The Nokia 6101 is a compact camera phone with a clamshell design. By Nokia's standards, it's very small, but it's still heavy compared with similar clamshells from Samsung. Still, Nokia are definitely making progress in the physical design of their clamshell phones, and this is a very attractive phone. There are dual colour displays and the keypad is thoughtfully laid out, with a 5-way navigation key and a dedicated camera button.
The camera is a standard VGA resolution, with the ability to take self-portraits using the external display as a viewfinder. This is not a great feature as the external display is so small - a rotating camera would have been a better solution. The camera has a night mode, but no flash. The camera also functions as a video recorder using the 3GP format. Nokia have partnered with Kodak to let you upload your photos to the Kodak website and have them printed and sent to your address. This is a service that you have to pay for, of course.
There is also a voice recorder, and the phone has an FM stereo radio. This works only when the supplied headset is plugged in, as the headset wire is used as the FM aerial. MP3 tracks can be used as ringtones, although there is no capability for listening to MP3's otherwise.
Overall the Nokia 6101 is a good mid-range camera phone with no obvious defects. Although it's quite expensive for what you get, it can just about hold its own with the current range of mid-priced clamshells from Motorola and Samsung, and is probably Nokia's most successful implementation of a flip-phone yet. Before buying, just bear in mind that for the same kind of money you could get a Motorola V620 with Bluetooth and a much better screen.


Features of the Nokia 6101 include: