Nokia 6300 review: The slim Finn

Time organizer: exquisite calendar

The organizer hasn’t undergone any modifications, either, as it is brilliant. The calendar offers month, week, and day views. Calendar week can start on Monday, Sunday, or Saturday. There are five types of events: appointment, call, birth date, note, and reminder. Further, each type of event has its own specific fields like starting and end time, type of alert with various advance intervals, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly repetition.

     
Organizing functions menu • alarm clock • task manager • task editing

The task manager enables you to categorize tasks in three priority levels. Tasks can be alerted of as well as marked off once accomplished. They are easily moved into the calendar application. Text notes can be written down as well; their length limit is 3000 characters. The alarm clock is repeated; it can be set up to go off on any weekday and works even when the phone is switched off. If you prefer, Nokia 6300 will even wake you up with your favorite radio station.

   
Month, week, and day views at the calendar • event editing

Here are some other organizing functions available in the phone: voice recorder of 60 minute length limit, stopwatch, countdown timer, and calculator. The latter is very detailed and offers rather complicated mathematic functions, like sin and cos; nonetheless, it is still not familiar with mathematic operations priority. The folder containing Java applications located on the memory card also features an application for text communication via Bluetooth called Sensor, a state-of-the-art unit converter, and an application for remote control of PC presentations called Presenter.

 
Stopwatch with mean times • text note • very good calculator • time countdown

Voice recorder • unit converter

A music player from XpressMusic for all tastes

The music player is identical to the one used in the music phone Nokia 5300. It is a brilliantly elaborated player with extensive setup options. Besides managing all functions common for a music player it also sorts songs by artist, album, genre, and composer. The player works with MP3, MID, AAC, AAC+, and WMA formats; what’s more, it supports A2DP profile and thus can play into Bluetooth wireless earphones. A more detailed description of the music player can be found in the Nokia 5300 review.

 
Music player • music library • songs list

Together with the phone, in the retail package you will find a Nokia HS-47 headset. The earphones quality may satisfy you as long as you do not have big expectations and you tend to use the music player rather occasionally. The earphones feature a 2.5 mm jack, so any substitution for another set of earphones is impossible without a corresponding adapter. Music features are tuned through an equalizer or by using the stereo expansion function. Nokia 6300 has only one loudspeaker located on its rear cover; its plays quite well, though. Besides, it does not get silenced when the phone body is placed on an even surface.

 
Integrated radio • video player • key legends interfere with the full-screen mode

If you get bored with MP3 files, turn on the stereo FM radio. Stations are searched automatically or by direct typing of a specific frequency. The phone can store up to 20 station names. The radio can also be listened through the loudspeaker; just make sure you have your earphones plugged in as they serve as an antenna. There is also a function called Visual Radio, but it is inapplicable in most countries; regrettably there is no RDS.

The video player is compatible with 3GP and MP4 formats. Videos can be played in fullscreen mode as well as forwarded or rewinded. Yet, key legends (impossible to remove) interfere with the fullscreen mode and obstruct video playing.

 
Three pre-installed games

Java games like all other applications are stored in an external memory card delivered with Nokia 6300. In the phone alone there are three pre-installed games: a 3G snake, a 3-dimensional, hard-to-play football game, and a Sudoku in Flash format (Nokia 6300 supports both Java MIDP2.0 and Flash). According to the results of the jBenchmark test Java interface is not of the fastest.

jBenchmark results:

• jBenchmark 1.0: 1841 pixels
• jBenchmark 2.0:   283 pixels

Data with Opera Mini

As we mentioned earlier, Nokia 6300 does not support 3G networks. The only data technologies left in the phone are EDGE, GPRS (both of Class 10), and the archaic HSCSD. There is no Infrared port, but in these days hardly any mobile user would be troubled by its absence. The Infrared port is successfully substituted by Bluetooth and the miniUSB connector. The original retail package does not contain a data cable, but you could get yourself one without a problem due to the miniUSB connector. Once you connect the phone to a computer you will be offered three modes to choose of. Along with a synchronizing mode there is an image print mode in PictBridge standard and a USB Mass Storage for data transfers, where the memory card appears in the computer as a new hard disc. Nokia 6300 is not charged when connected through this cable.

     
Opera Mini also available • WAP browser and its menu

Nokia 6300 has an integrated WAP browser, which, along with WAP 2.0, also manages HTML pages. Font size modifications are available, as usual. When set at the smallest font, the display visualizes up to 11 text lines. Strips and direct address insertion are available too. The browser is in a competition with another brilliant application – the famous Java application Opera Mini. The latter is pre-installed and located on the memory card. Further in the retail package you will find a CD containing a brief presentation of Nokia 6300, PC Suite programs ready for installation, Adobe Photoshop Album for photo editing, and Nokia Wireless Presenter for presentation management via Bluetooth.

Satisfactory functions in a combination with attractive looks

Nokia 6300 is a good phone. Along with slim design of steel plates it also offers an especially rich functional menu, similar to the functional equipment of all other phones based on the Series 40 3rd Edition platform. It brings along broad personalization options and a great amount of working and multimedia functions. However, it is not only the design of Nokia 6300 that is worth compliments. Its 16 million color display as well as its miniUSB connector are brilliant too. Users may not like the fingerprints or the low video record resolution.