Sound Quality

The sound quality of the 6800 is excellent. There's really not many complaints. Tonal qualities are full and robust, and reception clarity is good. If there was a problem, it would have to be the abnormal boost in low frequency. Most likely you won't be able to notice, but the boost is probably to increase the range in sound when using loudspeaker.

As far as using the loudspeaker is concerned, the 6800 is pretty good. Given the distance and volume, the incoming tests were very good. On the other side, voices could be heard within the first couple feet of the phone. Further than that and clarity decreases considerably. As expected, background noise gets picked up easily so use it while driving or at home.

RF Performance

The reception of the Nokia 6800 is just as good. Small signals are picked up and held relatively well. Incoming and outgoing calls have minimal distortion, considering the internal antenna. Thus, the Nokia 6800 gets a reception rating of:

Pros

· Comfortable, versatile keypad. Great for the avid text messager.

· Incredible set of messaging applications. Fully functional email client, SMS, MMS, EMS, chat, and more.

· Great sound quality from the built-in internal speaker instead of an ordinary buzzer. Good for FM radio, games, and ring tones.

· The FM radio. Stereo sound and the ability to save up to 20 radio channels. If you're bored just tune into the airwaves.

· Loudspeaker that's loud and useful. Excellent range and clarity for a loudspeaker.

· Huge 5 MB of storage. You'll need it for all the messages.

· Downloadable games and applications. Install cool programs and delete delete them when you get tired of them.

Cons

· 4 tone polyphonic ring tones. It might have been good last year, but the standards have been raised.

· No Bluetooth. If you don't need it then its no big deal.

Conclusion

The 6800 is not a generic phone for everyone. Nokia had a specific user in mind when designing it. From the point you lay your eyes on it, you can tell this phone was meant for text messaging.

Underneath the flip out keypad is incredibly convenient QWERTY keypad for typing messages instead of the standard numeric keypad. Nokia has made the keypad easy to type with the thumbs.

However, the 6800 is quite large. In fact significantly larger than most Nokia phones. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. For those of you with large thumbs, you'll find the 6800 much easier to type with. No more mashing multiple keys.

The highlights of the 6800 are its typing functions. The messaging applications we've mentioned are top of the line. The fully functional email client allows you to send and receive email from most email accounts. Combined with the keypad, you'll be able to easily compose and reply to those urgent messages. Of course, synchronizing your messages, calendar, and contacts will be a breeze too with SyncML.

The 6800 also has kept many strong points from its predecessors also, starting with the FM radio. The FM radio is a great feature on the 6800 for those long days. The radio has great audio capabilities due to the internal speaker Nokia built in. Normally phones will sound through buzzers which sound thin and weak. But the Nokia speaker is fuller and louder.

The other feature is the loudspeaker. If you've read previous reviews, you'll know we love this feature. It's great to have because it works. You'll to able to talk and listen from a reasonable few feet. Excellent for when you don't have any free hands.

It's weaknesses on the other hand are multimedia. The 6800 is similar in every way to its predecessors. From the same 4096 color screen, to the 4 tone polyphonic ring tone, the 6800 is falling behind Samsung. Granted Nokia probably plans to market this phone to business consumers who could care less, it should be pointed out.

If you fit the mold Nokia was aiming for then the 6800 is what you were waiting for. However, if you're one of the many others that don't need such powerful messaging capabilities, then the 6800 might be overkill. For the general public though, we give the Nokia 6800 an overall rating of:

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