Nokia 6110 Navigator review

Nokia 6110 Navigator Review

Reviewed by: Mark Harris

Reviewed on: 13 August 2007

Nokia blitzed the market earlier this year with the GPS-powered N95, but the 6110 is its first handset to earn the name 'Navigator'. Using Route 66 software, it promises ultra-accurate positioning with online-assisted GPS technology, and is available now for a SIM-free price of £375, or from free with a contract.

Design
Given that they spend a large portion of every day in your hand or pocket, it's surprising how many mobile phones simply don't feel nice to the touch. The 6110 has the opposite problem -- its shiny, rounded plastic casing is so tactile you might find yourself rubbing it like a pleasantly fat, high-tech worry stone. And if you start snapping the classy spring-loaded slider up and down, hours can fly by.

Controls are plastic and flush, with a white backlight to help in the dark. The keypad is small and precise, with good action. The four-way pad and two soft keys help you slip through Nokia's ever-intuitive menus with ease, but there are also a couple of other buttons worth a mention.

The bright, sharp screen is superb, and it rotates to best suit your requirements

Beneath the pad is the Navi scroll key, which gives one-touch access to the Nokia Navigator GPS application. And on the left-side shoulder is My Own key, a customisable button that initially is set to read SMS messages out loud -- more on that later.

The other side has volume controls and a dedicated camera button. This is actually superfluous, as the 6110's 2-megapixel camera has a sliding lens cover that automatically flips the handset into camera mode. Hit the shutter without moving the cover down and you'll annoyingly activate the low-res front-facing video-call camera instead. 

Pride of place on the 6110 is its superb colour screen, which uses its 76,800 pixels to deliver some of the sharpest details we've seen on a mobile phone. It's also bright enough to burn clear through the inevitable fingerprints it collects. Packing all that visual information into a screen just 56mm across, however, can generate a touch of eye-strain, especially when trying to make out road names from across the dashboard.

Features
Strangely, Nokia has chosen not to use the N95's Maps application in its second sat-nav phone, using the Route 66-based Navigator instead. We're not complaining -- Navigator uses the same Google Earth-style zoom in from the planet to your street, but the colour scheme and icons are clearer, and there are plenty more features on board.

For a start, the Search functionality is simply stunning. Use the Free Text option and you simply type in any postcode, street address, business name (with a town and category) or major destination (like an airport) and it comes back in seconds. Frankly, it's easier to use, smarter and faster than any search that TomTom has come up with -- and that's saying something.

You can also home in on nearby restaurants, petrol stations and shops, and even search from your Contacts -- a great option if you've synched your PC's address book (simple enough with the supplied software). However, this annoyingly only picks up the right address about half the time, especially if you've neglected to add postcodes.