In the world of elegance and poise, it’s not always easy to find electronic gadgetry that accentuates the tone for the same for those with shallow pockets. And I stress on the latter portion of that statement as I’m sure the cynics would bring up handsets like the Vertus or Armanis, but that’s not something that an average user could afford. So enter Nokia’s 6700 Classic, a premium handset that looks as great in your hand as it does in a showcase. But even though the price is still within the grasp of a regular mobile user, looks aren’t everything. With that in mind, here’s my opinion on the 6700 Classic.

Form Factor
The Stainless Steel encased 6700 Classic is without doubt a stunning handset. It’s refined, elegant, suave, clean cut with slim sleek lines, very well weighted to give you that extra feel good factor and it’s a bloody finger print magnet like no other handset I’ve come across so far. That last bit is one of the handset's design flaws in my opinion. While it pretty much defines its elegance, the fact that I had fingerprint smudges all over it (including the rear) after a single phone call did not bode well with me, at all. The body also tends to lose its perfect sheen after a while with nominal usage as you’ll start to notice small scratches all over it. That’s what tends to happen to Stainless Steel after constant usage. And believe me you’ll notice the marks - they’re hard to miss.


The handset is very well laid out. The keypad is comfortable to use. On one of its slim sides you’ll find the volume/zoom keys above the camera button that’s also on the same side. The microSD card slot is located under the rear panel which I would usually have an issue with, but in this case It makes sense to have it out of the way. A flap would mess with the ‘mojo’ of the handset's sleek exterior. Nokia has gone with an oddly shaped proprietary USB/handsfree socket at the bottom. The good thing is, it’s fully compatible with a normal microUSB cable.


Irrespective of the smudges and small scratches the 6700 still looks pretty damn classy in your hand or just parked on a desktop. The weight it bears is just perfectly suited for comfort and so you’ll always know you have it on you in your pockets.

Features and Performance
Interface
Running on a Symbian OS with the latest Series 40 UI, you will notice subtle changes in the handset’s functionality from previous S40 devices. The active desktop can seem quite overloaded if you don’t take the time to sort it out and establish what’s relevant to your daily usage for shortcuts widgets etc. The UI on the whole is smooth and I love the color options for the themes as well as the few new tweaks incorporated into the handset. I still don’t like the roundabout method of setting up your GPRS connection manually if your service operator doesn’t send them to you automatically. I use Loop and believe me it’s a humongous problem just getting them to send you an SMS with the settings.


Media
I’ve always been a little partial to the S40’s music player and so far there have been but very few disappointments. I’m happy to say that the 6700 isn’t one of them. From the tone quality to the 5 band customizable graphic EQ settings (with adjustable presets as well), loud speakerphone and the comfortable earphones, there’s nothing you’ll miss with the 6700’s music player except for the absence of a 3.5mm handsfree connector. It uses a proprietary slot to keep the handset’s design as slim and sleek as possible. Acceptable formats include MP3, M4A, AAC+ and WMA.

The built in FM radio (with RDS) worked out pretty well too. Reception was just a little weak in some areas, but quite good on an average. It took about 17 seconds to locate and save all nine channels as presets which is a little long but it’s a one time thing. The voice recorder is also quite good. It has a decent amount of range which means you can comfortably leave it on a desk (at least 2 feet away) for pretty clear voice memos. That proves the microphone is also good enough for speakerphone calls.


It’s compatible with 3GP and MPEG4 video formats. I seriously hope Nokia plans to get more video codec support, though I don’t see it happening anytime soon. Video playback is pretty good and although the display is bright and handles colors really well, it’s still a little too small to watch a feature length video. It’s not too much of a strain for short clips though or YouTube for which Nokia preloaded a handy widget.