At first blush, the Nokia 6500 Slide didn’t look like it came from the Finnish family of phones. Clad mainly in stainless steel made to look like brushed aluminum, the 6500 Slide looks a Sony T series camera, or a hard disk enclosure. It certainly showed nothing immediately suggesting “Nokia”, at least before the current crop of releases from Finland.

                                             Looks generic, at first.
 

The earliest “Style” phone to use such a treatment for the outer cover was the 6300. The 6500 slide takes this a step further by having a hefty but balanced phone with a lot of smart design cues and combinations built-in. While this is definitely no super-thin phone that can draw exclamation from its sleekness, it can slip into a pants pocket easily enough without undo drama on bulging or sagging. This phone’s 125g is spread in a way that promotes a substantial feel without making it too heavy in your hand or pocket.

                                             With only three keys across, keypad actuation is a breeze.

In regards to the good design cues, the 6500 Slide incorporates etched lettering on the rear portion of the phone pointing to the Carl Zeiss optics digital camera. The stainless steel back plate is also home to the rounded-off square of the camera lens, a neat looking flash element, some industrial looking vents for the (loud) speakers, and the requisite Nokia name. The bottom portion (or right portion, if held horizontally) of the phone has a rubbery hand grip that is both a perfect contrast to the metal portions of the phone and another similarity to traditional cameras. The only other buttons along the edges are the camera button and the volume / zoom buttons, along with a release catch for opening the rear battery, memory and SIM panel.

                                             Nokia did not traditionally release many sliders.

The spring loaded slide mechanism is smooth, if a bit hard to actuate, but that’s solid engineering for you – the whole phones feels remarkably well-built, except for a somewhat jiggly upper element when the slider is open. Another small nitpick for this phone is the “slide” marks evident on the piano black keys – the phone is a new review unit in good condition, so it’s doubtful that these scratches came about the normal “wear and tear” way. The 6500 exhibits no flex when closed.

                                             Looking for all the world like a camera, the design at the rear is a new direction for Nokia.

Front and center is the d-control pad and the normal quartet of function buttons, red and green for call and end-call, plus the two “extra function” buttons used on series 40 software Nokias. The earpiece is flanked by a small pinhole camera used for conference calls and the accompanying light sensor (for automatic backlight adjustment) on the left side. The phone goes into action once it is slid open, with the Series 40 5^th edition software making the interface comfortable for Nokia veterans, and a quick learning experience for those who aren’t. The interface is quite easy to manipulate, once again proving that simplicity is always king. Most functions are one to two button presses away from the home screen, and the option exists to add more functionality through shortcuts.

                                             Earphone, data/power to USB, rear panel release, and charging connector line the top portion of the 6500 slide.

Call quality is excellent, and this phone boasts of quad-band GSM/EDGE support, as well as support for the North American 850MHz UMTS bands and the normal 2100MHz band for Europe. In other words, this is a roam-anywhere phone, as long as it’s not too isolated. Testing on the good-sized keypad is fast and easy, with the big 2.2” screen keeping your eyes full of “display”. This media-centric device boasts of a media player, an FM tuner, and the camera. Playback is what we expected, meaning it was nothing really special, even with more options in the equalizer settings.

The camera though, was a surprise. As a mid-level slider phone, one wouldn’t exactly expect a top-tier module like the Carl Zeiss optics. Taking pictures exhibited the typical slow reaction of a camera phone, but the pictures were quite acceptable, less grainy than most other examples that passed through my desk recently. Autofocus is present, and works well. Up to 8x of digital zoom is at hand for those situations when bigger detail is more important than a washed out, grainy picture. The LED based flash is too “directional”, making prominent flash – over exposure on most pics except portraits. Don’t plan on using this camera in dark conditions, regardless of the flash.

                                             Stripped. Note the microSD and SIM slots.

The stainless steel hides smudges quite well thankfully, although the same cannot be said with the piano-black keypad and the bottom portion of the phone. Even with the smudges and the various small nitpicks, a quick wipe and a look underneath quickly reveals a solid and practical phone that looks good and functions well. If this is the new look for Nokia, then the company will maintain its stronghold as the maker of functional fashion accessories for a long time.