Nokia 6820 / 6820i
Average Ratings
6610 with a keyboard
Everything about this phone is very similar to the 6610 with some added features. I use an unlocked version on T-Mobile in South Florida.
Like the 6610 the battery life is excellent and recharges quickly. The screen is identical in size and clarity to the 6610. That is very grainy, poor color contrast, washes out in the sun, font size is small. But if you just want to enter a phone number and make a call it is adequate.
Reception bounces all over. Overall it is pretty good but one minute you can have almost full coverage and the next minute virtually none when phone is in the same spot. Very characteristic of T-Mobile, but I have used other phones more stable on their system.
Usefull additions to the 6610;
1. Of course the fold out keyboard. Great for sms or responding to email on T Mobile corp email service. Don't mistake this for a real keyboard though. You sort of hold phone in both palms and type with your thumbs. Once you get used to it is a great improvement from predictive text but not a real keyboard.
2. Blue Tooth; works great with a wireless earpiece but does not maintain a solid link with PC. Been through hours with Nokia customer support and it just does not work well. However, phone does have IR which works well and allows you to sync with Outlook and transfer pictures back and forth. You can sync cal, tasks, contacts and notes.
3. Camera and video recorder; forget it. Worthless. Picture is so grainy it is difficult to make out person you are looking at and that is in ideal outside lighting condidtions. Indoors the picture is dark, grainy and impossible to recognize.
Overall the phone has a feel of quality. If you like the 6610 you will love the additional features of this phone. Just don't buy it for the camera as you will be very disappointed.
getting there
overall this is functionally a great phone. the combination of small size, qwerty keyboard, BT, camera, EDGE/GPRS, and much more plus nokia's extreme user friendliness make for a fine piece of equipment but,...I do have a few major complaints (based on ATT sofware vers. 3.92, which you can check by entering *#0000# on your phone)
1. POP3/SMTP E-mail client works fine but DOES NOT ALLOW ATTACHMENTS OF ANY KIND!!!!(I'm sure this is of course to force the user to use the more expensive MMS service to send pics)
2. Camera is very low quality, but that's the same for just about any camera phone on the US market currently.
3. I can't yet make "NK PC Suite" connection through BT on my PC even after extensive retrys, BT driver swaps and tweaks. I can send pics, tones, and more through other software and BT headset works fine, but I cannot manage to install APPS without the non-functional PC Suite software from nokia.
One of the best!
This phone was amazing for its time! I have had this phone for years and it's taken a beating and still works great. I love the operating system- so easy to use. Of all the different styles of Qwerty keyboards on the market today, this flip open style is still my favorite. This phone was light years ahead of its time. Call quality great. Decent screen for its day. Camera very good for its day. Really, I had NO complaints about this phone. It's a trusty favorite that I'll keep for years to come as a back up phone and really belongs in the phone hall of fame! If it weren't for the upgrade of screen resolution/size/color quality, and the option to add a memory card, and to use mp3 files, etc that more modern phones offer... I would have never needed to upgrade. Alas, I did eventually upgrade and have settled in on my current Nokia 6555, but overall this was a great little phone. Glad to have owned it and definitely keeping it as a backup phone!
Does it's job
First and foremost a cell phone's primary function is to make and receive calls with clarity and efficiency.
I gave this phone a 5 rating based simply on it's ability to make and receive calls. Pulls a very strong signal ALL the time for me. The call quality for me and for the person on the other end of the line is consistently great. The ear piece is very very loud and the speakerphone is loud and functional as well. Great qualities.
Using the hands-free ear piece has produced some irritating feedback both to me and the person on the other end of the line. Could be a bad piece of hardware or could be poor coding... no matter, the other two options are great.
The flip out keyboard is easy to use and very accurate.
The phone is so small you'd think it impossible to use it but the buttons are nice and large!
The cons.
The display is about as bad as any phone I have ever used. Dark, pixilated and poor color reproduction. This makes the use of the camera or video recording virtually useless.
I have had no problems with the software on the phone or any of the features.
The price is a little high considering but for it's main purpose it's a GREAT phone!
YES, YES, AND YES
I love this phone (AT&T)! WE are just a little closer to the perfect phone. It takes pictures,...bluetooth,...keypad,..and it works over seas. The reception is impressive too! Three cheers for Nokia and the great new phones they have been putting out!!!!
Decent phone with a few flaws
I've had my 6820 for 3 weeks so far and it's been a pretty good phone... but it is still not perfect.
Pros:
* Bluetooth & IR connectivity
* Great reception (with ATTWS)
* Nice back lit keyboard
* Camera w/ ability to record video
While it has a nice set of features, it does have some serious issues.
Cons:
* Bluetooth headset (Jabra BT250) spontaneously disconnects and reconnects
* Poor numeric keypad design... buttons difficult to dial in one hand (voice dialing helps avoid this, though)
* Crappy contact application. I much prefer the layout of the contact app on the Sony Ericsson phones where each contact is listed and you can drill down and see all their numbers and email (although only one email can be listed). The Nokia lists every contact + number separately and you need to go into the menu to hunt for other info.
