4 Oct 2007We were little surprised at first to see how popular the
Nokia 6300 became in such a short amount of time. This unassuming squashed brick of a phone doesn't exactly look flashy from the blown up photos on websites, but when you hold and use the Nokia 6300 mobile phone, you'll quickly understand it's popularity.
At just 106.4 x 43.6 x 11.7 mm this is a neat, and comfortably small phone. The thickness especially is enough to make it feel sturdy in your hand but thin enough to fit comfortably in your trouser pocket or get appropriately lost in your oversized handbag. The 6300 weighs in at just 91g. Nokia have tagged the phone as 'Simply Beautiful'. Despite it's rectangle shape the corners and edges are still smoothly curved and the stainless steel cover gives it an impressive shine. There is beauty in its simplicity, but then again calling it beautiful in comparison to the newer Samsung slider models like the
G600 is a bit of a stretch. But then this phone is about usability accompanied by looks, not the other way around. The only unimpressive thing about the shell design is the battery cover which did not go on or off very easily.
The keypad is in the standard Nokia layout which, even 4 years after ceasing to use a Nokia phone, we found easy and reliable to use. The keys are easy to press but still give that responsive feel not available with touch sensitive keys, that allows for faster dialling and texting without watching what you're doing. Above the keypad is a menu button surrounded by a four way directional button. Having the select button separate from the direction buttons is a definite improvement on Sony Ericsson's joysticks (where you can end up selecting options involuntarily whilst scrolling through a menu) but the direction buttons aren't always that easy to press accurately if you're not watching what you're doing. Above it is the Nokia 6300's good sized 2 inch TFT screen that displays 240 x 320 pixels.
Despite it's simple appearance, the Nokia 6300 has all the basic features expected of of a new mid-level mobile phone handset. The 2 mega pixel camera is perfectly sufficient for taking odd photos but unlike the likes of the
N95 doesn't stand much chance of replacing a separate digital camera if you're expecting to take photos. There is no flash or autofocus but there is 8x digital zoom, a night mode and an easy to use image browser accessible from the menu. It can also take videos which is a fun feature of mediocre quality.
The 6300 has a number of very good music features considering its price. It has an FM radio that can only be used with Nokia's own headphones, but these are generally supplied with the handset. It also has a media player that can play videos and music files which you can either download using the phone's web browser, or by transferring them from your computer using a USB cable. The sound output was just as good as any other compact MP3 player, and you can also use the loudspeaker instead of headphones, with a surprisingly good sound quality, not that that will stop it from annoying everyone else on the bus. It's also very easy to use other phone features whilst listening to music, which of course stops as soon as you receive a call. The phone can play all of the following file types: MP3, MP4, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, H.263, H.264.
Another surprise with this phone is the web browsing experience. It's not 3G but is GPRS and EDGE compatible. Considering that, the speed of browsing was good when compared with other non-3G phones, presumably due to a fast rendering engine in the web browser. You can view full size websites, not just those made specifically for small mobile phone screens, although there is a lot of scrolling involved. The email software is also easy to use, especially for the popular Gmail and Yahoo email accounts. The data connection can also handle downloads of software, such as the great Google Maps program configured specifically for the Nokia 6300 that we downloaded and trialed. All the same, if you do want a faster 3G option the
Nokia E65 is really the 6300's closest 3G counterpart.
The standard features of the Nokia 6300 still deserve a brief mention, including a simple organiser with a calendar, to-do list and notepad. The media player can handle voice recording and the messaging tool can send SMS, MMS and Nokia Xpress audio messages. It has bluetooth that can be used with bluetooth headphones as well as other devices, and USB connectivity as mentioned. The call quality was near perfect with almost no background noise. Although it may not stand up to the likes of the business favourite the 6230i, Nokia are quoting a battery life of 3.5 hours of talktime or up to 14.5 days standby.
All in all, we're convinced that the 6300 deserves its popularity. It may not win any fashion awards but it's a robust and reasonably priced mobile phone that has all the features to act as a basic personal organiser and rival most flashy new handsets.
Editor CommentsEditor: Andrew on 26th October, 2008
It's been a year since we wrote this review and the Nokia 6300 is still in the top 10 selling mobile phones in the UK. Since then, it has been released in Chocolate Brown, White and Black colours, and has also reduced even more in price to just £70 on pay as you go and £110 SIM free.
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