Design
The smaller of Nokia's slider phone models (the other being the 3G-enabled 6280), the 6111 is a compact unit that will easily slip into most pockets. Shorter but slightly thicker than the Samsung D600, the Nokia 6111 has a pleasing black and silver design with a minimalist bent. As with all slider phones, the front of the phone is dominated by a display (in this case, a bright 35x29mm one), with navigation buttons arrayed below the screen. A metallic silver square acts as the phone's four-way navigation button, with four other colour coded buttons flanking on either side. The back of the phone is clutter-free, with the only things interrupting the reflective black plastic being the phone's camera lens and flash situated in the top right corner. But with so much spare real estate, the back of the phone tends to become a fingerprint magnet -- you'll have to wipe it regularly to keep the phone looking at its best.
The phone's front slides up with the push of a thumb, but it does seem to require more force to open than the similar Samsung D600. The sliding action itself doesn't feel as smooth as the Samsung's, although it's by no means annoying or unusable. The keypad features rounded keys, with the buttons themselves a little on the small side (which can be expected due to the phone's dinkiness, measuring in at 84x47x23mm and weighing only 92g).
Features
This tri-band GSM phone (EGSM 900, GSM 1800/1900) has better than average features for a phone in its price range. It's relatively beefy when it comes to connectivity, featuring Bluetooth, infrared, a USB port and push-to-talk capabilities. When it comes to email, it supports SMTP, POP3 and IMAP4 protocols. The 6111's screen is also quite impressive -- it's bright and colourful, and can display 262K colours on its 128x160 pixel display.
When it comes to multimedia features, the 6111 isn't lacking for a phone in its range. The phone features a 1-megapixel camera with 6x digital zoom -- better than some of its equally priced peers such as the more attractive Motorola SLVR L7 and the Sony Ericsson Z520i. The phone can take stills and short videos (depending on memory), and can be used with the unit held horizontally and with the slide closed -- making it look like a small digital camera. A silver camera button on the 6111's side acts as the shutter release when held horizontally. The phone can also act as a media player -- with music, it can play MP3, MP4 or AAC files, and with video it can view 3GPP, H.264 video, MPEG-4 and AMR. Unfortunately, its usefulness as a media device is limited by its small 23MB onboard memory. And sadly, the 6111's memory is not expandable. On the plus side, it also features a radio, voice recorder, Java-capabilities (to allow you to download new applications) and some decent pre-loaded games (Champ Rally 3D, Golf Tour, Backgammon and Solitaire).
Performance
When it comes to ergonomics, the 6111's petite size limits its attractiveness to those with big paws -- your reviewer included, who found the keypad fiendishly difficult to text on (not to mention the small camera button on the side of the unit). Handing the 6111 to those with smaller hands, however, proved the problem was limited to yours truly. Our advice is to track down the 6111 at a phone shop and hold it for yourself before you buy -- some may find its size restrictive, while others may feel at ease.
The Nokia 6111 functions well as a phone - we had no hassles with usage during our extended review period, with our only concern being battery life. Nokia rates the 6111 as having talk time of up to 3 hours and 20 minutes (with a standby time of 12.5 days). In real world usage, we found the battery to drain rather quickly - a day and a half worth of higher than average conversation times typically sent us back to the recharge cable. And, as with all slider phones, users have to be careful when taking out the phone from pockets or purses in case they accidentally move the slider up and down (as that terminates a call).
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the Nokia 6111 is its low onboard memory. The phone packs some decent multimedia features, but having only 23MB of memory severely limits its usefulness. It's a pity Nokia didn't include the option for expandable memory, such as having an SD or other memory card slot in the phone.
But in other ways the Nokia 6111 serves its users well. It's an attractive, small phone that boasts plenty of punch under the hood.
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Tonda
06/11/2008, 01:14 AM
rating
2/10
Doesn't work well and it's ugly, fat and very bad
Pros: Nothing.
