Nokia 6303 classic review: Euro hatch territory

The camera is decent and has autofocus

The Nokia 6303 classic is armed with a 3.2 megapixel camera for image resolution of up to 2048 x 1536 pixels. Typical Series 40, the camera settings are rather limited but reasonable given the mid-range spot. The available settings include white balance, three quality levels going from basic to high, and various effects. Sequence shots and shooting in both portrait and landscape mode are also among the available options.

The camera user interface in portrait and landscape mode • settings are limited

The LED flash is rather inadequate,only really usable with close range objects. Another drawback is the lack of a dedicated camera key, the D-pad is in charge of focusing and capturing. With no half-press, you press down the center key to focus and release it to capture the scene, which means you can't change your mind and skip the photo.

The 6303 camera doesn't rank among the top 3.2 megapixel shooters. Image quality is about average; in favorable weather decent images can be produced, oversharpened, but with good color rendering. Noise levels are normally quite high and the aggressive noise reduction that kicks in takes its toll on resolved detail. The lack of detail in images is a major weakness, while darker areas can be troublesome as well.

The camera speed isn't remarkable and saving files is average too.

Camera samples

As far as video recording is concerned, the Nokia 6303 classic manages VGA resolution at 15 fps. The 3GP video clips length is only limited by the memory available. Although video quality is far from stunning, VGA resolution is still rare enough across the midrange.

Video recorder interface

The Nokia 6303 video suffers from the unwanted effects of the rolling shutter. A rolling shutter is usually used on all handsets equipped with a camera but the extent of the unwanted geometric distortion is especially pronounced with the 6303 classic videos. You can see the almost constant nasty jelly-like effect even though we've tried to keep the phone as steady as possible.

Here is a Nokia 6303 classic sample video shot at VGA resolution (15 fps).

Connectivity on the low side

The Nokia 6303 classic connectivity options are considered low-end by today's standards, 3G is hardly a novelty any more.

The rest of the connectivity options are there - EDGE and GPRS are both the best there is on the 6303 classic. Bluetooth version 2.0 is also supported.

Finally, the memory card slot, which can sometimes be the most convenient way of transferring data, is also present here but again, the lack of hot-swappability brings its usability into doubt.

Cutting-EDGE browser

The Nokia 6303 classic has an integrated WebKit-based HTML web browser. We guess that rings a bell. Apple's Safari and Mobile Safari are based on WebKit, as well as Google Chrome, the browser for the Android platform and the Palm Pre. It's safe to say that Nokia 6303 classic is in good company.

The new and improved browser

We're a little hesitant to say this but, it renders pages better than Opera Mini. It's mostly minor bugs but nonetheless - the native app is more accurate.

Built-in browser on the left, Opera Mini on the right. See how the text overlaps? It shouldn't

The Nokia 6303 native browser still has its shortcomings though. There are obvious indications that the hardware is not quite up to the job - scrolling is quite slow, don't expect anything like iPhone smoothness. Flash is also not supported - there's some rudimentary support but it's just enough to display certain banners, not play YouTube videos.

Not that streaming full-size video over EDGE is something to look forward to. Which brings us to another problem the browser has, although it's mostly the hardware's fault. The built-in browser is a full-blown web browser, while Opera Mini isn't.

The way Mini works is the page is rendered on Opera's servers and sent into a lighter format to the device. This makes it perfect for low-power devices like feature phones and things like scrolling don't stress the hardware as much.

Another thing is that Opera compresses the images on the page, which both saves on data charges and speeds up the transfer. For example, GSMArena.com clocked in at about 300kb through the built-in browser and just 70kb through Opera Mini. The loss of quality in the images is negligible on such a small screen. Lack of landscape mode and Google (or any other engine for that matter) search is another downer of the WebKit web browser.

Anyway, both applications are preloaded and you can choose the one that suits you best. Anyhow, it's exciting to see that even S40 phones get such advanced updates.

The well known Opera Mini web browser