vB Easy Archive - Nokia 6385

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Nokia 6385
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Posted by: DaBigBR

For many years Nokia has been a bottom-of-the-barrell (in many people's eyes) CDMA phone manufacturer. This was due largely to the fact that Nokia did not use the industry standard Qualcomm chipset in their hardware. Because of this, many carriers (for instance Sprint PCS) have stopped carrying their products, and in others (for instance Verizon Wireless), only the new (Qualcomm chipset) 3285 is good enough for the consumer.

I have recently acquired, and extensively used Nokia's new 6385 handset, which is/was my 35th different model of phone in the past two years, but how does it stack up?

Overview

The 6385 is a phone targeted toward the high volume business user. This is obvious by the fact that the phone's housing is all business and function, leaving out features like changeable faceplates and colored buttons in favor of a more sturdy design. The phone's features also speak for its target demographic. The phone will store over 500 phone numbers and has a full-featured calendar, IR connectivity, side volume control, voice dialing, etc, etc.

Usage

During the time that I carried this phone I put right about 20 hours of talk time on it (this is over 2-3 weeks), so I have had plenty of time to evaluate the phone's performance.

The most annoying thing I found with this phone was the fact that there were seemingly random popping sounds (very infrequent, but annoying nonetheless), which sounded like somebody answering or hanging up a phone, and made for the occasional need to look at the screen while on a call to make sure I was still connected. Other than that sound, audio quality incoming and outgoing was very good. It was relatively even-toned and there was very little background noise, also the echoing sound that my last phone (v60i) would sometimes make was not present in this handset. If I have any other complaint it is that incoming audio was a tad quiet for my taste.

RF performance seemed to be very good. There was only one spot where I can recall having service issues where my v60i was typically OK, and this was in an area where only Verizon service seems to work at all. I did very little testing of this phone in analog mode, but the phone seemed very capable of holding an analog signal and of reproducing audio quality in analog satisfactoraly. One conduit of this performance was the phone's antenna array. The phone has an internal antenna, much like that on its sister 6360, but it also has a long (5 inch?) telescoping antenna that activates when fully extended. A small but noticeable gain in reception was noticed in medicore service areas with the antenna pulled up as compared to the internal antenna. This array (two antennas) made the phone a solid performer that could keep a slim figure most of the time.

The last "usage" related item is the phone's interface. The keypad consists of large, well labeled and easily locatable numeric keys and Nokia's trademarked talk/end/arrows/softkeys layout. The arrow keys are inset in the other keys and are probably the worst part of the design of the phone. They tend to move somewhat in their place, which can cause some second guessing when using them. The screen is a high (for Nokia) resolution LCD of 96x64 pixels. It is backlit acceptably by three green/yellow LEDs on each side of the display. One of my favorite things about the phone is the fact that it can display both the time and the date on the screen at the same time, which is a little out of place for a Nokia, but a welcome feature as far as I am concerned.

Interface

The phone's interface (menu system) is basically a standard Nokia interface most comparable to the 7100 series due to the higher resolution. One thing that I was disapointed not to find in the 6385 that I found fascinating in the 6360 was the graphical equalizer. I don't know exactly how useful this feature would be as I have never had the 6360, but it would have been fun to experiment with.

The phone also has an OpenWave WAP browser that is pretty run of the mill. It does support (B&W) images, and the high resolution will fit several lines of text and makes reading email and news tolerable compared to my v60i.

Everything else in the menu system is very universally Nokia standard stuff. I will not elaborate too far on this portion of the phone except to comment that Nokia's CDMA section once again shorted us on ringtones. I am not a musical ringtone guy, but I was amazed at how stripped down the musical selection was, and furthermore amazed at how many different short ring or beep sounds they could place in this phone. I understand that it is a business-oriented phone, but c'mon!

And last but not least in this section is the games. The best approach to the games is this: only play Pass N Rush, be the team with the shark logo, run plays 7 and 8 on offense and 22, 18, and 7 on defense and you can easily win every game by a landslide.

Misc

I really don't know what else to mention about this phone except for the peculilar inclusion of a standard 2.5mm jack (with the two black bands on the connector...not three) in addtion to the 51/61/71 series connector on the bottom of the phone. I repeat: it is actually a standard jack, the three-banded earpieces will not work properly...but it's about time! Curiously though, the phone includes a good old fashioned HDE-1 headset that uses the old adapter.

