Typical price: £170
What is it: Camera phone with plenty of features including MP3 player and FM radio
What we think: A laundry list of features, but dull design and a shoddy keypad
Nokia 6230 Review
Reviewed on: 17 August 2004
Nokia's 6230 isn't pretty or particularly well designed, but it's stuffed to the gills with useful features. Boasting an integrated camera and video recorder, an MP3 player, an FM tuner, Bluetooth and IR support, and an expandable memory slot, there's not much this plain-Jane phone can't do. Hard-core road warriors who can put up with the handset's so-so looks and flawed keypad should give the 6230 a serious look.
Design
The Nokia 6230 has the looks of a railway sleeper, which is to say it doesn't look like much. Sporting the usual Nokia candy bar shape, the handset measures 44 by 103 by 20mm and weighs about 97g.
Overall it feels a little heavy for its size, but it fits in a jeans pocket, albeit snugly. Available in black and silver, the mobile's straight, sensible lines make it blend into the background. If you want to make a call without drawing attention, this is the phone for you.
For a phone with such a safe, pedestrian design, the 6230 is unfortunately saddled with a would-be stylish keypad that's needlessly difficult to use. The middle column of keys is almost twice as wide as the left and right columns, which makes for tough dialing. The middle keys match the width of the square, five-way toggle, which works well when you're navigating menus, but falters when you need to select items. Too often, we nudged it one way or another while trying to push it straight down.
Flip the phone around and you'll find the camera lens, which is embedded in a shiny, black plastic strip that stretches around to right side of the phone -- the perfect place for a dedicated camera button. Alas, there isn't one. With the phone in standby mode, you activate the camera by nudging the navigation toggle up -- a shortcut we discovered by accident, as it isn't labeled.
A small, single volume control sits flush on the left side of the phone, and while it's certainly unobtrusive, it's hard to find when you're on a call. In typical Nokia fashion, a dedicated power button is located on the top of the phone, and its large size made it easy to press.While Nokia may have skimped on the 6230's design, it didn't spare any expense when it came to features. The bottom line: this phone is loaded.
Features
The 1,000-contact phone book has space in each entry for five numbers, three addresses, and a note. You can pair contacts with a picture for caller ID, and assign one of 20 polyphonic or 10 monophonic ring tones to a caller group.
All the other basics are present and accounted for, including a WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser, email access (IMAP4, POP3, and SMTP), a speakerphone (but no dedicated speakerphone button), text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, a to-do list, a note pad, a voice recorder, a calculator, a data wallet (which stores credit card and login info), nine speed-dial numbers, voice dialing, and five-way conference calling.
The phone's generous memory includes 6MB of shared RAM and space for an included 32MB MMC card, though it's annoyingly hidden behind the phone's battery. Mobile professionals will appreciate the Bluetooth, the IR port and the ability to sync with a PC, a laptop or other mobile devices by downloading the Nokia PC Suite from the company's Web site.
Tell us what you think
Do you own this product? Want to share your experiences with other CNET UK users?
Write your own review of the Nokia 6230
Can't find the product you're looking for? Want to suggest a product for review?
Special Offers from our Sponsors
Latest Mobile phone Reviews
Samsung Tocco Lite
Considering its low price, it's an impressive handset, but its lack of 3G connectivity lets it down
Sony Ericsson W995 Walkman
Thanks to its standard headphone jack, it's the best phone in the excellent Walkman range
Apple iPhone 3GS
A small evolution of the spectacular iPhone 3G, it fills in the blanks to make the world's best touchscreen phone
Samsung i8910 HD
Media powerhouse with a stunning screen and huge potential for more, thanks to its powerful Symbian OS
on Mobile Phones
Science to the rescue! Can an iPhone 3GS burn us?
Apple's new iPhone 3GS is not only fast, it's reportedly ludicrously hot, capable of burning man and beast. So with the help of science, we tried to see if ours would generate similar issues
More:
Special Feature
Listen to the CNET UK Podcast
Subscribe to our weekly show where the team chat about the latest, hottest gadgets and Web weirdness
