Merry Christmas

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

Farewell

I've had a hard time admitting it.
But today I accept the fact that I've lost an old friend.
A friend who I trusted, who's words I believed, and who had integrity.
Sometimes people are not who they say they are.

Beginning

A new path, a new direction, a new adventure.

Risking it

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental
To reach out to others is to risk involvement
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self
To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss
To love is to risk not being loved in return
To live is to risk dying
To hope is to risk failure
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to do nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes, they are a slave, they forfeited their freedom.
Only the person who risks can be free.

Destination

Faces and bodies coming and going in our lives.

Spicing up Life

Sprinkle as needed and watch for results.

Sweetness of Life

Let the sugar pile high in my life! Yum!

Status (missing photo)

A little reward brings a lot of happiness.

Guidance coming from a cookie

So which one is my fortune?

Silent Wishes

I hope a bit of white, pink, and purple has brought a smile to a sad soul.

Get well soon.

...

Reflecting

A month full of revelations. A moment for thought.

Forecast (missing photo)

Tomorrow is going to be hot again.

New Toy

I bought my Pentax Optio S4 3 years ago. It's very small even compared to cameras these days but its photo quality lags behind by quite a bit. I needed something better to capture those important moments yet still be reasonably sized so I got a Canon SD550:

The Canon SD550 was released last year as Canon's top of the SD line camera. It has already been trumped by the SD700IS. But being last year's model, the price of the SD550 is dropping so I picked it up.

I'm not sure how often I'll use it to take ordinary pictures for blogging so maybe you'll see some more special pictures here.

Improved Images

This was a while ago but I haven't mentioned it on my blog yet. I picked up a new phone the Sony Ericsson W810i:

Once again you, the readers, get improved image quality compared to what I had before. Take a look at these following pics.

Taken with the 6682:

Taken with the W810i with macro mode:

You can read my complete review of the Sony Ericsson W810i on HowardForums

Putting all your lychee in a Bowl

There is a saying about don't put all your eggs in one basket. But who wants to pick lychee from different bowls? Not me.

Walking the Straight Path

I have doubts and questions but you give me a reason to trust and we shall walk together even if the planks break under us.

A new beginning

A fresh start. A clean slate. Let the colours fill the void.

Sony Ericsson W810i Review

After months of hearing how great the K750i/W800i camera phones are, I was really eager to get my hands on an 850 version of the phone. Rogers quickly picked up the phone after its general release so I've recently switched my main phone to a Rogers branded Sony Ericsson W810i. The firmware on it is R4CE012. The box contains the phone, CST-60 charger, HPM-70 stereo headset, 512 MB Sandisk Memory Stick Duo, Sony MSAC-M2 Memory Stick Duo Adapter, DCU-60 USB data cable, and SE CD with utilities and programs.

 

Quick facts:

 

Name: Sony Ericsson W810i
Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Weight: 99 g
Dimensions: 100 x 46 x 20 mm
Battery life (stand by): 350 hours
Battery life (talk): 480 minutes

 

My phone was manufactured in: (your phone's country of manufacture could vary) China

 

 

The W810i is a bit wider and shorter than the Nokia 6230. The W810i is light coming from a 6682. The W810i case does creak but feels more solid than both the 6230 and 6682. But the T616 still feels much more solid than this phone.

 

Aesthetics

 

The first thing I noticed about this phone is the keypad - they look exactly like the T616 I had. They feel a bit flusher with the phone now. I was concerned with the 3-button clusters surrounding the D-pad - it looked a felt small, two characteristics that lead me to think I'll be making a lot of keystroke mistakes.

The silver d-pad really catches the most attention when the display is off.

 

The phone does not smudge except for the screen, camera lens, orange and silver keys in the 3-button cluster, and shutter button. The build construction on the phone is very solid but you can still hear creaking if you push on the body around the screen.

 

The keypad light is very weak and having the lighting orange coloured doesn't help. You may have problems seeing all the keys in a dark place. I think there is a light sensor at the top right of the phone but it didn't make much of an impact on the keypad lighting since it was so weak already.

