Nokia 6700

Two years ago Finnish giant Nokia struck gold with its 6300 candybar phone, and now it's back with a similar model - only this time it boasts HSDPA connectivity, assisted GPS and a 5 Megapixel camera. Promising to "set a new benchmark for mid-range devices" the Nokia 7600 classic is a Series 40 6th Edition phone supporting quad band GSM and the remarkable Nokia WebKit Open Source Browser, previously available only on the Symbian S60 smartphones. The Nokia 6700 classic also has a built-in accelerometer for tap-for-clock and turn-to-mute features, which we first saw in the Nokia Arte lineup.

On the looks front, the new handset draws inspiration from Nokia's premium 8800 Arte with its candybar form factor, stainless steel casing and full metal keypad. At just 11mm thick and weighing 116g, the 6700 is slim enough to slip nicely into your handbag or jeans pocket and feels fairly sturdy when you hold it. The handset is available in silver, black, brown and matte metallic finishes.

On the looks front, the new handset draws inspiration from Nokia's premium 8800 Arte with its candybar form factor, stainless steel casing and full metal keypad.

The front panel is dominated by the generous 2.2 inch QVGA display with support for up to 16 million colours, rendering text and images vibrantly and with clarity. The 6700's ambient light sensor will ensure that the display manages brightness to save on battery power and gives plenty of light when you need it.

Below the screen is the usual selection of softkeys, the call and end call buttons and a four-way navigational pad with a control key in the centre. The front panel also houses a flat numerical keypad with clearly marked keys which light up when typing in the dark.

The Nokia 6700 is streets ahead of its predecessor, the 6300, when it comes to its camera. Boasting 5 Megapixels, autofocus, 4x digital zoom and a flash, you might as well leave your regular camera at home. There's even a photo editor to make any last-minute adjustments to your snaps. Video recording is a little disappointing at just 15 frames per second in VGA format and 30 frames per second in CIF.

Connectivity options on the Nokia 6700 are numerous.

An excellent media player supports a number of popular audio and video formats, including MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA. You can also personalise your phone with MP3 ringtones from your own music collection. Going on previous Nokias, we expect audio quality to be pretty decent, although annoyingly there is no standard 3.5mm audio jack, so you will have to put up with the proprietary headphones, or [play your music through the phone's tinny loud speakers. A stereo FM radio with RDS provides alternative audio entertainment. 170 MB of shared memory will let you store quite a few tracks and a 1MB microSD card is included in the box, but the phone supports cards of up to 8MB.

Connectivity options on the Nokia 6700 are numerous. There's quad band GSM on the 2G network meaning you can be connected wherever you are in the world, and tri band on 3G. HSDPA enables super-fast browsing on Nokia's fantastic WebKit open source browser, and EDGE and GPRS are also available. The Nokia 6700 supports Bluetooth and USB for transferring data, assisted GPS with Nokia Maps and Flash Light 3. You can catch up with friends on Windows Live Messenger which comes preinstalled. The Nokia 6700 classic is well-equipped when it comes to messaging, offering SMS, MMS 1.3, instant messaging and an email client.

The Nokia 6700 is expected to start shipping in July 2009. You'll be able to pick one up for around £200 on pay as you go from Nokia's online shop, and it will probably be free on a contract.