updated to v2.1.

The changes are rather significant; the most fundamental one is the global application compatibility never seen before, especially the compatibility between two different platforms. Other major upgrades include support for extra button in 3rd party applications and better multimedia controls system. It’s quite natural to expect that further editions of the firmware will involve even more advanced features, but there’s little hope for any global innovations – the firmware’s good reputation and a user interface approved by time need little to be changed, only a few additional features may appear.

The user interface itself underwent really few changes in Nokia 6500c, most of them being application-specific. Nothing very remarkable goes with the rest of features, many of them being directly taken from earlier similar models. The GoTo mode is traditionally present with no changes at all, though it is customizable to a point where it can’t be made any better! If you are disturbed by a lot of shortcuts and stats displayed on the screen, you can easily customize GoTo to show none.

The active standby mode as seen in Series 40 3rd Edition phones, looks like a row of iconized shortcuts bringing up five custom applications visible on the display simultaneously (the number of shortcuts is also configurable and scrollable as well), the user himself picks the applications out of a long list. Also there’s an option for shortcutting to a custom application instead of an embedded function. Another option is to display app info taken from up to three user-set applications simultaneously. By default those are the mp3 player, the radio tuner and the calendar. The calendar displays all of today’s upcoming events. It can be navigated through with no need to quit the standby mode with the help of the navigation button (left-right). A notice remains a simple text message popping up on the screen in the standby mode. Applications that can submit info on the screen during the standby mode include the timer, general indicator and the ‘my location’ embedded function. The order in which text lines appear can also be manually configured, the number of lines can be reduced. All in all, the 8600 allows the user to customize more than he could imagine - from a totally empty screen to a lot of diagrams and indicators in the standby mode. The Active menu is traditionally present and the font color is still customizable. The latter function proves useful when it comes to setting a custom wallpaper

Similar to the rest of the new phone models by Nokia, the main menu has four display modes: list, icons, icons with text, tabs. While list and icons are found with most phones, the latter two options are a novelty. The submenu looks like lists with smaller icons, clear and simple. The font size is only customizable in three applications: Messaging, Contacts and Web. Voice dialing doesn’t require voice sample recording, the menu supports numeric keys shortcutting.

Finally it’s worth mentioning that all of the menu items can be arranged in any custom order you like (however submenu items don’t offer such a function). Almost any of the phone’s functions can be added to the menu or to the desktop in the standby mode, every application can be accessed through a few clicks. Navigation button functionality is fully compatible with the standby mode (up to three button position is configurable in this case, the fourth is reserved for navigation during active standby).

Likewise the majority of Nokia’s products, a number of interface themes are available to the user, changing not only the wallpaper and the background, but the very appearance of menu items, an animated screensaver, the sound of opening the slider. Similar to its predecessor, Nokia 8600 grants its user access to themes exclusively developed for this model. Those are four: AuroraHue, Feathered, Grey, Marble. The first, deep purple, almost perfectly matches the phone’s exterior design, the animated screensaver presenting sophisticated tangling of lilac-coloured lines against a dark background makes a fine match to the smooth keypad backlighting and the semi-transparent panel glass.

A simple check revealed that the total record capacity of the phonebook equals to 1000 of simultaneously stored records each hosting five phone number slots and an extended address line. The memory is not dynamic, the same limit of 1000 records persists even if some of the records only store 1 or 2 phone numbers. However such a loose limit would hardly be of any problem to the vast majority of users. Every contact stores up to five phone numbers of different types (common, mobile, home, video, work, fax), address (street, city, region, ZIP code, country), a PTT address, a e-mail address, a presence indicator, a short notice and a video clip. It was very nice of Nokia to include an option to bind a custom ringtone to every contact - not a custom ringtone per group only.

There are three available ways to view the contents of the phonebook - name list, name + number, name + picture. The call picture size is large enough, occupying the most of the screen. Also the videoID function is present - if a video clip is set to a specific contact, it will be played in a loop when this person calls you. If both a picture and a clip are set for a contact, the priority goes to the video, also replacing the ringtone with its corresponding sound.