 

I didn't like the SIM mechanism in the V3 but I don't like W810i's SIM slot even more. You have to slip your SIM card between the 2 metal slits. Because the SIM card drops into groved area, pushing the SIM card out of that grooved area is hard. I found that I needed to be pushing the SIM card from the back while slipping my nails under the front of the SIM card. If you're one to change phones a lot, this may be a concern as this will wear out your SIM card faster than other phones.

 

 Display

 

The screen resolution is 176 x 220 and can display up to 262,144 colors. The light sensor didn't seem to vary the brightness of the screen. The bad part is that it dims after only 20 seconds. There's no way to adjust this.

Small but the quality is amazing. Now I have an idea how users of the S700i must've felt.

 

My 6682 pales in comparison.

 

Keypad

 

My initial impression was the 3-button clusters surrounding the D-pad were going to give me trouble. They were stiff in the beginning and made it difficult to use the soft keys but I quickly got use to the keys. You will rarely hit the wrong key (i.e. the back button instead of the left soft key).

The D-pad is smooth and accurate. The centre OK key on the D-pad, although sticking out from the centre, did not feel awkward to use at all.

 

The number keypad resembles the T616 but slightly different. The keys are wider, flatter surface, and much flusher with the body. I didn't make any mistakes hitting keys on the keypad and I could figure what key I was pressing without looking.

 

So how is the W810i keypad for gaming? I can comfortably play Splintered Cell and Tetris. Any fast paced games requiring you to use the D-pad and keypad at the same time will be difficult as the D-pad is very close to the number pad. From a phone perspective, you can easily use the W810i with one hand.

 

External Memory

 

The memory card is hot swappable so you can take it out while the phone is on. I haven't tried removing it while the phone was reading from the memory card (i.e. removing the card while the Walkman player was playing an MP3 on it) since I didn't want to damage the card. The W810i does not behave the same way the 6682 does so it doesn't prompt or alert you that the memory card is being removed when you open the rubber protector. The rubber cover is sturdy on my phone but I don't recommend playing with it as I think it will wear out quickly and become loose.

 

Menu setup

 

Bug: Power cycling will occasionally lose your D-pad shortcuts. Set the shortcuts a couple times and it'll stay.

 

Phonebook & scrolling speed

 

The W810i is fast. It quickly scrolls through the contacts. If you hold on the up or down key D-pad, it will start to scroll at a faster rate. The search function is very quick pulling up matching names instantaneously. Unlike Windows Mobile phones it will not match phone numbers - just the names, and just the first name at that.

 

Also worth noting, you can set up different default numbers for calling, texting, MMS, and e-mail address for each contact.

Profiles

 

The standard profiles included: Normal, Meeting, In Car, Handsfree, Home, Office, Outdoors, and TTY Accessory.

 

For each profile you can set Ring volume, Silent Mode, Increasing Ring, Vibrating Alert, Key sound, Forward Calls, Accept Calls, and Answering Mode.

 

call listings

 

You have the option of looking at All Calls, Dialed Calls, Answered Calls, and Missed Calls. I really like the All Calls list.

 

File manager

 

You can browse both the phone contents and memory card contents through the Gallery. The Gallery organizes files into categories based on where they are placed in the phone. These are Pictures, Videos, Ringtunes, Themes, Web Pages, Games, Applications, and Other. The built-in Gallery is adequate for casual users. It will not reveal system directories. If you browse the phone via bluetooth FTP, you will see the directory structure of the phone is a whole lot different than what the Gallery presents you.

Themes

 

The Rogers W810i firmware has Flash themes disabled. I got my Flash desktop themes enabled at Bongo Wireless.

 

The standard themes will change your wallpaper, text colours, and background colours. With Flash desktop themes enabled, the main menu can also be customized. Here are some examples of Flash themes that come with the W810i:

 

Emerge:

 

Equalizer:

 

Orbit:

 

Included Office tools

 

Standard SE tools are included.

