If there is a style of mobile phone Nokia excels at, it’s the simple candybar.  The traditional screen at the top and alphanumeric keypad below may, at first glance, seem like the easy design option, however it’s often one of the most challenging; as to make it desirable, patience and talent is required.

The shape is an evolution of the 6300 and it has retained the silver/black livery, but this time covering a more curvy, ergonomic-looking case.  The rear of the phone is stainless steel, giving the 6700 a weighty, solid feel in your palm, however at 116 grams it’s not too heavy to be uncomfortable in your pocket.  This is also reflected in its overall dimensions, 109×45, with a very slim 11mm thickness.  Returning to the build, we love the polished look of the keypad, the expensive feel and overall build quality of the 6700, something which belies its competitive pricing. 

The new 6700 Classic is also cased in a similar metallic style casing and will feel just as invincible as the old 6300 did.The 6700 Classic measures in at 109.8mm x 45mm x 11.2mm and weighs in a surprising 116.5g The screen on the new 6700 Classic is 0.2 of an inch larger than the 6300, but otherwise the stats are the same, a QVGA TFT screen supporting up to 16 million colours.

A lot of the changes are those which are not instantly visible when looking at the phone. Inside, the internal memory has been raised to a very healthy 170MB, with the option to increase this with the addition of a Micro SD card, up to 8GB is possible. Another addition to the handset is the welcome inclusion of high speed data connectivity, in the shape of 3G and HSDPA Mobile Broadband.

When browsing the web with the 6700 Classic, you will notice that the web browser available on the handset is the same one normally found in the S60 smartphone range, Nseries or Eseries. This web browser is one of the best native browsers on any handset from any manufacturer, and is a welcome addition to the S40 range of phones.

Another internal improvement to the handset is the inclusion of a GPS receiver, ably backed up with aGPS support. With this and using Nokia Maps the handset becomes an ideal mobile satellite navigation unit, allowing you to find your location and plan a route on foot or in car with ease.The camera on the 6700 Classic is a real upgrade, moving on from a 2.0 megapixel fixed focus camera found in the 6300 to a 5.0 megapixel camera, with flash and autofocus. There is also a video recording option, recording clips at VGA resolution at 15fps.

 All the features that have become almost standard on any mid-range phone are included here too, such as a stereo FM radio with RDS support, and a media player supporting MP3, WMA, AAC and eAAC music format and the MP4 video format.

This is a real overhaul on features that will satisfy the demands of most users who fall into the mid-range bracket. It would seem that the Nokia 6700 Classic is destined to follow its predecessor and sell in huge numbers for Nokia.