Nokia 6681 review: Extra style

It looks good

My critical comments on Nokia 6630's design ran into a quite negative response from numerous readers. I did not like it and continue not to like it, even after having actively used the phone for about half a year. It is just a "snowman" and will stay such forever.

Good design work from Nokia

Nokia 6681 is a step forwards in terms of design. It looks both elegant and simple. I had the chance to test its blue version, which catches the eye more than the silver or the white one, and I liked it a lot. The blue covers have a slight silver nuance; chromium elements decorate many parts of the phone. All vertical strips of the keys, the narrow lines on both sides of the display, the ribbons on the side parts of the phone and the tiny plates on the back cover are glossy.

262K colors: you will not see the difference

The display has the same size (35 × 41 mm) and resolution (176 × 208) as many other mobiles of Series 60. However, it is for the first time that Nokia offers a display supporting 262K colors. This detail will probably stands out during the advertisement campaign only for you have no chance to recognize the difference by just looking at the display. You will not make it even if you happen to simultaneously look at the same picture on the displays of both Nokia 6681 and 6630. I expect the 262K support to start being visible on displays of extremely high resolution.

Display (as if) in daylight • View at the display at night

Except for this single remark, the display of the new Nokia model is very good. It is clear. It does not distort the picture a lot, even if you look at it from an angle. Compared to the 6630 model, the white color of Nokia 6681 is a bit yellowish - or I would better say the white of 6630 is much too "cold" and bluish. Just like in the forerunner, the uneven backlighting causes that patches appear in the top part of the display. They become visible right after you switch on the phone, then disappear.

The display saves the battery by going out a bit after the preset time (from 5 to 60 s) runs out. After a moment or so the backlighting goes out completely. The screensaver - a strip with the date and the clock - appears after a minute to half an hour from the last work with the keypad.

In the left corner of the phone there is a tiny transparent circle, which is in fact a sensor measuring the intensity of the rays that fall on the phone. It sends signals to the mobile, which then regulates the intensity of the backlighting of both display and keypad. I would not mind if it was possible to turn this function off. Unfortunately it is not. The unpredictable changes of the brightness of the display are thus sometimes rather annoying.

Light sensor at the phone's left corner

Nokia has used graphic themes since it launched its 6600 model. The new model has only one. If you need more, you can always find some in internet, download them and install them into the device. However, due to a function, whose official name is Active standby mode and which I call Today for short - according to the other rival smartphones and PDA, not all themes suit Nokia 6681. The ones that are incompatible with the phone are, unfortunately, almost all those, which have wallpaper with a bit more pronounced element - the menu just covers it over. The problem is caused also by the fact that many themes do not count with written words being viewed on the stand-by display and thus select the wrong font color.

Different graphic themes; texts in the second picture are almost unreadable

Today screen at last

The Active standby mode function deserves a closer look and a detailed description. Nokia has finally inclined its ear to the critical comments claiming that in a mobile designed for work users would prefer to have a direct access to the list of the oncoming planned events rather than having a cute picture on the display. As a result, in the 6681 model - and let us hope in all future mobiles - right below the operator's name you will see the most urgent items in the calendar and the number of uncompleted tasks.

Active standby mode • a selected line with tasks

The display shows the events for the day only. Events planned for the following day appear only if the calendar for the day given is empty. The calendar is displayed in four lines; you can see maximum four events at a time, provided their content can fit into one line. Marking the block and confirming it gets you straight to the calendar or the task manager.

A tap sends you to the calendar

In the top part of the stand-by display there are 5 icons of quick-start programs. Unlike Windows Mobile for Smartphone, where the display shows the last used programs automatically, here it views the applications you have selected. You can choose among all standard applications and the ones you yourself have additionally installed. If you tend to use lighter graphic themes, you may find it difficult to make out where the cursor is, since the icons do not get highlighted enough when selected.

Setup of the Active standby mode • icons setup

The possibility to set a view at the most frequently used programs on the display does not extend the options for personalizing of the phone. For example, you lose the functions assigned to the four ways of the control button while using Today, for the button serves for switching between the items on the main display.

The Active stand-by mode is a very helpful application. It would have been nice if Nokia had designed it as an independent one. Given the fact, however, that the manufacturer has to sustain at least some differences between its models, I doubt Nokia will come to a resolution to make changes. It would have also been handy if the set of items placed on the main display could be possible to edit - just like in Windows Mobile.

If you do not like this function - let's say because the text blinks every now and then, you can easily deactivate it and place just a standard simple picture back on the display.