 

• Alarms - you can set a one time alarm or have it repeat.
• Calendar - calendar to find out today's date and important bdays
• Tasks - remind yourself to do something (like remember to buy the bday present for important bday to noted in the calendar)
• Notes - write down some information. It's dated too!
• Sync - Allows server or PC synchronization. I didn't figure out how to use either. The server sync asks you to contact your service provider
• Calculator - just a basic calculator
• Stop Watch - split and lap timing
• Timer
• Light - turns on the camera light or SOS signal
• Code Memo - allows you to save passwords and such on the W810i behind a protected area requiring a password
• VideoDJ - mix your own videos
• MusicDJ - mix your own ringtones
• PhotoDJ - simple image editor
• Remote Control - You need to install SE PC Suite to the computer. Includes: Presenter, MediaPlayer, Desktop
• Record Sound - sound recorder, limited by memory

Standby Clock

 

The T616 had a really dim standby clock that you could see if you tilted the screen. The W810i just goes black. You can light up the screen and show the clock by clicking on the volume keys

  Offline Mode

 

I travel a lot so I'm on the plane for a number of hours. This mode becomes important to me as I can't be using my phone with transmitting on. When you turn on the phone you are prompted in the Startup Menu for Start Phone or Music Only. Music Only is the offline mode so you won't be transmitting. In this mode you can only access the Walkman application. I miss the offline mode on my 6682. You can quickly go back to the Startup Menu by clicking the Back button. In Phone mode, you can't easily get to the Music Only mode unless you re-start the phone.

 

You can enable the Startup Menu by going to Settings > General > Startup Menu > Show

  

Connectivity

 

You can connect the W810i to your computer using Bluetooth, infrared, or data cable. You can install SE PC Suite to synchronize the W810i with your computer. You do not need to install SE PC Suite to install any Java applications/games onto the W810i. The e-mail client handles some attachments, MMS.

 

Bluetooth

 

You can pair devices, you can send images/files/ringtones/themes and virtually any content via bluetooth to another device. You can receive Java applications and allow W810i to install it but you cannot send installed Java applications. SE is the king of bluetooth and it shows from the multitude of bluetooth profiles provided. If your BT is off you can still send media, the phone prompts you to turn on BT and it'll automatically turn it off after transfer.

 

Transfers occur in the foreground and you can't multi-task during this time. The W810i supports Bluetooth 1.2 so transfers should be fast. Too bad I don't have any Bluetooth 1.2 enabled devices so transfers are slow for me.

 

 

Pairing the W810i with a PC gives you these features in the included Java profiles:

 

• Dial up networking
• HS Audio gateway
• Mouse & Keyboard
• NAP service
• OBEX Object Push
• OBEX File Transfer
• OBEX IrMC Sync Server
• Serial Port

 

Synchronizing
Better than previous SE suites but still needs some work.

 

Reception

There are rumours circulating HoFo about the W810i dropping calls. I haven't had that happen to me. I find reception to be on par to my 6682.

 

Sound Quality
The phone sounds good. It's much louder than the 6682.

 

Speakerphone
The Speakerphone works well on the W810i. Voices come out clear. Louder than the 6682.

 

Headset use
I haven't tested this.

 

Multimedia Features

Camera
The camera user interface (UI) in the W810i mimicks the Sony CyberShot UI. This makes the camera UI look completely different from the rest of the phone. The UI is the same as other SE phones made after the S700i so you can refer to any SE review.

 

Bug: In some instances with the quality set to Fine, camera application will close when you push the shutter. This isn't consistent though. Changing the quality to Normal seemed to avoid the problem.

 

This is the best camera on a phone that I have in my collection. This will become my new reference camera for future phones, unless I'm reviewing another VGA camera where I'll use the Nokia 6230b again. Night mode requires you to have a fairly still hand to make the shots effective. The W810i stores pictures taken in the Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) format. EXIF is a variation on the JPEG that includes extra interchange information such as shutter speed, focal length, and lens aperture. The W810i provides: Width, Height, Horizontal Resolution, Vertical Resolution, Bit Depth, Frame Count, Equipment Make, Camera Model, Creation Software (firmware), F-Number, Exposure Time, ISO Speed, Metering Mode, Light Source, Exposure Compensation, Date Picture Taken, Flash Mode, and Color Representation.

