Nokia 6555 Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Alfredo Padilla Published on February 29, 2008 Comment on this |
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Summary
We found it easy to dial numbers on the Nokia 6555, and its call management features are solid. Volume for ringtones is a little on the low side, and we're disappointed you can't use your own music files as ringtones.
Dialing Speed (6.37)
We were able to dial a phone number on the Nokia 6555 in an average of 3.14 seconds. This is a solid time, especially for a flip phone where you have to take the extra time to open the phone up. You can see below that only the LG Venus, which has a slider design, did significantly better than the 6555, with the Samsung SLM doing only slightly better. The 6555 does significantly better than handsets like the Razr2 V8 and W580i. We found it very easy to get the Nokia 6555 open and the keypad is very comfortable to use. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia 6555 | 3.14 | 6.37 |
| Samsung SLM | 3.02 | 6.62 |
| LG Venus | 2.64 | 7.58 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 3.66 | 5.46 |
| Razr2 V8 | 3.45 | 5.80 |
| Nokia N75 | 3.34 | 5.99 |
Send and End Buttons (7.0)
The send and end buttons on the Nokia 6555 flank the d-pad and sit slightly below it, just above the keypad. The buttons are well differentiated from surrounding keys, and we found them easy to reach from the keypad. They are a little bit on the small side, but they provide good tactile feedback when pressed, although we would have liked more key travel. They're significantly better than the buttons on the Samsung SLM, which had very little differentiation from surrounding keys.
Call Management (7.0)
You can access a history of all your calls by hitting the send button on the home screen. You get a simple list with your latest call at the top. Each item shows the phone number and time and date of the call. When a call is selected you can use the left soft key to create a new contact with that number, add the number to an existing contact, send a text message to the number, or delete the item from the list. In this view there's no way to see only incoming/outgoing/made calls. For that you need to go into the menu and open the Recent Calls application. From here you can see all your calls or see just the missed, received, or made calls. Each of these is an item in a list of options - when you are in one you have to go back out to the menu to get to another. We would have preferred to have a tabbed interface you can easily switch between while viewing the calls, as many phones have. Also available are options to clear all of your calls from the various lists and view call timers and data counters. Aside from the inability to easily switch between filters for your calls, we found the call history features on the Nokia 6555 to be solid.
During a call the right soft key is assigned to toggle the speakerphone. The left soft key opens a menu where you can access options like mute, make a new call, and record the call, among others. We were impressed to see the Nokia 6555 handles multi-tasking like a champ. Not only are we able to access functions like the address book and calendar, but we're also able to use the 3G connection's ability to handle simultaneous voice and data to browse the Internet while on a call. This king of multi-tasking is normally limited to smart phones, and we're very happy to see it on the Nokia 6555.
Startup to Call (4.72)
In this test we time how long it takes to go from phone off until we make a call. This is an important test for those who turn their phone off often but still want to be able to get it out and make a call quickly if necessary. The Nokia 6555 did pretty well in this test, taking an average of 21.2 seconds to start up and make a call. As you can see from the table below this is better than all our comparison phones except the W580i. We're quite pleased with the 6555's performance in this test. It's also worth noting that the Nokia N75, which is a smart phone running the Symbian Series 60 interface, takes almost twice as long on this test as the Nokia 6555. This is one of the areas where you're generally better off with a regular phone rather than a more advanced handset. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia 6555 | 21.20 | 4.72 |
| Samsung SLM | 30.10 | 3.32 |
| LG Venus | 25.11 | 3.98 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 19.42 | 5.15 |
| Razr2 V8 | 27.72 | 3.61 |
| Nokia N75 | 40.56 | 2.47 |
Ring Volume (9.03)
To test ring volume we set the handset volume to maximum and use a sound pressure meter to measure how loud each ringtone gets. The Nokia 6555's ring volume measures 90.3 decibels, which is not the lowest we've seen, but isn't particularly loud, either. You can see from the chart below that several of our comparison phones reached 100 decibels in this test. You likely aren't going to be missing calls on the Nokia 6555 due to low ring volume, but if you're in a loud location you may not be able to hear it.
| Cell Phone | Volume (decibels) | Score |
| Nokia 6555 | 90.3 | 9.03 |
| Samsung SLM | 83.9 | 8.39 |
| LG Venus | 102.3 | 10.23 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 87.4 | 8.74 |
| Razr2 V8 | 103.4 | 10.34 |
| Nokia N75 | 100.1 | 10.01 |
Ringtones (2.0)
The Nokia 6555 doesn't allow users to use their own music files as ring tones. Instead you will have to purchase new ringtones from AT&T. You can make recordings using the phone's voice recorder and use them as ring tones, however.
Non Audio Alerts (10.0)
The Nokia 6555's vibrate alert is about average. It's not so bad that you'll always miss it, but it's also weak enough that if it's in a jacket pocket or a bag you might not notice it. When the phone rings the external display starts flashing and gives you information about the incoming call. If you happen to be looking at the phone you'll probably notice it.
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