Conslusion

Overall I am/was very happy with this phone, happy enough that when the guy I bought the phone from emailed me to say that he was getting a shipment of 3585s, I reserved mine within minutes of receiving it! If you have any questions about this phone, please PM me.

If you are interested in purchasing a 6385 or 3585 contact Norm Walker (normw@charter.net). I purchased both my 6385 and 3585 from him and he was very agreeable...and the phones are unlocked btw.

Thanks for reading!

Posted by: pattwak

How much for the phones? Without contract of course.

Posted by: kev_1669

In your opinion, do u think this fone would be a good selection for a "old" person of say 65:70 years of ripe old age?

Posted by: DaBigBR

Pattwak: I think Norm (the guy I bought mine from) was in the higher $100 (175-200) range on them and the 3585 as well. I would email him for a quote.

kev_1669: The phone has a large display, but it is not necesarily one with large text. Compared to other CDMA equipment right now I would say that with the larger keys and larger phone, it is probably a good choice.

Posted by: kev_1669

Alright! thanks! I think I am going to get my Grandpa US Cellular for Xmas this year and he is kinda Tech stupid, he does ok on the PC but I just wanted to see if this was good choice. Thank lots!

Yes, I think larger would be better for he, LoL....I would hate to see how long a V60 would last.....LMAO!

Posted by: Drev

DaBigBR,
Do you have a computer with IR? If so, did you have a chance to play with the software from Nokia:
http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/software/6385
and see how well it works with the phone. The software suite lists pc composer as well as pc graphics, implying that you can upload your own rings and pics to the phone. Can you let us know if it works as advertised?

Will be looking forward to your 3585 review

I played with a very early 3570, and found the white leds VERY cool. I wonder how/where Norm gets 3585s unlocked. Are they unlocked Sprint or MetroPCS phones? Or is USCC already selling 3585's as well?

Posted by: tigerwolf

A local US Cellular store had the 6385 for about 2 weeks…and they just shipped them all back. They said there’s already some firmware problem they’ve found. Didn’t quite understand if they were actually recalled, or US Cellular just doesn’t want to sell any more until they get updated. They told me they might be back before Christmas, and they’ll probably also have that 3000 series version too.

Do you know how the 6385 compares with the v60ci? I’m going nuts trying to decide what phone to get (my old TDMA 6161 got kind of broken from a fall). Of the phones they sell right now, the v60ci seems like it’s the best from the research I’ve done online, but in the stores they all swear it’s awful, breaks constantly, and they try to push Kyocera junk on me. That stuff sounds awful even in the store!

(The v120x sounded pretty good, and the price is sure great, but the radiation on those things is really high. Four times the v60…)

Posted by: ndroadie

Thanks for the review and I agree most all of it. I have had one 6385(uscc) on Verizon for almost a year now and recently picked up another(cellular south) from Ebay. Since I had mobile kits in my semi and pickup, it made sense to stick with the brick phone. The beating the phone takes on the dash of my semi, would leave most flippers in pieces. It has worked great since day one, reception, audio, display and hand-offs, make it a phone you don't have to think about. I travel several states, so it's roaming on many different sytems. I've yet to have a dropped call.
Voice dial works great, even in noisy enviroments and I also use it for voice memos. Ringtones via SMS or cable also work great even if Mono. The Web Browser is fast as I usually am in 1x areas. It is just a great basic phone and thats why my LGVX4400 stays at home.
The Nokia PC software is slow and limited, I recommend Oxygen 2.1.8. I've even been able to upload group graphics via cable to the phone and the manager does most anything you want.
For whatever reason Verizon doesn't want the phone, it seems many of use do and are willing to go the extra mile to get one.

Posted by: tigerwolf

I've had the TDMA version of the phone, the 6360 now for most of a year. It's good too-rock solid. Nice voice quality and reception, great battery life, surprisingly useful voice dialing, easy to use design, and the thing is nigh-invulnerable, like every Nokia phone I've used so far. Dropped it down two flights of stairs a week after I got it (for starters), and the worst it has to show for it is a little bit of grey paint scrapped off.

I wish I could say ALL Nokia phones had interfaces that were this great, but unfortunatly most of them have really weird, uncomfortable buttons anymore.

I guess my only complaint is I'd still like a flip that answers and hangs up the phone like my 6161 had. Having to lock the phone every single time I'm done using it is a little annoying, and if a call comes in any of the buttons unlock it (I've had the phone on my belt, on a call for 5+ minutes with no idea it was going).