Main display without the Active standby mode

Brilliant keypad

Nokia 6681 has a perfect keypad. The keys are solid, with an optimal uplift and superb response when writing. The central four-way button is precise - not even once did I happen to mistake it for one of the four individual ways. This time Nokia has not hidden any keys into the corners, nor has it made experiments with the design of the keypad. An exception is the sagging of the lines with number keys.

Keypad details

Keys backlighting is not the best. Even though all legends are nicely clear-cut, the light of the white diodes comes out through the keys' plastic material and the effect does not look good at all. Keypad is locked in a standard manner; the phone asks you to insert a protection code every time you unlock the keypad.

Backlighting; the last picture shoes particularly well how the light comes out through the keys

On the right side part of the phone is the switch off button pooled with a selector of the ringing profiles. On the opposite side you will find a button for activating the voice control (in a stand-by mode) and a loud handsfree (during a phone call). The first one also serves the Push to talk function control. As this button is placed right opposite the switch-off button, while using the Push to talk of Nokia 6630 I repeatedly switched off the device with my other finger, which was going the direction opposite to the one of the pressing. The switch-off button also gets you to the offline mode, with transmitting part offline.

Two buttons on the sides

Under the slot mounted at the top side of the phone there is a hidden loud speaker; the eyelet next to it is made for a wrist strip. One strip for hanging the phone on your hand is to be found in the delivery box. I had it mounted to the phone for a while, but could not stand the way its silver ball kept hitting against the body of the phone. In the bottom part of the mobile is the Pop-Port connector and the outlet for plugging the charger. In the box you will also find a USB cable, which connects the phone to the computer. Nokia has left the infrared port out again.

Loud speaker slot and eyelets for the strip • system connector

Nokia has added a USB reader

On its right side Nokia 6681 has a special tiny door, which covers the slot for the memory card. When you open the metal plate, the phone understands you want to remove the card and closes all applications so you do not loose your data. Nokia 6681 uses the RS-MMC type of memory cards and - once again - the Dual Voltage type only. The phone can not work with common cards.

The door covering the memory card slot

The phone's package contains a 64 MB memory card. It is delivered with an adapter, so that it can be used in readers designed for the standard MMC format. One such reader for a USB port is to be found in the delivery box.

The lens of the built-in camera is mounted under the sliding plate on the back cover and is surrounded by a glossy silver plate. On its right side there is a flash.

Closed and open

Nokia 6681 uses the same Lithium-Ion battery as the rest of the current phones of Series 60. A one-shot charging, which takes approximately hour and a half, is said to make it through up to 264 hours in a stand-by mode or 180 minutes of phone calls. I assume in reality these numbers will be somewhat different and will vary according to the purpose the mobile is used for. I believe you will not have to charge the phone daily; on the other hand, it will hardly make it for more than three days.

View at what is hidden under the cover and the battery

It freezes now and then…

Nokia 6681 is as fast as the forerunning 6630 model or the current 6680 one. From time to time I hear rumors claiming that the new device is equipped with a slower processor, but it is not true, the CPU ARM5 runs at 220 MHz. Although, according to Nokia's official statements, the phone has 8 MB of shared memory, the version we were testing showed 9.1 MB. Nokia did not give away any details about the RAM size; the TaskSpy program indicates about 7.5 MB.

I would rather leave the stability issue open-ended… During the tests the phone froze several times: once, while connecting to the Bluetooth handsfree, with which it would otherwise work very well, and twice, while working with graphic themes. It would also freeze at the start, but that problem was caused by an application I had previously installed.

As for the user environment, I did not find any other differences between Nokia 6681 and the older Nokia models, but the Today screen on the main display and the different graphic themes. The main menu consists of icons, as usual. They are organized in a 3 × 3 square. Icons' order can be freely modified; the icons themselves are possible to organize into folders.

Main menu displayed in three graphic themes • one of the menu styles on the upper level

Camera speed: typical for a digital camera

Apparently, the optical characteristics of the camera are identical with the ones of Nokia 6630. The only thing that has been slightly changed is the control software. The new model takes pictures in a resolution of 1280 × 960 pixels (1.23 MP). Best quality pictures, which are taken in the highest resolution possible, use about 350 KB. They files also contain an EXIF header, which contains details about the exposure.

Nokia 6681 is a brilliant photo mobile phone. Its one and only competitor at the moment is Sony Ericsson S700i. The same is true for the 6630 model. The pictures it makes are far from ideal. Nevertheless, you could obtains some surprisingly high-quality ones, provided the light conditions are good.

