The Nokia 6120 Classic is the first handset we've seen compatible with all the 3G networks in Australia, including Telstra's Next G network. It's a slimline smartphone appealing to those seeking a reliable, easy-to-use phone.
Design
Nokia's kept things simple with the 6120. It has a classic candybar design, a glossy black case and curved edges with a silver trim. The loudspeaker is placed on the side of the 6120, which means the sound doesn't get muffled when placed on a desk or table.
Nokia is starting to come around to the idea of standardised ports on its phones -- the 6120 includes a mini-USB connection at the bottom for data transfers. You'll still need an adaptor if you want to use your regular headphones as Nokia has stuck with a 2.5mm audio jack.
The 6120's keypad seemed a little bit cramped initially, but we adjusted to it during our test period. Navigation is painless with a four-way directional button under the screen and two soft-keys for various shortcuts. As usual, the camera can be fired by pressing a button on side of the phone.
A 256MB microSD card is supplied that can be easy swapped out on the side of the phone.
Features
The 6120 sports two cameras -- a 2-megapixel one on the back for taking photos and a lower-res one on the front for video calls. There's an LED flash on the back and nightmode to assist taking shots in the dark. Panorama shots and video capture are welcome additions. The camera's sequence mode lets you fire six shots in rapid succession -- about two per second.
Through the Gallery on the Nokia 6120, you can watch saved video clips, listen to music and voice recordings, stream video over 3G and view presentations.
Out of the box you can fit around 64 songs on the 256MB card. The 6120 supports cards up to 2GB, increasing the storage capacity to around 500 songs. We're a bit disappointed in the a rather lame set of headphones you get in the box -- there's very little bass and they're kind of uncomfortable after a few minutes.
Powered by the Symbian operating system, you can install third-party applications on the 6120 -- other applications such as PDF and Office document readers come pre-installed. We found one game called Marble on our test phone, but it's quick and easy to download more.
Performance
Call quality was good and we have no complaints about the volume of the earpiece for hearing people speak. The loudspeaker is more than adequate at maximum volume -- you'll won't have a problem hearing the 6120 ring.
The camera didn't fare so well, however. The shots we took with the 6120 tended to be a little blurry and colours tended to be washed out. The panorama feature of the camera automatically lines up and captures the next shot in a sequence, but we found it often mismatched the frames.
The battery life on the 6120 is great for a 3G phone -- we managed to get four days between charges with average use of calls and SMS and daily Web browsing of online news. With HSDPA (3.5G) speeds, we had fast Internet and downloading data was quick and trouble-free.
All things considered the Nokia 6120 Classic is a good all-round phone that is destined to become a popular handset due to its attractive price, decent feature set and support for all 3G networks in Australia.
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