 

 

Shoot mode
Allows normal, panorama, frames, and burst.

 

A normal shot dependant on other settings of the phone. The sequence mode will take 6 quick shots and the self-timer allows a shot to be taken a couple seconds after setting it.

 

There are 3 pic sizes
Large 1632 * 1224
Medium 640 * 480
Small 160 * 120

 

There are 2 quality settings for each pic size
Normal
Fine

 

self timer
Self descriptive, it allows you to set up a timer and get into the shot

 

White Balance
Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent
Allows you to adjust the brightness of the image being taken by pushing left or right in the camera mode.

 

Shutter Sound
There are 4 different shutter sounds to select from. In the Rogers firmware, you cannot silent the shutter sound or the autofocus sound even if you switch to Silent mode in Profiles. I had my shutter sound and autofocus sound removed at Bongo Wireless.

 

Turn on Time and Date
Places the date and time at the bottom right corner of the picture

 

Normal mode

W810i

 

6682

 

 

W810i

 

 

6682

 

The W810i takes slightly clearer pictures, most likely from the higher pixel count.

 

Night Mode

 

There's a night mode as well, but it's fairly hard to use as it requires you to be completely still. These pictures were taken with very little external light.

 

W810i

 

 

6682

 

 

The W810i produces much more grainy pictures than the 6682.

 

Turn On Light

 

Bright and only illuminates a short distance. The light does not behave as a regular flash as it can only be turned ON or OFF. However, when you press the shutter, the light does brighten like a flash. If you leave it ON for a while, it will start to blink. If you use night mode, the light will be brighter.

 

W810i

 

 

6682

 

 

Not much difference with such a close up flash. From actual use, the W810i flash shines a bit further than the 6682. Since the light on the W810i remains on, it helps you auto focus but its drawback is looking odd with such a bright light on in a dark place.

 

Macro Mode
I take a lot of close up pictures so this mode is very important to me. This is where auto focus helps the most.

 

W810i without Macro

 

 

W810i with Macro

 

 

6682

 

 

The macro mode and auto focus combination on the W810i kills the camera on the 6682.

 

Video

 

The phone also does Video, which is your standard QCIF 174 x 144 pixels or Sub-QCIF 128 x 96 pixel sizing. Nothing special but you can record directly to the memory card.

 

Applications

 

Multitasking
Coming from a 6682, I'm spoiled by true multitasking but even that didn't allow opening multiple instances of the same application.

 

The W810i supports semi multi-tasking.

 

At any one time you can run:
- One Walkman instance
- One Java application
- One basic phone function (like calendar) if it's in the foreground

 

Java
I tried Splintered Cell 3D, VRally 3D, Worms Fort 3D, and Sonic. All played at a good rate. I also played 2-player VRally over Bluetooth and it worked well. The cars lagged a bit, enough for the game to register both cars as winners if they finished at around the same time, but not enough to affect game play since the other player is represented as a ghost car.

 

I also tried vNES for J2EE on the W810i. There is some file size limit so games like Super Mario Bros 3 did not work with it. I think the ROM size limit is around 500KB. I did get Super Mario Bros running on it but the lag was unbearable. You hit jump and Mario jumps after a split second.

 

Since games that run on the K750i and W800i run on the W810i there are plenty of games available. The W810i comes with two games and two applications: JC Does TEXAS (sort of like Yetti games), QuadraPop (like Gem Jam), Music Mate, and News Reader.

 

Music Player
Bug: While playing a song, if you go into the Equalizer and keep scrolling between Voice, Treble Boost, and Mega Bass, the audio will crap out and play a high pitched sound. Just don't do this and you can avoid the bug.

