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REVIEW: Nokia 6265i Hello, everyone!
Just thought I would share my views on Cricket's newest Nokia 6265i offer. The phone itself is not new--it has been out for some time now from other carriers. But I feel this handset is Cricket's first real step toward providing their customers with quality hardware that is on par with (or better than) other national carriers.
Before I go on, let me advise you that I have owned EVERY "flagship" phone Cricket has had in stock except the Motorola Razr. To date, I have owned and personally used the Audiovox 8900, it's "older brother", the 8910, the Kyocera KOI, and the Kyocera Slider Remix. I have even purchased the Kyocera Candid and Xcursion models of picture phones, but not for personal use.
I loved all of my Cricket flagship phones, from my rugged little Audiovox 8900 (tough but locks/dies when hacked) to the Kyocera KOI (VERY fun to hack) and especially the Slider Remix (a crippled handset that needs only a few minor KPST tweaks here and there at best).
With that said--I must say that the Nokia 6265i is by far the best handset that Cricket has yet to offer. It is by leaps and bounds one of the most "media-centric" mobile phone I have ever owned, second only to my old first-generation Nokia N-Gage (unlocked to all GSM carriers). Which brings me to the first of my only two complaints I have with the 6265i--it lacks the Symbian OS firmware of Nokia's other media-centric phone models. But the lack of Symbian OS doesn't hinder in the slightest the rich multimedia features inherent to the 6265i. This is a minor complaint at best.
Navigating the 6265i's menu and filesystem is a breeze. You can create folders and edit file and folder names right there on the phone. You can also move, rename, and delete files with relative ease. With such a robust, desktop-like filesystem, it's difficult to tell that there's no Symbian OS powering the device. The icons look amazing on the large, bright, colorful display, and you get thumbnail rendrings of all supported image and video formats--a very nice touch!
The thing I like most about this phone is the flexibility to use the media it can play in a variety of customizable options. For example, you can set a music video as a video ringtone! No, not the sound of the music video--I mean the actual music video itself! You can also use videos as screen savers. (You can use the Nokia Multimedia Converter--a free download--to convert your videos to a format the phone can play: http://forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia...erter_2.0.html )
And speaking of ringtones--no need for special tools here. Just select an MP3 or AAC song or clip and choose "use" from the options menu. You can assign ANY song or sound your phone can play as an alert or ringtone! No more splicing your MP3's to shorten them. No more file format conversion to dither them down. No more having to change the file extension to .MID for them to play. With the 6265i, your MP3 files simply work as is with no special modifications necessary.
You can also use animated GIF's as the wallpaper for "standby mode", when the phone is idle. I love having people gawk at the large, clear, colorful screen as my animated GIF of Pac Man chomping around his maze plays in the background. For Cricket customers, this phone pays for itself in bragging rights alone!
Of course, all this media requires memory to store it, and the 6265i supports the miniSD format--up to 2 gigs. You can tell the handset to store all of its media to the memory card to free-up the 23MB of available internal RAM built into the phone.
So, how will you transfer files to (and from) your phone? Although Cricket offers a USB data cable, you can also use Bluetooth for file transfer. For example, I can simply browse my phone and all of its contents from my Mac over Bluetooth. I can see any file or folder available and download them, and I can send files and create folders as well. I also use a USB memory card reader from SandDisk to transfer larger files.
Speaking of Bluetooth--my Mac is able to use the 6265i as a modem over Bluetooth. I imagine a PC with a USB dongle would be capable of doing the same.
The 6265i boasts good sound quality and is almost as loud as my Kyocera Slider Remix (a welcome change from my old whisper-soft Kyocera KOI).