The user can create his own contact groups (up to 25), there aren’t any preset groups. A same contact may belong to several groups at the same time. If a custom melody is set for a contact residing a in a group with another custom ringtone selected for it, the phone will play the contact-specific ringtone and not the group-specific one, which stands to reason. The groups are displayed on the same list as the contacts and come with a special icon, which also seems quite logical. A quick dialup option is present with keys from 2 to 9 acting as hotkeys.

The call logs displays all numbers dialed as well as received and missed calls; each record has an icon indicanting the call type. This is a rather handy approach - you can view the whole call history chronologically and at the same time distinguish between missed and received calls, for example. You can instantly export a phone number from the call log to the phonebook or send an SMS reply to the specified number. The call log also displays stats like call length, etc. for each individual call record.

The messaging service includes SMS, MMS and e-mail capabilities as well as voice messages and quick messages. The SMS messaging is quite traditional like with the absolute majority of cell phones, but the one minor yet nice addition is the quick icon panel for quick access to multimedia content. The messages support embedding contact names and numbers, adding emoticons, on-the-fly message type conversion (from SMS to MMS vice versa), the service is easy to use considering that you don't have to call context menus - the quick icon bar does its job perfectly. The list of hot functions includes everything necessary: text templates, insert media (audio / video / picture) and so on. If you attach multimedia to an SMS messages, it's automatically converted into MMS.

The messaging system supports a phonebook of its own so you don't have to deal with the regular contact book if you want to send messages. If you send somebody a message, their contact will stay on the recently sent/received messages log so you can easily look it up again if you want to send another message to that person. The same log also contains info from the recently called contacts log, so you can quickly send a message to somebody you just had a phone talk with. A contact can be made a Fav, so it becomes the default phone number for sending messages.

The MMS service is quite standard, there's some changes in how the interface looks as compared to previouos models, but on the whole it's still the same. The maximum MMS length is 300 Kb, there's support for automatic image compression should the attachment size exceed this very 300 Kb limit. In the settings the user can define the default MMS image attachment size, by default that's set to 640x480, as well as the standard size for the MMS Plus image attachments. The display time is also customizable for any image content, the default value being eight seconds. Voice Messages are a branch of MMS service, once you start recording one the voice recorder pops up immediately so you just press the record button and say what you like. When you press the record button again the record stops and the phone automatically composes an MMS message with this record attached to it. The last thing needed is just to select the person you want to be the recepient

The embedded e-mail client supports the following protocols: POP3/IMAP4/SMTP/APOP. Attachments are supported, the content is easily recognizable by the phone itself. Image attachments can either be automatically resized to 1280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 120x160 or left without change.

The text copy/paste capability first appeared on the Feature Pack 1 phones like N6131, N6233. In Nokia 7500 this function is accessed through a context menu because it has no dedicated button for text editing (unlike the S60 smartphones). However the very presence of such function is a big advantage.

Message settings include Common Settings, SMS Settings, MMS settings and E-mail settings. The message font has a customizable size (tiny, small, normal and big), graphic symbols are supported, sent messages can be stored in the sent message box.

The messaging service of 6555 stands up to the latest standards and isn't any worse in comparison to most modern phones.

The personal information manager comprises a number of applications: Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Times and Stopwatch. The calendar supports two viewmodes: monthly and weekly, the latter variant has each day split into hours. Five types of events are available: meeting, call, anniversary, note, reminder. Each event can be marked as recurring, expired events can set to be deleted automatically (the expiration period is optionally selected within the range from a day to a month).

The tasklist is of quite an ordinary sort; different priority levels are available for the task records, as well as time limitations. The notes are much simpler, effectively being but small pieces of text (up to 3000 letters each). The alarm clock can either set off once or follow a week schedule. A custom tune is set as the alarm signal.
The stopwatch, the timer and the world clock are too self-explaining to deserve any detailed description. The currency converter supports up to 7 currency categories.