 

The phone has 20MB of internal phone memory so that's best left for ringtones and apps. The memory stick DUO can support up to 2GB. The W810i can use stereo headsets. Sound quality from the headset is good, better than any headsets included with any phone. The Music Player supports playlists and you can make play lists on the phone. When you upload an MP3 on to your phone, it will immediately appear in the Walkman app.

 

Play modes supported: Shuffle, Loop
Equalizer: Normal, Bass, Mega Bass, Voice, and Treble Boost

 

Battery
It uses the same battery as the Sony Ericsson Z520i and J220a (BST-37: 900 mAh). On light call usage and mild usage with bluetooth, Java games, and camera, the W810i easily lasted 4 days. Charging from a 20% battery to full took over 5h.

 

Rogers Firmware

 

* Removal of data counter
* Auto focus and shutter sounds cannot be disabled with silent mode (i got mine disabled at Bongo Wireless).
* Flash theme support disabled (i got mine enabled at Bongo Wireless).
* Cannot change Rogers data account. But you can change the Rogers Internet account and set Internet Profile to Rogers Internet.
* Cannot customize the Left or Right soft keys on the standby page. Yes, the Mall button annoys me as well. And like everyone knows, the Mall button initially pulls a static page stored in the firmware so you're not charged yet.

 

Ratings:

Performance...........9

Build quality...........9

Keypad...................9

Connectivity...............9

Features for $.........6

Software................9

Camera..................10

Battery life.............8

 

Overall.....................9

 

PROS:
*Strong RF
*Excellent build quality
*Camera - macro mode and auto focus is great
*class 10 EDGE
*Great sound/clarity
*Amazing phonebook organization
*traditional phone design
*support for large 2GB memory cards
*really fast navigating menus
*lots of existing Java apps/games

CONS:
*Rogers disabling features (i.e. Flash themes support)
*exposed camera lens
*small screen
*expensive on Rogers, outside of the 2MP camera, there isn't really anything special
*no active standby to display my calendar for the day like on recent Nokia phones

Thanks to Treatz for lending me his stylz for this review

Nokia 6230 Review (missing photos)

Having had trouble selling phones with funky keypad designs like the 3200, 3650, and 3595, Nokia needed something to target the high end business user. It needed something with lots of functions packed into a classic Nokia bar design. Welcome to the 6230. This phone came out nearly 2 years ago but you will still see many people using it.

I waited for the firmware to stabilize and picked up my Cingular Nokia 6230b last year. The firmware on it is V 04.43 24-08-04 RH-28. The box contains the phone, charger, 64MB multimedia card (MMC). I went out and bought myself a stereo headset and 512 ATP MMC.

Quick facts:
Name: Nokia 6230
Network: GSM 850/1800/1900
Weight: 96 g
Dimensions: 103 x 44 x 20 mm
Battery life (stand by): 225 hours
Battery life (talk): 240 minutes

My phone was manufactured in: (your phone's country of manufacture could vary) China

The 6230 is a bit thicker but feels a bit thinner than a T616. The 6230 is light coming from a 6682. The 6230 feels solid but the Xpress cover makes it creek a bit.

Aesthetics
It's a classic design that uses a standard key layout, rectangular design, and conservative colours. The use of plastic and Xpress cover makes the phone feel hollow in your hands and feels light. Another drawback to the Xpress cover is dirty and dust easily gets under the screen so you'll need to open it from time to time to clean it. The phone does not smudge. There really isn't anything outstanding about the construction of the phone.

The keypad light fairly even. The middle column of keys is brighter than the outside column of keys.

Display
The screen resolution is 128 x 128 and can display up to 64,000 colors. It's not an amazing screen but at the time Nokia was still using STN screens, it was a very good change to get a TFT screen. The screen on my unit is from Seiko so it is a bit yellowy compared to new versions of the 6230 or early releases of the 6230. The 6230's display washes out in direct sunlight so you'll need to tilt it in various directions to see.

