If you are one of those people who are looking for a highly functional attractive style, then the Nokia 6300 would be a good phone to look at. This black and silver camera phone is easy on the eyes and offers powerful camera, internet and multimedia features.
For starters, the 2-megapixel camera has 8x digital zoom, and the happiest thing for someone like me who almost constantly needs a more powerful pair of glasses: a full-screen viewfinder. The 2-inch screen displays a resolution of 240 x 320 in 16 million colors. The 2-megapixel resolution might seem a bit low to some people, but part of the beauty of this phone is the intent behind it: beautiful form that follows simplicity as function. The camera does not include a LED photo light and does not include a flash.
Sadly, there’s only a little over seven megabytes of storage space, but the phone includes a microSD slot that will allow you to upgrade to 2 gigabytes of storage, a must-have for multimedia users. Happily, Nokia even includes a 128-megabyte microSD card with the purchase of the phone. The music player primarily uses the mp3 format for music, with a couple of other formats supported. Of course, there is an FM music player with Visual Radio function. There’s even video streaming support included.
Some users will find battery usage a bit limited at just 3.5 hours of talk time with just over 14 days of standby use. Once again, we return to the trade-off, however, which requires the search for simplicity. The phone weighs 91 grams and would surely need to weigh more to accommodate longer use.
The design of this camera phone itself is a stainless steel and black type finish. On the plus side, there’s a real alphanumeric keyboard with 12 relatively large, easy-to-use buttons.
As far as Internet access is concerned, the browser supports XHTML for multimedia browsing. Video streaming moves to 3GPP. Data transfer is done using EDGE, one of the most efficient protocols in use for mobile phones. The phone also supports Bluetooth and USB, both for peripheral use and data management. Your phone includes support for some of the must-haves, such as Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), WAP, and email. Infrared bracket is not included.
The phone includes Nokia’s suite for PIM (Personal Information Management) and a CD-ROM for PC and laptop integration. The suite includes contact management, a calendar, a to-do list, notes, and even an alarm clock and countdown timer.
Voice recognition technology continues to advance and you can use voice commands with your phone, including dialing and recording.
The simplicity of this phone makes it a great choice for a first phone, a less expensive solution, or someone intimidated by technology. Advanced users may find that the functionality is not what they used to be and might be disappointed with this phone. Overall though, we can recommend it as a phone that does the job it was designed to do; just make sure you understand its limitations.