Aesthetically, the phone has clean lines and a nice, finished style that is simple and uncluttered. I love the look of the phone on its side--it looks just like a digital camera to people! And while I'm on the subject of the camera--the pictures are as you would expect from a 2 Megapixel camera. But just like any digital camera function, be sure to have plenty of subject lighting or your pictures will be just as grainy and blurry as a camera of lesser resolution. (My Audiovox 8900 took amazingly bright, clear, and colorful pictures even without a flash for such a dinky little phone!) The 6265i sports a flash for low lighting conditions and a "night mode" brightness enhancement feature to boost picture low light levels even more. While in camera mode, the side volume controls can be used to zoom in and out from the subject. The video capture and playback, however, are somewhat underwhelming, but nonetheless forgivable. (The Kyocera Slider Remix was a champ at video capture and playback.) It's worth mentioning that the amount of video you can take depends on the amount of memory you have left and not on a specific time limit, so be sure to set the phone to record to your miniSD card--especially if it is a beefier one. And to its credit, the 6265i has an option to playback video full-screen, although you have to tilt the phone on its side to view it. But hey...
Pictures and graphics can also be show as full-screen as well, and will stretch to fit the screen should you apply them as a wallpaper.
The phone is surprisingly light and feels solid in the hand. The sliding action is spring-loaded and takes some getting used to. But its a nice touch to keep the phone from being caught in "mid-snap" position (one of the few caveats of the Kyocera Slider Remix). The all-black finish has a nice "ceramic" feel to it--it's not as "plasticky" as most handsets Cricket offers, as advised to me by one of the local sales agents. She was right: The phone feels just right in the hand.
Another very nice touch is the sliding cover for the headphone jack, as the little rubber nipples on the Kyocera phones are usually the first thing to snap-off after prolonged use. Which brings me to my only other real complaint with this phone so far--why the flimsy hinges on the miniSD slot cover, Nokia? For such an otherwise solid phone--why not a hingeless sliding cover like the one for the headphone jack? A shame, that.
Lastly, the 6265i is Cricket's first forray into Java-based handsets. Although this phone is capable of handling Brew, Cricket has decided to go the way of Java. This is great because you can now add games as you please just by loading them onto the phone's memory or the miniSD card!
In fact, nothing seems to be crippled about this phone--not even its Bluetooth functionality!
In my humble opinion, the 6265i is a welcome step for Cricket in the right direction for premium handset models (although compared to other carriers, I'm sure the 6265i might seem a bit blasé). Now all that is left for them to offer are Smartphones and PDA's--perhaps even a few Sidekick-like 2-way devices with horizontal keypads. It's a worthy investment for a gadget freak like me, and pays for itself in the "wow-factor" alone. And believe me--I'm speaking from experience--it puts all the other "flagship" Cricket models to shame!
Things I have yet to test on the phone are:
--Infrared data transfer: I can't really tell if the IR port is even available. Its on the opposite side from the camera button.
--FM Radio: If this bad boy is anything like my old 1st gen Nokia N-Gage, you can record over-the-air FM radio straight to your phone!
My suggested accessories for the 6265i:
--A carry case: Although the phone feels rugged, it's so clean and elegant that you really don't want it showing any scuffs and scratches over time. Keep it looking beautiful!
--Protective screen covers: Again, the phone is so aesthetically clean, why risk messing-up its large, beautiful screen?
--Extended battery: The factory battery life so far has been surprisingly good when playing media. I haven't made a lot of calls on it, though, but I WILL be purchasing the extended battery for it as soon as money will allow!I just wonder if the extended battery will add a significant amout of weight to the handset or requre a funky-looking battery cover that distorts the elegant shape of the phone. (This was my only major complaint with the Kyocera Slider Remix extended battery, which adds a considerable amount of extra "junk in the trunk" in the phone's butt. lol.)
--USB card reader: These little buggars come in handy when you want to transfer files between different computers without having to lug your USB data cable around.
--Bluetooth dongle: For PC users, if your desktop or laptop doesn't already support Bluetooth, this is definately the way to go. I love it!
--FM radio headset adapter: Needed to tune FM radio on your handset. I would have lobbied the lack of a standard 3.5mm headphone jack as a complaint, but I will forgive it in lieu of the proprietary FM radio dongle.
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Originally Posted by ChrisJH75 