Keypad
The 5way D-pad on the 6230 is one of the first Nokias to use the center button to confirm in the S40 OS. It's also very difficult to push down on the 6230's D-pad and it usually gets interpreted as something else like left or right. It takes a bit of time to get a hang of the technique to pressing down for the center key. The keys are raised a lot higher than the base of the phone and wiggle. You can tell the different between the keys by feeling your way around the keypad. The * and # are much more stiff compared to other keys on the phone. They are also the hardest to press in games because of their placement so low on the phone.

So how is the 6230 keypad for gaming? I can comfortably play Splintered Cell, Tetris, and Solitaire. Any fast paced games requiring you to use the center key will be difficult to play. Actually any fast paced game will be difficult to play as the outer columns of keys are so small (1-4-7, 3-6-9) and so close together. From a phone perspective, you can easily use the 6230 with one hand. The keys at the far side of the phone are a bit trickier to hit as they're small and wiggle.

External Memory
The memory card lies just under the battery of the phone. So there's no easy way to change it without turning off the phone first. Although it fits Secure Digital (SD) cards, they don't work. You need to get a multimedia card (MMC). I find myself rarely popping it out since I stick to Bluetooth or USB cable to transfer songs to the phone. This isn't a S60 phone so all games and apps get installed to the phone's memory.

Menu setup

Phonebook & scrolling speed
The 6230 is fast. It quickly scrolls through the contacts. Unlike the S710a, it will always scroll at a normal rate. The search function is very quick pulling up matching names instantaneously. Unlike Windows Mobile phones it will not match phone numbers - just the names, and just the first name at that.

Also worth noting, you can set up different default numbers for calling, texting, MMS, and e-mail address for each contact.

Profiles
The standard S60 profiles included: Normal, Silent, Meeting, and Outdoor.
For each profile you can set Ringing time, Ringing type, Ringing volume, Vibrating alert, Message Alert Tone, vibrating alert, keypad tones, and warning tones.

call listings
You have the option of looking at Dialer Numbers, Received Calls, and Missing Calls. You can't access a "mess of a call list where everything is thrown into one window". I really like that huge list.

File manager
You can browse both the phone contents and memory card contents through the Gallery. The built-in Gallery is adequate for casual users. It will not reveal system directories.

Themes
The 6230 doesn't support themes. There is a colour scheme you can choose from. This is the old S40 so don't expect much.

Included Office tools
Standard S40 tools are included.

Alarm clock - you can set a one time alarm or have it repeat.
Calendar - calendar to find out today's date and important bdays
To-Do - remind yourself to do something (like remember to buy the bday present for important bday to noted in the calendar)
Notes - write down some information. It's dated too!
Sync - Allows server or PC synchronization. I didn't figure out how to use either. The server sync asks you to contact your service provider
Calculator - just a basic calculator
Stop Watch - split and lap timing
Countdown timer
Wallet - allows you to save passwords and such on the 6682 behind a protected area requiring a password
Converter - currency converter so you can see how much that thing on EBay will really cost you in CDN.


Connectivity
You can connect the 6682 to your computer using Bluetooth, infrared, or data cable. You can install Nokia PC Suite to synchronize the 6682 with your computer. You also need to install Nokia PC Suite to install any Java applications/games onto the 6230. You can also use PC Suite to download pictures, ringtones and games/programs to the 6682. The e-mail client handles some attachments, MMS.

Bluetooth
Nokia's bluetooth is pretty good.
You can pair devices, you can send images/files/ringtones/themes and virtually any content via bluetooth to another device. There are not as many BT profiles as SE phones. If your BT is off you can still send media, the phone prompts you to turn on BT but you'll need to manually turn it off after transfer.

Pairing the 6682 with a PC gives you these features in the included OBEX profiles:
Dial up networking
HS Audio gateway
OBEX Object Push
OBEX File Transfer

It pales in comparison to the S710a but what other manufacturer can match SE?

Synchronizing
The Nokia Suite makes syncing with Outlook a breeze.


Reception

The 6230b was the phone to beat in reception back when it was released. Compared to phones release now, the Z520a and W600i are able to hold reception better in weak locations compared to the 6230b.

