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Nokia 6555 Cell Phone Review - Messaging

Alfredo Padilla Published on February 29, 2008 Comment on this

Intro Making/Receiving Calls Software Other Features

Tour & Design Messaging Battery Life Value & Comparisons

Audio Quality Organizer Connectivity Conclusion

Imaging Multimedia Hardware Ratings & Specs

Summary
Like most non-smart phones, the 6555 lacks a true e-mail client, which doesn't make it a good choice for the BlackBerry crowd. We did find the text and multimedia message features to be solid, however. We especially like that no artificial distinction is made between the two message types, and how easy it is to create a new text message.

Supported E-mail Services (0.0)
Like many phones from AT&T, the Nokia 6555 doesn't have an e-mail client that stores your messages on the device itself. Instead, it uses AT&T's web-based e-mail interface, which is basically a Java program that gives you access to popular services like Yahoo!, AOL, and Hotmail, among others. The key problem with this sort of approach is that when you don't have a connection to the data network you can't read your e-mail or compose new messages. For those who depend on their e-mail this is a fatal flaw, and as such we don't award points for e-mail systems that work like this. This means the Nokia 6555 receives a zero in many of these sections.

Push Email (0.0)
No e-mail client.

Multiple Email Accounts (0.0)
No e-mail client.

HTML and Attachements (0.0)
No e-mail client.

E-mail Customizations (0.0)
No e-mail client.

Time to a New E-mail Message (0.0)
No e-mail client.

E-mail Usability (0.0)
No e-mail client.

Instant Messaging (0.0)
As with e-mail, your instant messaging client on the Nokia 6555 is an AT&T program that gives you access to Yahoo!, Windows Live, and AIM instant messaging services. The drawback with using the carrier's client is that AT&T charges you for a text message for each instant message sent and received. This might be fine for those who have an unlimited data plan, but for those who don't it's basically charging them twice for the same data transfer. As such, we don't award points for instant messaging clients that use an SMS gateway like that found on the Nokia 6555.

MMS Support (8.5)
MMS support on the Nokia 6555 is very well integrated. In particular we noted that in contrast to Nokia Series 60 smart phones like the Nokia N75, the 6555 doesn't make a distinction between creating an SMS message or an MMS message. This means you simply go in to create a message, and if you want to turn it into an MMS just add some media to it. Voila, it's done! This is the kind of approach we like, and it'smmuch better than phones that split the two message types into two interfaces. MMS is also well integrated into the Nokia 6555's camera and album software, allowing you to easily take a photo/video, or choose an existing one, and create a new outgoing MMS message with it.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (10.0)
Those who love emoticons will be very happy with the Nokia 6555's performance. Not only can you easily insert various smiley faces via the menu, but when you receive a text message with smiley faces in it the phone automatically turns them into graphical representations, rather than leaving them in plain text. Now if only Nokia's S60 handsets did the same.

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (7.0)
SMS and MMS messages on the Nokia 6555 share folders in the messaging application, so all your messages come into the same inbox and all your sent messages are also in the same box. This is significantly better than handsets that create two separate folder systems for each type. When you open the messaging application on the Nokia 6555 you are shown a list of the folders and a shortcut to create a new message at the top. You can also create your own folders to organize messages. Within folders you see a list of messages organized chronologically. You can't reorganize them and messages are not threaded by conversation, as found on the iPhone. When you create a new message you are given a field at the top to enter the numbers/contacts you want to send to, a box below that to enter your text, and a series of icons at the bottom that allow you to add multimedia and access other functions. Overall, the interface is simple and straightforward, and we especially like the integration between message types.

Time to a New SMS Message (6.76)
Creating a new text message on the Nokia 6555 is fairly speedy at an average of 1.48 seconds. This is how long it takes to go from phone closed until we have a new SMS dialogue on the screen. You can see from the table below that the Nokia 6555 is not as fast as the Samsung SLM, which did very well in this test, but is faster than any of our other comparison phones. We were helped out in this test by the fact that on the home screen of the 6555 pushing up on the d-pad takes you directly to a new text message. This is going to be a boon to those who like to text a lot. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Nokia 6555	1.48	6.76
Samsung SLM	0.74	13.51
LG Venus	3.36	2.98
Sony Ericsson W580i	1.54	6.49
Razr2 V8	1.99	5.03
Nokia N75	1.84	5.43

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