Camera environment • new setup options • flash options

I appreciate camera's speed, as well. Using the measuring methods of DigiFoto magazine I checked phone's response time in several different situations. For the purpose, I set up the maximum resolution possible as well as the highest quality level.

• First picture (from removing the lens cover to the moment of taking the first picture): 2.67 s
• Response time after pressing the shutter: 0.29 s
• Shot to shot time (with a preview of the previous picture being on): 3.34 s
• Shot to shot time (without previewing the previous one): 0.80 s
• Continuous shooting: 0.49 s between two individual pictures (2.02 pictures per second, max. 6 in a line)

As you can see, some digital cameras could begrudge such response times. We are going to regularly make similar tests with newly launched photo mobiles and compare them afterwards.

As for the picture quality, Nokia 6681 offers three quality levels and two size levels. The menu offers brightness and contrast setup options, which can be applied on final pictures only, which is something different than the exposure compensation, offered by common digital cameras and some other camera phones. So do not lose time with setting up the camera and leave modifications for the end of the session.

These three photos are taken in full resolution. The rest of the photos available in the article have been reduced to a 800 × 600 pixels format

One of the innovations, which could come in handy, is the white balance option. Together with the automatic mode, the camera offers sunny, cloudy, fluorescent lamp and bulb modes. Nokia has also added some extra effects: black & white mode, sepia and negative. What's more, the menu offers a twilight mode, which prolongs the exposure time and is designed for work in worse light condition.

Modes of balanced white: sunny • cloudy • fluorescent lamp • bulb

Sepia touch and a black & white photo (do not flout it, for it helps hide the camera's insufficiencies)

To take pictures at night use the built-in flash, especially combined with the twilight mode. It is a real flash, which gets activated at the moment of exposing only, not a lamp like the ones the majority of the phones are equipped with. It is possible to activate or deactivate both manually and automatically. There is only one inconvenience: the phone does not remember the settings you make, so whenever you decide to use the camera again, you will find the flash deactivated. Zoom is digital, with small increments.

Flash definitely helps when taking pictures in worse light conditions: standard mode •
night mode • standard mode with a flash • night mode with a flash

Several steps of the digital zoom

Nokia 6681 knows how to shoot videos. Its characteristics and quality do not swing out of the bad mean we know from older mobile phones. It is interesting that the flash placed next to the lens operates while shooting. Apparently, it just alerts those present that something is currently happening. The starter of the camera also gives out a sound. To deactivate it just set a quiet profile.

Download a sample video

Sample photos; for more - please see the gallery

Stereo music, but not for audiophiles

Nokia has backed itself up again leaving the 6681 model without a radio. Just like 6630, Nokia 6681 allows for stereophonic listening to MP3 music files. In the delivery package you get standard Nokia earphones with Pop-Port. No other earphones can be plugged into the phone, except for one future possibility through a reduction Nokia is about to offer.

Spoilt by high-quality earphones, I did not enjoy listening to music with Nokia 6681 much. I missed the distinct bass elements; at the same time the heights were so pronounced that listening was almost a pain. To give Nokia at least a bit of a chance, I connected standard plug-in earphones to the Apple iPod and started to compare. Day and night could not be more different… Music in Nokia 6681 is definitely made for extremely unpretentious users. The sound could be bettered a bit by installing another player, different from the standard RealPlayer.

MP3 files can also be listened to through the loud speaker. Even though the outlet is monophonic only, after some winding and muting the heights it gave out better sound than the earphones.

Why a one-minute dictaphone?

Nokia 6681 saves pictures, videos, music and other multimedia files into the Gallery. Like in the 6630 model, the file manager is not a common one. The gallery is logically organized into folders: pictures, videos, music, music clips and references. It does not depend on the memory. You can view all kinds of multimedia files simultaneously, in one single folder.

Main menu of the Gallery • Picture section

The photo browser has been left unchanged. Besides the gallery, you will also find the Picture manager application, which views pictures horizontally. It reads the files in advance and is fast enough not to make you wait. What a pity this function has not been designed as a part of the Gallery.

An independent application for picture browsing • all over the whole display and horizontally

Videos are played by RealPlayer. It knows how to deactivate all kinds of utilities, viewing videos throughout the display as a landscape. The video editor can both cut and join videos.

Unfortunately, the news about the dictaphone is no good. The records it makes are limited to one minute only. This particular limit trails from the very first phone of the Series 60. Why can video applications use all the shared memory available while the Dictaphone has such a stupid restriction?

No longer than a minute. Again...

Phone calls without any bigger remarks

The functions, which serve phone calls, are basically the same in all mobiles of the Series 60. That is why I am not going to write all details from the very beginning. My comments will be short anyway for you can read a detailed review about the functions of a phone of this platform in a number of older articles.