* I don't care for the default actions of the joystick (it'd be nice to not have to drill down into the menus to turn bluetooth/ir off and on, etc.)... I prefer the SE layout. Also don't like that there's not dedicated volume buttons. Maybe I need to RTFM again.
There are few other things I wish they did, but I can't really consider them cons...
* A little larger screen would be nice for viewing WAP pages
* A SD/MMC slot would've been great for adding more apps and storing more A/V recordings
* They should've used the Symbian 6 OS
* Wish it had iSync support (hopefully coming in iSync 1.5)
In short, this is a pretty good phone. If they would've made a better keypad and added the Symbian OS with a better UI and a memory slot, this would've been a nearly perfect phone.
Returned this phone for full refund; here's why
The biggest problem with this phone is that it's only available from ATT Wireless who has HORRIBLE customer service. It takes a long time to get through and that's not their only problem. About the phone.
Pros:
-solid feeling phone even with keyboard folded out; for text messagers (I'm not one), it probably would be one of the best phones
-It's a Nokia which means easily readable battery level and signal level meters and also when the phone rings, you can silence the ringer without refusing the call
-sharp professional look
-display has bright white light although size and color depth aren't as good compared to Moto V400 (but I still give the display a thumbs up)
-small with internal antenna so fits great in pocket
-ringtone selection
Cons:
-ATTW network would have perfect signal but volume occasionally gets VERY low even with volume maxed
-speakerphone fine if you're in a quiet room only! If you're driving 65 mph, forget the speakerphone, even if the radio and A/C are off and the windows are up (and my car is relatively quiet)
-Using Bluetooth headset was very disappointing (purchased top rated one separately); It is not clear unless you hold the phone right next to the headset which defeats the purpose. 30 ft. range? Yeah right, if you have the phone in your right pocket and the headset on your left ear, you will hear too much static to talk. You can then switch to speakerphone or regular phone use but switching back to the Bluetooth headset is apparently not possible.
-coverage area for ATT Wireless was surprisingly good in areas I expected problems but bad in areas where my other phones have never had problems.
-display is subject to scratches since not a clamshell, concealed display design
-first ATTW bill was WAY wrong and hard to get them to correct it; they sort of met me half way. LAME customer service if you can even get through!
So, if speakerphone isn't crucial, get this phone and have it unlocked for use with another provider
6820
This phone has some great features, of which many probably will not be used.
1: Signal strength quality is great. It has seems to grab and hold the signal very well.
2: Volume is variable, so that you say to callers "please speak up" or "hold on while I increase the volume".
3: Volume control sometimes does not exist, but sometimes it does.
4: The fold out keyboard works very well. I had fun trying and using it. However that is about the extent of text messaging that I do. So the keyboard is really only a valuable feature if you really do LOTS of text messaging.
5: THIS IS THE BIG ONE. Make sure that you can hold and dial with one hand. Due to the phone's geometry and my hand size (and short fingers), I found the phone painful (yes painful) to use the bottom right quadrant keys. This was true even though I used 1-touch dialing and had over 250 numbers in memory (160 names).
Because of the thumb pain, I returned the phone. However if your hand is different and this is not a problem, it is a great phone.
Great, but could be better!
I used this phone for what seems like too short of time, but, that's how I am with phones. I was not disappointed, but just wanted more.
Pros:
+Pretty good speakerphone
+Full QWERTY keyboard?!
+Convenient size
+Typical, easy, Nokia format
+Great reception (ATT, Chicago suburbs)(shy of the house and work, ironically)
+Easy phonebook
+Bluetooth?!?!
+Stylish
Cons:
-Camera? What's that? No, this is just my muddy viewfinder that came built in on the phone...
-SOME poly ringtones work where some don't. Weird.
-Crappy display when compared to competitors
-Caller groups? What about individual ringtones? Nope.
-Video recorder? Through the muddy viewfinder, sure.
-No faceplates? Boo
Overall, I'd recommend this phone for a try if you're a Nokia fan. It was pretty good to me, I don't see why it won't be for you if you're cool with a mediocre camera.
I just hope the Moto V600 will work out better and defy the popular negative reviews....
Ed. note: removed commercial content
get it for the keyboard
sound: 4.0
camera: 1.0
speakerphone: 3.0
display: 1.5
colors: 1.0
dial keypad: 1.0
battery life: 4.5
keyboard: 5.0
design: 4.5 (if dial keypad not considered)
sure, the camera sucks and other features are not up to par with other phones in this price range but i got this phone for one reason and one reason only. it has a keyboard for typing text!
i envisioned the possibilities of having a keyboard prior to purchase and in actual use it has proven to be an indispensible feature and i would never buy another phone again without a keyboard. i type email, enter contacts and instant message with it. the way phones are being used nowadays to type and send email, IM, etc. (sort of like a pda) im surprised that other manufacturers havent followed suit.
this phone can be improved by just putting in a decent looking display with more colors, a better resolution camera, fm radio and maybe even a flashlight. i get the feeling nokia couldve designed the phone with these better features but opted not to just because they knew people such as myself would still buy it regardless of the shortcomings because it has a keyboard.
grrrrrrrrr! if sony ericson's phone only had a keyboard.....
