I’ve found the Nokia 6800 to be an excellent phone, easy to use with great features.

Overall:   4.5/5
Ease of use:   5/5
Features:   5/5
Sound quality:   4/5
Battery life:   4/5
Keyboard:   4.5/5

Overall
I’ve found the 6800 to be an excellent phone, easy to use with great features.  Personally I am not a new phone chaser; the newest, smallest, most colorful phone on the market is typically a turn-off to me.  Phones that allow easy basic use with advanced features that are nicely tucked out of way of every day use are the phones I want and Nokia has once again delivered.   With a keyboard that is useable for all but the largest thumbs, an excellent quality built in speakerphone, infrared port and internet access I am quite happy with my purchase.

Ease of use 5/5
While I have been known to read an owner’s manual from time to time, I expect a phone to be easy to use right out of the box.  My phone came via the mail so there was no one to explain anything about it.  After opening the box and plugging it in for the required 2-3 hours I powered it up and made my first call without a pause.  When receiving an incoming call you are presented with a choice to answer or silence the call.  If silence is touched you are presented with another choice to send the caller directly to voicemail, avoiding having to wait for the typical 5 rings.  Once you’re talking you can flip the phone open and the speaker phone automatically engages.  The menu is intuitively controlled by the joystick in the middle of the phone, and the menu choices are easy to understand.  Small enough to fit in my pocket, but not so small that I get hand cramps holding it to my ear during conference calls, I consider this phone to be just right.

Features 5/5
This phone is a small portable, basic PDA.  Features include:

• A phone book that can hold 5 phone numbers per contact plus an email address and notes/address.
  
• A calendar which is readily available by pressing the joystick to the right has meeting, call, birthday, memo and reminders with alarms available.
  
• A to-do list, notes, voice recorder, alarm clock, radio and picture gallery round off the PDA features
  
• Voice activation: several phone numbers can be voice dialed, and several commands can be set up to activate by voice
  
• Built in keyboard with back light for text messaging and email
  
• Web capable
  
• Available camera accessory which is the size of your thumb, incorporated into the ear bud cable
  
• The ability to manually choose a provider to help avoid roaming charges
  

After downloading the free PC-Sync software from Nokia’s site I set it up and synchronized with my Lotus notes email and calendar.  After enabling the infrared port on my phone I put the 6800 next to my ThinkPad and the ports found each other, no cable required.  The only problem I encountered was birthdays; Lotus notes made the birthday a full day appointment which then caused scheduling conflicts when I tried to schedule something else that day.  A couple clicks in Lotus Notes to change it to anniversary and I was good to go.  Synchronization is also available for Outlook, but I did not try it.

Sound quality 4/5
The speaker phone is excellent, I use it regularly and people have been surprised by the quality when I told them they were on speaker phone.  My only complaint is a minor one.   When using the phone (not in speaker mode) in a loud bar, it is sometimes hard to understand the other person.  Now while this may seem obvious my previous Nokia, the 3360 did a slightly better job.  Another minor problem I encountered, but am unable to decisively blame on the phone, is that there is occasionally some static in the background even when at full signal strength on a digital tower.

Battery Life 4/5
The first several charges are supposed to come after flattening the battery completely.  I used the phone to make several calls, played games, and had hardly made a dent in the battery meter.  The battery right out of the box should be more than enough for all but the heaviest users.

Keyboard 4.5/5
The keyboard was my biggest concern when deciding to get this phone.  Figuring it would be pretty ineffective I actually considered it a detriment in my decision.  After sending several text messages and making several notes to myself with this “detriment” I realized that I couldn’t go back to a phone without the keyboard.  The keys are just a little small for really easy use, but are acceptable.  Being truly nit-picky, three of the keys are not in the standard US keyboard positions.