The Nokia 6300 mobile phone - Martin's Quick Review

The Nokia 6300 is stylish and compact in its stainless steel and plastic casing. A protective case might be a good idea because it scratches quite easily. It's a slim phone and lightweight. This mobile phone features a 2 inch screen and 2 megapixel camera with a digital zoom. You can take photos or record video in full colour. There is unfortunately no auto-focus or flash with the camera, meaning that your photos might come out fuzzy or blurry if you move too much or if the lighting is low. If you just want the camera as an extra feature, this shouldn't matter but if you've had a phone with a great camera in the past, you will find this one disappointing. There is no lens protection either.

The battery offers 3.5 hours talk time or 264 hours standby time. 3.5 hours talk time really isn't that much so if you plan to be on the phone a lot, listening to music, browsing the web or playing games, you might prefer a different model. You might also want to upgrade the mono headphones which are a bit basic. There is also only 7.8 MB of internal memory, which is very small. You can upgrade to 2 GB if you buy a memory card for the 6300. It's easier to leave the memory card in the handset because you have to remove the back cover to access it. The media functions use up quite a bit of memory on the 6300.

The Nokia 6300 offers Bluetooth® and Edge technology. You can plug the phone into your computer via USB. The 6300 has tri-band functionality. The web browser can view XHTML websites. Message services include multimedia messaging, instant messaging, audio messaging, texts and emailing with attachments. If you miss a text message or calendar reminder, the flashing blue lights on the side of the phone let you know, which is a cool feature. There is no 3G functionality with the Nokia 6300, so downloading isn't all that speedy.

There is a push to talk feature, which means you can push a key to talk to your contacts then release it to hear their reply. There is also a flight mode, so you can use the phone features whilst in a hospital or on a plane. There is a built-in FM radio and voice recorder. The speaker isn't that loud, nor is the earphone, so it might be tricky having a conversation somewhere noisy.

The keypad features large keys which are easy to press but the four-way navigation key above the keypad is rather fiddly to use. The voice recognition system is very poor but not everyone uses it.

All in all, the Nokia 6300 is a good all rounder. It is a satisfactory offering from Nokia but would be even better with a few tweaks, such as a superior camera, 3G capability, more built-in memory and a longer battery life. It is a reliable, easy to use mobile phone and its good points do outweigh the negatives, if you want a basic, easy to use handset.

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