The calculator has been completely revamped, ranging from a better looking interface to a significant expansion in available functions. The loan calculator is a special addon for the standard calculator which makes various kinds of financial calculations easier.

Nokia 6555 doesn't belong to the multimedia sector as positioned by the company. This is clearly proved by the small amount of onboard storage (it's limited to about 30 Mb) and the lack of a memory card in the sales package. A modern tendency: only specialized music phones are supplied with memory cards. Also the music player in this phone displays a number of software limitations, no extra player themes are included. There's no radio unit. Nevertheless the audio quality is quite high and even the curbed interface is quite friendly and intuitive, however it could hardly competer with the company's specialized musical solutions.

The following audio formats are supported: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MP4, (SP)MIDI, (WB-)AMR, WMA, XMF. The player interface looks very original. As compared to the handsets based off Series 40 v3 FP2, it sports a large number of radical design changes (resulting in no less comfort and ergonomics than before). It's possible to switch player themes, allowing the user to customize its looks. Unfortunately, only one theme comes preinstalled. Considering the lack of such a function in the v3 FP2 revision, it seems that this solution will look much more favorable to the consumer.

The playback screen allows for a custom image or an album cover to be set for particular tracks and albums. Depending on the selected player theme, the cover can be displayed in the center or to the side from the track title and performer's name.

The equalizer is a five-band one, it can have two user presets. Similar to the elaborate interface of the player, the equalizer screen is neatly designed, most elemets are animated. Theres an enhanced stereo mode available (hidden behind the Multimedia menu item) though turning it one results in almost no impact on the sound quality.

The following options are available: sorting by performer; by album; by genre; repeated and random playback. The controls are the same as in the previous models, switching between categories is done by pressing the navigation button sideways. The player submits some playback stats to the screen while the phone is in the standby mode; it's possible to keep the player running in background, in this case you can also run a single other Java application at the same time.

Nokia 6555 offers a good audio quality, - provided that you use a third party headset, for the one bundled leaves much to be desired. The handset can stand about 8-9 hours of continuous playback before the battery fails, that's an average result, especially seen compared to the specialized music phones by SonyEricsson, for example. The video player employs the same interface as the music one. Fullscreen mode is available.

The voice recorder can tape the phone talks, the only necessary thing is to bind its launch to one of the directions of the navigation button, and the record will start immediately after pressing it during the talk. The application produces a beep on its launch to warn the other person of the talk being recorded. The only customizable setting for this application is the storage folder. The maximum record length is one hour.

The gallery application is of the standard type commonly found in Series 40 products; it is in essense a simple yet effective file manager which lists the content stored in the user memory. There are three view modes. You can select a folder to slideshow its contents, this being equally true for photos and videos. Both kinds can be viewed in portrait and landscape aspect alike, the supported video formats are H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 and 3GPP. You can always check the memory status by engaging the appropriate function: a detailed stats page listing the number of files, file types and the amount of memory consumed by each category is displayed. In general, the functionality of the gallery application is rather scarce as compared to the gallery of S60 handsets, as well as a number of products by rival brands.

Nokia 6555 is equipped with a 1.3 Mp camera; the lens traditionally resides on the back panel. The camera unit is deprived of a lens guard, so make sure the lens is clean before shooting. There's neither a self-portrait mirror nor a flash - quite natural for a budget solution, though. Don't expect much from this kind of camera, though you could always use it to take pictures of your contactees and further associate them with the contact records in the phonebook.

Due to the peculiar folder design, we found it a bit too difficult to operate the camera successfully and move the hand around to switch between portrait and landscape, even despite the 180 degree fold angle.

Videos can be recorded with sound, the maximum clip length can be optionally limited to the maximum MMS attach size or stay unlimited (i.e. limited only by the remaining amount of free memory). The two available clip resolutions are 176х144 and 128х96, the records result in the 3gp format. The record quality is average.

