Nokia 6300 review

Nokia 6300 Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Reviewed on: 2 April 2007

You can send pictures to friends using Bluetooth or via GPRS/EDGE in an email or MMS message. The GPRS/EDGE connectivity also works in conjunction with the 6300's own Web browser or the Opera Mini Web browser that comes pre-installed.

The 6300's 2-megapixel camera lets you send snaps or video to friends

Other pre-installed apps include a Bluetooth presenter that lets you control PowerPoint presentations and Nokia's sensor app, which lets you share pictures and personal information over Bluetooth. You can download more Java applications for the 6300 on the Internet and install them using the Nokia PC Suite.

The PC Suite also lets you transfer music and video files to the 6300's internal memory or to a 2GB (or smaller) microSD card, which will hold about 480 songs. The 6300's music player supports MP3, MP4, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, H.263 and H.264 files.

You can listen to the FM radio and your own music using the proprietary headphones, which have a small 2.5mm jack plug, but feature a built-in mic for hands-free calls. Alternatively, you can listen to music wirelessly via a pair of stereo Bluetooth headphones, but these won't work with the FM radio.

One of the Nokia 6300's hidden talents is its ability to upgrade and synchronise data wirelessly. FOTA (firmware upgrade over the air) support lets you upgrade the 6300's firmware wirelessly and SyncML lets you synchronise your contacts and calendar, among other things, using services such as ZYB.

Other features include an email client that's easy to set up and supports most popular email services, including Gmail and Yahoo mail. There's also a voice recorder, alarm clock, calendar, to-do list, notes, calculator, countdown timer, stopwatch and Java games.

Performance
The 6300's audio quality during calls was good and we didn't notice any distortions, echoing or muffling. The speakerphone is loud and worked as expected, but you probably want to use the headphones to listen to music rather than the loudspeaker -- your fellow commuters would certainly agree.

The camera took decent pictures for MMS messages or mementos, but the comparatively low-resolution camera and lack of auto-focus meant that pictures came out blurry when we viewed them at full size.

The GPRS/EDGE connectivity is rather slow and browsing the Web or downloading data isn't a particularly pleasant experience. We're disappointed that the 6300 doesn't come with 3G, as it would make downloading data much quicker.

The battery life is good and even after using it moderately for about three days we didn't need to recharge it. Nokia quote the 6300's battery life at 14.5 days on standby and 3.5 hours talk time.

Conclusion
If you want 3G connectivity and a better camera, it's worth having a look at Sony Ericsson's K800i, and the K810i when it comes out. Alternatively, the Nokia E65 is another good new handset from Nokia that's slim and comes packed with features.

Otherwise, the 6300 epitomises what Nokia does best -- it's simple, it's easy to use and it feels well built. Yes, the camera could have been fitted with a higher-resolution sensor and it would have been great to have 3G connectivity. But this is still one of the best Nokia handsets we've seen so far, and it's set to become popular with businessmen and teenagers alike.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Nick Hide