Phones: Sanyo 6600 ‘Ice’ Telecom Mobile Phone review – 54

It’s always nice to see the progress of technology giving the consumer more bang for their buck year after year. Mobile phones are one of the fastest growing technologies and the rate at which they are upgraded and new features are added is amazing. The Sanyo 6600 is a great example of this, with features that just a few short years ago would have been unheard of in a mid-range phone.

Size-wise, the 6600 follows in the footsteps of the widely popular Motorola RAZR, which virtually invented the ultra-slim form factor. The Sanyo is almost as small, at just 15mm thick, yet is still wide enough to hold securely.

The internal screen also benefits from the march of progress with a very impressive resolution of 240×320 pixels – far higher than most phones. This resolution makes browsing the web, reviewing photos or playing games far easier. In fact, games are what I found this phone was best at. Telecom provides a decent selection of titles, ranging from Space Invaders to conversions of classic PC games such as Age Of Empires. All these games take full advantage of the large screen, which, in turn, gives a bracing gaming experience.

Of course, there is more to this phone than just gaming and on other fronts the phone performs as expected. First, there is an external display that shows caller ID, signal strength and battery life. Then, there is the camera; it’s only VGA resolution, but still quite usable. There is an excellent speaker phone which is clear and loud enough to hear in a busy office, and a decent range of applications including a calendar (again, making great use of the screen), world clock and other utilities. The 6600 supports Java and extra applications can be downloaded. Finally, it also comes supplied with a range of ring-tones, wallpapers and screen savers. More can be downloaded from the Telecom site.

Having the ability to download all these extras is great, but nothing in life is free and any download is charged either by the KB or at a fixed price (for games, ring-tones, etc). The 6600 makes it easy to get online; with just one press of a dedicated button, you are taken straight to the Telecom site. This just goes to show how blurred the line between handsets and online content has become. This merging would work better were it not for the incredibly small 5MB of internal memory. With games weighing it at up to 400KB each, plus contacts, photos, ring-tones and the rest all being stored here, 5MB is not much space at all.

For those who like to make calls on their mobiles instead of gaming or pursuing the latest polyphonic ring-tone, the 6600 also comes off well. Call clarity is very good and in use around central Auckland I always had a strong signal and never any dropouts. All in all, a very good phone for the middle market with enough features to make it stand out from an increasingly crowded selection.
TIM ANDERSON

Sanyo 6600 ‘Ice’ Telecom Mobile Phone  $499

Contact: telecom.co.nz

SPECIFICATIONS

Network: Telecom, dual band CDMA
Internal Display: TFT, 65K colours, 240 x 320 pixels
External Display: TFT, 65K colours, 96 x 64 pixels
Camera: VGA with digital zoom
Features: Downloadable wallpapers, screensavers and ring-tones
Ring-tones: Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, AAC
Browser: WAP 2.0
Connectivity: Bluetooth
Games: Downloadable from Telecom
Internal Memory: 5MB
Dimensions: 97 x 50 x 15 mm
Weight: 95 g
Battery: 2.5 hours talk time and seven days standby

PROS

Ultra-thin
Large screen
Great for games
Available in black or white (and pink in November)
Metal construction

CONS

Small internal RAM
Low quality camera

VERDICT

Cool as ice

Aesthetics: 85%
Performance: 90%
Features: 80%
Functionality: 80%
Price Value: 85%

Overall: 84%