Nokia 6500 Classic

The story of this model is very remarkable and has much to do with how the company’s vision of its product line-ups development changed over time and what expectations the company had for its future phones. By summer 2005, over at Nokia they had grown unhappy with the way product design had been going, and this resulted in Frank Nuovo resignation. This event was followed by, if not dramatic, but still substantial revision of the product creation approach, which allowed the line of “slim” devices to emerge, development of these solutions commenced in the middle of 2005. Back then, the company, already lagging behind both Samsung and Motorola, the trailblazer in slim phones, began looking into the ways of making up such handsets.

They started on a bunch of models, one of them was codenamed Lynn (today known as Nokia 6500 Classic). Christian Riise managed the product, whose development kicked off in August 2005. First results and a rough spec sheet had shaped up even before September 2005 ended, after this point they engaged themselves in development of the hardware department, as well as design and materials.

The image of the device had been finalized by December, first designs employed plastic. In February 2006 this device was tested out on a focus group in Moscow and several other cities. Apart from this model, they also showcased designs of Nokia 6300 and a couple of other handsets. What’s interesting, when the users put Nokia 6300 and Nokia 6500 Classic head to head, it was the latter that scored a win, as it seemed more preferable.

Nokia 6500 Classic was originally issued in silver, but some focus-group members noticed that this paint doesn’t belong on handset. That’s why in March they rolled out a black-colored model and only then the one in bronze.

The Nokia 6300 is positioned as a designer solution, but at the same time it belongs to the Connect – Contemporary category, like the Nokia 6500 classic. While the former device has been pushed under the motto «Simply Beautiful», the latter has had a couple of aspects highlighted with materials, rather than design, being the centerpiece. The maker doesn’t trick us, claming that the device is made of metal – indeed, the top part is made of anodized aluminum. And, no matter how you look at it, on the top, metal is everywhere. At the same time they say that every device has unique front polishing to it, there are no two models that look alike. I readily believe in this as well, but in real life conditions, you can barely spot the difference in metal polishing, handsets look resembling.

The entire underside is a kind of shoe dressing up the handset’s innards. This solution has already been used for durable phones by Nokia, for example, Nokia 5100 and its successors. This part of the casing enjoys moderately thick plastic. Antennas are also located here, even though such lay-out doesn’t seem normal, it is successfully utilized in many models, for example, by Motorola.

If we draw parallels between this one and the Nokia 6300, there is no stainless steel here, and moreover the casing itself doesn’t seem like something ultra-hard or packed with metal. The Sony Ericsson W880i feels the same way to a certain extent – you don’t get the solid feel with that metal, and it is nearly inconspicuous.

The Nokia 6500 Classic utilizes a QVGA display, powered by TFT technology (16 mln colors, which are all bright and vibrant) with a resolution of 240x320 pixels (diagonal of 2 inches, 31x41 mm). The manufacturer hasn’t included any type of backlighting adjustment, i.e. the screen is always evenly backlit, which allows saving a bit of charge. Nevertheless the user is enabled to choose standby screensaver and backlighting mode (on/off) – in the latter case, if the backlighting will be turned off, the information will remain visible indoors but only at certain angles. Apart from that you can completely switch off the screen, so that it will turn black with no information being displayed on it. In light of the screen having a mirror layer, it doesn’t fade in the sun and ensures that all data will be still readable.