Nokia 6260

Posted by T3 Online on Wed 31 Oct 2007

Twist and shoot with this nubile Nokia.

After Nokia's fashion range, we feared the company's handsets would look more like hairbrushes than regular mobiles. Thank the Lord, then, for this clamshell that looks like a clamshell, and performs just as you'd expect.

Not to say this isn't a bit special. The silver casing is fittingly futuristic, while the polka dot design is nicely retro. The keypad also feels great, with large buttons which are soft to the touch. The menu navigation buttons on the top half are awkwardly laid out, but after a few days' use operating becomes natural.

What we really love is the hinge-mounted camera and swivelling screen, so you can snap pics and shoot movies using the top half as a sticky-out viewfinder. This is a really neat feature, enabling you to tilt the screen to avoid reflections, as well as getting attention in the pub for having a phone that looks like a tiny camcorder. You can even turn it back on yourself - great for capturing those, "You're my best mate" moments.

Unfortunately, the camera is only VGA - we'd expect higher resolution given the innovative shooting style. It's fine if you're only going to view them on the phone's large screen, where they look crisp, but forget about downloading them. Video quality is quite sketchy and jerky too.

This is a big improvement on Nokia's previous clamshell effort, the 6170, with a swish case and sturdy clasp, but the underwhelming camera, chunky size and plasticky build stop this getting full marks.