Ben
15th April 2005, 02:25 AM
Sound. Sound is very important on mobile phones these days, and youll be pleased to hear that the Nokia 6680 has a very capable loudspeaker located at the top of the handset. The supplied (standard, nasty) Nokia headphones also reproduce sound reliably but the pure clumsiness of them will have you yearning for Nokias latest Bluetooth stereo headset due out later this year. The sound quality on voice calls through both standard and loud speakers is commendable, as is the loud speaker quality on video calls. Nokia have not forgotten that this is a phone, and it sounds like quality components have been used throughout.
Using the rear camera is a joy. The quality is good, especially outdoors or in well lit rooms, and that rear slide will keep you busy for ages. Slide-and-shoot certainly makes everything very quick and easy, and your newly captured image can quickly be transmitted via the method of your choosing or simply left on the phone and automatically named using the parameters you specify (i.e. date). I had a few problems with the supposedly seamless resizing of my megapixel images into MMS messages, but somehow it just started working so I wont say anything other than be prepared for such a complicated device to have quirks.
This phone features what Im going to refer to as a real flash. Its not just a light, it actually flashes, and damn is it bright. So bright in fact that the pictures Ive taken so far have actually been rather over-exposed. I suggest that Nokias figure of 1.5m effective range is somewhat cautious, and that this flash would be best used at around 1.5m away from the target or more. I am a rubbish photographer, so excuse my shots below! Note that using digital zoom when taking pictures destroys the image quality - as seen on the bench shot.
Video capture through the rear camera is superb. I havent played back the video files on a computer (the quality wont be great, it never is on these things, and the resolution is significantly less) but on the phone screen everything looked great including my zooms! Zoom on this cameraphone is smooth, not staged, which will be a welcome discovery for many if not all of you. Video playback can be done in full screen, for which you turn the phone on its side, and again I was won over by the quality and smoothness of playback. Just dont expect to produce a Spielberg on it.
The front camera. Ah, theres always a let down. Obviously its not as good as the rear, and for video calling its more than acceptable. However, once the light starts to fade youll spot the introduction of a considerable amount of noise. It almost looks like a bad TV signal! Zoom is only 2x on this camera, and staged rather than smooth. All I can say is that this is a video calling camera (and gives lovely video calling at that) and I strongly advise against using it for anything else. Want to take pictures of yourself? Dont worry, you can see yourself in the chrome ring around the rear camera and be captured in all your megapixel glory.
Pictures left to right: Bench at 6x digital zoom, plant at 1x, view at 1x, stairs at 1x with flash.
Using the rear camera is a joy. The quality is good, especially outdoors or in well lit rooms, and that rear slide will keep you busy for ages. Slide-and-shoot certainly makes everything very quick and easy, and your newly captured image can quickly be transmitted via the method of your choosing or simply left on the phone and automatically named using the parameters you specify (i.e. date). I had a few problems with the supposedly seamless resizing of my megapixel images into MMS messages, but somehow it just started working so I wont say anything other than be prepared for such a complicated device to have quirks.
This phone features what Im going to refer to as a real flash. Its not just a light, it actually flashes, and damn is it bright. So bright in fact that the pictures Ive taken so far have actually been rather over-exposed. I suggest that Nokias figure of 1.5m effective range is somewhat cautious, and that this flash would be best used at around 1.5m away from the target or more. I am a rubbish photographer, so excuse my shots below! Note that using digital zoom when taking pictures destroys the image quality - as seen on the bench shot.
Video capture through the rear camera is superb. I havent played back the video files on a computer (the quality wont be great, it never is on these things, and the resolution is significantly less) but on the phone screen everything looked great including my zooms! Zoom on this cameraphone is smooth, not staged, which will be a welcome discovery for many if not all of you. Video playback can be done in full screen, for which you turn the phone on its side, and again I was won over by the quality and smoothness of playback. Just dont expect to produce a Spielberg on it.
The front camera. Ah, theres always a let down. Obviously its not as good as the rear, and for video calling its more than acceptable. However, once the light starts to fade youll spot the introduction of a considerable amount of noise. It almost looks like a bad TV signal! Zoom is only 2x on this camera, and staged rather than smooth. All I can say is that this is a video calling camera (and gives lovely video calling at that) and I strongly advise against using it for anything else. Want to take pictures of yourself? Dont worry, you can see yourself in the chrome ring around the rear camera and be captured in all your megapixel glory.
Pictures left to right: Bench at 6x digital zoom, plant at 1x, view at 1x, stairs at 1x with flash.