Cons: Screen f*ckd up in 4months, it doesn't work until you slide the part up, camera doesn't work sometimes, it turns off automatically and it's soo fugly and **** phone don't buy this
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Jemoo
07/10/2008, 07:29 PM
rating
6/10
This is an extremely reliable phone. I've had it since April 2006 until May 2008 until i upgraded to an n95 8gb. I've had no problems whatsoever. Yeah $400AU at the time was a bit steep for these sort of specs, especially when i could have went for a much better speced 6280 or se k750 for the same price, but for reliability, battery life, user friendliness etc this is excellent. only gripes i had was the lack of expandable memory, being the reason i upgraded. Beautiful good looking little phone. I recommend this to anyone who wants an attractive little phone and doesn't care about the memory.
Pros: Extremely reliable, no problems. Excellent battery, user friendliness and very good looking.
Cons: NO EXPANDABLE MEMORY!!!
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vicious35
28/08/2008, 01:06 PM
rating
5/10
have a problem with the phone,not getting it to power up,it's not coming on.
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its me
27/06/2008, 06:59 PM
rating
6/10
had this phone for 2 years and never had a technical problem
Pros: ^^^^
Cons: not enough memory & no card slot - holds like 4 songs in the mp3
im over it!
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nokia 6101
07/06/2008, 07:11 PM
rating
7/10
I like this tiny phone. Nokia introduce this cell phone with gifted features. Fast responsive. Flip stylish designed mobile. Easy to use.
Pros: Very easy to use.
Finger-friendly keypad.
Battery timing is good.
Cons: Nothing.
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Kirsty
13/05/2008, 12:05 AM
rating
5/10
It is an alright phone. It once turned itself off and then back on. It did that 2 times
Pros: Small design.
Cons: Easily scratched screen. No memory card slot.
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jordan24
19/04/2008, 07:58 PM
rating
4/10
well, ive had this phone for nearly 2 years now, and i really cant say ive had many problems with it. when i first bought it i was so excited, but soon realised that it was nothing special. i could only honestly say that the sliding of the phone was the good part.
Pros: smallish phone, good choice of colours, easy to use,
Cons: poor camera, small keys, small and fat phone, not that exciting
very mediocre
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bekah
30/03/2008, 08:24 PM
rating
8/10
Yea every now an then it chucks a tanty and whites out, but give it a rest for a couple mins an turn it back on. it doesn't do it often. Seriously I reckon we would white out if someone tried to make us work 24/7. I love this phone! I accidently put it thru the wash the other day, dried it out and it still works haha ive dropped it so many times, even from a 2 story building onto concrete and no problemos! I am however investing in another phone for only one reason: the memory is like my mums: THERE IS NONE!! lol sorry mama!
Pros: Sturdy, cool design. Made for clumsy nongas like me. Takes pretty reasonable photos
Cons: yup u guessed it....NILCH memory
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Johnny
26/03/2008, 04:21 PM
rating
5/10
I've had it 14 months and it is now ready for landfill. Admittedly never liked it, even tried to give it back immediately out of the box but they wouldn't take it. Sound quality is poor. It's a little fatter than I'd like. The battery life demands daily charging. The camera is very poor. The software connecting to PC bad enough to never want to use it thus I never used it for music. The earbuds broke in the third month - so no radio or handsfree thereafter. I'm kinda glad the loudspeaker has now failed such that it doesn't ring or beep when a call comes in because now I can try my luck with something else.
Pros: You can talk to people whilst on the move.
You can send and receive texts; and has the predictive text feature.
Cons: Poor sound quality.
None of the extra features beyond talk/text are implemented well enough to be worthwhile.
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MM
16/03/2008, 12:47 AM
rating
4/10
Cute looking phone, but that is about where it all ends unfortunately. Feels very 'plasticky' and I have had mine for two weeks and have got the dreaded white out screen!
Pros: cute
Cons: screen failure
short battery charge life
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