Summer 2007
Like its candbar cousin, the 6500 Slide has some weight and authority to it. The quality of the materials definitely marks the Slide as a premium mid-level phone. When closed, it feels solid. It is much thicker than the Classic, but is thinner than some other Nokia sliders, such as the 5300. Most of the exterior shell of the 6500 Slider is stainless steel. The brushed look of the metal is a nice touch. Even the function keys and D-pad are made of this material.
Opening and closing the slider mechanism was very satisfying. This prototype must be far along in the development process, because the slider was solid. It produced a nice "thunk" when snapping open or closed. The spring-assisted action felt good.
Using the D-pad and keypad of the Slider was similar in many respects to the 6500 Classic. The shape of the D-pad keys is identical, as is the amount of feedback each key produced. The keypad itself was smooth and doesn't have the silver lining that the Classic does, but each key is a good size and dialing numbers was satisfying.
The back cover was slightly difficult to take off. Once off, though, you have access to the SIM slot and microSD slot. These two slots are stacked one over the other, and you have to remove the battery to access either of them, as the entry points for the cards are in the battery cavity. The 6500 Slide supports SDHC, and can accept cards up to 4 GB in capacity for storing media.
The volume rocker / zoom key and dedicated camera-launch key are on the right side of the phone. The volume rocker moved minimally, and provided less feedback than some of the other keys. The camera button was the complete opposite. The action of this button was very deep. You had to push the button far down to activate the camera. Doing so activates the 3.2 Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and auto-focus. It also has a dual-LED flash. Because the 6500 Slide runs Series 40, it employs the standard Series 40 camera interface.
The 6500 Slide has the same radio capabilities as the 6500 Classic, which is to say quad-band GSM/EDGE and dual-band WCDMA.
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