The Nokia 6060 offers consumers all they need for basic voice communications. Featuring an attractive fold concept, the Nokia 6060 shows that beautiful design is not confined to high-end devices.

With phones proving that looks sell anything, Nokia 6060 seems to be operating on that modus operandi when it was launched as part of the series of new phones at the "Live Connected" Campaign earlier this year.

While it cannot tout of any impressive multimedia capabilities, one thing that it exudes and everyone agrees is that the black sleek lightweight (92g) Nokia 6060 with chrome accents does make quite a statement for those out on a simple evening with friends.

As quoted from Jyri Huopaniemi "Making Nokia device the user interface of your life", Nokia aimed not just make good voice devices but is actively following up on their attractively inspired designs from the Nokia 7-series in 2004 and upcoming L'Armour Collection.

While Nokia 6060 seems to be the design bridge between the two series, it does provide a plausible and reasonable excuse for those "up-graders" who claimed they only want to use a handset for its basic functions - calls and SMS; of course it does not hurt that their handset looks like a fashion statement itself.

This market entrant targets the saturated entry-level handset market. With its subtle message of style and functionality, it makes a gentle statement amidst the "oohs-and-ahhs" of the other six more impressive Nokia models during the launch.  It certainly seems to hit the right note with those who just do not wish to clutter their lives with anything more than being able to perform basic phone features, with some fun multi-media features thrown in as part of the accompanying package. 

The tactile feel of the comfortable keypad slightly uplifted in its oblong hard plastic setting, lined with silver chrome makes it not just a pleasure for the eyes, but also for your fingers as each key reacts with imperceptible yet accurate entries with each entry typed in your text message.  This is also coupled with well-thought short-cut keys for the large functional keys which allow you to send SMS to various options such as recently used numbers, or your phone book entries, to groups or preset profile of contacts. 

Multimedia messages (MMS) composing is equipped with the choice to contain images, sound clips, calendar notes, business cards or also allows you to align your text accordingly.

An interesting, yet seemingly "backward" form of animated text composing is also available as "Flash messages" for Nokia 6060.  You know those you received during festive seasons and they go *blink blink* at the seemingly appropriate places? Well, now you can do it yourself without going through third party websites online to create one of your very own.  It does somewhat makes a change from all the drudgeries one has to be concerned about when composing an MMS (size of message or compatibility of handset or even the charges by the operator).  Seems fitting for a fashion culture that is currently going back on retro and beyond.

While we may berate it not having any camera functionalities or Bluetooth or Infra-red which seems to be the usual package that comes with other entry-level handsets, it does come equipped with a full-featured email client allowing you to set up your POP3 or IMAP4 accounts to receive and reply your emails as if you are using Outlook itself, with the standard folders like Draft, Sent Items, Archives folders.  Here's a list of what we are glad Nokia 6060 has and what we wished Nokia may wish to improve on:

The Standard:

• Contacts(500), with 5 types of numbers, email address and notes feature
• Last 10 missed/dialed/received call list
• Shared memory around 3.0MB
• 16 channel polyphonic ring tones
• Calendar Functions
• Clock Functions
• Li-Ion Battery with standby 260 hours and Talk time 2 hours 30 minutes

The Good:

• Light (92g)
• Stylish design
• Good keypad
• 65K TFT display
• LED and display able to read in daylight
• Email client
• Flash Connector (Plug and Play)
• Expense Manager
• Supports MP3 ring tones
• Multimedia features (Screensaver, Themes, Adjustable font sizes)

The Bad:

• External Antenna
• Dual band only
• No external information display 
• External LED strip do not differentiate between missed calls or SMS
• No transfer mechanics, only able to download from WAP sites
• GPRS class 6, below latest standard

The chrome-detailed Nokia 6060 marks yet another addition to Nokia's clamshell handset collection and also its focus on style over features in the entry-level handset market. While it stays true to its tagline of "Connecting people" (though not to equipments in this case), it does fulfill the much-awaited wish list of the simpler Nokia users who swears by friendly navigation experience Nokia provides without the need for too much multi-media sophistication.