Dialing numbers • calling

As usual, the call sound is of average quality. In this aspect, Nokia has nothing special to offer. Voices are loud enough. The build-in handsfree is also easily heard.

Call view • detailed info

The phonebook uses shared memory and takes in a pretty high number of contacts. The multi-item organization of the phonebook and the synchronize-with-the-computer option are a matter of course. Just for illustration: I downloaded 533 names from the computer into the phone and used 232 KB of memory. Just consider it: you are offered 9MB... The searching in the contact list is done by consequent writing the initial letters of the name. If this does not seem comfortable enough, I recommend you to buy and install a program called Smart Dialer.

Phonebook • name detail

People listed in the phonebook can be assigned different ringing melodies (using MP3 files is also possible) and pictures; names can be sorted into groups and filtered by various ringing profiles.

Improved email

Nokia 6681 offers the following set of functions: SMS, MMS, emails, a program for instant messages and the traditional Push to talk option. Text messages have been left unchanged.

As for the MMS editor, it shows no change at first sight. Contrary to the older phones with a limit of 100 kB, however, it attaches items of up to 300 kB. Megapixel pictures are automatically reduced. To my greatest satisfaction, the editor asked me whether to delete or move to the concepts the message I had created and was trying to close. In older models it would automatically send the message to the concepts.

Messages' main menu • writing SMS • inquiry before leaving the initialized message

The email browser underwent great modifications compared to the previous Nokia models. The setup, for example, is not placed in one line only, but is divided into several parts. You can choose whether to receive the whole message or just its header (an option that was earlier available in IMAP4 only). What's more, the POP3 server features an option for selecting the size limit of the message which is to be downloaded into the phone. The last available option is to cancel all limitations and download everything.

The browser can regularly check the content of the mailbox. Doing so, it only reads the headers of the messages; you can even choose whether to have this function activated in your national mobile net only. Thanks to this option you are protected from getting into the red when in roaming. You can preset the phone to download on selected days and in a selected from-to period of the particular day. If using the IMAP4 server, you can check your distant mailbox every 5 minutes to every 6 hours. With POP3 the shortest interval is half an hour.

Made for business

The comparative tests did not reveal any changes in the calendar. Fully identical is also the task manager, the calculator and the notes manager. The clock has been also left unchanged as well as the alarm clock, which is still far too simple and unrepeated. Just like in the 6630 model, the clock is equipped with a world time option. Thanks to it you can find out what the time is in various foreign cities.

Alarm clock is much too simple • world time • month and week view at the calendar

The phone has a currency and item converter hidden among its organizing functions. It is also equipped with a wallet for saving secret codes and information.

Something's wrong here

The Quickword and Quicksheet applications serve for browsing DOC documents and XLS tables. However, no matter how hard my efforts to open these applications were, both of them would show an error every time I tried to open a file of one of the types mentioned above. At the same time Nokia 6630 would open all the test files without a single problem.

Nokia 6630 had one preinstalled game - 3D Snowboard, which did not grip me much. This time you can download any game you want- either in a version compatible with the Symbian operational system, or in Java. Java is supported in its MIDP 2.0 version and is slower than in the 6630 model, perhaps, because of the higher number of colors on the display:

• jBenchmark 1.0: 5015 (Nokia 6630: 6044)
• jBenchmark 2.0: 166 (Nokia 6630: 190)

If you don't need 3G

Nokia's older models used to receive nothing but critical remarks about their data functions. Actually, they did not deserve anything better for Nokia used to equip its high-class smart phones with GPRS Class 6 - an application some manufacturers would not install even in their cheapest mobiles. This time Nokia has gone for Class 10 and has added EDGE (also Class 10).

In terms of data options, however, Nokia 6681 has poorer equipment than the forerunner Nokia 6630. It lacks support of the third generation WCDMA net, which is present in the mentioned 6680 model only. The phone does not work with CSD and HSCSD dialed data transfers; hopefully, hardly anyone would mind such a detail in the present market conditions.

I first tested Nokia 6681 with EDGE - well, at least I hoped to get connected to EDGE, for the display does not say whether this technology is present in the mobile net. Connection through Bluetooth is fast, no matter if you use a standard modem installed by Windows.

A great option of Nokia's Series 60 mobiles is that you have to just rewrite APN if you need to exchange cards. Data profile in Windows can stay unchanged.

I almost forgot to mention Bluetooth - a standard function for all mobiles of the Series 60. Nokia has extended the profile menu: it supports both the already used Handsfree and the Headset profile. Both profiles are designed to connect the mobile to various types of wireless handsfree and earphones. As for Bluetooth, all its functions worked brilliantly.

