Nokia 6555 Cell Phone Review - Hardware
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Alfredo Padilla Published on February 29, 2008 Comment on this |
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Summary
The Nokia 6555's controls and keypad do a more than adequate job. They are responsive, accurate, and helped us rack up some pretty impressive words per minute scores. The screen on the Nokia 6555 is pretty standard and despite not being overly bright did pretty well in bright light situations. On the port side we're glad to see Nokia go with a standardized Micro USB port, but wish they'd jettison their proprietary power port. We'd also like the memory card to be more accessible - under the battery is just a pain to get to.
Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (10.02)
We were able to type out a test sentence on the Nokia 6555 using two hands in an average of 19.18 seconds, which works out to 50.1 words per minute (WPM). This is an excellent score for a phone without a QWERTY keyboard. You can see below that the Nokia 6555 put up the best score among our comparison handsets, and some of those phones are no slouches in terms of texting. The Nokia 6555's strength when typing is that the keypad buttons are well differentiated, good sized without being overly large, and provide excellent tactile feedback and key travel. That last is especially important, and one of the reasons we like the Nokia 6555's keypad better than the single piece style found on devices like the Razr2 V8. The fact that the keys are actually a little smaller than other phones like the Nokia N75 also seemed to help out because we could quickly move our fingers between them. Those who like to text will find the Nokia 6555's keypad to be an excellent tool. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article. | Cell Phone | Words Per Minute | Score |
| Nokia 6555 | 50.10 | 10.02 |
| Samsung SLM | 40.20 | 8.04 |
| LG Venus | 46.31 | 9.26 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 30.70 | 6.14 |
| Razr2 V8 | 46.00 | 9.20 |
| Nokia N75 | 42.48 | 8.50 |
T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
The Nokia 6555 supports T9 predictive text entry, meaning you don't have to spell out a word letter by letter. Instead you can just spell out the word Hello by tapping the corresponding keys that contain those letters, in this case 4, 3, 5, 5, 6. By contrast when using multi-tap, where you press a button multiple times to get to a letter, you would have to press 4, 4, 3, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6. You can see that T9 predictive text entry is real time saver. Another time saver is auto-complete, where the phone tries to guess the word you're trying to type and suggests it before you're done typing. Unfortunately the Nokia 6555 doesn't support this feature.
One-Handed Typing (9.12)
For those who like to text one handed we do our words per minute (WPM) test again, but this time using only a single hand. We found the Nokia 6555 took a slight step back compared to two-handed typing at 45.6 WPM. You can see below, however, that this is still a very good score, as the 6555 posts the best score amongst our comparison phones. One again, heavy texters will be very happy with the Nokia 6555's keypad, whether they use two hands, or one. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
| Cell Phone | Words Per Minute | Score |
| Nokia 6555 | 45.60 | 9.12 |
| Samsung SLM | 38.40 | 7.68 |
| LG Venus | 42.55 | 8.51 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 34.50 | 6.90 |
| Razr2 V8 | 40.54 | 8.11 |
| Nokia N75 | 38.10 | 7.62 |
Keypad Backlighting (5.0)
The Nokia 6555's keypad backlight illuminates the numbers and symbols on the keypad against the black plastic background. The backlight is bright and even, we were easily able to read all the numbers and symbols. What isn't so good are the settings - basically there are none. When you open the Nokia 6555 or hit a button the backlight comes on for 10 seconds. After that you'll have to press a button again to turn it back on. There are no settings to control this, and no light sensor that tries to adjust it automatically.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (7.5)
The Nokia 6555's d-pad does a very good job. It might be a little on the small side for those with large fingers, but we found it to be very responsive, easy to differentiate between directions, and the center select button was large enough to find easily but wasn't prone to mistaken presses. We also like the good tactile feedback and key travel. We even like the Nokia 6555's d-pad better than that on the Razr devices, which we like a lot due to their ease of use. In particular the Nokia 6555's d-pad is easier to find by feel than the Razr's. Touch Screen (0.0)
The Nokia 6555 does not have a touch screen.
