James mentioned why he didn’t buy the Nokia 6600. I didn’t appreciate its problems until I went check it out yesterday.
There are two versions of 6600 available in Hong Kong: Chinese and English.
The English version has no Chinese fonts/typefaces, so it does not display Chinese SMS messages. The thing is, SMS messages are supposed to be Unicode-encoded, so it is arguable that the 6600 does not implement the SMS feature properly. My trusty Nokia 6150 from a few years back had no problem displaying Chinese SMS messages, so the problem with the 6600 hadlong been solved, yet resurfaced in this 2003 product.
The Chinese version has no English menu. Enough said.
In the year 2003, one would expect a smart phone, being sold in Hong Kong, to offer full Unicode (or at least Chinese/English) compatibility, in user interface as well as data I/O.
Bahwaaaaah…..! This is idiotic. Even the salesperson at Broadway in Tuen Mun was a bit embarrassed by this obvious oversight. The Nokia product manager should never have considered this product golden.
The salesperson at Broadway was helpful to recommend the Sony Ericsson P900. I was too cheap to take up his offer.
4 responses so far ↓
1 James Mok // Nov 26, 2003 at 4:37 pm
As it is, with the current and soon to be released “Smartphones”, I have pretty well given up on them. Firstly, the physical size of the phone is too big. Secondly, the screen size is too small. Just these two contradicting issues already ruled out any Smartphone. However, thirdly and most importantly, like fashion, Smartphones are just too geeky looking for the clubing and fine dining. And they don’t sit well in jean pockets.
I can bare the screen size of the Clie, which a is PDA that I could choose to take with or leave home without; yet I am tempted to replace the thick Clie with the thinner HP 4150 or the HP 4350 for easier handling and therefore more comfortable mobile Web browsing.
If I were to replace the SE T610, at the moment looks like the soon to be released Nokia 6230 would be it.
2 6600 user // Feb 9, 2004 at 6:49 pm
I’m using Nokia 6600 (given by my brother). It really sucks! Cannot display Chinese, not handy, keys on keypad are too close, sometimes hang (like Windows), poor/slow response. Not over yet, it sometimes prompts me an “App. Closed mce” error message when sending or receiving SMS. I need to retry several times or wait for a few minutes to hours to wait for it to work! That’s even after switch off and on again! Don’t buy this model! Idiot Nokia!
3 Eric // Apr 1, 2004 at 6:32 pm
Totally agreed with you. Have you try asking NOKIA on this ?
I tried but their respond is that HK/CHINA/TW sell chinese version OS. Singapore sell English verison OS. Overheard from someone that there is third party software can enable the english version with chinese sms. I am still trying to find out where to get it.
4 LJ // Apr 14, 2004 at 5:13 pm
“App. Closed mce” error message appears everytime I open my messages then hangs like hell..crappy softwares…..