It measures 99 x 51 x 15 mm and weights 97 grams, so it is pretty thin and will sit nicely in a suit pocket (it’s 1.1 millimetres thicker than the original Motorola RAZR). The front of the phone houses a VGA camera at the top. In the middle is the external one inch screen displaying 65k colours with a 96 x 64 pixel resolution.

It features the network strength, battery life, date and time, as well as any activity such as incoming calls and messages. All very handy. On the left hand side are the dedicated volume keys at the top and there’s an AC charger port at the bottom. The charger port has a rubber cover for protection from dust. At the right side is the dedicated camera button at the top and a headset connector at the bottom.

Like the charger port, the headset connector is protected by a rubber cover. At the top of the right side, on the hinge, is the secure loop for hand and neck strap accented in chrome. The circular-shaped external speaker is positioned in the bottom half. When the phone is opened, the large 2.2 inch TFT screen is revealed at the top half. The screen displays 65k colours at 320 x 240 pixel resolution. The bottom half has the navigation buttons as well as the standard number keypad.

The five-way D-pad is surrounded with four buttons: left and right soft keys, second dedicated camera key and a back button. Between the navigation keys and the number keypad are three keys, all associated with calling functions: dial, speaker and end keys. All the keys are accented with chrome edges.

The blue backlight is evenly spread across all keys. Keypad labelling is frequently done with English words rather than standard symbols, making the phone very easy to use even for people who have never used the mobile phone before – for example Speaker, Talk, End and so on. Under the keypad at the very bottom is the microphone. The 6600 takes 15 seconds to start before it becomes usable, and 12 seconds to shut down.

Navigation
Navigating the phone is very easy though the use of the English labelled buttons and the icon menu. The centre button on the D-pad opens the menu, which displays as a nine icon grid (three columns by 3 rows). The menu can also be personalised to be displayed as a list, if that is your preference. With either style chosen as a main menu display, the sub-menus display in a list view.

There are also some built-in shortcuts giving one-button access to most common functions, in addition to the dedicated camera keys, from standby screen left and right keys – and each of the directions on the D-pad function as shortcut keys. The Keypad buttons are all separated, made of plastic and are easy to press. They all provide a slight feedback, letting you be sure you’ve pressed the button. The numbers on the keypad are large and letters are all uppercase.

Calling
The Sanyo 6600 is a dual-band CDMA 1x 800/1900 and it operates locally on the Telecom network. The quoted talk time using the 820mAh lithium-ion battery is up to 3.6 hours. In our tests we found that the phone performed at about 85% of the quoted maximum. Note that the true battery life depends on how the phone is used and also the strength of the signal (you use more battery the further you are from a cell site). But it will get most users through a few days.

The standard charge time from empty is 3.5 hours. There are dedicated volume keys on the left side of the phone which means that you can adjust the volume using your thumb while you’re on the phone. The call quality was good when it came to the signal strength, the loudness was good with calls sounding loud (if a little ‘radio-ish’ on the in-bound speaker) on both the earpiece and speakerphone.

The speakerphone can be turned up quite loud but will result in distortion at the maximum volumes. The 6600 supports voice dialling for up to 30 phone book entries. The phone book supports up to 500 different entries, with 700 numbers in total across all contacts. Supporting Bluetooth version 1.1, a Bluetooth headset can be paired with the 6600 allowing wireless conversations.

Camera
The 6600 features a VGA camera with a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, which means that while this will work great for display on mobile phone screens, it is not recommended for printing, as the image quality is not really sharp enough for prints. Digital zoom doesn’t work at the top photo resolution, however on 320 x 240 pixels it works up to 8x, and on 160 x 120 up to 20x.

It’s worth mentioning that digital zoom doesn’t get closer to the object using the lens but by cropping the image itself, so if you do use it to ‘blow up’ your pics, the quality of the image goes down as well. The internal memory is shared across all applications in the phone, and at maximum available memory, 49 images can be stored on the phone.

There is no external memory option on the 6600, however images can be uploaded to Telecom’s Online Album using WAP connectivity. Camera options include picture mode (normal, beach/snow, scenery, night/dark and soft focus), self-timer (5 and 10 seconds), fun tools (multiple shots, stitch shot which is basically panorama, fun frames and colour tone). Image brightness and white balance can also be adjusted, as well as resolution, quality, shutter sound (which can be turned off) and status bar can be switched on or off. The camera does not support video recording.

Messaging
The Sanyo 6600 allows you to stay in touch using text and picture messaging. Email access is provided for Xtra users using the WAP access only and there is no built-in email client. To send a message, Messaging should be selected from main menu, then send message, at which stage you should choose the type – text or picture. After making a selection, you select a recipient and then you can type the message. Typing on the 6600 was comfortable and easy. Predictive text made it quick as well.

Applications
The 6600 comes with a VGA camera, Bluetooth, voice memo, WAP 2.0 browser, calendar, alarm clock, calculator, stopwatch, countdown timer and world clock. Being a Javaenabled device, new content and applications can be downloaded from Telecom, such as games or ringtones.

Summary
The Sanyo 6600 is a thin flip phone made of black metal that does all the basics well, and along with the Samsung A900 ‘Blade’ gives Telecom two super thin flip handsets. Apart from voice calling, text and picture messaging it sports Bluetooth connectivity, although this is only for connecting wireless devices like a headset – we could not use Bluetooth in this instance for transferring photos to a PC for example. It also has VGA camera and a WAP browser for Xtra email. If you’re looking for a good looking, thin, entry-level phone, that will hardly make a dent in your pocket or your wallet, then the Sanyo 6600 should get your consideration.

For more information on Telecom Mobile visit their online exhibit here.

For more information about Mobility visit the Mobile Business Research Pavilion

Follow this link to subscribe to MyMobile magazine www.mercurysubs.co.nz/mymobile

November 2006