If, for some reason, you were asked to visualise a “Nokia 6600″, it’s likely that you would think of that beauty:

The Nokia 6600 was Nokia’s flagship handset a couple of years back. The little joystick made it brilliant for playing games and, whether memory serves, the camera was particularly impressive. Sadly, as with most complex Nokia handsets, the 6600 had a habit of grinding to a halt after around a year of daily use, making it into the kind of handset that your mum loves: “something that can compose and receive calls.”

On that note, could it be true that there is another worldwide shortage of N95 handsets considering so many of them are being returned? The theory goes that, considering the handsets are so complicated, it is usually easier for Nokia to supply a new handset than fix an old one.

Anyway… back to the 6600.

Actually, that’s just what Nokia are doing: going back to the 6600. Well, they are not going back to the device but they are going back to the name, for a handset that looks like that:

As you can see, they are offering the handset as a slider or a flip. The feature list for the two is pretty similar, with the accelerometer that sets my heart aflutter on the N95 again present, along with a 512mb removable memory card and radio. Interestingly, the clamshell handset has a poorer camera: only 2 megapixel, compared to 3.2 on the slider. What does Nokia have against clamshell users?

And why do they go back to the same names again? that handset doesn’t really have anything to do with the old 6600, which has effectively evolved into the N95.

Speaking of which, the 6600 slide looks rather like a simplified version of the forthcoming Nokia N96. Apparently, there are no handsets available for review objectives until the official launch in the autumn. whether anyone fancies sending one that way, please get in touch!

Orginal post by Cell Fella