Tech Review: Nokia 6110 Navigator - "Never get lost"

After a lot of thinking, I finally decided to go for a Nokia 6110 Navigator for me, since I had to give my old Phone (Nokia 6260) to one of my relatives who liked it very much. So this was my 4th Phone starting with Nokia 3350 -> Nokia 5510 -> Nokia 6260. I must admit that I'm a Nokia fan. Though Nokia Phones are a bit overpriced, their features always follow the latest trend. I mainly went for this Phone because it was decently priced at around INR.15,000 & provided the most interesting feature which I was looking for after buying my car - what else, a GPS (Global Positioning System) obviously. Moreover, this is the first Phone with the NAVIGATOR tagline attached.

Go through the Positives & Negatives of this Phone & decide yourself.

Positives:

• Sliding Phone with an average Form Factor
• Symbian S60 3rd Edition Operating System
• Phone UI refreshes very fast
• Crystal Clear Screen with good Sharpness
• Web Browser can be viewed horizontally ( in Landscape mode) for easy Browsing
• Auto Contrast adjustment of Screen display with ambient light
• GSM Quad Band & 3G Support
• 2 Rear Stereo Speakers
• Stereo FM & MP3/MP4 PlayerFront VGA Camera for Video Calling
• "My Own Key" - A configurable dedicated key for your favourite application
• Excellent 2 Mega Pixel Rear Camera (with Sliding Cover) with Flash, for Photography
• Dedicated Camera button on the Phone body
• 2 MP Camera Software supports PANORAMIC, Night & SEQUENCE Mode
• 2 MP Camera Software provides inbuilt Timer to click Self Photos
• Inbuilt GPS Receiver from Navteq & Route 66 GPS Software preinstalled
• Dedicated GPS activation key on the keypad
• Dedicated Volume Control on the Phone BodySales Package contains 512 MB MMC Card
• The Sales Package for India provides free Maps for few well known Indian cities
• Voice guided navigation for installed Maps with high precision
• Good Battery life. 11 days Standy Time & 2.5 hrs Talk Time as per Nokia. Although its a new Phone, I require to charge it only after 3-4 days with mixed use of Phone, Music & GPS. Since GPS uses Radio frequency, Battery drains out faster if the GPS Receiver is switched on. Avoid keeping GPS turned-on always to enhance Standby time

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Negatives:

• WiFi support missing
• Infrared support missing
• Map software provider (Route 66) doesn't provide free upgrades for recently released Maps. So if your Phone has an India Map released in Q1 2007, you wont receive the India Map Q3 2007 free of cost
• Maps are higly overpriced (50 Euros approximately)
• Rear Camera sliding cover does not slide easily (the grip is slippery)
• Topmost row keys on the keypad (1,2,3) difficult to operate during SMSing, as the Phone sliding cover doesn't slide further

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• The Navigator Button (STAR) gets accidentally depressed many times while sliding the phone cover or while operating the Joystick

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• Headphone Ear Plugs not very comfortable & falls of easily from ear
• Rear Stereo Speakers are too closely spaced & could have been spaced further to enhance the Stereophonic effect

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Though the Phone comes with Route 66's GPS navigation software, you can also install Nokia Maps for GPS purposes. The Nokia Maps software has the advantage of providing you with a simulation of your journey if you select the Starting & Destination location.

I have found people complaining on the Net that the Time To First Fix (for GPS) is too long (from 5 mins to almost 30 mins). I must say that I have been lucky enough to get a first fix within a couple of minutes. To reduce the time to first fix, ensure that you have a clear view of the sky & also that A-GPS (Assisted GPS) setting is turned on for the GPS software. The time to first fix also increases considerably if you activate the GPS at a place which is quite far off from the place you had last turned on your GPS. I guess the GPS system has been built in such a way that it scans for a particular group of GPS Satellites based on the time the GPS software is switched on & also on the last cached co-ordinates (Latitude & Longitude). Hence if you move far away from the place from where you had last tuned on your GPS, it is unable to get locked on to the Satellites which it predicted as per its algorithm & thus starts running a fresh scan to search for new Satellites. This was all my logic without much knowledge of the GPS technology.

All in all the Phone is an excellent Phone (as usual with any Nokia offering) & would rate it 4.5 out of 5.0. Would have rated it 5.0 on 5.0 if Wi-Fi would have been present.

You can view samples of clicked Photos by searching them on my Blog or requesting me. My latest Profile Photo is also clicked from this Phone :) Hope you have enjoyed this review.