A total of four games (Golf Tour, 3D Soccer, Rally 3D, Sudoku) accompany the standard applications like measures converter and world clock.

The download manager allows to purchase additional applications online. The interface looks intuitive, providing access to the three folder: Downloads, Subscriptions and Favorites. Searching through the content, file information viewing and other standard file management functions are available.

Opera Mini first emerged as a preinstalled Java application in Nokia 6300 is so far the most powerful Java browser available. The very fact that Nokia decided to include it as a preinstalled application is quite spectacular. Only a minority of users ever bother themselves with installing third-party applications on their phones, so every quality application that comes preinstalled on a phone is a huge plus. Yahoo! Search and Wikipedia Search functions are included. You can customize the font size choosing from three variants, as well as a number of other preferences.

The next item on the list is the Yahoo! Go! Web surfing suite, including features like a Yahoo! mail client, a web search engine and so on.

The presentation manager grants remote control over PowerPoint presentations on a PC, which requires an active phone-to-PC Bluetooth connection and the Nokia Wireless Presenter application, which is supplied on the software disk.

The search bar can optionally be integrated into the Go-To mode, allowing to perform information and content search in the Internet during standby. Unlike the version found preinstalled on the company's smartphones, this application doesn't support searching through the content of the phone's onboard storage itself.

The device supports all kinds of Flash Lite applications, the only thing you have to do is to copy them to the phone's storage area via Bluetooth, USB cable or in the Mass Storage mode. In other words, there's no installation at all. The next step is to open the gallery and start the Java applications right away from there. The bad side is that you can't minimize a Java window but rather have to close and it and terminate the process completely. The only application that supports the background mode is the music player; you can run a single Java application simultaneously. The maximum size of a jar file is 1 Mb, the heap size is limited to 2 Mb.

The performance resulsts are quite standard for the current generation of Series 40 v3/v5 devices, comparable to Nokia 6300, 6290, 6500c - no surprises here at all; the results don't look like a world record though the performance is still good enough not to annoy the user to the least extent. One might expect a performance boost in the fifth revision of the platform due to the implementation of MIDP 2.1, new JSR versions, but no perceptible difference is to be found in real life.

Motorola U9 stands amidst the most likely competitors to this model; the former comes equipped with a better camera (2 Mp vs 1.3), an even more appealing design, but also costs some extra 80 euros. On the other hand, Nokia 6555 deals with 3G networks freely while the competitor lacks any such support. The market positioning of the two is also comparable, U90 is also mostly inclined to please the female part of the audience; a large number of parameters are on a level for the both. Besides U90, the more distant competitors are Motorola W375 and W395, which also share a lot in common with the model in question. A number of Samsung and LG handsets could pose a challenge to it on the American market (where the said companies hold serious ground) but those still lack 3G support.

Nokia succeeded in creating a fairly decent handset looking quite competitive for its market segment, displaying nice looks and good functionality. It's easily distinguished from the rest of similar offers by the original materials used in construction, an unusual opening mechanism and a large exterior screen displaying an analog clock styled after the handset's general theme. As far as the functional aspect is concerned, the strongest points are the two high quality screens, a large capacity battery, full support for 3G networks and the standard set of Series 40 v5 features. At the same time, the price stands on a quite affordable level - 200 euros.

The lack of such a model on the international market is explained by Nokia's overly abundant current portfolio, where 6131 seems to occupy nearly the same niche; 6161 will be produced for at least one more year, so the company managers don't see it reasonable to replace an old but successful model with a newer one of the same class.

Nokia 6555 has a very bright outlook on its respective distribution markets, though it can hardly be called a revolutionary products - just a phone that neatly meets the demands of its target audience. A moderate functionality coming at an affordable price.

Nokia 6555 is a fair bargain provided that the price policy doesn't change. It offers a nice design and a functionality quite decent for the respective market segment.

+ High ergonomics
+ High quality screens
+ 3G Support
+ Powerful firmware platform
- Thickness
- Poor camera
- No alternative skins for the music player