Better web

Nokia improved its internet-WAP browser already in its 6630 model. It manages both WAP pages and HTML. Perhaps this multi-functionality is the reason why Nokia does not offer other browsers - neither in the memory, nor on the memory card or the attached CD. There is no Opera or NetFront, although Nokia used to promise to include them.

Pages in the built-in internet browser

I did not trust the built-in browser at the beginning. The reason is that in older Nokia models it used to be somewhat useless and I had to always install an additional application - Opera or NetFront. This time, however, it is not bad at all and fulfills the requirements for common work. It sets font, saves pictures, supports fullscreen mode, uses graphics to shows the state of the page that is being opened as well as data that have been transferred. (Unfortunately, it starts to count all over again with each open page); it also manages the basics of JavaScript.

We prefer SMS in PC Suite

The attached CD is poor, as usual. PC Suite software package is outdated, so I recommend you to download it from the web. Besides PC Suite, there is only a demo version of Lifeblog and few pieces of information about the phone, which are to be found on the web, as well.

When Nokia came with a new version of the PC Suite software package a year ago, it was a shock. It required a slightly different approach and no one really welcomes such changes, especially considering the fact that the new version turned to be incompatible with the applications based on the older Mrouter utility. This time, however, you will gradually get to know that synchronizing in Nokia 6681 has been notably improved: it is simple, fast and most of all handy. Phone and computer easily find each other through Bluetooth when put closer and connection is established immediately.

While the data synchronization ran smoothly already from the very beginning of our testing process, the rest of the applications would not start to work at all. I had to disconnect the device and start all over again. After establishing the new connection what started to protest was the File manager, which gets you into the phone's memory from the computer. Eventually, it whooped itself up "out of the blue".

PC Suite contains a number of programs; some of them are quite useful, others are less important. I am not going to describe them in details; instead, I offer you a brief legend for each one.

• Connection control: after establishing a connection between a computer and the phone
• Application downloads: downloads programs into the phone
• Synchronization: synchronizes data between the computer and the phone
• Music transfers: prepares and downloads music into the phone and works with playlists
• Adding a contact: for manual work with contacts (a weird program)
• Wallpaper creator: creates pictures for the phone
• Internet connection: for easy setup of internet connections
• Multimedia player: plays videos in 3GP format
• File manager: displays files and folders in the phone's memory on the computer
• Creating ringing profiles: creates ringing melodies
• Sending SMS: for writing SMS from the computer (it still does not work with mobiles featuring Symbian)
• Zipping: for zipping the mobile's content
• Saving pictures: for quick downloading of pictures and videos from the phone into the computer (new)

A parallel model, not just a successor

Does switching from the previous Nokia 6630 to the new 6681 model make sense? I do not think so. As the new Nokia does not offer anything special, you better stick to your old fellow, unless you compete with someone in terms of number of used mobiles… I am also skeptical about replacing the 6670/7610 models, even though the differences between them and the new Nokia 6681 are significant - consider the speed of the new model, for example. Anyway, you will do better if you wait for the oncoming N70 model. The only substitution, which definitely makes sense, is the one of Nokia 6600 and the older models with Symbian.

If you decide to switch phones, do not worry for your data for they can be easily copied
and pasted into the new device thanks to the application given above

You are choosing a new mobile and you are swinging between Nokia 6630 and 6681 finding it hard to make the final choice? The price gap between the two phones is about 70 euros. For this money you get a smarter design (which is individual, of course), the Active stand-by mode application, an useful cover for the camera lens and a flash. No, I don't think I have forgotten anything critically important. I myself would rather go for Nokia 6681, yet with the design being my only reason.

Which one should I choose?

The new 6681 model does not bring any revolutionary innovations into the world of smart phones. It is just another mobile, a result of the gradual development. The most notable innovation lies in the design and the event review on the main display. If you can do without 3G support, consider this high-class smartphone the best among all phones of the Series 60.

The initial price of Nokia 6681 is about 500 euros. It is not that bad considering the fact, that Nokia 6630 was initially offered for 670 euros. Nevertheless, it is a very expensive phone and you will not a make a mistake if you wait with the purchase a bit.

Package Content

• Phone
• Li-Ion 900 mAh battery
• Charger
• RS-DV-MMC 64 MB memory card
• Adapter for the memory card
• USB reader
• USB cable
• Stereophonic earphones combined with handsfree
• Wrist strip
• CD containing the program PC Suite
• A manual and additional paper documents