Nokia 6133 (T-Mobile) review: Nokia 6133 (T-Mobile)

Not every good phone finds a carrier willing to adopt it. Fortunately for Nokia, T-Mobile stepped in to offer the Nokia 6133. The 6133 is practically a carbon copy of the 6126, except for a redesigned keypad and an added FM radio. Features, design and performance are comparable, and with T-Mobile on board, the price is a wallet-friendly $99 with service. Of course, the addition of a carrier comes with some minor restrictions, but overall the Nokia 6133 is a solid choice for a mid-range phone.

The 6133's case comes in an attractive black and mirrored silver, and we like the phone's smooth, rounded edges and its lack of an external antenna. At 3.6x1.9x0.8 inches, it's not super thin, but it's still sleek and compact. Front and center is the phone's stunning 1.5-inch, 128x160-pixel external display. With support for 262,144 colors, this is a vast improvement over many other Nokia external screens. It displays the time, battery life, signal strength, and photo or video caller ID; you can also customize backlight time, screen savers, or wallpaper. The camera lens sits above the display. While there's no flash or self-portrait mirror, the external display functions as a viewfinder for vanity shots. A volume rocker is located on the left spine, while a camera control and a power button sit on the right.

Another external control rests on the right side of the 6133's hinge. At first glance, it looks like a generic button, but a quick press proved it's a release mechanism for the front flap. You don't need this button to open the phone--it opens the old-fashioned way, too--but it's fun to use and is more effective than the push-and-release method of the Motorola Pebl. The 6133 opens quickly but not with so much force that we felt it might jump out of our hand. The button is tactile, and the mechanism seems sturdy overall. Granted, it is a bit gimmicky, but we liked it. Be aware that the hinge closes stiffly, and the phone has a tendency to open when dropped on the ground.

Whichever method you use to open the 6133, you'll be drawn immediately to its brilliant main display. At 2.2 inches, 240x320 pixels, and supporting an awe-inspiring 16 million colors, the 6133's screen puts most other comparable mid-tier cell phones to shame. Colors and text pop; photos, graphics, games, and animation are displayed beautifully. You can change font size and backlight time, and though you can't alter the brightness, it didn't seem to matter. What's more, the inclusion of the Nokia Series 40 platform means menus are vivid and intuitive.

The 6133's navigation controls sit below the display. They include a four-way toggle with an OK/menu button at its center, two soft keys, and the Talk and End controls. The toggle can be set to give one-touch access to four user-defined shortcuts. Soft keys can be designated as shortcuts, too. One option even includes a shortcut bar, with a selection of user-defined applications. All this changes, however, if you choose layer T-Mobile's MyFaves application on the display above your chosen wallpaper. In this case, the right soft key is the only customizable shortcut, while the menu is accessible only through the left soft key. Ergonomically, navigation is easy and the buttons are large, but we did find the flush keys a little slick.

The 6133's keypad design differs from the Nokia 6126. Formerly raised, black number keys on the 6126 are now flush (and colored silver) with the phone's face with the 6133. We were split on these changes, and in the end give a slight edge to the 6126 design. While we like that the 6133's buttons are tactile with large, backlit numerals, they were too slippery and not easy to use by touch. Skinny silver bars separate the individual rows of keys.

As with the 6126, we weren't impressed with the placement of the 6133's MicroSD card slot behind the battery cover. Granted, you don't need to remove the battery itself (an improvement over earlier Nokia models), but you do need to remove the battery cover. This is not a huge deal, but it's worth noting. Since the charger port is located on the top of the 6133, it can be somewhat awkward to talk while the phone is plugged in. On the upside, however, we liked the textured covering on the phone's rear flap.

The Nokia 6133 inherits much of its sibling's features but there are some minor differences. The phone book has been cut in half to just 500 contacts, but that should be sufficient for most users. Each entry can handle five phone numbers, e-mail and Web addresses, job title, company name, work and home addresses, birth date, a nickname, and notes (the SIM card holds an additional 250 names). You can organize callers into groups or pair them with one of the seven polyphonic ring tones (six fewer, however, than on the 6126). You can also pair callers with photos or videos for caller ID (photos show up on the external display). Other offerings include: a vibrate mode; text and multimedia messaging; a calculator; a world clock; a voice recorder (limited by available memory); a calendar with reminders; a to-do list; a notepad; a countdown timer; a stopwatch; and an alarm clock.