Jog Dial (0.0)
The Nokia 6555 does not have a jog dial.
Soft Buttons (5.0)
The Nokia 6555's soft buttons are located on an arc of plastic that sits just above and slightly around the d-pad. The buttons are large and easy to find by feel, but their key travel and tactile feedback isn't as good as the keypad or the d-pad. They do their job, but are nothing special. At least you probably won't find yourself hitting other buttons by accident.
Volume Control (3.0)
The Nokia 6555's volume control is located on the left side of the handset on the upper part of the flip. When the phone is closed it sits right where you would want it, but when opened it sits a little out of reach. The volume control is a slender plastic button, and unlike many volume controls it doesn't provide you with any physical separation between the upper and lower part. This makes it hard to know exactly where on the button you are, and we would often find ourselves running our finger up and down the button before we were sure that we would be pressing the side we wanted. We've seen much better volume controls on phones like the Samsung SLM, which is better placed and better designed.
Power and Standby (7.0)
The power button on the Nokia 6555 is a secondary function of the end key. Press and hold it to turn the phone off and then press it once to turn it back on. The button is good sized, without being overly large, and well differentiated from surrounding buttons. It also provides good tactile feedback and key travel when pressed.
Other Buttons (4.0)
In addition to the buttons mentioned above, the Nokia 6555 has several other buttons, which mostly act as shortcuts to various functions. First up is a small Push To Talk button located next to the volume control on the left side of the phone. Surrounding the d-pad when you open the phone are three additional buttons. To the left is a dedicated button for the Web browser. To the right is another shortcut key for AT&T's streaming video services and below a dedicated camera button. None of these buttons have secondary functions and none can be reassigned to another function.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.0)
The Nokia 6555's main display is QVGA (240 x 320-pixel) resolution, which is fairly standard for modern phones. You can see below that only the Samsung SLM has a lower resolution display among our comparison phones, and none have a greater resolution. Given that you're probably not going to be watching high-quality video on the Nokia 6555 its screen resolution is more than sufficient.
| Cell Phone | Resolution | Score |
| Nokia 6555 | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| Samsung SLM | 176 x 220 | 4.00 |
| LG Venus | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| Razr2 V8 | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| Nokia N75 | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (10.0)
Pixels per inch (PPI) is a measure of how tightly pixels are packed onto a display. Higher pixel density means items on the screen look sharper and colors richer. Low pixel density can cause the display to look pixelated and washed out. Because the Nokia 6555 has a reasonable screen resolution but a smallish 2-inch display its pixel density is an impressive 200 PPI. You can see below the LG Venus and W580i both have similar situations and put up the same score. Two hundred pixels per inch is at the high end of what we see from handsets and should ensure items on the Nokia 6555's display look sharp.
| Cell Phone | Pixels Per Inch | Score |
| Nokia 6555 | 200 | 10.00 |
| Samsung SLM | 117.4 | 5.87 |
| LG Venus | 200 | 10.00 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 200 | 10.00 |
| Razr2 V8 | 181.8 | 9.09 |
| Nokia N75 | 166.7 | 8.34 |
Screen Physical Size (5.0)
As we mentioned above the Nokia 6555's main display is 2 inches diagonal. This is a little on the small side - you can see from our chart below that several of our comparison phones have 2.4 or 2.2-inch displays, and larger displays are no longer uncommon. Frankly, we would have given up some pixel density to have a larger display on the 6555.
