Russell Beattie Notebook

The Long, Long Wait for the Nokia 6255i

Posted on Friday, April 29th, 2005 12:14 AM

A year ago Nokia announced the 6255 and I heralded it's arrival because of it's back-to-basics form factor, great look and clean design. I was particularly excited because what I thought it meant for the rest of Nokia's lineup and I was right, since then they've done away with the wacky keypads and all that. I couldn't wait for the 6255's appearance at a shop near me. Finally, a year later the 6255i is available at MetroPCS, a regional mobile carrier focused on flat-rate pricing.

Wow. That took a long, long time.

I think I saw something about this phone pass by my aggregator sometime in the last day or so, but I didn't pay much attention to until tonight while I was watching TV. I couldn't believe it actually, I was sitting there watching The Simpsons that I TiVoed earlier today and before I could fast forward through a break there it was, this incredible commercial for the 6255i. Set to a string quartet, it's got all these great closeups of the phone, passing by like you would a sports car in the dark, with the words appearing and dissappearing: "Web Browser. MP3 Player. Video Camera. Bluetooth Connectivity." And then at the end it says, "Nokia 6255i: The word phone is so inadequate." Holy shit. I just about fell off my couch. That's the best commercial I've seen for a phone ever.

No, seriously. I took a little video of it so you can see for yourself. :-)

I just checked online and it's back ordered until May 11th. Great! More waiting. This may be a good thing, actually as I have no reason on Earth to buy this phone besides complete techno-lust (it must be mine!). My other phones I can justify because of the carrier or the class of devices it represents, but this phone? A CDMA phone on a regional carrier? Yeah, not much justification there. (I really can't believe that Sprint and Verizon passed this phone by, they're nuts.)

But wow, I want it. :-)

-Russ