For more demanding users, there's Bluetooth for connecting to a headset or sending files. The 6133 also includes voice dialing and commands, a speakerphone, and audio messaging for sending voicemail directly to another phone. Unfortunately POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail support, as well as the Infrared port, are missing; in exchange, you get instant messaging for AOL, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo accounts. Offbeat features include a translator for English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese; the Nokia sensor application for sending personal messages to other Bluetooth phones; and a Presenter application that allows you to control a PowerPoint presentation or other Microsoft Windows application from the 6133 via Bluetooth to a PC (you'll need the Nokia PC suite). Finally, we liked that you could use many of these functions even without a SIM card.

The 6133s has a 1.3-megapixel camera that takes pictures in six resolutions: 1,024x1,280, 960x1,290, 600x800, 480x640, 240x320, and 120x160. You get a variety of camera settings, including: three quality modes; five color effects; a night mode; a 10-second self timer; a sequence option for shooting three photos in rapid successions; and an 8X zoom for use at any resolution. The only thing missing is a brightness setting, but we're willing to overlook that omission. The camcorder shoots 3GPP videos in two resolutions (176x144 or 128x96) with sound. The default mode lasts just 6 seconds, but you can also shoot longer clips depending on available memory. Image quality was just above average for a 1.3-megapixel camera phone. Colors and subject outlines were distinct, but images weren't very bright, and smaller objects tend to appear fuzzy. Video clips were fine--a bit grainy, as expected, but suitable for short segments. Internal memory is quite small at 11MB, so you should probably invest in a MicroSD card (not included)

If you tire of photos, you can use the 6133 to listen to tunes. Inside, there's a digital music player that supports files in MP3, MP4, AAC, and WMA formats. The interface is rudimentary and easy to use. Options include: Random and Repeat modes; an equalizer; stereo widening; and an Airplane mode. Also, you can minimize the player's interface or even use it with the phone closed. On the downside, it appears T-Mobile disabled the phone's capability to use MP3s as ring tones. Though we transferred a couple our favorite tunes via Bluetooth, we had no luck doing anything beyond playing them. We knocked the 6126 for not having an FM radio, but we're glad to see it here. You can save 20 station presets, save station names in your city, or direct the radio's audio to the phone's speaker.

You can personalize the 6133 with a variety of color themes, wallpapers, screen savers, and alert sounds. If you want more options, you can download them via the WAP 2.0 wireless browser. You can always get more ring tones and use MP3 files to identify callers. The 6133 supports Macromedia Flash Lite 1.1 and Adobe Flash Player. Two Java (J2ME) games are also included (Snake 3 and Midnight Bowling) and you get a demo application of Zuma 3D.

We tested the quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) Nokia 6133 world phone in San Francisco using T-Mobile service. Call quality was quite good and on par with the 6126. We enjoyed admirable clarity and volume, and callers said we came through loud and clear, even in noisier environments. We had no trouble getting a signal and encountered little interference from other devices. Again, our only real complaint was that voices sounded a little harsh at times. Speakerphone calls were loud enough, though voices sounded a bit muffled on our end. Likewise, callers had more trouble hearing us, but they didn't report significant problems. Call quality was decent over a Bluetooth headset.

Music quality over the single phone speaker was nothing special. As with the 6126, tracks on the 6133 played tinny and somewhat distorted, especially at higher volumes. By all means--use a stereo headset. The phone comes with a serviceable headset, but for really good audio quality, we recommend you use a different headset.

The 6133 has a rated talk time of 3.5 hours and a promised standby time of 12 days, both of which are slightly higher than the 6126. Our tests indicated a talk time of 3 hours and 56 minutes, which is slightly higher than the rated talk time. According to FCC radiation tests, the Nokia 6133 has a digital SAR rating of 0.89 watts per kilogram.