I've got a new Startac after 6 years! ;-)
Written: Dec 21 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Large, excellent rotating monitor; MP3 playback/ringtones; Stereo FM; Cool appearance; Bluetooth; Symbian OS; MMC slot.
Cons: Firmware bugs; Firmware not "user flashable"; VGA camera; Speaker sound quality; Some vulnerable plastic materials.
The Bottom Line: Just kidding, the 6260 is by no means to be compared and matched with the Startac. But they are both excellent models at its own era.
|
|
|
| ricehigh's Full Review: Kyocera QCP-6035 Smartphone |
My first mobile phone was a Motorola Startac (with a slim battery), my latest purchase is also something similar in mechanical design, size and weight. But the "contents" are of a huge difference!
Just purchased on Sunday as a whole package which is an incredible offer at an incredible price. I shopped at a large electronics gadget chain shop in Hong Kong. The whole package consists of the phone itself, come with all the bundled accessories in-box plus 32MB MMC card, an extra bluetooth hands free set, an additional USB cable for the 6260, monitor protective label, leather case, additional software CD (not Nokia one), USB 2.0 MMC/SD card reader, and finally with some famous cartoon characters' souvenior x 2. The whole package was only for $421.5 and the buyer can choose the option of 12-month interest-free credit card instalment too. Unbelieveable!
Ok, let's come back to the phone itself. It is a bit large when compared with the also latest Siemens S65, the lower but popular models 6230, Sony Erisson K700i, etc. which I had also tried them all at the shop. I still opted to choose the 6260 for its interesting rotating monitor plus its rich feature set and it can be operated just like a WinCE pocketPC or a Palm, with all the basic "palm" functions. The 6260 runs on an OS called the Symbian and applications can be installed onto the OS and the data can be stored either into the built-in memory or the external memory, i.e. the MMC card.
The interesting (maybe also useful features) of the 6260 which I like include:-
1. The rotating large, high resolution LCD monitor with true colors;
The monitor of the phone is especially brilliant: fine , bright, large and with good colors. It's very good to display various graphics and photos which I downloaded from my PC. However, the very first time I set the wallpaper for the pictures, I discovered that the wallpaper is somehow softer and darker. I asked Nokia about this and they could give me no answer but just said that it was normal. I suspect that this is to protect the burn-out of the beautiful monitor but this is my own guess, though. By the way, nothing about this can be found in the user manual.
2. MP3 stereo playback;
The MP3 playback is fine and any MP3 songs can be selected as ringtone(s) (grouping is also possible).
3. Stereo FM reception;
The FM radio sound is super clear and the sensitivity is very high. It is yet clearer and higher than all those of my Sony and Awia portable FM receivers! Besides, for the radio part basics, as a mobile phone, the 6260 itself inherits the good radio frequency reception and does have very good voice quality.
4. Built-in VGA F2.8 camera (although a 1M camera is preferred);
I have no complaint about the pictures taken under various conditions and the pictures are all fine when viewing on the phone's monitor.
5. Its black (dark brown) color with cool appearance and design;
6. Bluetooth (and also infrared) links;
The bluetooth is very convenient in transmitting files and I now found that the IR link is virtually useless, unless I need to use it to communicate with older machne which has IR port only. The bluetooth has faster transmission speed and no direct line of sight alignment is required and its communication range is longer. It consumes quite some battery juice, though. So, pls be remembered to switch it off after using.
7. Symbian OS enables the running/installation of various application programs;
Bundled software include a bilingual dictionary, a calendar/diary program, a simple Powerpoint and Word viewers, etc. It opens a much wider possibility for using the phone, e.g., I have just downloaded a 3rd party Symbian program from the Nokia website which would input all the local public holidays for 2005 into the calendar. Interesting, my phone is now operating just like a Palm/Pocket PC, in some extents :-)
8. MMC card slot
The MMC card holder has been re-designed when compared with 6230 and the card can be pulled out and changed at anytime without turning off the phone. It is very convenient to use, it would be an essential feature especially if there is no USB cable for the phone. The MMC card expands the capability of the phone for more storage space for both programs and data.
The Cons
On the other hand, the 6260 isn't perfect. It does have some firmware bugs, e.g. the wrong mapping of left and right selection shortcuts. I have checked with Nokia that they have no updated firmware yet. But more unfortunately, the firmware of 6260 is not user updateable, we shall need to send it back to Nokia for reprogramming if needed! In contrast, the K700i firmware can be downloaded from the Sony website and flashed by the end-user alone.
I also encountered a strange problem one time that the phone didn't ring and vibrate when I was rotating the monitor and using some functions. The phone displayed an incoming call but no ringtone was output.
Moreover, whilst the speaker of the 6260 is loud and clear, the sound quality for music is not very good, especially when compared with the K700i.
Besides, the shiny clear black plastic parts of the phone outer shell are very easy to get scratched. I have got quite some small scratches on all the 3 sides for the first day of use (I used to use all my mobile phone without taking special care since they are merely piece of device for daily rough use). The textured black surfaces are fine enough to resist scratches, though.
p.s. actually, my wife has the K700i and many of my friends have the 6230. So, I could compare them directly and in details.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 421.5
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ricehigh
|
|
Reviews written: 22
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.