Nokia 6131 review

Camera: colors can hardly improve quality

Nokia 6131 is equipped with a megapixel camera. The maximum offered resolution is 1280 x 1024 pixels. Lower resolution as well as three types of compression quality is available too.

 
Camera viewfinder • setup options

The phone displays images vertically. Common pictures are taken horizontally, using the corresponding lateral button, which is not a bad solution at all. The difficulty lies in the menu as it does correspond with the horizontal shooting mode. In result, pictures in the phone gallery are viewed vertically anyway.

Nokia 6131 offers a double digital zoom, a night mode, a self-release timer, and color effects. White balance is automatic only, which sometimes results into photos of various color nuances.

Sample photos in full resolution:

   
  
Results are rather satisfying in good weather

 
White is always different

  
Detail scanning is a time-wasting activity

 
The less the light, the more the noise

Significant lack of light results into unbearable noise levels (night mode)

Picture quality is average, which is standard for a megapixel photo mobile. Image colors are surprisingly deep, a characteristic that may make pictures look more attractive or, just the opposite, quite unnatural.

Pictures in the gallery • Visualization across the entire display • printing options  

Video records are available, of course. The highest available resolution is QCIF, that is, 176 x 144 pixels. The quality of Nokia 6131 video is average.

Fun and Internet: Sudoku in a flash

Nokia 6131 supports Java 2.0. The phone features 2 pre-installed games: 3D Snake and 3D football. Both feature interesting graphics, but disappoint when it comes to amusement. The phone also hides a third game, which demonstrates the strengths of the Flash format. Yes, that's right: Nokia 6131 plays flash animations in SWF format. The phone also offers a flash video guide as well as the so popular Sudoku in three levels of difficulty.

   
Games list • Sudoku • 3D football 

Another source of entertainment is Internet. You can browse both WAP and simple Internet pages. The phone browser is simple, with three font size options.

Internet browser of Nokia 6131

Nokia 6131 can also serve as a modem for establishing Internet connection from PC. The phone gets connected to a PC through Bluetooth, via the Infrared port, or by USB cable (which is not included in the delivery package). Connection parameters can be configured manually, but you will save time if you use the Internet connection program from PC Suite, where you only have to select a modem (for example Nokia 6131 USB, which gets created automatically), choose the preferred operator and press on the corresponding button.

If you already have PC Suite on your computer, you don't need to install anything else. Nokia uses same program in all its current models.

One of the best clamshells ever

At the very beginning I was pretty reserved towards Nokia 6131. I did not like its look. What's worse, I considered it to be another standard clamshell. During the tests, however, when I was using Nokia 6131 as my only personal mobile, the phone convinced me of its exceptionality. It turned out however that it offers a huge amount of features, like elegant looks, two displays of exceptional quality, and a whole lot of "user-friendliness" at a very moderate price. The menu is organized logically; functions are detailed, offering high control comfort and brilliant work efficiency. In this aspect, Motorola engineers should take some notes as their new Motorola V3i is far behind Nokia 6131 (both phones are similar in terms of features, specifications and price).

On the other hand, Nokia 6131 suffers certain drawbacks too. First of all, it is its weak battery; then it is the low camera picture quality, the simplicity of the multimedia player, the unsuitable font used in the active stand-by mode, and the oversensitive camera key.