Sound Quality
The phone sounds good. It's much clearer than the T616.

Speakerphone
The Speakerphone works well on the 6230b. Voices come out clear. Not as loud as the 6682.

Headset use
I haven't tested this.


Multimedia Features

Camera
If you've read my previous reviews, you will know that the 6230 VGA CMOS camera is my reference camera phone. It produces the best VGA pictures compared to any other camera phone. Night mode requires you to have a fairly still hand to make the shots effective. Don't expect the Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) format from this phone. EXIF is a variation on the JPEG that includes extra interchange information such as shutter speed, focal length, and lens aperture.

Like the S40 camera phones before this, the UI is the same so you can refer to Like the S60 cameras phones before this, the UI is the same so you can refer to a 6620 review.

Shoot mode
Allows normal and self-timer.
A normal shot dependant on other settings of the phone. The sequence mode will take 6 quick shots and the self-timer allows a shot to be taken 10, 20, or 30 seconds after setting it.

there are 2 pic sizes
Standard Photo 640 * 480
Portrait 320 * 240

there are 3 quality settings for each pic size
Basic
Normal
High

Normal mode
The 3 second shutter lag will annoy some people looking for a quick shooting camera phone. But shutter speed in daylight is very fast.

6230

6101

The 6230 has keeps more faithful to the actual colours. The 6101 is blurry and pretty yellowy.

More pics:

6230 (missing photo)



6230

night mode
There's a night mode as well, but it's fairly hard to use as it requires you to be completely still.

6230

6101

6230 (missing photo)


The 6230 has a really good night mode considering it doesn't have flash.

self timer
Self descriptive, it allows you to set up a timer and get into the shot

brightness
Allows you to adjust the brightness of the image being taken by pushing left or right in the camera mode.

Video
The phone also does Video, which is your standard QCIF 174 x 144 pixels or Sub-QCIF 128 x 96 pixel sizing. About the only thing good from the standard video recording app from Nokia is you can record directly to the memory card.


Applications
A number of people have reported memory card issues on the older firmware of the 6230 so you may have issues reading or writing to large memory cards.

Java
I've downloaded a few java games for the 6230. With a 128 x 128 TFT 64k screen, the standard size for all S40 phones at around this time, Java games look good. I downloaded and played Splintered Cell, Gem Jam, and Solitaire. Since most games were designed for older less powerful S40 phones, the games played very fast on the 6230.

Music Player
The phone has 8MB of internal phone memory so that's best left for ringtones and apps. At least there's the MMC option where current cards are up to 2GB support. The 6230 can use stereo headsets. Sound quality from the headset is good but won't take out any real quality stereo headphones. The Music Player supports playlists but it can't make play lists. When you upload an MP3 on to your phone, you will need to "Refresh all tracks" for the song to appear.


Battery
It uses the same battery as the Nokia 6682 (BL-5C: Extended 850 mAh). I get four days with medium to light usage - you'll need to recharge a bit over a day under heavy usage. Something of very little use, but I find nice, is the Velcro on the battery charger so you can wrap it up while traveling. It's nice not to need one of those twisties or rubber band.

Ratings:
Performance...........9
Build quality...........9
Keypad...................7
Connectivity...............8
Features for $.........9
Software................6, really dated S40 OS
Camera..................7, still only a VGA
Battery life.............8

Overall.....................8.5

PROS:
*Strong RF
*Excellent build quality
*Camera. For a VGA it's good
*class 10 EDGE
*Great sound/clarity
*Amazing phonebook organization
*traditional phone design
*support for large 2GB MMC memory cards
*really fast navigating menus
*lots of existing Java apps/games
*cheap these days in the used market ~150-180CDN

CONS:
*small screen
*dated S40 OS
*really deep menu structure. Changing the photo quality is not in Camera but in the Settings section
*3 second delay on pictures captured
*wiggly keys, difficult to hit middle key

Thanks to Treatz for lending me his stylz for this review