We value your opinion! Please Take our 5 Minute Survey and be entered to win a $250 gift certificate to Best Buy


Home > Reviews > Manufacturer > Nokia 6555 Cell Phone Review

Nokia 6555 Cell Phone Review - Imaging

Alfredo Padilla
Published on February 29, 2008 Comment on this






Summary
The Nokia 6555's 1.3-megapixel camera is unimpressive at best. Still images show poor resolution and a lot of noise, but have decent color. The camera itself is only middling in terms of responsiveness and you don't have a lot of options. Video capture is even worse - it's really only useful for sending via MMS.

Resolution (1.90)

To test the resolution of the Nokia 6555's camera we take photos of an industry standard resolution chart and run those photos through Imatest software. Imatest produces a score called line width per pixel height (lw/ph), which measures how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before the images start blurring together. The Nokia 6555's 1.3-megapixel camera scores 675 lw/ph horizontal and 701 lw/ph vertical in this test, which is not very impressive. You can see below that several of our comparison phones also did poorly on this test, but despite that the Nokia 6555 is at the low end of the range. The W580i represents a phone that did well on this test, while the Razr2 V8 was middling.

Cell Phone Nokia 6555 Samsung SLM LG Venus
Score 1.90 0.88 2.70
lw/ph horizontal/vertical 675/701 444/476 779.9/740.1
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone Sony Ericsson W580i Razr2 V8 Nokia N75
Score 6.35 4.29 1.14
lw/ph horizontal/vertical 1195/960 982/982 505.9/698.8
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Color (5.94)
To test the quality of colors produced by a phone's camera we take photos of the industry-standard GretagMacbeth color chart. This chart displays 24 different colors. The photos produced by the phone are compared to the original chart colors by Imatest, which produces the chart below.


Here you can see the difference between the original and captured colors. Another way to look at the information is in the chart below, which Imatest also produces. Here the ideal colors are indicated by a small square, while the actual captured colors are indicated by a circle. The longer the line connecting the two, the more inaccurate the color capture.

You can see the Nokia 6555's camera does a reasonable job with most colors, but has some trouble with yellows and reds. It tends to undersaturate the yellows while oversaturating reds. These are not major issues, and the Nokia 6555 does well compared to other handsets, as you can see in the table below. In particular, you should note the Nokia 6555 performs better than the Nokia N75's 2-megapixel camera in this test, and only the LG Venus performed better.

Cell Phone Nokia 6555 Samsung SLM LG Venus
Score 5.94 2.15 6.00
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone Sony Ericsson W580i Razr2 V8 Nokia N75
Score 5.61 4.41 3.47
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Noise (0.21)
To see how much noise is produced in photos taken by the Nokia 6555 we take photos the same color chart we used above, but at four different lighting levels. We then use Imatest to analyze the noise at each lighting level and base our final score both on the total noise and consistency across lighting levels. The Nokia 6555 performs terribly in this test. Not only does it produce sub-optimal noise levels across the board, even for a phone, but noise levels increase dramatically in low-light conditions. You can see below that the Nokia 6555 puts up the worst noise score among our comparison phones, and this is a feat since there are some pretty bad performances in there. We should also note, however, that camera phones in general perform poorly on this test - we haven't seen a phone score a 2.0 yet. This is mostly due to the extremely small imaging chips used in phones.

Cell Phone Score
Nokia 6555 0.21
Samsung SLM 1.48
LG Venus 0.94
Sony Ericsson W580i 0.36
Razr2 V8 0.91
Nokia N75 0.41

Live Preview (5.0)
The Nokia 6555's live preview takes up the entire 2-inch internal display, which is good, since any smaller would make it postage stamp-sized. The display itself has a good refresh rate, and we only saw a little blurring when panning. It does seem a bit noisy, however. If you look very closely you can detect a very fine grid of lines running through the live preview. Given that your final photos are also quite noisy, however, you can argue it does a decent job of showing you what you're going to get. We also noted that colors are slightly washed out, but again this does a decent job of reproducing your final photo, so in that respect it's good. Overall, we feel it does a solid job, and we can't argue we'd like the live preview to look better since your photos won't reflect that. We do wish the display was a little larger overall.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (5.41)
Here we're seeing how long it takes to take the Nokia 6555 out, open it up, launch the camera application, and take a photo. In our tests it took 3.7 seconds to complete this process. You can see below that this in the mid range of our comparison phones, and overall we would only call it average to slightly below average. In the camera world, 3.7 seconds is a lot of time, and it's unlikely you'll be able to capture those spur of the moment shots with the Nokia 6555's camera. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Cell Phone Time (sec) Score
Nokia 6555 3.7 5.41
Samsung SLM 3.7 5.41
LG Venus 4.57 4.38
Sony Ericsson W580i 2.7 7.41
Razr2 V8 4.56 4.39
Nokia N75 4.7 4.26

