Nokia 2660 review (black, AT&T)

Features
The 2660's phone book holds 400 contacts with room in each entry for five phone numbers, an e-mail address, a company name and job title, a formal name, a nickname a street address, a birthday, and notes. You also can pair contacts with photos, but you'll need to be creative with images since the handset doesn't have a camera. You can also organize contacts into groups. Ringtones are another matter, though. Only groups can store ringtones, and the phone comes with only seven polyphonic tones.

Basic features include text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a to-do list, a notepad, a calculator, a timer, and a stopwatch. On such a basic phone, we like that Nokia threw in Bluetooth and a voice recorder. You also get instant messaging and AT&T Mobile Email, though neither service is worth your time with the clunky Web-based interface and alphanumeric keypad.

The 2660 comes with one game (Tetris), but you can use the WAP 2.0 Web browser to buy additional Java titles. You can personalize the phone with color themes, alert tones, wallpaper, and screensavers. More options are available from AT&T's Media Mall application.

Performance
We tested the Nokia 2660 in San Francisco using AT&T service. Call quality was good on the whole. As mentioned, we'd prefer a dedicated volume rocker, but the phone gets sufficiently loud. At the highest volume levels there was a bit of static, or "GSM buzz," but it wasn't bothersome. The audio quality also was a tad hollow, though our callers sounded natural. We also had no trouble getting a signal, but keep in mind that the dual-band (GSM 850/1900) 2660 won't work outside North America.

On their end, callers said we sounded fine. They could tell we were using a cell phone, and some callers mentioned that the handset picks up wind noise. Yet, for what it is, the 2660 delivers acceptable sound quality. Speakerphone quality is below average. The volume doesn't get loud and the audio was distorted. Bluetooth headset calls are fine, though your experience will depend on the headset.

Unfortunately, the 2660 is surprisingly slow for such a simple phone. There's a noticeable lag when moving between menu icons and up to 2 seconds to move forward and backward through some menu options. We'd accept that on a high-end smartphone, but it's irritating on a low-end model like this.

The 2660 has a rated battery life of 7 hours talk time and 13 days standby time. We had a talk time of 9 hours and 15 minutes in our tests. According to FCC radiation tests the 2660 has a digital SAR of 1.01 watts per kilogram.