Nokia 6630 Music

Nokia 6630 Music

Due September/October 2005

19th September 2005

The Nokia 6630 Music is a repackaging of the standard Nokia 6630 handset which has been around for the best part of a year.

Nokia have enhanced the 6630 by installing an improved music player, and bundling a 256Mb RSMMC memory card, stereo jack adapter and compact card reader into the package, and have cosmetically tweaked it to come in "Rustic Red" and "Aluminium Grey" colour schemes.
It's a slightly oddball device. Many people assumed that the Nokia 6630 was an end-of-life device, having been largely replaced by the slightly better Nokia 6680 and upcoming Nokia N70. Still, the 6630 is a good hardware platform, with a decent 176x220 pixel display, Bluetooth, removable memory plus the Symbian Series 60 operating system. The Nokia 6630's attractive "hamster cheek" design is appealing too. The biggest omission with the 6630 handset is the lack of 3G video calling, as it only has one camera, although that's a pretty good 1.3 megapixel unit.
The clunky stereo jack plug adapter is offputting though (that's the large black cable). Because the Nokia 6630 music doesn't accept a direct connection from a standard headset, the adapter is a necessary but cumbersome component. The compact card reader is also an odd thing, and it's only really useful for people who don't have a multifunction card reader already.

However, the Nokia 6630 platform lends itself well to being a music player. The 256Mb memory card included is enough to be practical, and you can install up to 1Gb of memory into the phone. By our reckoning, that gives about 16 CDs worth of MP3s when recorded at the highest quality (Nokia claim that you can fit 15 CDs worth on the 256Mb card, but in our view this can only be done by recording very low quality MP3s).

Compared to the Motorola ROKR, the Nokia 6630 Music fares well. It has a better camera, larger track capacity, 3G support and an expandable operating system. It even manages to hold its own against the Sony Ericsson W800i, which is a more compact phone with a better camera, but it lacks the Nokia's 3G and smartphone capabilities.

At the same time, Nokia have announced their "Nokia Music Pack" - basically the stereo adapter, memory card and card reader components of the Nokia 6630 Music. This will be available for the 3230, 6230 & 6230i, 6260, 6630, 6680 & 6681/2, 7710, 9300, 9500, N70 and N90 handsets.

The Nokia 6630 Music should start shipping from September 2005 onwards in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.