Shot to Shot Time (6.00)
This test looks at how long it takes to capture a series of photos. When possible we use a phone's Burst mode for this test, and the Nokia 6555 does have one. At full resolution, the Nokia 6555 captures four images in two seconds, which works out to to 2 frames per second (fps). This is a pretty good score, you can see below that several of our comparison phones did much worse than the Nokia 6555, although a couple did slightly better. The real key, however, is that the Nokia 6555's Burst mode allows you to capture photos at full resolution. For many phones Burst mode only captures at much lower resolutions. Given this, the Nokia 6555's performance on this test is fairly impressive.

One side note about the Nokia 6555's Burst mode is that it's a little confusing. Most phones will capture a series of photos with a new capture sound for each and then give you the opportunity to preview all the photos you took in Burst mode. The Nokia 6555 does none of this, instead the only thing that differentiates burst capture from regular is a small beep. Everything else looks the same, you even only get to see one of the photos you captured in the series. We were rather confused for awhile until we went to look at the album software and saw the camera had indeed captured a series of photos, with a folder created for each series. We hope Nokia considers making the burst capture a little more transparent. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Cell Phone FPS Score
Nokia 6555 2.00 6.00
Samsung SLM 2.10 6.30
LG Venus 0.36 1.08
Sony Ericsson W580i 2.70 8.10
Razr2 V8 0.58 1.74
Nokia N75 0.43 1.29

Shutter to Shot Time (5.0)
Shutter to shot time measures how long it takes for the camera to capture a photo once you've hit the capture key. The Nokia 6555 takes 0.4 seconds to capture a photo after you hit the button. This is a middling score, you can see below that we've seen better and worse from other phones. Compared to a real camera, however, this is pretty slow, especially considering there is no autofocus to wait for.
For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Cell Phone Time (sec) Score
Nokia 6555 0.4 5.00
Samsung SLM 0.3 6.67
LG Venus 0.82 2.44
Sony Ericsson W580i 0.12 16.67
Razr2 V8 0.39 5.13
Nokia N75 0.73 2.74

Interface (4.0)
The Nokia 6555's camera interface does a good job providing users with valuable information. As we mentioned above, the entire display on the 6555 is taken up by the viewfinder for the camera. Indicators are found along the edges of the screen, starting in the top left with indicators for Still/Video mode and quality. In the top right you can see where you photos are being saved and a counter for how many photos you can capture. On the right side is a slider to indicate zoom level, and at the bottom right is an indicator for resolution. Along the bottom of the screen are the three labels for the two soft keys and center select button. Despite the good amount of information on screen it takes up a minimum of space and the interface still feels fairly clean.

The right soft key is assigned to exit the application while the left soft key opens a menu where you can access the advanced features of the camera. The menu looks just like any other menu on the Nokia 6555, which is something of a disappointment. We prefer menu systems that are tabbed, creating a more camera-like experience and generally putting more options in easy reach than a traditional menu system. When you throw in the fact that there are no keypad shortcuts, the menu system just seems a little clunky, especially when compared to the excellent menu system found on Nokia's Series 60 devices, like the N75.

Photo Album Software Internal (3.0)
The Nokia 6555's photo album software is pretty simple. You'll find it under the My Stuff item on the main application screen. From there you'll have to choose Tones & Graphics, which isn't very intuitive, and you'll find an images folder. If you're saving your photos to your memory card, however, you'll need to select the memory card from the list first and then open the images folder on the card. It's basically no more than a file browser, which is fairly common on basic phones like the Nokia 6555. When you do open a folder that has images you get a list of the images with a small thumbnail on the left and the image name and date/time it was captured to the right.

We are glad to see there are sorting options under the left soft key menu and you can also search for an image by file name. Unfortunately you can't change the view, so if you prefer a grid view you're out of luck. You can easily delete, rename, and move images, as well as select multiple images in a batch. All of this is found under the left soft key menu. Overall, there's nothing here that impresses us much. The search feature is a nice touch that many phones lack, but the interface is nothing special. It's certainly nowhere near as fancy as the rotating carousel approach used by the Gallery on Nokia's Series 60 phones, like the N75.

Manual Control (1.0)
The Nokia 6555 doesn't have any advanced manual controls, which is not suprising given the unimpressive 1.3-megapixel camera. About the only thing you can do is activate the one Scene mode for night shots.

