The Nokia 6126

This a new Nokia clamshell phone offered to Canadians through Fido. Nokia hasn’t really started to make clamshell phones until just recently, but the 6126 proves that they got the right idea right away. The model I tested was provided courtesy of TelecomZombie (that’s his HowardForums name). Once again, Nokia have gone out of their way to use up the real estate in as effective a way as possible. The 6126 has a positively huge 240 x 320 pixel color display with 24-bit color depth (16.7 million colors) that looks gorgeous. It could do with being a bit brighter, but aside from that it’s one of the nicest clamshell displays I’ve tested in quite some time.



The phone also has a color external display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels. There are phones that can’t even boast that kind of resolution on the main displays. The quality of that outer display is low compared to that of the inside display, but it serves it purpose very well. It even displays what the camera sees for doing self-portraits. The phone uses MicroSD cards to provide addition memory for photos and MP3 files. Presently MicroSD cards are available up to 1 GB, but there is a SanDisk 2 GB card presently available exclusively through a US provider. Once they become readily available they might work on the 6126, depending upon whether Nokia correctly implemented the interface. Apparently a number of other phones that use MicroSD cards can only “see” up to 1 GB.



Battery Life: I don't normally get a chance to test battery life, and even though I didn't have the 6126 in my possession for long, it aptly demonstrated how generally poor the charge life is. After I'd first received the phone I full charged it overnight, but within about 3 days the battery had dropped to only 1 bar and the total amount of usage hadn't been all that great. For those of us who charge their phones each night, this isn't really an issue, but users who require that their phones can operated solely upon batteries for prolonged periods of time, or with heavy use, may find the standard batter in the 6126 a bit weak.



While this might not be the perfect GSM phone, I can find very little to complain about, with the exception of the outgoing sound quality in noisy environments and lackluster battery life. If I were looking to switch back to GSM I’d certainly put this phone at the top of my candidate list. I even like the overall styling, both inside and out, especially the way the top of the clamshell is actually shorter than the bottom. They blend the two halves together in a very elegant manner. The phone is a tad expensive if bought without a contract, but you get a really top-notch phone that includes all sorts of goodies, such as Bluetooth, an MP3 player (that will play MP3, MP4, eAAC+, & WMA formats), a 1.3-megapixel camera, a huge display, and Class-10 EDGE connectivity.