| Cell Phone | Size Diagonal (inches) | Score |
| Nokia 6555 | 2 | 5.00 |
| Samsung SLM | 2.4 | 6.00 |
| LG Venus | 2 | 5.00 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 2 | 5.00 |
| Razr2 V8 | 2.2 | 5.50 |
| Nokia N75 | 2.4 | 6.00 |
Screen Brightness (3.10)
To measure screen brightness we pointed the Nokia 6555's browser to a blank white page and used a lux meter from two inches away to measure brightness in lux. The Nokia 6555 scored 62 lux in this test, which, as you can see below, is at the lower range of or comparison phones. Unfortunately you're stuck with this since the Nokia 6555 doesn't give users any screen brightness controls, nor does it have a light sensor to adjust the backlight automatically depending upon your environment.
| Cell Phone | Brightness (lux) | Score |
| Nokia 6555 | 62 | 3.10 |
| Samsung SLM | 60 | 4.25 |
| LG Venus | 63 | 2.65 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 85 | 6.75 |
| Razr2 V8 | 156 | 9.10 |
| Nokia N75 | 69 | 6.90 |
Screen Bright Light Performance (7.0)
The Nokia 6555 performed quite well in our bright light test. While shining 300 lux of light directly onto the screen, equivalent to a bright sunny day, we were able to easily make out both icons and text. This is surprising given that the Nokia 6555's screen isn't particularly bright, which leads us to believe there is likely a reflective layer built into the screen to improve bright light performance.
Color Depth (10.0)
The Nokia 6555 is capable of displaying an impressive 16 million colors. Nokia has aggressively moved its lineup to this color depth and it provides some of the best color quality of any handset. We're actually a little surprised to see such a high-end feature on what can only be called an entry to mid-level handset, but we're happy to see it. You can see below that only the N75, another Nokia handset, matches the Nokia 6555's color depth. What this means for users is that colors on the Nokia 6555's display should be rich and vibrant.
| Cell Phone | Colors (thousands) | Score |
| Nokia 6555 | 16,000 | 10.00 |
| Samsung SLM | 262 | 8.00 |
| LG Venus | 262 | 8.00 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 262 | 8.00 |
| Razr2 V8 | 65 | 6.00 |
| Nokia N75 | 16,000 | 10.00 |
Secondary Screen (8.54)
The Nokia 6555's external display measures 1.35 inches diagonal and has a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels. This isn't the largest external display we've seen, certainly not as large as the Nokia N75 or the Razr2 V8's external displays. The external screen is capable of displaying 262,000 colors and has a pixel density of 151.8 pixels, both solid scores. It fulfills its job well, and even when playing music and a lot of information is on the screen you can read it clearly, but we would have liked to see a larger sized display.
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (4.0)
The Nokia 6555 uses a Micro USB port for data connections, although you will need to go out and purchase a cable as the phone doesn't ship with one. Micro USB is not as prevalent as Mini USB yet, so we give it slightly fewer points, but it's still a standardized connector and we like to see that. For power the 6555 uses Nokia's proprietary power port, the newer slimmer version. We're not fans of proprietary power ports, and especially since the Micro USB port is capable of handling charging duties we question why Nokia would go with a separate proprietary port here.
Headphone Compatibility (8.0)
The Nokia 6555 uses a standard 2.5mm headphone jack, and it also ships with an adaptor so you can use any headphones with an ever more standardized 3.5mm connector as well. We're also happy to see that the phone supports the A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth profiles for wireless stereo headphones. Most users will have no problem finding a headset that will work with the Nokia 6555, and it's certainly a step up from Nokia's older handsets like the N75, which uses the completely proprietary Pop-Port for headphone duties.
Internal Storage (1.0)
The Nokia 6555's internal storage is 40 MB, which should be sufficient for your PIM data, but if you take a lot of photos or want to load it up with music you'll need to go out and purchase a memory card for additional storage.
Expansion Slot & Format (5.0)
The Nokia 6555 uses Micro SD cards for expansion, with support for high-capacity SDHC cards, which are currently widely available up to 8 GB. Unfortunately the Micro SD slot is not easily accessible, as it sits underneath the battery. Given that the Nokia 6555 doesn't ship with a data cable you'll have to go to the trouble of pulling out the battery every time you want to add or remove items from the memory card.
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