Zoom (1.0)
The Nokia 6555 has a 6x digital zoom on board that can be controlled by pressing up/down on the d-pad while in the camera interface. Digital zoom is of limited utility since all it does is crop and enlarge and area of the scene, just as you could do on your computer with software. As such, we only award a single point for it.

Focus (0.0)
Like most phone cameras, the Nokia 6555 has a fixed focus lens, which means what you see in the scene is what you get. This is in contrast to autofocus lenses, like those found on a real digital camera or high-end cell phones like the Nokia N95. These adjust the focus before you take the photo. We don't award any points for fixed focus cameras like the one found on the Nokia 6555.

Flash (0.0)
The Nokia 6555 lacks a flash.

Metering (0.0)
The Nokia 6555 lacks any metering controls. Advanced metering controls allow you to control from which point or points in a scene light is judged. Most phones lack these, but many have a simple brightness adjustment. The Nokia 6555, however, lacks even this feature.

White Balance (2.0)
The Nokia 6555 offers several simple presets for white balance, as is found on most cell phone cameras. These are Daylight, Tungsten, Flourescent, and Horizon, as well as an Automatic setting.

Image Handling (2.0)
The Nokia 6555's album software includes some simple editing features. You can crop images, insert text, a frame, clip-art, or another image. Nothing particularly special or impressive here, which isn't surprising.

Video

Video Quality (2.0)
The Nokia 6555 captures video at a maximum resolution of 176 x 144 at 15 fps. This is not particularly impressive and befits the Nokia 6555's status as an entry-level device. The video quality is really only good enough to send as an MMS message to another phone. Any screen bigger than that and you will quickly notice serious pixelation and artifacts. On the plus side, the video is decent given its low quality, so it should look good on your phone.

Video Resolution (2.97)
To test the resolution of video captured by the Nokia 6555 we use the same industry-standard resolution chart we use for the still image tests. We take video of this chart and then pull stills from that video and analyze them using Imatest. This produces a line widths per pixel height (lw/ph) score, which measures how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they start blurring together. The Nokia 6555 scores 180 lw/ph horiztonal and 165 lw/ph veritical. You can see below that this isn't out of line with many of our comparison phones, but it's in sharp contrast to the Nokia N75, which captures video at 352 x 288 resolution and produces very good video for that resolution. This poor showing in this test backs up our impression that video capture on the Nokia 6555 is unimpressive at best.

Cell Phone lw/ph horizontal/vertical Score
Nokia 6555 180/165 2.97
Samsung SLM 155/144 2.23
LG Venus 237/247 5.85
Sony Ericsson W580i 122/108 1.32
Razr2 V8 168/217 3.65
Nokia N75 315/348.1 10.97

Video Compression (2.0)
The Nokia 6555 only captures video in 3GP format, which is the standard for mobile video. 3GP involves some pretty serious compression, as you would expect for video that is meant to be transferred between mobile handsets, and phones that produce better video often offer MPEG-4 and even H.264 capture. Given the poor quality of the Nokia 6555's video, however, 3GP is fitting. Frankly, any additional compression options would have been wasted here.

Interface (3.0)

The video capture interface on the Nokia 6555 is similar to the still capture, in that you find unobstrusive icons for various controls and indicators scatterd around the edge of the screen. The biggest difference is that video capture doesn't take up the whole screen; it only uses the middle half with black bars above and below it. This means you have a smaller viewfinder, which we don't like, but it does give you a better idea of what the final video will look like. The left soft key gives you access to a menu, with basically no options or controls available, while the right soft key exits the application. The smaller viewing area is the biggest issue here, resulting in a much lower score than the still image interface.

Manual Control (0.0)
There are no manual video controls on the Nokia 6555.

Zoom (1.0)
As with still capture, there's a 6x digital zoom available, although given the fact you're starting with an extremely low resolution already we don't advise using it, as the video is going to look even worse than it already does.

Editing (0.0)
There are no video editing options on the Nokia 6555.

Modes (3.0)
You can set the Nokia 6555 to limit video at 30 seconds to be sent via MMS, and there are a few white balance presets available, but that's about it.


Previous    Next
Shop for a wireless plan
Shop Carrier Type Minutes $/Min Cost
Shop Individual 450 0.0889 39.99
Shop Individual 900 0.0667 59.99
Shop Family 700 0.1000 69.99
Shop Family 1400 0.0643 89.99
Reviews   |   About WI   |   Staff   |   Advertising   |