Nokia 6555 Cell Phone Review - Audio Quality
General Audio
The quality of audio you get from your cell phone is probably the most important feature for most users. If you can't hear what people are saying, or they can't hear you, it just doesn't matter what other bells and whistles are on board. To test audio quality we use professional grade software and equipment, in fact some cell phone manufacturers use the same equipment to test their handsets. To simulate the human ear we use a Head and Torso Simulator (HATS), and to analyze the sound we use Listen Inc's SoundCheck software. For more information on how we test audio please see
this article.
Summary
We're quite pleased with the Nokia 6555's audio performance. Sound sent and received by the phone is adequate, and side tone is right about where we want it. You shouldn't have any trouble with audio quality if you're using the Nokia 6555.
Sound Receive Frequency Response (8.16)
In this test we look at the quality of sound received by the Nokia 6555, so this is how others will sound to you. The chart above indicates the Nokia 6555's performance with a blue line, while the two red lines indicate the limits against which we test. You can see that the Nokia 6555 falls within our limits across frequencies. There's a rather abrupt rise at the higher end of frequencies. Although most phones have this problem, the Nokia 6555's increase is slightly larger than most phones. This is a minor issue, however, and overall the Nokia 6555 performs well in this test. You can see from our table below that the Nokia 6555 performs better in this test than three of our comparison phones, with two others doing better.
| Cell Phone |
Nokia 6555 |
Samsung SLM (on AT&T) |
LG Venus (on Verizon) |
| Score |
8.16 |
7.49 |
7.78 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |
 |
 |
 |
Sound Send Frequency Response (8.27)
Here we look at the sound sent by the Nokia 6555, aka how you sound to those on the other end of the call. As before, the Nokia 6555's performance is in blue with our limits in red in the chart above. Once again we're pleased to see that the Nokia 6555 falls within our limits across frequency ranges. Our only concern is that the curve falls a little low before dropping off at the high end of the frequencies, but this isn't a big deal. Below you see the Nokia 6555 puts up the best score among our comparison phones in this test.
| Cell Phone |
Nokia 6555 |
Samsung SLM (on AT&T) |
LG Venus (on Verizon) |
| Score |
8.27 |
8.68 |
7.24 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |
 |
 |
 |
Handset Side Tone (8.94)
Side tone is the small amount of your own voice that handsets pipe back into your ear so you can judge how loudly you are speaking. Our ideal for side tone is -18 decibels, while the Nokia 6555 scores -19.06 decibels in this test. This is a minor difference, so you should be able to judge the volume of your voice just fine on the Nokia 6555. You can see below that this isn't always the case, as the Razr2 V8 and Nokia N75 both put up side tone scores that are much louder than we would have liked (smaller numbers are louder here because we're on the negative side of zero).
