After using my Series 60 phone (Nokia 6620) for about 4 months now, I can safely say that this is geek nirvana. Toss aside the palm pilot, bin the Pocket PC, they're just not necessary. I'd say return the Tablet PC, but to date I don't think anyone actually owns one....

I'm not sure why the 6620 has hit the sweet spot that it has. There have been many discussions which try to pin down exactly what makes the phone hit the sweet spot, and in my opinion it really comes down to balance. It probably has the best combination of features and available memory offered in a Series 60 phone to date (altho I'm sure the upcoming N80 will put it to shame).

So without further ado, I'm posting my own list of 'Essential Series 60' applications, just like everyone else is doing. :) I will not be mentioning any of the built in applications such as RealPlayer, just third party applications.

SMS Plus - SMS Plus is a fantastic Sega Master System/Game Gear emulator for Series 60 phones. There's a Genesis emulator available, but I've found that the screen size of most Series 60 phones is best suited to the GG/SMS games.

Profimail - Profimail is a much better email client than the default messenging application that's built in to the 6620. It's definetly not perfect. It tends to lose email every so often, and it runs the batteries down if you run it in the background. But it works very well most of the time, includes a Word viewer (which you can use instead of QuickOffice) if you want, and makes good use of the available screen space on the 6620.

Oggplay - Don't let the name fool you, it doesn't just play OGG files. It's capable of playing any media the phone supports *and* .ogg files, which just happens to include MP3s on the 6620.

Opera - You could, and people have, nitpick over every difference between Opera and NetFront . Either browser is much better than the default internal browswer and either one will get the job done. Right now I'm using opera, but the integrated RSS reader in NetFront may suck me back over to that side.

AutoLock - The name says it all. Automatically locks the phone after a configurable period of inactivity. Why similar functionality isn't built into the phone is beyond me tho.

Virgin Radio - Sure, it only works with Virgin's radio stations. But the presentation is awesome, and it means you don't have to fire up Opera/NetFront to load the Virgin site and navigate to a listen live link and then have the browser fire up RealPlayer. So it's convienent. And it looks cool.

Google Mobile - Google maps on your phone. Stuck in a hotel in an strange city and want to find a pizza shop within walking distance and get directions? This'll do it.

These are my 'must have loaded' applications. I go back and forth with other applications, but as far as I'm concerned, these are the essentials.